When I was trained, it was with a small class. We did the sunburst pattern - three large lines away from the ice hole (a 6' triangle) with arrow barbs on the lines pointing back towards the hole. The hole was large enough to let all divers surface at the same time.
When diving, we secured the rope to an ice screw. The line tender then held the line as well. We lock into the rope using a carabiner. Usually it's one person per line, but when diving w/ a lot of people we will put two people on a rope using a "Y".
The safety diver is suited up and sitting in the hole. He is attached to a line that is twice as long as the regular divers. That way, if he needs to search, he just goes to the end of his line and then runs in a circle. He should be able to catch the "victim" on his sweep.
I've had up to six people in a whole before. This is usually when we have two people on a rope, for a total of three ropes in the water w/ one safety diver.
Personally, I've been leaning towards treating an ice dive like a cave dive. Tie my line to an ice screw on the surface. Make a secondary tie off to another ice screw under the surface, next to the hole. Make a tertiary tie off/wrap to a bottom feature directly beneath the hole. My reasoning for this is some severely bad experiences w/ tenders...I find that they either aren't doing anyting with the rope, or they are doing too much.
I've ended up w/ 80 feet of slack line before when coming back towards the hole. Reassuring if I were to have an emergency and needed attention. On the opposite side, we did a deep ice dive - to the point of being right on the edge of deco (we didn't want to do deco diving under the ice...too cold for the extended exposure). Starting our ascent, all of a sudden I noticed I was going sideways. Next thing I know I'm going up. I'm getting pulled towards the surface from 120 feet and NEEDING a stop and slow ascent. But nope...I get pulled clear up to the hole and the tender is surprised and goes "what are you doing up here?". I was not happy. A fast ascent and no stops. I had actually considered unbuckling the rope from my harness so that I could get a proper ascent - this was at about 60 feet of depth w/ at least 100 feet of viz, and I could see the hole (and the tender...) from where I was...but I didn't want to send them into absolute panic on the surface. So I really fail to see the benefit of a tender - they are either trying to kill me or won't be any help if I need it anyway.
In addition, we always dive w/ a partner, we dive h-valves or doubles, and we are cave trained. We are used to depending on ourselves for self rescue in an overhead. As long as we are using a proper guideline, what would be the harm???
I haven't done it yet though, because the groups that we ice dive w/ are usually just recreationally trained and would bar us from diving w/ them like that. They want the typical ice diving rules followed...
When diving, we secured the rope to an ice screw. The line tender then held the line as well. We lock into the rope using a carabiner. Usually it's one person per line, but when diving w/ a lot of people we will put two people on a rope using a "Y".
The safety diver is suited up and sitting in the hole. He is attached to a line that is twice as long as the regular divers. That way, if he needs to search, he just goes to the end of his line and then runs in a circle. He should be able to catch the "victim" on his sweep.
I've had up to six people in a whole before. This is usually when we have two people on a rope, for a total of three ropes in the water w/ one safety diver.
Personally, I've been leaning towards treating an ice dive like a cave dive. Tie my line to an ice screw on the surface. Make a secondary tie off to another ice screw under the surface, next to the hole. Make a tertiary tie off/wrap to a bottom feature directly beneath the hole. My reasoning for this is some severely bad experiences w/ tenders...I find that they either aren't doing anyting with the rope, or they are doing too much.
I've ended up w/ 80 feet of slack line before when coming back towards the hole. Reassuring if I were to have an emergency and needed attention. On the opposite side, we did a deep ice dive - to the point of being right on the edge of deco (we didn't want to do deco diving under the ice...too cold for the extended exposure). Starting our ascent, all of a sudden I noticed I was going sideways. Next thing I know I'm going up. I'm getting pulled towards the surface from 120 feet and NEEDING a stop and slow ascent. But nope...I get pulled clear up to the hole and the tender is surprised and goes "what are you doing up here?". I was not happy. A fast ascent and no stops. I had actually considered unbuckling the rope from my harness so that I could get a proper ascent - this was at about 60 feet of depth w/ at least 100 feet of viz, and I could see the hole (and the tender...) from where I was...but I didn't want to send them into absolute panic on the surface. So I really fail to see the benefit of a tender - they are either trying to kill me or won't be any help if I need it anyway.
In addition, we always dive w/ a partner, we dive h-valves or doubles, and we are cave trained. We are used to depending on ourselves for self rescue in an overhead. As long as we are using a proper guideline, what would be the harm???
I haven't done it yet though, because the groups that we ice dive w/ are usually just recreationally trained and would bar us from diving w/ them like that. They want the typical ice diving rules followed...
