ice diving, how many years/dives?

[Gravybird]

I am just wondering how much experience some of you ice divers had before plunging beneath the ice?  I was gung-ho to do it last year (my first year of diving), but as it got closer to winter, I realized I was nowhere near even almost being ready:-) As of this year, I am getting ready, and think this coming winter will be ok for me. What kind of training is necessary, or recommended? I am AOW with nitrox, and  deep so far, but plan on adding a few more this summer. As well as picking up some more appropriate equipment. I really enjoy the ice diving pictures I see put up here, can't wait to have some of my own, just don't want them to be of me in a body bag hahaha ;D

[Terry]

            Hey Gravy,
                                My first ice dive was my 12 dive, I had been basic certified just over 6 months, and had been to 70' on the Madiera. It was also my first dive in a drysuit, that part wouldn't be recommended today. I had an ice certification, but no drysuit cert. there wasn't one then and no adv. cert. We do require you have an icing cert. to come with us. We normally jump alone under the ice but we'll jump with you on your first couple dives. Your welcome to come jump with us this winter, you've already got more experience then I had.    T

[Hydro]

As for starting gear, a pony will be handy, its up to you what size, most people i think opt for the 30-40 cf range. the other gear everyone else will have,

I consider icing prolly the most relaxing kind of diving, esp if you can drive out on the lake.

i guess for dives, i wanted to go the winter i got certified, but no one to go with, i think my first ice dive was somewhere between 50-100 .

[12jason]

These are good guys to ice dive with. I would take them up on their offer if they are willing to let to come along. I joined them on weekend for a few dives this year, just after i got Ice Certified. Was very cool,literally, I am looking forward to next season and hopefully can tag along again for a dive or two.  I think i was around 80 dives before i did this.

[Gravybird]

Ok, thanks guys. I am also drysuit diving now I forgot to mention. Certainly don't have it mastered, but it gets easier, and more familiar every time. I just picked up an al40 for a pony bottle ;D Trinity, I will definitely hit you up on that. Are you affiliated with anyone that does the ice cert? the couple places I have checked  with usually wait until march to do the class.... I'm afraid that wont work for me, as I will be ready by.... well as soon as the ice is ready ;D

[DetectorGuy]

Hey Gravy, I started diving on May 19, 2007 and I finished my ice certification on 1-24-2009. The last dive for ice certification set of dives was on Mille Lacs Lake and the weather was really cold. We woke up to -20f and it warmed right up to -10f by 11:00 with a 25 MPH wind. This dive was #64 for me and I am only at 233 dives to date.

The only regrets I have relating to ice diving is not doing it sooner. Like Hydro said it is so relaxing while you are ice diving, but it is logistics intensive (at least the way we do it). I usually figure I am going to chew up 10 hours of the day just to get in two dives that only last 45 minutes to 80 minutes each. I am probably not the one to ask advice from about how we set up. Everyone has their own style and system. We tend to take our time and relax more than most ice divers. We plow off a space for the shelter if the ice thickness allows a plow truck, if not we shovel. Then one guy starts the water boiling in a big kettle over a turkey cooker while the other guy cuts the one single hole for the day. The hole we usually cut is exactly 4'x4'x4'. I know this is true because we use a 2 piece plywood template that also doubles as something to stand on while tending. If the ice is really thick (like 14"+) we use the plow on the truck to hoist the ice block from the hole. if the ice is <14" we cut the triangle block into thirds and pull each block by hand using an ice screw in each and a rope. Lately I have been cutting grooves in the surface of the ice 2" deep from the sides of the hole  toward where the end of our shelter will be. This allows water to run back into the hole, and not pond up on the floor inside the 60f degree shelter. Once the hole is cut we put up the shelter. This only takes a few minutes to set up but we take another couple minutes to shovel snow on the edges and tie the shelter down if its windy. We light the sunflower type heater in the shelter and start to warm it up. By now the water is warm so we bring it in and dump it into a cooler for later. We plow or shovel rays from the hole to let more light penetrate the ice and we dump buckets of water on the rays to make the ice crystal clear (better light transmission). We haul our gear inside the toasty shelter and shut all the window flaps to make it dark inside for a minute. Nate takes a couple of coins from his pocket and tosses them in the hole one at a time. We start counting the seconds from the time it hits the water to when we cant see the coin flipping in the water anymore. The amount of time in seconds is the exact footage of visibility. Even though the coins are different sizes, nickles, dimes, and quarters fall through the water at 1 foot per second. If we see the coin falling for 13 seconds, we know we have 13' of visibility. Now that we know the visibility, we can adjust our plan of what search radius interval we will use for the day. Then we open up the window flaps and do "rock-paper-scissors" to see who goes first.

This set-up and tear-down method is not really that time consuming and I think it makes for a very comfortable, casual, relaxed day. Like I said before... everyone is different and some ice divers actually enjoy being miserable > ;D

[AandA]

40 is a bit cumbersome on a pony set-up.....I'd rig it as a stage instead.

[popolarbear]

Like detector guy pointed out, it can be a lot of work for a little time in the water. I’m not sure how many dives can be done in a whole day of diving. Every time I tried to see and set a record, I just couldn’t do it. I think 3 for me. Some of it is moving around searching for new spots to dive that are interesting. One day we had the lowest vis, I could barely see my nose, on that same day we had probably 30ft on the same lake in another bay…. 1-3ft vis under ice probably isn’t for every one. 30ft vis  for Minnesota local twin city diving is exceptional.

...stef

[eelpout]

My very first dive in the US weas under the ice at Crhistmas Lake in December of 1978 in a borrowed wetsuit : ) My instructor was Dave Gillson. My first Ice Divng class I taught was in December 1980 at Square Lake. There are many ways and equipment configurations that people will suggest you go with. The only thing that I would strongly suggest is to get really comfortable in a drysuit. Stay warm and your instructor will teach you the rest. Ice diving requires a group of people to accomplish. You also have a lot of equipment to cut the hole, maintain the hole and close the hole once you are done.

Some of my buddies are Cave certified so we will dive under the ice and treat it like a cave. If you want more information about how we do it after you are Full Cave certified, PM me.

Jim

[arcFlash]

Feb 2006. Dive #11 (not counting any training dives). Dry suit after pool instruction. Passed class. Bought a dry suit and went iceing the next weekend. Got 6 dives in that winter after class. Im over 400 dives and probably 60 ice.

Just go take the class. Get an instructor that dives ice not one that just knows how. The instructors matte more then your baseline skills.