ICE DIVING: OUR RULES OUR WAY
Today's blog is actually from 2 notes I have written to
divers with little to no experience diving around here as
far as I know but who ironically both held the rating of
Rescue Diver.
I seem to get a lot of these inquiries this time of year,
so if you don't mind what I've done is attached the last
replies I've sent the divers as we teach a very different,
very modern, very safe version of diving here and this is
the third inquriry for ice/drysuit as a combination course.
Ice diving is the most serious form of diving you
could get into due to the colder water which can freeze
up your regs causing freeflow, can freeze your inflators
shooting you up to the surface. It's a more treacherous
environment than a cave and yet the narrow minded uneducated
dive shops in the country let divers in wetsuits and single
tanks jump in because they feel that if a problem arises
they can find the way out because they are tethered.
To be honest with you I wouldn’t do an ice course/drysuit
combination only because we teach ice diving a little
differently……and well diving for that matter differently.
Ice diving is a course we’ve had more equipment failures
and issues with than every other level of training combined.
I’ve never had a student have a real failure in caves,
inside shipwrecks, or on mixed gas dives 250ft down.
 To
us we view Ice diving as a serious specialty,
which is the reason agencies like NAUI have moved it in
under the technical diving umbrella of their agency. Ice
is an overhead environment which you cannot surface directly
out of, making it as treacherous or worse than any cave
or shipwreck, therefore similar training principles must
be used.
We offer the most modern and most progressive diver training
you’re going to find anywhere and I can’t wait to show
you just how different our diving instruction, skills
and equipment configuration are compared to what’s presently
being taught by 95% of the dive stores worldwide, but
I don’t feel that Ice diving is the course to do that
with.
When we teach ice students must be in drysuits, utilizing
double tanks and must be proficient in skills to that
of a NAUI Intro to Tech diver, which is the most monumental
course any recreational or technical diver can take. We
really address proper posture, trim, buoyancy in the water,
as well as equipment configuration, familiarity, team
diving concepts and more.
In order to dive under the ice divers need to be proficient
in emergency drills involving isolation or shutting down
of a failed first or second stage regulator as well.
A training progression that would be more beneficial to
you might be to look at the Intro to Tech program and
Cavern Diver which we’ll be doing in Florida in February.
Upon successful completion of those courses, you would
have the tools necessary to safely engage in ice diving.
We normally do Ice Diving with 1 day of class/pool, 3-4
dives in open water with an additional 3 dives under the
ice. It’s a very intensive course and requires a bit more
than just doing the basic PADI 3-4 dive requirements.
By using the right gear, practicing all the emergency
procedures and knowing the fin techniques, valve skills,
air sharing options and all the rest you’ll be a much
safer and much better diver.
We teach the doing it right method in all of our courses
from open water on, giving our customers the opportunity
to be the best divers in the water.
I’ve attached some skill information that we would expect
you to have a handle on prior to the ice programs.
 We
have tons of information available on our website as well
as some great videos to outline how you should look in
the water, equipment configuration differences, streamlining
of the gear and more. www.dansdiveshop.ca
I’ve also attached 2 photos 1 of a traditional experienced
diver and 1 of one of our new divers and I’m sure you’ll
see a difference in posture, hose lengths, position in
the water as our equipment configuration keeps the diver
horizontal on the bottom, knees are up, fins are at the
highest point of the diver, whereas most divers using
an outdated configuration like a jacket bcd or ill fitting
bc generally look like the silty diver with a more vertical
orientation in the water and hoses dangling and hanging
all over the place. The other pic is of a technical diver
with proper trim and buoyancy wearing double tanks.
Our methodology here at Dan’s is that every diver should
learn the right skills and gain the right knowledge from
day 1, so we teach all over Canada, the USA and many exotic
places. Divers from all over the country fly or drive
down to train here or fly us out to them. We are not your
normal dive store and have created an incredible niche
as a result of that.
I could easily say yes, I’ll take your $ but I want you
to be aware that there is a lot more to diving than just
“making it out of the hole” alive and with most stores
allowing dive students to dive in cold water or ice classes
with a single tank jacket bcd, no redundancy, inappropriate
fins, vertical diving posture, non standardized equipment,
lack of proper lighting and letting them dive with bcd
inflators hooked up, it makes our courses stand out that
much brighter because we focus on the safety and extras
that few if any consider to think about.
Hopefully this isn’t too overwhelming for you, but I do
want you to be as prepared for diving here as possible.
Please take the time to read through our blog info, and
check out our videos on vimeo. There are 2 new one’s I
haven’t published to the website that help showcase proper
techniques at the double tank end of things, but the same
trim, posture, buoyancy and fin techniques are used for
our open water divers too. Check out our photo gallery
and you can see that discipline in the single tank diver
photos as well.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact
me or one of our staff...then I closed off the email.
 What
I want to elaborate on the fact that there are a lot of
dive stores offering courses they have no business teaching,
either through lack of experience on their parts, education
on their parts, proper equipment, proper mindset of they
just plain shouldn't dive!
I got a very interesting reply from one of our friends
as I shared this among my diving peers before posting it
publically on our website and this is a very typical response
that I get from people who take an ice diving course:
I agree that it's one of those situations that screams for
equipment failure especially freeflow. I did my ice course
a couple of years ago with a shop that shall not be named
but it was the PADI Ice course where we wore a harness with
a rope attached with tenders on the ice. Everyone was in
singles and some were in wetsuits. Mine was the only reg
that didn't freeflow (at the time I was using a sherwood
blizzard). Being a more experienced diver now I look back
on that and shake my head at what could've gone wrong diving
in an overhead environment with a single tank and no other
redundancy. Thanks Matt for producing better prepared divers.
Slowly we're changing the industry 1 diver at a time and
with like minded students past and present and our divers
it makes this process that much more efficient. Thanks to
all of our divers who shared their feedback and opionions
with us.
Unless divers can maintain a position of 10% midline, fin
using an anti-silting kick forwards and backwards, as well
as to turn underwater without using your hands, shut down
a failed regulator and switch over to the alternate air
source of a dual outlet redundant valve system, handle an
out of air situation calmly, efficiently and effectively,
have a thorough background in rescue diving techniques and
posses all of the proper equipment to safely execute a dive
under the ice divers should not ice dive.
Here are our course specifics for our ice diver program:
CLICK
HERE
Required Equipment: double tanks or high capacity single
with an h-valve (doubles are preferred), 2 independant first
and second stage regulators, 1 SPG on a 24-26" HP hose,
no consoles, wrist mounted computers/compass, primary mask
with nylong strap, backup mask highly recommended, primary
dive light (canister highly recommended) with 2 backup lights
(no breakable plastic switches, slide switches, locking
switches), 2 line cutters or cutting tools, fins with springs
heel strap, no snorkels (entanglement hazard), all hoses
need to be streamlined and not sticking out as is normally
the case with the traditional setup.
 Here's
a great example of your typical scuba diver. Not someone
with his trim, fin technique or equipment configuration
would be a good choice for ice diving, due to the fins down
vertical posture which would silt out the underwater site.
Hoses are too long, has all the clips and gimmicks, thinks
he's got great control in the water and he's having a great
time, which is good, except for the danglies, fins in the
silt and lack of awareness in the water this diver is a
great diver I'm sure.
Most divers don't know what's missing in their diving education
because they are unaware that there is a better way to dive.
Most divers don't know what they don't know because they
haven't been shown the right way to dive.
I was a diver that dove like this back in the early 1990's
when I started, because that was how we all did it.
It wasn't until the mid 1990's I started seeing diving
differently and got more involved in deep and wreck diving,
but even there I was still an old school diver with th wrong
skills, equipment and understanding.
My re-education came in the late 1990's early 2000 when
I started delving into the DIR philosophy, which I hadn't
understood until I saw divers with much less experience
and only a handful of dives start being taught in backplate/harness/long
hose configuration.
That was the most pivotal turning point in my diving career.
The next several pictures illustrate how a balanced diver
should look underwater. Knees up, fins up, horizontal posture,
no silt. Diving like this is more efficient and will give
the diver a much more streamlined swimming profile.
   Divers
need to be able to maintain this position at all times underwater.
We achieve this position by keeping the majority
of our weight behind us, utilizing the right shaped buoyancy
air cell and through practice and repetition of essential
skills.
Divers need always be striving to improve
themselves through skill development, repetition of skills,
emergency procedures, continuing education and exploration.
They say nothing good comes easy in life,
but scuba divers need to push themselves to be the best
they can.
Ice diving is not for everyone, but some stores
build on the social aspects of it and it's an "experience"
a "thing to do" over the winter. The average diver
has no idea of the dangers that lurk underneath this immovable
mass of frozen water if the wrong situation were to come
along at the wrong time.
Please take ice and all overhead environments
seriously.
Going in "Just a little bit" to
see what it's like has been a fatal mistake to hundreds
of people that had no business going into an overhead environment
without the proper training, redundancy and experience.
Thanks for stopping by.
See you underwater,
Matt Mandziuk
NAUI Technical Diving Instructor 45416
TDI Trimix Instructor 4767
PADI DSAT MSDT Instructor 207233
Manager
Dan's Dive Shop, Inc.
www.dansdiveshop.ca
matt@dansdiveshop.ca
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