Ice diver's rope snapped - Cold Stream Pond, Maine

[Trouts]

Just curious, why not rely on a knot and instead rely on hardware? I don't have ice diving training, but in climbing (even in ice climbing), we prefer tying directly into our climbing line(s) from the harness as opposed to having a carabiner in between, primarily to reduce the probability that the carabiner will be cross-loaded or inadvertently opened (which can happen even with triple lockers). We typically use a figure-8 follow-through (or some people use a bowline on a bight, though it isn't as widely accepted).

Working with frozen lines while wearing thick mittens is a challenge. I'm more confident in clipping in carabiners.

 

[boulderjohn]

Working with frozen lines while wearing thick mittens is a challenge. I'm more confident in clipping in carabiners.

ScubaBoard used to have a very active member who maintained that basic OW requirements were insufficient. As an example of a skill he said should be required of all new OW divers (and he said he required it of his students) he cited the ability to tie a bowline with one hand while wearing a 3-finger mitten.

[sarcasm]If brand new OW divers can do it, I would think a trained ice diver would have no trouble.[/sarcasm]

 

[tursiops]

ScubaBoard used to have a very active member who maintained that basic OW requirements were insufficient. As an example of a skill he said should be required of all new OW divers (and he said he required it of his students) he cited the ability to tie a bowline with one hand while wearing a 3-finger mitten.

That's just dumb, not to mention against standards. (Not sarcasm.)

 

[BoltSnap]

not to mention against standards

What is against standards, tying a bowline?

 

[Tracy]

ScubaBoard used to have a very active member who maintained that basic OW requirements were insufficient. As an example of a skill he said should be required of all new OW divers (and he said he required it of his students) he cited the ability to tie a bowline with one hand while wearing a 3-finger mitten.

[sarcasm]If brand new OW divers can do it, I would think a trained ice diver would have no trouble.[/sarcasm]

A one handed bowline is pretty simple to do, I teach it is many different courses. It is a great self recovery tool. Requiring it in open water seems silly, but it definitely is one of the easier knots to tie one handed.

 

[BoltSnap]

Something I doubt I'll ever need considering where I dive:

Ice Diving Operations

 

[boulderjohn]

That's just dumb, not to mention against standards. (Not sarcasm.)

Not against his standards. IIRC, He was very much NAUI and said NAUI standards allowed hm to add what he wanted to the courses. I believe he had a hand in writing those standards.) He was also into scientific diving, and it is possible (I don't remember) that he was more in tune to those standards.

 

[tursiops]

Not against his standards. IIRC, He was very much NAUI and said NAUI standards allowed hm to add what he wanted to the courses. I believe he had a hand in writing those standards.) He was also into scientific diving, and it is possible (I don't remember) that he was more in tune to those standards.

Ok. In that case it is just dumb.

 

[boulderjohn]

Ok. In that case it is just dumb.

I had many an argument with him over many a subject over a number of years. In one argument about this specific topic, he said most divers will someday have to tie a one-handed bowline while wearing a 3-fingered mitten, and when they absolutely needed to do it is not the time to wish they had that skill. I replied that the only 3-fingered mittens I had seen on my life were on a shelf in a scuba shop storage room, and I was not sure I had ever seen a diver tie a knot of any kind in the water outside of training. He was not impressed with my experience. I had obviously had a very sheltered diving life.

 

[DAJ]

Standards, we don’t need no stinking standards

Farmer John 7mm wet suit and the “new” Scubapro stab jacket, no more horse collar. We didn’t use a harness back then, just tied it into your tank/bc. Most of our ice working dives centered on recovering vehicles that tried to drive across lakes and didn’t make it. Some folks ran doubles but I was a young college student so money was a bit tighter back then.