Dive 229 A (N)Ice Dive In Union Lake

Dive 299 started with us assembling at Union lake to find a lot more ice on it than there was last week.

Quite a few people were out ice fishing, even with extensive open water visible.

So we got in and made the entry hole a bit bigger and headed off. Chad, Keith and Fred had led off and Brandon and I followed.

Here's Brandon at the entry point.

The bubbles would gather under the ice above

We then swam to the Model T:

Then we met up with Keith, Chad and Frank at the speedboat:

At the boat, a fish was patiently waiting at the copier to make a few copies.

Fifteen minutes into the dive, we were at 34 feet in 37 degree water.

We then headed to the other boat that sits in about 40 feet of water.

Here's Brandon as we begin to head back:

Heading back, Chad spotted a mud puppy and held it up for Brandon to video:

The mud puppy decided it had had enough and swam off like a shot out of Chad's hand. It swam like a fish moving its body back and forth. First time we've seen one do that.

Then we swam back to the line and headed back towards the entry point and the surface.

Upon leaving the water, out suits began to ice up and freeze solid, as the air temp was pretty cold.

The good news from the dive is that both the replacement O-ring and replacement SD1000 camera had arrived for my camera case so I was able to test it and take it out on this dive, and it worked - no leaks.

In addition I was trying out a new dive hood - A White Arrow WA hood 5.0 Millimeter. Best dive hood ever. So much better than my beat up Diving Concepts hood as well as being more comfortable and a whole lot warmer. A warm head leads to a happy ice diver.

Great dive. Camera worked, hood worked and aside from a leak that seems to be coming from the chest inflator valve i was pretty dry. I also got some video that I'll need to edit and put up later.

Dive 228 - Another Union Lake Ice Dive

And another Union Lake Ice Dive took place this morning.

It wouldn't be a dive without so,me minor tweaks and issues and I had both. I had forgotten my dry gloves and had to run home for them as they had been moved by someone who will remain nameless.

During the dive I either blooped the neck seal or I'm leaking from the chest valve as I was pretty wet down the front of my body. Not good with the water temperature in the 30s. In addition, the left dry glove is still having a leak from somewhere so i need to take it apart and work on finding the leak and fixing it.

There was still plenty of ice but it is both thinner and the opening was much larger than last week, making the entrance far more convenient. Neither the duck from the last few weeks nor the ice fishermen were not present, and considering the ice thickness it was a good thing they weren't or they could have joined us on the dive.

Quite a few fish, but no impressive gars nor pikes were seen. I did see a mudpuppy as we were ascending back to the surface but he was well camouflaged under the weeds.

Good dive, no problems, and a pleasant gathering afterwards at the Library Pub to watch the underwater video Brandon took of the dive. I'm improving in terms of trim and buoyancy and am feeling quite comfortable under the ice, which is always a good thing.

Dive 227 - A (N)ice Dive

This morning I headed out to Union Lake to get a dive in and met up with Chad, Keith and Brandon.

The ice is now about 3.5 to 4 inches thick, and there were quite a few people out ice fishing already. Not really recommended at that thickness, but they were having a good time doing it.

The same hole where we entered last week is smaller now, with much thicker ice around it.

The same duck was still there, still wondering what we were doing heading into the water.

So we headed out under the ice. It felt a little different knowing we absolutely had to return to the starting point as the ice was too thick to break out from underneath. That's why you run a continuous line to the surface at all times.

The temperature on my dive computer read 33 degrees, so it was cold down there.

Interestingly enough as we swam along, we passed close by to an ice fishing hole and got to see the line, hook and bait in action in the water as the fisherman jigged it up and down. He was letting it sit on the bottom and every few seconds you'd see him jerk the line and pull it up a bit. Quite a different perspective and he didn't hook any of us.

We did see quite a few fish and a very large mud puppy that was photo-worthy.

Unfortunately, my immersed underwater camera did not recover from its dunking.

While it still takes pictures and movies, the LCD screen on the back is kaput. Luckily, ebay has a ton of used SD1000s for sale, but for some reason people keep paying ridiculously high prices for these old digital cameras. They can't all have the specific underwater case so why aren't they buying the newer and better cameras and leaving the rest to those of us that are locked into them? Kinda strange but that's life.

I've now won an auction for the camera's replacement on ebay and ordered some new o-rings from Canon, so I should be back to underwater photography shortly. Hopefully Brandon will put some pics and vids up and I'll post them here once I've see them.

A (n)ice 30 minute plus dive in 33 degree water with very clear visibility and a good time had by all.