Ice Diving, your questions answered

After years of dreaming, I finally received my ice diving certification at Twin Lakes Park in Minnesota. I went through the Midwest School of Diving as they host the annual North American Ice Diving Festival. This was a goal of mine for a while, as it’s one of the more adventurous (yet riskier) specialties…..there’s A LOT more to consider when diving underneath the ice.

First off, relax! I’m naturally a very anxious person yet find a way to conquer these fears by doing things that force me to practice this measure in overwhelming situations. I mean for starters, the idea of being trapped, or getting lost under the surface is purely horrifying – so I would say that’s a huge mental component you need to get past. 

Second, we take measures to stay safe – this includes at least 2 divers staying clipped to a rope, and signalling the tender on the surface (person holding the rope) with tugs to signal “ok”, “more rope” and “emergency”. Also, remember we’re diving in the freezing cold (and equipment freezes quickly) meaning you need to be very cognisant. This is why we’re taught to go a bit against what we learn in your open water course – you don’t breathe into your primary reg until you’re actively descending and don’t turn on your air until right before you enter, as doing both of these can lead to free flow – we don’t like this, as it leads to your reg bubbling violently so you’re unable to breathe and use it properly. 

This is one reason why we carry a pony bottle (spare air tank) in case your primary were to fail. I personally like my APEKS XTX 200, which is built for the cold and worked well. However, I did experience a bit of a mishap while doing the pony bottle exercise of the certification. We were supposed to descend, and the instructor signals “free flow” with his hand to practice what we would do in a real scenario. When I went to switch from my primary reg to the reg attached to the pony, it went into free flow (when this is supposed to be the backup I use if my primary were to do this).

Thankfully we were only about 10 ft deep, and my primary was working just fine, but we gained more clarity as to what happened. First off, this was not supposed to happen! We figured it was because someone had turned the pony bottle on before I descended, unlike my friend who kept his off until he was underwater (and experienced no issues – we recommended he wait after seeing what happened to me).

Was I cold? Actually no!! Not in the water at least. I layered up well under my fourth element drysuit consisting of a base layer, fleece and a onesie, and 2 pairs of pants. Remember, if your drysuit floods, your entire dive is done immediately. 

Also, let’s talk depth perception! A lot of times the air bubbles messed up my vision and made it look like I was surfacing (but hit ice – that’s why we cut a triangle shape). Kinda scary!!

Additional things to consider: I have dived in lakes before, however have done so without any issues. After this dive, I started experiencing severe throat/mouth dryness/pain the day after. This is likely because I did not hydrate enough throughout the previous day and was continuously breathing in freezing cold air. Additionally, I developed an ear infection that quickly went away once I started on antibiotics, but was likely a result of all the bacteria at the bottom of the lake. In the lake we were diving, it had a very silty bottom, and with multiple divers training there at the same time, it caused a lot of it to be kicked around and destroy the visibility. I would advise anyone to just be wary of this possibility when diving in a lake after what happened to me.

Otherwise, would I do this again? Absolutely! In fact, I plan on moving to Alaska for a nursing gig this summer, and am dreaming of not only ice diving, but glacier diving up there as well! This course has given me a lot of confidence for future diving endeavours, and I would recommend it to anyone who is up to the challenge. And, of course using a fourth element drysuit while you are at it