Primary Light OVER long hose, right?

[Reg Braithwaite]

You could get yourself a pony, and practise some solo deep air dives . That won't trespass on Fundies territory at all.

Digression here: I got interested in DIR when it was put to me that I needed a redundant gas supply or I needed a team I could trust, but I didn't need both. Therefore... no pony!

Next, the recreational season is closed up here. The only practice I am doing is a weekly 90 minute session in a 16' pool. As soon as I am able to dive OW again, I will be hooking up with some local DIR-folk. This is just me figuring out how to invest my winter pool training wisely.

Seriously, you could practise stuff like removing your mask while staying horizontal.

I try to do all my drills mask on and off while remaining horizontal and level. So things like mask off, switch regs, clip off the primary, unclip the primary, switch back, mask on, that sort of thing.

And again same thing with eyes closed, much harder for me to maintain position within 1', but I'll get there.

Can you hover indefinitely without moving your hands or feet? Can you do it on your side, on your head, facing up? What happens if you close your eyes?

Working on that as well, especially hovering motionless with eyes closed. I'll get there too.

Thanks for the tip, I'll work on wet-noes at my next session.

 

[rjack321]

Next, the recreational season is closed up here. The only practice I am doing is a weekly 90 minute session in a 16' pool. As soon as I am able to dive OW again, I will be hooking up with some local DIR-folk. This is just me figuring out how to invest my winter pool training wisely.

There are some GUE folks ice diving up in your neck of the woods year round (in quarries and elsewhere). Take an ice class and try to hook up with them for some "real" weekend dives. Or go to FL and take DIRF in Jan or Feb and be in a much better position when your local recreational scene restarts in the spring.

All better options than filling your winter with SB.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

There are some GUE folks ice diving up in your neck of the woods year round (in quarries and elsewhere). Take an ice class and try to hook up with them for some "real" weekend dives.

You. Must. Be. Joking.

I haven't taken recreational fundamentals yet and you are sending me into an overhead environment complete with regulator free flow hazards? Not to mention the fact that low temperature compounds the difficulty of executing simple tasks?

I may not know all of what I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that I know not to go diving in an overhead environment without technical training

Or go to FL and take DIRF in Jan or Feb and be in a much better position when your local recreational scene restarts in the spring.

Much better idea, and if I can figure out how to take the wife, two kids, and a nanny with me for DIR-F in Florida, I may just keep going South, I hear there's an outfit in Mexico that teaches DIR as well.

Sadly, that is not going to happen this year. But it's a good idea, and ten years ago I would have hopped on a plane and gone somewhere in the world for a week.

Anyhow, thanks all for the suggestions and guidance, I think we've left the original subject a long way behind, so I'll check out here. Be well...

 

[grf88]

A lot of people dive year round in the Toronto area. Lake Ontario rarely freezes although you may have to break a little ice along the shore. I know at least some of them are GUE trained. Some hardy souls dive regularly through January and February the biggest problem appears to be getting out of your drysuit before it freezes solid.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

A lot of people dive year round in the Toronto area. Lake Ontario rarely freezes although you may have to break a little ice along the shore. I know at least some of them are GUE trained. Some hardy souls dive regularly through January and February the biggest problem appears to be getting out of your drysuit before it freezes solid.

I appreciate the encouragement, however I have grave concerns given my understanding of the risks involved with winter diving. Even without ice creating an overhead environment, cold water introduces a very serious risk of free flows.

Redundant first stages are almost mandatory, given that if you only have one first stage and you donate to your buddy, the increased demand on the first stage can run it into free flow as well. I happen to be a single tank recreational guy, so I am neither equipped for this nor am I trained on the equipment should some generous soul offer to lend me their "guest" doubles.

Now the water gets no colder than deep water I've dived in Tobermory. However, on those dives I was only below the second thermocline for a few minutes. With winter diving, the entire dive is done in cold water from bottom to top.

Also, when diving Tobermory in the Summer, no matter how cold the water, the surface temps are 20-30 celsius. No matter what happens in the water, when you reach the surface you warm up again. But when diving the bicycle and what-not in Humber Bay, you emerge to sub-freezing temperatures with nice stiff winds. This may only be unpleasant if everything goes well, but if you have an emergency of any kind to deal with, this can turn an afternoon social dive into an epic.

Quite honestly I do not believe winter diving is a recreational activity for casual divers. I consider it a little like cavern diving: Lots of people do it without a great deal of experience, training, and specialized equipment, and it almost always goes well. However the margin of error is much smaller, so if it goes badly, it is going to go very badly.

 

[rjack321]

You. Must. Be. Joking.

I haven't taken recreational fundamentals yet and you are sending me into an overhead environment complete with regulator free flow hazards? Not to mention the fact that low temperature compounds the difficulty of executing simple tasks?

I may not know all of what I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that I know not to go diving in an overhead environment without technical training

Jeesh, pile on the drama here. Fundies is not required for a recreational, line-tended ice class. If you've decided its not for you that's cool. It would probably be more useful and fun than 16ft pool dives tho.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Jeesh, pile on the drama here. Fundies is not required for a recreational, line-tended ice class. If you've decided its not for you that's cool. It would probably be more useful and fun than 16ft pool dives tho.

Pardon me for having a sense of humour! But yes, I have decided that I am not ready for an overhead environment even with someone ready to drag my body out in the case of an accident, and I have also decided that I do not have the equipment or the training to operate the equipment appropriate for winter conditions.

A quick google of "ice diving death ontario" pulls up plenty of incidents, plus I recall reading about a couple of winter diving deaths in the St. Lawrence. These are enough to convince me that ice diving is not a recreational activity in the same sense that an OW dive to 60' is a recreational activity.

Again, entirely my decision.

 

[DaleC]

The biggest thing that you can practice is probably just being comfortable with scuba equipment and being in the water and being *still*. Then add a single simple motion and try to do it deliberately and with economy of effort and without losing that stillness in the rest of your body. You can literally spend hundreds of dives practicing this to get better at it.

Lamont, that just kind of hit me between the eyes (in a good way). I've never heard it put that way before. I'm always busy with a "plan" to actively practice skills when I'm not otherwise engaged while diving and yet still have trouble with buoyancy/trim when I start fiddling with/deploying something. I'm going to start doing what you've suggested and see what happens.
Thank you.

 

[rjack321]

Again, entirely my decision.

Since you are concerned about safety records, you might wanna give up solo diving as your moniker lists, statistically it doesn't have a good one.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Since you are concerned about safety records, you might wanna give up solo diving as your moniker lists, statistically it doesn't have a good one.

I have never dived alone, nor do I intend to do so. However, I was in the habit of diving with insta-buddies, and I came to realize that doing so was tantamount to diving solo, so I started to research self-reliance and self-rescue, thus I joined the solo diving forum. A little later in my research I was exposed to the possibility that proper team diving was a better approach than treating every dive as a solo dive, and thus I made a commitment to DIR. I actually considered changing the moniker thingy--I think SB puts it there because I'm a member of the solo diving forum--but I didn't think it would trouble anyone.

So your comment hits at at the very heart of why I'm here asking silly questions. I'm here because I am choosing not to "solo" in practice or in mindset.

p.s. PM sent