What facility is this?
It’s up in the hinterlands of northern Ontario. Look up Temagami. About 7 hours east of the Soo. Lovely drive, but LONG. I did ITT/VIP there in 2019.
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What facility is this?
People often ask me for ice diving classes. I don't like ice diving, good to have people to recommend.It’s up in the hinterlands of northern Ontario. Look up Temagami. About 7 hours east of the Soo. Lovely drive, but LONG. I did ITT/VIP there in 2019.
John chatterton has a really good article on a BFK. Stick that into the mud, sand, tie off your second spool. And do your search pattern...
Personally I like to dive and have something to see. So it would be rare for me to dive in the middle of a mud lake.
Also I ice dive in area that I know well before hand.
As stated before I could fine my way out without a line if I was dumb enough to do so. Or if the dive went all to pieces, and could not find a broken or lost line.
1) No visibility exit (this is probably important in ice diving, but I bet the procedures are different)
It would not be uncommon to not see the exit hole.
2) Navigation with cookies and arrows
Sure use them if you want. But I am laying my own line...
where no other lines are... don't see the point.
3) Decompression with sawtooth profiles
Do not do that. Not sure how that is done in open water...
4) Broken line procedures
Tie off with a spool and search for line....
On the other hand, I can think of many things critical in ice diving but not in caves (thermal protection)
Orda caves in Russia..
There are othe European caves the the cold is a huge problem...
They often use electric heated underwear..
navigation
Continuous guide line to the surface.
Compass... and know how to use it.
and emergency procedures are probably very different)
Hmmm. Not really. Underwater problems need to be fixed underwater...
Am I wrong? If not, better take a course before going there.
Yes please take a course...
Sounds like you need it.
Recommend reading....
in ice diving, we dont lay lines, the line is attached to your backplate, and the other end is manned by a line tender on the surface who is responsible for communicating with the diver via line tugs, and reeling in and letting out line to keep out the slack.4) I have no idea of how lines are placed for ice diving; I imagine they are usually far from the bottom, like in the left figure (sorry, I am not an artist). If the line gets broken close to the entrance, the other part may fall towards the bottom if it is negative, like in the figure on the right, or towards the ceiling if positive, or moving around a lot if neutral. In all these scenarios, the usual techniques used in cave diving would be WAY less effective (indeed, in a cave the natural obstacles would stop the line to move around that much, except perhaps in some advanced caves where a lot of experience beyond the standard training is a good idea). What am I missing here?
On the other hand, cold is a serious issue always in ice diving, so it deserves more attention (although I do not know how much).
Sure, they need to be fixed underwater. It's just that they can be of different nature. For instance:
- is the no-visibility due to particles (like in cave diving) in the water a common scenario in ice diving?
- is the darkness a serious problem like in cave diving?
- etc.
Again, I do not know the specific issues of ice diving, but you are not mentioning any of them.
in ice diving, we dont lay lines, the line is attached to your backplate, and the other end is manned by a line tender on the surface who is responsible for communicating with the diver via line tugs, and reeling in and letting out line to keep out the slack.
if the line becomes broken or detached, SOP is for the diver to swim to the "surface" just under the ice and wait there....the safety diver is sent in, and the safety diver runs circular search patterns until he finds the lost diver.
standard length lines for ice divers are usually 100-150 feet......the safety diver is usually on a line 2x that, so assuming you dont swim off in the wrong direction when you detect a broken line, the safety diver will find you.
regarding cold water prep....aside from the obvious thermal protection.....regulators are all "cold water rated" (obviously)....they are sometimes "detuned" to help prevent icing....but the main thing to remember is not to breath from the regs, or use your power inflator when they are not 100% submerged underwater.
bcds are often left unconnected, so as to prevent the possibility of the BC filling uncontrollably in the event of the reg/ power inflator freezing.
the ice/ snow on the surface block a lot of the surface light....so its dark.....not pitch black, but lights are needed.
regarding particles....i mean, that just depends on the lake you are diving....some lakes clear up because of less surface action...some lakes are just perpetually murky.
lakes im my area have 5-20' of vis...coupled with the less surface light, it makes it harder to see....not a silt out...but not nice clear tropical water either.
lake bottoms are usually pretty silty, so if you kick any of that up, your vis can easily go to 0
Thanks, very detailed.
Regarding novisibility due to particles, if the only problems are the same of any lake (many of my OW dives are in lakes), the situation is absolutely less concerning than inside caves. Don't want to go OT here, but if you want I can explain (but maybe you already know)
Thanks again
John chatterton has a really good article on a BFK. Stick that into the mud, sand, tie off your second spool. And do your search pattern...