This guy is amazing. Diving in a frozen Maine lake with a water temperature of 31 degrees F is pretty impressive.

It's a little long, but it held my interest.

Years back when working as a Divemaster at a active NJ dive shop, we would run ice dive training trips to Lake Winni. Having a top-quality dry suit and underwear was a must.

Recumbency was important. Regulators could freeze up. That depth makes trimix advisable.

Top quality and well-trained surface support teams are a must. This type of work is a great source of income during the winter. someone is always dropping vehicles into the lakes.

A good dry-suit, and sweat pants/sweat shirt, thick socks… not as bad as you think.
Winch does the heavy lifting.

Diving with a broken arm?
I don’t know, I think the pressure might cause some pain issues.

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A good dry-suit, and sweat pants/sweat shirt, thick socks… not as bad as you think.

I recall a dive many years ago while doing open-water training. It was early April and the water temp was low-mid 50's and visibility was very poor. That was probably the coldest and most miserable that I had been to that point and I not even come close to approaching it since.

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Originally posted by rscalzo:

Top quality and well-trained surface support teams are a must. This type of work is a great source of income during the winter. someone is always dropping vehicles into the lakes.

I gotta tell ya, it ain’t a half bad source of income during the summer either!
TowBoat US!

I never had a dry suit. I’ve been in some damn cold water too. My friend and I drove to a lake in the winter because he said it was open year round. He was wrong, they were closed for the season. We were young enough that we weren’t going to let that stop us. Gear went over the fence and so did we. I spent just shy of an hour under water that day. I think my computer registered 97 feet. I’d have to find my log book to see what the temp was. SMH, the stupid things you do when you’re young.

I managed a small chain of scuba shops in northern Illinois in the late-1980's into the early 1990's. One weekend, we did a dry-suit course at an inland lake (old quarry, probably), the students were all very experienced wetsuit divers, all friends of the chain and each other, a close-knit group.

One of the trainees was pegging the anxiety scale before the first dive, shaking while putting on the dry-suit.

I knew he just needed to loosen up, so as he was zipping up, I said, "know what dry-suits remind me of? An autopsy!" Cracked everybody up, he relaxed, the training dives went just fine after that!

Same lake, Open Water Training class, water temp was 43 degrees. I had an 8mm wetsuit, hood, boots, thick gloves, the whole bit, but to this day I remember the shock when that water got in!

That's amazing. I get cold when the swimming pool temp is below 82°


ets: correct spelling

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Johnny 3eagles,

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Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
That's amazing. I get cold when the swimming pool tem5is below 82°

The thing is, when you're wearing a drysuit, very little of your body is actually touching the cold water. It's not that different from wearing underlayers and a coat while outside in cold weather on land.

As opposed to the wetsuit used in warmer water, which allows water in next to your body. But even then, your body heat warms that layer of water between you and the wetsuit, so it can help keep you warm in cooler (but not cold) water.

A basic drysuit doesn't envelop your head and hands, but those are usually covered by thick neoprene wetsuit gloves/hood for insulation, so the only parts fully exposed are small bits of your cheeks and lips. And there are setups for things like serious cold water commercial diving that make your hands and head totally watertight as well.

But in less extreme scenarios, you can handle having small parts of your skin exposed to cold when the majority of it is dry and insulated - especially your torso. Just like the small gaps of exposed skin left when you bundle up in winter clothing. The heat loss from that small area is minimal.

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Originally posted by 400m:
SMH, the stupid things you do when you’re young.

Yep.....one of the benefits at working for the shop was getting gear below what the store paid from manufacturers.

Along with one of my other coworkers, we taught Basic at Rutgers. The Open Water phase was at Dutch Springs in PA. The first classes would be in temps only in the high 30's to low 40's. Students used the college 8mm....and I was comfy in my DUIO CF200. But we did four dives a day for two days.

Three of us from Texas flew to MN late one January for an ice diving course at Baraboo Lake (no idea why we'd do that). I'd borrowed a dry suit and had purchased a hood, full-face mask, over-booties, and mitts. We were the only non-professionals attending the course. They did have some sponsored loaner drysuits and lots of hot water to pre-load the wet suits for those without.

I haven’t used a drysuit (god I love Florida!) but I have dove in places where the temps got into the upper 40's under the 2nd thermocline.
When I got orders to Great Lakes I thought, i would while I was up there, but the summer work load never gave me the opportunity.

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Originally posted by rscalzo:
Recumbency was important.

Autocorrect really makes me want to sit back and let AI take over.

As for the recovery, I’m wondering why? Seemed like a lot of people, equipment, and risk for what didn’t look like a particularly expensive machine.

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As for the recovery, I’m wondering why? Seemed like a lot of people, equipment, and risk for what didn’t look like a particularly expensive machine.

Apparently it was largely for environmental reasons. At one point, someone mentioned oil absorbent materials and fines of up to $2500/day until recovery.

That was impressive. I no longer dive in water with a temperature numerically lower than my age. That's getting harder to find!

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Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:
Apparently it was largely for environmental reasons. At one point, someone mentioned oil absorbent materials and fines of up to $2500/day until recovery.

That’s certainly a good reason. I fast forwarded through much of the video and missed that. I got tired of hearing the one guy saying the diver wasn’t the navy seal/young guy he expected.

Back in the 90's I took a Scuba class at the YMCA.
My open water certification dive took place at a quarry in Kenosha WI. just after the ice cleared.
I don't remember being cold or uncomfortable with the provided wet suit.

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Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:
Apparently it was largely for environmental reasons. At one point, someone mentioned oil absorbent materials and fines of up to $2500/day until recovery.

That’s certainly a good reason. I fast forwarded through much of the video and missed that. I got tired of hearing the one guy saying the diver wasn’t the navy seal/young guy he expected.

Pollution!
Either the USCG or the EPA will nail ya.
And their fines aren't cheap.

Having lived on the North Sea and Baltic, we go skinny dipping in January on a regular basis, it is sort of a New Years tradition.

I finally got time to watch the entire video. Very cool and engaging.

Anybody know what the diver got paid?