The PADI Ice Diver Course
If the spirit of adventure and unusual, challenging diving appeals to you, try diving under the ice.
During the course, you dive with a PADI Professional in one of the most extreme adventure specialties recreational diving offers.
The Fun Part
Explore the unique aquascape found only under ice. You can be one of the few that have ever dived under a solid ceiling of ice. Plus, imagine the look on your Divemaster’s face on your next Caribbean trip when you flash your PADI Ice Diver certification.
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.
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. 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.
You learn:
- To plan and organize ice dives
- Reasons and opportunities for ice diving,
- Equipment considerations
- 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 Scuba Gear You Use
You use your basic cold water scuba diving equipment, dive knife, and a redundant air source (recommended, not required: doubles, pony bottle, spare air). It is important that your regulator is in good working order to function under colder temperatures.
Typically all safety and ice diving equipment is supplied by your PADI instructor. Check with your local dive shop about gear rentals and packages offered with this course. You can find most everything at the scuba diving shop
Prerequisites
You must be:
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 on step closer to the Master Scuba Diver rating.