Anyone ever solo under ice?

[David_57]

Yes me on more that one occasion but have redundancy x 3 and run a line from the hole

 

[porgyhunter]

Guess not JAX..

 

[Jax]

Yes me on more that one occasion but have redundancy x 3 and run a line from the hole

Guess not JAX..

There's TWO! Congrats.

 

[David_57]

Yep every year for the last 6 years no problems I forgot to mention there is surface support when I Solo Ice Dive lots of fun and to hell with Darwin

 

[AfterDark]

Did the buddy in the "same ocean" under the ice once. It was in a salt water cove. The ice was so soft it couldn't be walked on. It was no effort to break through anywhere. The vis sucked so we got separated. We popped up thru the ice like a couple of seals looking for each other.

Does that count?

 

[porgyhunter]

Yeah that counts......Any overhead can be daunting I wouldn't like to ice dive with poor vis. Thats why I chose a lake in N.H. By march the vis was incredable. I was warm and the vis was easly 40 ft makes a big differance in your comfort level!

 

[spectrum]

I'll add that going under ice solo is commonplace for what I'll loosely call a commercial diver doing recovery work. I'm talking about locating snowmobiles and other stuff that goes through the ice. Sometimes it's just the customer tending the rope and the diver is under. Other times the "buddy is tender/rescue diver. Frequently it's not the full blown expedition you experience in an agency ice diving class.

 

[AfterDark]

I'll add that going under ice solo is commonplace for what I'll loosely call a commercial diver doing recovery work. I'm talking about locating snowmobiles and other stuff that goes through the ice. Sometimes it's just the customer tending the rope and the diver is under. Other times the "buddy is tender/rescue diver. Frequently it's not the full blown expedition you experience in an agency ice diving class.

Amen to that! Somewhere on the board I posted a picture of my buddy and I geared sitting on the ice with our legs in a too small hole (1 person) with a line for each of us that went around my then girlfriends waist. She was unseen inside a small tent.

That was the way he and ice dived most of the time. We would get someone we trusted to stand by the hole with 2 lines tied around their waist and a short list of pull signals.
The salt water dive was a one time deal, saltwater doesn't freeze around here too often.

I did go to a full blown LDS run ice dive in NH the ice was 3 feet thick. They cut a BIG hole and had a nice setup for the lines. Safety divers in and out of the water.
Lots of work.

 

[porgyhunter]

Now come on AfterDark Your gona be up for a DARWIN AWARD Tying ropes around your girlfriends waist while she sips brandy in a makeshift tent! :shocked2:

 

[MitchFtLaud]

I have a friend who used to be on a Fire Dept. dive rescue team in Nebraska before he moved to Florida. From what he described every dive is a solo dive, you are just tendered by a rope and have alot of people on shore, but the plan seems to be a single diver for rescue work. They went into ice covered rivers and lakes as needed but I don't think there is any way on earth he would have done it without the shore support.

So my question is, how many people do you get to have in support before it is no longer solo diving? In ice diving, isn't the person tending the rope, just as much of a buddy as someone with you in the water? Perhaps more so, since they are there for your benefit only? (never ice dived and know little about it, so not sure of all the SOP, but I seem to recall the tended rope is standard every time)