Ice freediving

[Jon]

It's that time of year again and I wanted to invite and midwestern freedivers to join me on February 12th to go freediving under the ice.

We had a pretty good time last year and shared the holes with the scuba divers so we had plenty of support. I have all od the ropes and harnesses that are needed and am always looking for other freedivers to dive with.

If your interested just P.M. me so we can discuss your experience level and if you need any extra gear or not.

Here's a few shots from last year:

Jon

[Alison]

S@*t an ice cube!! you are mad!!! C%$p you are mad!!! I remember when I was training back in 1978 maybe, we did the BSAC deep rescue in one of the quarries in north wales (the Fron if anybody is really interested) we had to lay the 30m line as well as a bouy to shore line; this was with a 1" thick layer of ice sp by the time I got to do my deep rescue test, I had been in the water for 1 1/2 hrs Pants!! I was cold, when we had done and got back to the car, I couldnt undo the tenax fasteners on my wetsuit I had to sit in my dads beetle for an hour with the engine running just to get changed
My advice is light a fire and let Jon dive on his own if you feel the need to give support, then invite him to the bar afterwards

[bjpete]

I'll be going in one of local lakes with Jon in about 18 hours in a warm water opening but close to the ice. I saw some of Jon's recent photos; great visibility and lots of huge fish. Am a crazy ? no, just anxious to get back in the water after a long cold winter. It should be fun and "breath taking"

[Jon]

Tomorrow's dive won't under the ice, just surrounded by it.

This is what the outlet looked like at 3pm this afternoon. It'll be nice to jump in tomorrow and be able to see something for a change.

Next weekend will be a bit more work, needing chainsaws and ropes, but we will have hot showers, warm food, and hot cider for the post dive warm up.

Plus, those custom cut Elios suits are a whole lot warmer than you think!

Jon

[Donna]

Wow, looks fantastic, something I'd really love to do. Have fun everyone, wish I was there!

Donna

[Jon]

It turned out to be a great February day in Wisconsin- with temps in the 50's! That's a whole 10 degrees warmer than it was here back in August for my vacation!

Water temps varied depending upon where we were. If we swam right up into the pipe we had 57 degree water. Once we swam out into clearer water it dropped down to 36 degrees. We decided to make a few "laps" in and out of the warm water to extend our time- to just over two hours.

Brian had a good time chasing down, and grabbing, some of the musky. I was busy filming and looking for anchors, and other goodies. There were huge schools of fish swimming by, but we decided to leave the spearguns in the car for today. We took turns swimming up the pipe to try and scare out some of the pan fish hiding in there- but they weren't about to leave their warm little nest for anything!

Here's a few shots from today:

Jon

[Jon]

Here's a few more "fish shots" from the day.

Next weekend is the real deal, with ropes and chain saws, but this spot is so easy to dive it's hard not to just jump in when the urge hits.

Jon

[Jon]

A few last shots of the day's events. Brian had some fun with the ice and we also had a nice little treasure hunt while we dove today.

Somethings we found that weren't so pleasant were the dead birds on the bottom. One was hung up on abandoned fishing line that some angler left on the bottom. The bird never stood a chance- and that kind of stuff doesn't happen to spearos! Let the anglers, and commercial fisherman, think what they might, but we don't inccur incidental kill the way they do.

(off my soap box now )

Jon

[Fondueset]

Wow! Inspiring. Hope i can get over there one of these times! What a great dive spot! Fine looking muskie as well. It's true about the Elios suites - I'm getting ready to order a 3 mil - detached hood for my daughter and I for late spring, summer, early fall.

Those pictures are fantastic!

[icarus pacific]

Originally Posted by Jon

We had a pretty good time and shared holes with the scuba divers.
Jon

uhh...OK.

Seriously though, that looks like a bunchafun. Whodda thunk so much was going on in the ponds?

Thanks as well for clearing some of the trash from the local; shame that that rarely makes it to the 6:00 News.

And hey, I was looking throgh the mess that is my mail and saw the one you sent with your son pulling the ultimate dynamic. Smoooooth.

[bjpete]

In case anyone was asking, I was wearing a 5ml Picasso Apnos and did just fine in the icy water. The pics Jon took turned out great! but obviously being there in the water is better than the photos. I just started freediving last year and didn't get out as much as I would have liked to, but after a great day of diving that we had today, I'm hooked. the nice thing about the spot we were at is that it's only 5 miles from my house.

[land shark]

Wow, once again more anchors with no rope attached. :
makes ya wonder how all that fish line stays behind on those hooks down there.

[Jon]

Sven,

There a fair bit that goes on in the "Big Pond", Lake Michigan, as well! Here's a shot from a few weeks ago when my father-in-law and I went out to video some of the city's water intake pipes. By time we broke through the ice it was too rough and we ended up turing around and calling it a day- better luck next time.

Thanks for the congrat's, now I'll have a matched set like you have- son and daughter.

There's a lot more stuff on the bottom of those lakes, but we can't get it all.
We still do some clean-up dives every spring to give it a shot. Worst bit of mess I ever saw was from the "smelt fisherman" in Milwaukee. The set up dip nets along the breakwall and hang lights out over the water to attarct the fish. When the car battery, that runs the bulb, burns out they just dump them overboard and grab a new one. I counted 17 car batteries on one dive! Another time I was up in Lake Superior diving this 100+ year old wreck in 185' of water. I penetrated down a couple of deck levels and found brand new beer cans mixed in with all of the artifacts!

As far as the anchor line/ fishline goes, I think the difference is in the line used. Mono is pretty darn difficult to degrade in a normal freshwater enviroment, where some of the rope that I have seen on those anchors would be better suited to hang your laundry on to dry.

Now, when I talk about sharing a hole, I mean with theses bubble blowers- who cut the holes for us so I can't complain too much. We still manage to get plenty of time inbetween students to jump in and dive.

Jon

[Fondueset]

Don't know if I told this story in some thread but when I was a kid I used to spearfish around the spillway of a small dam that had a resort built around it. People would drink on these nice plank pateos over the water. Ladies would have their martinis then pitch the glasses into my river. The white water area was probably 50 yards or more across - so I'd go under the white water from the opposite side - swimming in the reverse current on the bottom, and surface under the patio then, after a brief recon, blow my snorkel out under selected patrons and through the gaps in the planks - Then make my way back to surface innocently on the other side. Talk about blowing your skirt up!
I used to get really worked up about all the crap on the bottom. Just really incredible. People are a tiny bit better now, but then theres jet skis...

Last summer I was out offshore a ways in the big lake - it was a brilliant day and I was checking out the cool patterns the zebra muscles made in the contoured marl beds. Huge schools of small alewives were all around - they were so big you could mistake them for cloud shadows from the surface. I got into one and they closed around me in a beautiful shimmering silver and blue whirling mass. I was in a moving sphere of alewives. Vis that day was around 50 feet.

[Jon]

We had a great time today. Temps were in the high 40's- which is awesome for Wisconsin in February!

Scuba divers started things off.

Jon