Freeze-a-palooza

[Jon]

For 28 years the dive shop I work for has been running ice dive training on the same weekend at the same lake. For the past 4 I've been doing the dive while freediving instead of teaching on scuba. Many of you have seen the photos, and videos, from years past and this weekend it's time to do it again!:friday

I have, privately, emailed all of the local freedivers whom I've met over the years but want to make sure that there aren't any lurkers out there who don't know about it. If your interested email me, or P.M. me, and I can send you maps and give more specific details.

Needless to say we've got this thing pretty tricked out with hot showers, ropes, safety divers, dry (warm) changing areas, and places to lock your gear up over night- if you are going to dive both days. For our ice diving students we even have drysuits and heated argon! After 28 years, only 22 of which I have been ice diving, the group has figured out how it's done right- from cutting proper holes to after dive chili dumps and fish boils.

Here some shot from previous years and I'll write up more after the weekend.
Jon

 

[Jon]

Ok, a couple more shots to catch your interest.

Jon

 

[Fondueset]

No travel budget right now jon - otherwise I'd make my way over there! Looks like a blast - and what luxury!

 

[land shark]

ok Jon if your trying to get me to guess if thats you on the right in the wetsuit forget it I already fell for that one .

 

[Jon]

That's actualy our Czech transplant, Jitka- who also happens to be one of our boat captains. She does freedive, but only in summertime. If you check out my user's gallery you'll see some shots of her monofining up in Tobermorey. This time of year she concentrates more on tec/trimix diving and winter wreck diving charters.

There were a couple of people who enjoyed last years mild temperatures, including Rick, one of the diveing regulars.

Jon

 

[Jon]

First day of Freeze-A-Palooza 2006 and we had the best turn out to date- 4 freedivers! In the past I could never get more than one to join me but we had a crowd today. We're going to hit it again tomorrow and there are suppossed to be some new faces who are going to show up and dive with us- but the big question is will Ted drag himself out of hybernation to join us?rofl

Unfortunately, it snowed during the dive and was overcast all day. Add to this the somewhat murky conditions in the lake, and as a result it was really rough going taking pictures today.:head Hopefully we'll get a little sun and I'll have some better shots tomorrow.

Here's a view of our group: Brian, Nick, Jeff, and I'm lurkying in there somewhere. All in all a great day. temps were in the 30's (F) and we had lots of good food when we got out- 4 different types of home made soups as well as homemade cookies, cheese bread, and other Wisconsin staples.

Jon

 

[Fondueset]

Great Jon! The overcast and snow lends itself to the general mood of insanity that comes through.

Clear and calm day here today. 10f but got up to 32 as the sun rose in a perfectly clear blue sky. Had a great dive though I had some entry problems. The ladder I use had walls of ice between the rungs - I got stuck about halfway down and had to jump, then take off my fins, climb halfway up and get my camera. My gloves froze to the rungs where I'd used the lead weight on my flag to knock away the ice.

Not much to see, but you sure could see it a ways off! Took this stunning photo of a large rock.

 

[Jon]

Conditions were MUCH better today than yesterday. The sun came out for a while and really lightend up the water so we could actually see.

Not as many freedivers today- mostly a bunch of Police Officers finishing up their ice diver training. We also had a very friendly Search and Recovery dog out there who did it's best to try and warm up Jeff's face.rofl

As the day went on the wind picked up and those of us in the water where warmer than those left standing around outside.

A few more shots from the day:

Jon

 

[Jon]

Fonduset,

You certainly had better vis than we did! We didn't see too much either- except for zebra mussle encrusted rocks and branches on the bottom.

My friend, Jitka, did get a shot of my C4 "ICE" fins. rofl

Jon

 

[ceason]

Thanks for the great dive guys. Here is a couple of shots I took. I look forward to the next get together .. Carp-a-palooza maybe

 

[bjpete]

Carp-a-palooza? sounds like a plan, keep me posted, great pics Jon & Jeff, I had a great time on Saturday. I look forward to diving with you again Jeff, you too Jon & Nick. Any idea where Ted was? Must have been dreaming of "Warm-a-palooza"

 

[ceason]

A few more pictures

 

[MKDVR]

Love the pics but you guys are nuts. I did the polar bear thing in Chicago once. 30 seconds of exposure but took an hour to thaw out. My Florida blood just can't handle it.:ko

 

[khel]

Great pictures! It was fun but veeery cold

Can we combine "Warm-a-palooza" and "Carp-a-palooza" next time??

Nick

 

[Polystigma]

And I thought california was cold. rofl

 

[JPPLAY]

What thickness of suits are you divers wearing? I am going to send this thread to my local dive shop.

 

[ceason]

The first day I had on:
6/7mm Scubapro suite with Henderson hooded vest
6mm gloves (5 finger) and pretty chewed up :duh
5/6mm dive booties ..

Fingers and toes really got cold that day. The suit worked well but it was very stiff and restrictive making it almost impossible to get a really good breathe.

On the second day, I was much better off thanks to Jon.:thankyou

I had on a:
5mm Cressi with integrated hood
5mm socks with scuba booties over these
3 finger glove/mittens

The 3 finger gloves worked really well and the only chill I had was from pushing the camera buttons. With the socks and booties my feet never got cold. The Cressi suite work very good. I did get a little chilled in the torso but at least I could breathe.

 

[Jon]

I have a 6mm opencell/smoothskin custom cut suit from ELios- never even thought about being cold.

I also have 5mm low density heiwa socks with double lined nylon on them- onyl my heels got cold and that was only when I wore my monofin. with my bi-fins on the were just fine.

First day I started out wearing my drygloves, but took them off part way through and put on my 5mm, 3-finger, wetsuit mitts. The drygloves were still damp from the previous weekend's diving- I let my father-in-law borrow them and he didn't seal them right so they soaked up a ton of water. Due to the latex drysuit seal on the cuff of those gloves they are very hard to dry out.

Seeing as how the drysuit gloves retail, from DUI, for about $110 and the mitts came from Elios, for around $25, i think that the Elios mitts are the MUCH better buy- also easier to use camera controls with them on.

BTW: Ice freediving is NOTHING like doing a polar bear dip- since we have suits on and are not drunk when we do it.

Jon

 

[bjpete]

I dove only on Saturday & wore a 5ml picasso apnos, 5ml gloves, and 5ml socks. My fingers & toes got a bit cold but the rest of me was OK except for a small area on my forehead (ice cream headache) Next time I go ice diving I'll make a few changes such as 3 finger mitts, & I hope to get a custom made elios. I was having too much fun to notice that I was getting chilled. Would I do it again, in a heart beat, Am I nuts, no, but my wife would disagree.

 

[golougor]

Wow Jon! What the beautifull pic! I wanna go to ice freediving too!
Keep Hard!