ice diving harness question

[MNDiver]

arcFlash


There are lots of ways to dive and lots of different diving conditions.  There is no one right way to dive (DIR people please leave me alone >).  So it is up to you to take some classes and decide for yourself the best way to risk your life.  The more you study the better decisions you can make.  I have ice cards from four different agencies for that very reason.  I really like ice diving, but don't want to die doing it.   A personal risk assessment is always a great idea.  I would rather be alive than macho and dead.  I think that saying about pilots applies to ice diving... there are old pilots, there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots....  (substitute ice divers for pilots).

I am also a public safety diver.  Many of the locally taught ice procedures are close to what we use for PSD.  What works for PSD divers may or may not work for others.  Typically PSD divers train for certain conditions and don't dive outside their well rehearsed protocols.  Point being, they may not dive in the same conditions that you do and their protocols may not be appropriate.  For what is is worth, most PSD procedures work well for me while recreationally ice diving.

That said, I don't know about "the board" but I would suggest a separate harness.  For me it just seems to work better.  I have used about five differnet BCD's while ice diving and I still like the harness.  I have not used your particular BCD, so I can't give you any feedback there.  Try it in the pool and see how it works. 

I gave a few reasons I like the harness on my other post.  Here are a few more, perhaps they will help with your risk assessment, perhaps not. 

I like to see the harness on the diver as they are approaching the hole.  Then tether them right away.  Once seated they can put all their gear on, weights last and certainly after they are tethered.  When diving with a lot of people, it just helps the flow of people and the overall safety factor.  I have seen divers approach the hole and slip and fall into the hole.   OK, my dog has even slipped under the ice while diving, but that is another story all together....

You mentioned entrapment.  Could be a concern.  I feel that anytime you connect yourself to a big heavy rope, you may increase the risk of being caught on something.  So if you get caught, what do you do.  The protocol I follow is to stop, signal for help and wait.  Buddies can bring me air all day if they have to while they cut me out of whatever I am stuck in.  The worst stuff I have swam into without knowing was some loosely rolled barbed wire.  Man that sucked...  Some people advocate tyring to slip out of your gear, get untangled, and slip back into your BCD.  If you do this and for some reason you loose your BCD (an air) you are SOL so you could debate harness/no harness doesn't matter.  I can see it now.. just as you get out of your bcd and start to free yourself, your buddies give you some OK tugs and your BCD and air jump away...   

For me, the harness also stays on no matter what.....if you have to adjust your BCD, tank, get unstuck, or whatever.  The harness is low drag close to your body so it is easy to manage.   If worse comes to worse I can slip out of my BCD and have my buddies pull me in, even if I pass out, can't find my way or whatever.  I figure my chances are better with them doing mouth to mouth than me running out of air on the bottom still entrapped or floating somewhere untethered while they try to find me. 

Second question.  Yes, one diver down. Most PSD divers do it that way and perhaps that is where it came from.  I am not much of a historian, so I don't really know.   With only one diver down we can focus on our mission, not our buddy.  We dive this way year round, not just under ice.  You mentioned entrapment.  If there are two of us together then we are both trapped.  Having a back-up diver out of the water takes care of this problem by allowing the back-up to enter the scene knowing there is an entrapment problem and be looking for the problem and how to fix it.  All the primary diver has to do is wait.   I also know that buddy teams have erroneously clipped themselves through the line (instead of to the line) and when one comes undone, they both do.  I think that PADI endorses buddy teams under the ice.  Right now I can't think of any other agency that does. 

Does anyone out here know for sure which agencies teach two down at one time???

Good luck, and be safe....