ICE DIVER

THE PADI ICE DIVER COURSE

No Events

ICE DIVER

If the spirit of adventure and unusual, challenging diving appeals to you, try diving under the ice.

Ice diving is one of the most adventurous scuba specialties because you confront conditions and see beauty few others ever experience.

Flash your PADI Ice Diver certification card to get instant respect, and usually a lot of curious questions from other divers about what it’s like under the ice.

THE FUN PART

Explore the unique aquascape found only under ice. Imagine being one of the very elite divers that dive under a solid ceiling of ice. You might get a chance to play with your exhaled air bubbles on the bottom of the ice or an opportunity to try the unique sport of upside down, bottom of the ice, skiing. Let your imagination take you places to the far corners of the world, or merely enjoy year round diving in your hometown lakes.

WHAT YOU LEARN

You will complete a minimum of three ice dives for your certification. Dives are typically done as a group working with support personnel, divers, tenders, and safety divers. Ice Diving is very much a team effort.You are under the ice to learn to control buoyancy, navigate under the ice, and keep in contact with the lead diver and tenders via line pulls for communication. You will learn:

Teamwork is essential for ice diving, so you’ll start by learning the roles and responsibilities of support personnel, tenders and safety divers
To plan and organize ice dives
Reasons and opportunities for ice diving,
Equipment considerations and benefits
About site selection, preparation and hole-cutting procedures

How to practice the procedures and techniques for handling the problems and hazards of ice diving
To use specialized ice diving equipment, safety lines, signals, communications, line tending and line-securing techniques
How to manage equipment problems
About the effects of cold, emergency procedures and safety-diver procedures

THE GEAR YOU USE

Because of the “extreme” environment, both in terms of it being cold and an overhead environment, gear selection, configuration and preparation is a critical part of this course. You need everything working properly! You’ll definitely want to dive in a drysuit with full thermals, which seems obvious to keep you warm, but you’ll need some other specialized gear as well, both for the surface while tending the divers, and for when you take the thrilling step into the hole for your own ice dive. For underwater, this will include some form of breathing system redundancy, in case you encounter a free flowing regulator on your dive. Your PADI Instructor, or team member at FLOAT N’ FLAG, may suggest other gear appropriate for ice diving. The mandatory “Gear Prep” session is critical, as your instructor will guide you and your fellow ice divers in how best to prepare your gear to minimize issues relating to the cold.

LEARNING MATERIALS

There is no formal manual for this course. Your FNF Instructor will diligently walk you through a presentation, provide handouts, work through checklists, detail communication protocols and much more during your class and pool sessions. Knowledge review questions will be discussed to ensure all students have a clear understanding of all aspects of Ice diving.

PREREQUISITES

You need to be a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver who is at least 18 years old to enroll in the Ice Diver course.

YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE

Although some ice divers dive in a wetsuit, you’ll probably find that you are more comfortable in a dry suit. The PADI Dry Suit Diver course can help you become familiar with the nuances of using a dry suit.

While you’re brushing up on your specialty diving skills, you should also take the Rescue Diver course, which puts you just one step closer to the Master Scuba Diver rating.