djcheburashka
Contributor
To follow-up:
Yes, the reason the rip-out-of-the-ice plan isn't too harmful, is that the depth isn't great. The dives tend to be very shallow, among other reasons because you can't get that far in 5, 6 minutes as a team of recreational divers tied together on a rope.
Ice diving protocols are a way to put divers in an overhead environment without the training or redundancy. That being said, people do get injured. I think there was a report a year or two ago about a bunch of Navy folks being disciplined after some sailors on a for-fun ice dive died b/c the line tenders were drunk.
The entertainment seems to be the social aspect. But the visibility is great until the other divers muck it up. You get to play with fish that are moving like cold-blooded animals in freezing water -- you can bring them to the surface and play around with them, etc. then put them back in and they're fine. And the ice is very beautiful when you look up.
When I did it, there were a couple of people in 7" wetsuits. I was freezing cold in my drysuit after standing in the weather all day.
This is something that's come up a lot recently in my local dive club. I really wouldn't recommend recreational ice diving except for the social aspect, but I think it would be great if it was done right, as rjack and nadwidny seem to be confirming.
Yes, the reason the rip-out-of-the-ice plan isn't too harmful, is that the depth isn't great. The dives tend to be very shallow, among other reasons because you can't get that far in 5, 6 minutes as a team of recreational divers tied together on a rope.
Ice diving protocols are a way to put divers in an overhead environment without the training or redundancy. That being said, people do get injured. I think there was a report a year or two ago about a bunch of Navy folks being disciplined after some sailors on a for-fun ice dive died b/c the line tenders were drunk.
The entertainment seems to be the social aspect. But the visibility is great until the other divers muck it up. You get to play with fish that are moving like cold-blooded animals in freezing water -- you can bring them to the surface and play around with them, etc. then put them back in and they're fine. And the ice is very beautiful when you look up.
When I did it, there were a couple of people in 7" wetsuits. I was freezing cold in my drysuit after standing in the weather all day.
This is something that's come up a lot recently in my local dive club. I really wouldn't recommend recreational ice diving except for the social aspect, but I think it would be great if it was done right, as rjack and nadwidny seem to be confirming.
