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popolarbear · 01-20-2012, 07:57 AM,

house is raised. only 4 days latter. that was quick. wonder what it cost, and how it was done.

Terry · 01-21-2012, 05:33 PM,

Hit, Bryant Lake in Hennepin Co. today, felt cold with the wind and the flags straight out, and if it felt cold for us, imagine how tough it would of been for last years (we are the) champions (strictly shack divers, warm gulf water team Isanti) the cold wind could of huffed and puffed and blown their shack down, and they wouldn't of been able to dive for months, ohh, thats right they haven't dove for months, anyway Wink

,,,,yet the g-men rode into the wind to scout good spots, although still were only able cut three holes, (augered a lot more, but only found muck), thats lean for us, kept three anchors, ice was 10.5" thick, used Roberts 4 wheeeler to pull the trailer, that in turn pulled the sled, vis was 5-7 feet. Steve used his bike and pulled the line between holes, tomorrow will jump Tonka. Trinity

Hydro · 01-21-2012, 06:55 PM,

Nice sunny day, the water never felt warmer, Definitely Arctic Caribbean Diving at its finest Big Grin

Seriously It felt nice to get in the balmy 37 degree water with the -10 windchill going on....
..then came out and turned into a walking suit of ice

DetectorGuy · (This post was last modified: 01-23-2012, 08:24 AM by DetectorGuy.)

Even without diving yet this ice season, I have my doubts that any member of team Gilligan could log 18 1/2 hours (my last seasons total) under the ice, if you combined your last year with this years.

Its true that we haven't been diving this winter yet. I am pretty sure my gills have grown shut. I want to get out, but finishing this 17 month 163 million dollar construction project by Jan 30th 2012 has been wearing me out. If the weekend was free'd up, chances were high that I was just wiped out by the weekend. My February looks open but the first 2 weeks of march I will be in Puerto Rico. I am anxious to get under the ice though.

Now about the 'strictly shack divers, warm gulf water team Isanti' comment... all I can say is "Strong like bull... smart like American tractor". As far as 'the cold wind could of huffed and puffed and blown their shack down' comment goes... We haven't had the wind blow so hard that our shelter was destroyed, since December 11th of 2010, when even the roof of the Metrodome couldn't take the abuse that mother nature was dishing out. As far as diving in the double digits below zero, we have done a few, but the most memorable was 1-24-2009 (the day I finished my Ice certification checkout dives). That morning we woke up at a cabin at Hunters Point on Mille Lacs to -20F with a 15 MPH wind. We rolled 3 miles out to the recovery site at 9:00 AM and the temp had risen to -15F but the wind had increased to 25 MPH. It was too windy for a shelter so we kitted up in Nates trailer and dove/tended out in the fresh air. We recovered the wedding ring in 24' deep water. Good times ;D

So smack talk aside... That bike of Steves looks pretty trick. I haven't been keeping up with the bike technology, but snow tires and disc brakes are new to me. What is that thing on the right side front fork? is that where you put a playing card in a clip to "rumble" on the spokes? Wink

Keep me on the invite list and we'll get a dive or two in yet.

arcFlash · 01-23-2012, 12:14 PM,

That bike is a Mukluk from Salsa Cycles over in Bloomington. The tires are 4 inches wide and run about 10 psi or less. It's a bush bike for adventure rides on sand, snow, mud, muck.... The common name is "Fat Bike".
A blog of my last ride.

My primary racing bike has hydraulic disk brakes and full pneumatic suspension (oil dampened) with 29 inch wheels as apposed to a normal 26 inch wheel. You need this hardware as race speeds are over 20mph and can reach into the low 30's. On the high end a Cube Elite will run you $14,000.

The 'thing' is a wireless computer sensor for ride metrics that can include GPS and topo mapping. You can add a "power hub" to record torque in Watts as well but that's $2,000 upgrade.

Shooter · 01-23-2012, 01:48 PM,

Now about the 'strictly shack divers, warm gulf water team Isanti' comment... all I can say is "Strong like bull... smart like American tractor". As far as 'the cold wind could of huffed and puffed and blown their shack down' comment goes... We haven't had the wind blow so hard that our shelter was destroyed, since December 11th of 2010, when even the roof of the Metrodome couldn't take the abuse that mother nature was dishing out. As far as diving in the double digits below zero, we have done a few, but the most memorable was 1-24-2009 (the day I finished my Ice certification checkout dives). That morning we woke up at a cabin at Hunters Point on Mille Lacs to -20F with a 15 MPH wind. We rolled 3 miles out to the recovery site at 9:00 AM and the temp had risen to -15F but the wind had increased to 25 MPH. It was too windy for a shelter so we kitted up in Nates trailer and dove/tended out in the fresh air. We recovered the wedding ring in 24' deep water. Good times ;D

[/quote]

That was a good weekend! I will take g.o.m. diving over ice 9 out of 10 times ;D. We will get out one of these weekends to add points on the shipwreck challenge, maybe even add some shock & awe! :o Glad team G is is getting in alot of diving ???

Terry · 01-25-2012, 08:22 PM,

Come on out Nate, I'll cut a fresh hole wherever you want. and Phil, hang on, its just ice is off to a slow start this season. We jumped St. Louis Bay on the east side of Tonka on Sun. and my ice spud I lost on the wreck of the Excelsior a couple seasons back, came back to me on the second dive of the day. The best news was no one was driving on the ice in the morning but everyone driving out by afternoon, we had 15" of clear decent ice on both our holes and people were driving on the open lake out over Diamond Reef. The other decent news was vis of 20-25' on an overcast day, may be another dandy year for vis. on Tonka after the shipwreck, vis was last year. Just today I talked with Mike Daust about his icing class set for the middle of Feb. on the wrecks No. of Big Is. and let him know they'll be good to go this weekend.

Hydro · 01-28-2012, 06:14 PM,

Did some more icing today on tonka, it was a 6 hole day!!! And almost nothing to show for it Sad

ice was about 12 inches, but there was afew open water areas still. It'd be nice if we get a winter that made ice tis year.

Although it was plenty chilly outside, ill post pics later

Shooter · 01-28-2012, 10:32 PM,

Looks like we have to go to work on Monday Sad

. Although the dive shack was toasty warm, today was not the day. We only had about 2 foot visibility, and our target managed to elude us. It was the first ice dive of the season for me :o, and all I can say is man I miss Florida!

DetectorGuy · 01-29-2012, 11:42 AM,

Looks like we have to go to work on Monday Sad

. Although the dive shack was toasty warm, today was not the day. We only had about 2 foot visibility, and our target managed to elude us. It was the first ice dive of the season for me :o, and all I can say is man I miss Florida!
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Yep the viz was the worst I have seen on an ice dive, But I still tried out my new GoPro Camera anyway. Here is a bit of footage inside the ice shack and below the ice. (don't expect to see much in the video as it is as crappy as the viz was)