Thin Ice Training on 3-26-11

[DetectorGuy]

The Isanti County Sheriffs Department Dive Team had a Joint training session today with Isanti County Safety Rescue and Lindstrom Fire. The training was over on South Lindstrom Lake and the weather was 10 degrees at 7:30 AM. The ice thickness was about 20 inches but more porous than anyone should drive on. Lindstrom Fire Dept had their air boat out there and it was good to see what it can and can't do. We used it for transport for the three teams as if the ice was thin, even though it wasn't. We started with a thin ice rescue scenario and did that several times with different members. Then we did a recovery from depth using a training dummy dropped in about 26' deep water. I was depressed on the first drop to recover the dummy as it was submerged in about 6'+ deep silt. The dummy was about 250 lbs on land and about 100 pounds negative underwater. I was inverted in the silt doing a rope and grope search with my head down and fins up. At one point I could not feel the hard bottom but I could feel the mud against my fins 6' above. The dummy was about 4' or 5' from my original drop into the soup and about 3' deep into the silt. After getting it to the surface, the other two teams took over with medical training and brought the dummy to shore using the air boat. We ran this scenario a few times. Then we had them park the air boat over our triangle hole and practiced entering the water from the boat and getting back in it while kitted up. I thought I broke my snot locker when I smacked my face against the side of the hull while getting pulled in. Great day for training though.

So the air boat was neat to see. They told us the top end on ice is about 110 MPH, and 70 MPH on water. They rarely go over 12 MPH with the boat. We had 8 people in the boat (counting the pilot and co-pilot) along with two scuba kits while on the hard ice. They told us that the capacity is reduced for open water as there is no buoyancy to the boat at all so if it capsizes it will go right to the bottom. Working around the boat was interesting as lighter items needed to be stowed as the wind from the boat coming and going would blow it into the next zip code.

The four members of our dive team are also members of MNSCUBA: Nate Putbrese "Shooter", Art Gullette "AandA", Brian Dahl "Monterey Man", and myself John Oliver.