Last Ice Dive of the Season.

[pt40fathoms]

Well, the air was warmer, about 10c. The ice was thinner, about 1 meter and s o f t. But the dive was just as expected.

Those on the surface were in lite jackets or T-Shirts and getting an early start to a summer tan. The sun was bright and the sky was clear. Just a perfect day.

While under water, the vis was good, but noticable dropping as spring run off is starting to stir things up a bit. But the water temp was still a cool 2c. The fish were also becoming more active and by the looks of it the fishing this year will be very good. By next weekend the ice will not be safe, so this marked the end of this season. Too bad, because now we have to wait at least 6 to 8 weeks before we can get wet again. The only thing for us to do now is to O2 clean our tanks and regs for the summer season, get any hydros or visuals done, and wait. Pictures to follow by mid week.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Group shot of us die hards.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Kinda hard to get a tan this way....

At least it's as comfy as a water bed.

 

[pt40fathoms]

I gave them a "salute" from an older dive hole.

 

[Brian Gilpin]

Here on the north Coast of California we like to call ourselves cold water divers. After seeing your posts I am not sure we deserve that mantle. Do you do multiple dives in a day? If so how do you warm up on surface intervals? Looks pretty cold to me.

 

[Warren_L]

Wow, 1 meter of ice is still pretty thick. Our last ice dive of the season a couple of weeks ago had ice that was about 10" thick and was getting porous.

Brian - as for the multiple ice dives, I typically don't. Unless we spend the surface interval lying in the hole with our first stages submerged (which I have done). It's difficult to get back into wet gear in freezing temperatures when you run the risk of cracking things and freezing your reg.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Here on the north Coast of California we like to call ourselves cold water divers. After seeing your posts I am not sure we deserve that mantle. Do you do multiple dives in a day? If so how do you warm up on surface intervals? Looks pretty cold to me.

Warming up is usually not a problem, if the temp is really cold, we usually have a cabin rented if it's needed. Most of the time just getting into a warm van for a few minutes is all thats needed if you get a chill. As for multiple dives, we try to do at least 2 in a day, most often we make 3 dives in a day. The first stage must be seal, and when we get in the water, we have to submerge the second stage for about 10 minutes, pull yourself under the water, then put the reg in your mouth and breath. If you take a breath from your reg on the surface, you stand a better than 90 percent chance of it blowing into freeflow in sub zero temps. Never have had a freeflow yet, but I'm sure one day I will, even the best regs on the market have trouble in those conditions.

However the air temp was really very warm this day, so it looks colder than it really was.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Wow, 1 meter of ice is still pretty thick. Our last ice dive of the season a couple of weeks ago had ice that was about 10" thick and was getting porous.

Yeah, winter tends to stick around here a little longer than it does in the rest of Canada.

Lucky us.. :11:

 

[ArcticDiver]

+2C. What is that in F? My last dives were in +34F - +37F water. Just trying to compare to see what gear I'd need if I put a layer of ice over that.

By the by, came down river here in Interior Alaska today. In just one day the snow went from very nice to downright sloppy with lots of overflow. Guess the next trip will have to be by boat.

I'm not sure of your latitude. Here is about 641/2 N.

 

[Tom R]

+2C. What is that in F? My last dives were in +34F - +37F water.QUOTE]


Thats about 33F and 34F, I just finished seeing a documentary on Alaska and seeing some footage on the Lost Fleet, some nice diving happening there.

We don't usually do mulitiple dives when Ice diving either, but some of the dives are 45 - 60 mins long and include wreck penetration sometimes mild current, when doing this kind of diving we use cave rules.