Ice diving...in wetsuits????

[fdog]

Of course you can ice dive in a wetsuit! I have plenty "back in the day".

Mind you it isn't as blissfully warm as a drysuit, but it's more than doable.

If the suit fits well, you'll be fine. The worst part is getting out of the water...the wet wetsuit will chill you to the bone pretty fast.

All the best, James

 

[JungleJoe]

I know some ppl that use the warm water trick, it helps the scream factor abit. But I think it's more of a psycological help, I've tried it, and I can say It feels eaiser to get in the water, but getting in is really the easiest part. It's getting out, and getting to the camper or shelter that is harder. Typical down time is 30-40 mins per dive. I can tell you that I'd rather be in the water than tending lines ! You freeze up top, sometimes we setup windbreaks and that helps, but it's still darn cold up topside.

Tex, I live near Milwaukee , almost all the local lakes are great to go on, the best ones are in the lake country area which is pretty much Waukesha County, that's where I live, we have a ton of lakes & quarries here, if you come up this way sometime, let me know we'll take you along if you feel up to it

 

[diveman7683]

Nothing wrong with diving wet. I still dive wet every once in awhile just for the hell of it.

 

[GDI]

Oh yeah it can be done:

http://www.genesisdiving.com/ice-diver.shtml

 

[JungleJoe]

Actually if you look at the pix I uploaded, they are all of one of our ice dives.

The 1st pic is me laying on my back with my hands up, then there is one of a chair we found on the bottom, another of my buddy where the strobe did not go off, but it looks really cool, another of my puter, shows a nice balmy 44 deg temp, we were down 30 mins approx, and I still had 1800 psi left and the last one is me at the bottom, looking up at the hole, and you can see the feet of the topside crew, the rope boxes etc and them looking down in the hole at us. we floated up a plastic bottle in that pic, you can also see our sleds that we use to move our gear along the ice. check em out

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=48348

I just added some more, some more ice, and some regular dive pix too.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I have done it once! Jungle Joe obviously has done it a lot but his comments about the water temperature are incorrect. The water under the ice is much colder than below the thermocline in a lake and a quarry. This is because the water immediately under the ice cover is 32 degrees, or extremely close to that. The water under the thermocline in the summer (the lowest one if there are 2) is very close to 40 degrees (eight degrees makes a big difference on the exposed lips and also the overall rate of heat loss).

If anyone cares, the reason for this difference is due to the fact that freshwater reaches it's highest density at 40 degrees (or very close to that; I don't have my text books handy). As freshwater is cooled further, the density decreases as the water gets closer to the freeze point.

 

[texdiveguy]

Actually if you look at the pix I uploaded, they are all of one of our ice dives.

The 1st pic is me laying on my back with my hands up, then there is one of a chair we found on the bottom, another of my buddy where the strobe did not go off, but it looks really cool, another of my puter, shows a nice balmy 44 deg temp, we were down 30 mins approx, and I still had 1800 psi left and the last one is me at the bottom, looking up at the hole, and you can see the feet of the topside crew, the rope boxes etc and them looking down in the hole at us. we floated up a plastic bottle in that pic, you can also see our sleds that we use to move our gear along the ice. check em out

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=48348

I just added some more, some more ice, and some regular dive pix too.

I will take you up on that sometime....have a cabin in WI. near the MN. border. I will be in Iowa ice diving in Jan.....assuming the weather is better than last---was to warm....lake was more like a Slurpee. I am an avid cold water diver....a bit surprized at your 44f....we get close to that in our OK. lakes at mid depth in the winter here.

 

[JEScholz]

I have done both wet and dry and prefer dry. If diving wet, try to put long underware on under the wet suit, then pour in the warm, water. The underware acts like a sponge and keeps the warm water in place, otherwise, you can get a couple of shots of ice cold water down your back when you move.

Other tips are, REMEMBER THE WATER IS PROBABLY WARMER THAN THE ARI SO, don't rinse our your mask then set it on the ice or snow, it will freeze. Don't pull the regulator out of your mouth until you are out of the whole and solid on the ice away from the edge, the second stage will freeze from the air temp but not from your warm exhaled air.

 

[JungleJoe]

Dumpster your probably right, I never got real into the techie details of water temps etc during our dives, my lowest temp my puter ever logged was 36deg, it was during this summer at about 100 ft. Spring fed lake. But what you said makes sense, the water next to the ice is probably as close to freezing as you can get.


Betail has also given out alot of great tips too, that is what I love about this board, you can learn so much by reading.

Just remember, Ice diving is a team effort, find a good group that practices safe diving techniques, uses the proper gear, has redundent and backups ready to roll in case of an emgergency. Never dive alone, and never dive with out being securely roped and having a topside rope tender. Carrying a pony is also highly recommended. Always have a backup rope box and diver prepped to go in, in case of an emergency (ours will go 300 ft). Our main ropes are 250ft, and they are marked every 10 ft so we know how far out the divers are, the main rope goes into a Y type with 12ft each for both divers. We use C shaped connectors that have to be screwed open or shut. Never use spring loaded clips etc. Always attach to a BC that has metal D rings, or you should wear a harness under your bc with metal D rings.

Once you find a group that is experienced and fun to be with, you will enjoy the great vis, and you will find it's alot of fun. And take it slow, some people we've had come along have called it, right at the hole, either clausterphobia or something, but if you have a bad feeling before you are to go in, DONT DIVE. Dont let someone pressure you to go , better safe than sorry.

Hope you guys liked the pix I uploaded

1 fun story I will tell, we setup and some guys setup an ice shanty about 100 ft away, the trailer hid what we were doing, so we decided to go (visit) the shanty, The ice was only about 14" and my buddy when we got to where they had their holes done, decided to stick hand up the hole ! He has long arms and he patted around the hole abit, and tugged on something (turns out it was a chair or something). Anyways the topside guys hear screaming from the shanty and two guys run out of it all freaked out, thinking a dead body is in the lake and it floated up and a hand came through. That was a good laugh !

Any of you Ice divers ever do something wild like that ??? if so please share

 

[nadwidny]

I was up in my new hometown of Minneapolis the other day and had a few hours to kill so I stopped by a couple diveshops to check out the local conditions.

In the shop In Eagan they told me that they go ice diving in 7mm wetsuits! I don't mind cold but that seems out of control! These were not well insulated individuals either.

Has anyone gone under the ice in a wetsuit?

Is ice diving worth the chill?

I have a dream of diving in Antarctica someday (probably open water) so I suppose I should get ready for the cold. Thought I would get drysuit trained so I was surprised when they told me about the wetsuits.

Wetsuit under the ice - Yes I have. The water was actually warmer than the ocean water, that had no ice.

Worth it ?- Ice diving is interesting to do once or twice but kinda boring after that IMHO. And outside of cutting the hole it is definitely not as hard or dangerous as some make it out to be. Those that do have never experienced a truly hard or dangerous dive.