Ice Diving

Post date: Dec 5, 2010 11:23:57 PM

This Saturday we were supposed to be going to Stoney Cove for a dive but a blizzard the night before made this seem unlikely. I debated an early start standing in Stoney Cove car park with Big Chris in a blizzard or a lay in, in a warm bed with my wife. Chris lost.

In the morning, whilst laying in my warm bed I got a text from Barry. He wanted to look at the Delapre water skiing lake as it was frozen over. The diving gear was in the car so what harm could there be in going to have a look? Barry came over and a cup of tea and bacon sandwich later we were in our way.

We got there and the lake was almost completely covered in ice. There was a concrete ramp leading down to the water with a wooden jetty beside it. Perfect as a kitting up and entry point. The dog walkers gave us some strange looks but that was hardly surprising. Two grown men who really should know better going ice diving with the most rudimentary of risk assessments.

We did consider the risks. I have a number coded key box which I lock outside my car with my car keys in. I told Barry the number but he forgot it. We also put on an extra layer under our dry suits as the water looked quite chilly. Risk assessment completed we put on our kit and entered the water. Barry tied off the reel line to the jetty and off we went. As we descended the top of my head suddenly felt bloody freezing. There was an air pocket in the top of my hood. The rest of me was toasty warm although with all the layers in an already snug dry suit shut downs would have proved to be a bit of a problem.

My wing inflator valve froze in the open position immediately and I disconnected the hose. Due to my semi mittens and being upright on the surface I was struggling to reconnect it so Barry helped me out. We descended again and proceeded to fin towards the island. When we reached a rising land mass we headed left into open water and the edge of the frozen ice.

We both tried breaking the ice a couple of times but it was impossible. Perhaps if we were walking along the top of it we might have gone through but from underneath with no leverage it wasn’t possible. Barry inverted himself a couple of times and kicked the ice with his feet but that didn’t work.

After ten minutes of finning we headed back. At one point I was convinced that there was a skull on the bottom. It turned out to be a sunken buoy. If it had been a skull we could have written into “DIVE” magazine telling them how BSAC had taught us everything we knew and definitely won letter of the month.

For a local frozen lake this was a lot of fun. The vis’ was amazing. Apart from my cold head neither of us were at all cold in the 3º water. There wasn’t a lot to see apart from several Carlsberg cans and a buoy pretending to be a skull but as a one off dive it was a lot of fun and made a change from Stoney Cove.

Barry may well write a trip report too when he recovers from his hangover from the Saints Divers Christmas party.