Video:  New Wave of Public Safety Ice Diving
Jan09

Video: New Wave of Public Safety Ice Diving

The ice drowning season is just upon us. Now is the time for Fire Fighters, First Responders, Dive Teams, and Law Enforcement to experience The New Wave of Public Safety Ice Diving, and for the public to learn what they should and should not do if someone falls through. Drowning is the 2nd most common cause of accidental death to children in the U.S. and 3rd for adults. About half of these occur in cold water. Ice drowning victims...

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Ice season is coming – is your dive team ready?
Sep25

Ice season is coming – is your dive team ready?

Technical Ice Diving The words “technical diving” are popping up all around the diving world these days. Sometimes I am not sure how they actually relate; does technical diving mean that we are just diving mixed gases, or does it mean that we are actually planning a technically responsible dive? No matter how you look at it, the words “technical diving” have a definite meaning when we discuss ice diving, and specifically as it...

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Understand the safe way of PSD ice diving / rescue
Feb26

Understand the safe way of PSD ice diving / rescue

The ice drowning season is just upon us. Now is the time for Fire Fighters, First Responders, Dive Teams, and Law Enforcement to experience The New Wave of Public Safety Ice Diving, and for the public to learn what they should and should not do if someone falls through. Drowning is the 2nd most common cause of accidental death to children in the U.S. and 3rd for adults. About half of these occur in cold water. Ice drowning victims...

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Technical Ice Diving
Feb03

Technical Ice Diving

Technical Ice Diving The words “technical diving” are popping up all around the diving world these days. Sometimes I am not sure how they actually relate; does technical diving mean that we are just diving mixed gases, or does it mean that we are actually planning a technically responsible dive? No matter how you look at it, the words “technical diving” have a definite meaning when we discuss ice diving, and specifically as it...

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Sport vs PSD ice diving
Jan28

Sport vs PSD ice diving

In sport ice diving the ice is thick enough to support divers and tenders. They can walk to their pre-cut holes. Back up divers can sit on chairs on the ice. They can shovel a star pattern in the snow around the primary hole. They bring warm water buckets to manage free flowing regulators. Tenders stand or sit on the ice. They move at a leisurely pace setting up their staging area, and moving to their dive hole. That has nothing to do...

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Public Safety Ice Diving Operations

The following article is taken out of Ice Diving Operations (Pennwell Publishing, 430 pages, 2003) Public Safety Ice Diving Operations By Andrea Zaferes and Walt “Butch” Hendrick Some divers ice dive for fun, others do it as a job. Those that ice dive professionally may do so as ice diving instructors, as scientific divers, or as public safety divers. Unfortunately many of the standards, practices, and guidelines used...

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