It’s that time of the year for scuba diving enthusiasts in the Chicago area to add chainsaws to their gear bag. You can tell by the ice forming all over the place and the usual dive stores and instructors (including me) advertising their ice diving classes. As I begin my preparation for my ice diving class sessions I’ll be teaching this year, I’m reading through any updates to the course standards for both PADI and SDI (for which I can teach). It dawned on me that recreational ice diving classes are a laughing stock.
Ice Diving for Dummies
Many of you who dive in warm waters probably don’t care about us idiots who cut holes in ice to go diving. Like I mentioned earlier, I only teach ice diving for PADI and SDI, so I can’t speak intelligently on the training standards for other agencies.
I like teaching for SDI. SDI allows me to structure my classes to meet the needs of my students, but I’m not a big fan of their “minimum” standards for the ice diving course. Looking at SDI course standards, there is one thing that bothers me right from the start. The SDI ice diving course can be ran in one day with only 2 dives required. Really? A hard overhead environment with extreme cold should be treated with more respect. The second thing that really has me slapping my head is that no where in the SDI course outline does it require the teaching of gas management. Wow!!! All of you should know by now that I’m a huge proponent of gas management. Reading through the standards, it doesn’t even mention it. Not even the quasi gas management of dividing starting gas pressure by three. SDI does require line management and simulated lost diver drills. So there is a plus in their corner.
PADI standards are a little better, but not by much. PADI requires two days to teach their ice class with a minimum of three dives. PADI does mention the rule of thirds in their course standards, but it is divide starting pressure by three. It’s not true gas management for scuba divers. On a few occasions, I’ve been able to listen in on some “lectures” by other PADI instructors. Not one of them even mentioned gas management. My beef with PADI’s ice diving class is that there are no skills to be done while in the water. No line management or lost buddy, nothing. It’s basically hooking up a line to a pair of divers and jumping in the water. Not ice diving in my book.
Why Oh Why Do They Do It?
Is it no surprise that I’m seeing $99 ice diving courses? Last winter, I watched one ice diving class go from start to finish in only six hours. Six hours!!! My ice diving lectures and briefings alone are six hours. This was done by a dive store who prides themselves on going above course standards. Yeah, right!!!
So why are we seeing this junk peddled around out there? Why haven’t more people died as a result of these poor ice diving classes? To simply put it, it’s a numbers game. 90% (not a scientific number) of divers who take an ice diving class will never again go ice diving. It’s sad, I know. Many dive stores (and instructors alike) know that most people only sign up for ice diving classes just to say they went ice diving. They don’t care if people continue to go ice diving after the course.
In my opinion, the primary thing that is driving this poor attitude dive stores, instructors and agencies have towards ice diving courses is the teaching of the “dope on a rope” method of ice diving. Basically, if something goes wrong on an ice dive, the line tender can haul the divers from depth to the hole. Most likely causing an uncontrolled ascent and slamming your head against the ice sheet in the process. Because of this “safety” measure, ice diving is considered a recreational dive. Think about it. Why bother teaching gas management, situational awareness, line management, team diving, etc when divers can simply be hauled out of the water by someone on the surface? I don’t like teaching this method of ice diving, but I have to do it. It’s in the standards. But at least I try to instill a thought process in my ice diving students and create thinking divers who can resolve problems underwater without having to be rocketed to the surface.
Next time I’ll tell you about my ice diving class, when I was the student. If you think what I’ve said here is scary, you ain’t seen nothing yet. My ice diving class, hands down, was the sorriest excuse for a scuba diving class and the biggest standards violation I’ve ever witnessed. But that’s for next time.
About Duane Johnson
I think In an ideal world, instructors would admit they’re just teaching a class and offering a certification for a few bucks. I am certified to teach DPV and wreck, but I’ve turned away potential students because I don’t do them regularly and in my area, neither would the student. I tell them if they want to learn how, travel somewhere with wrecks, find someone who dives wrecks weekly and take it from them.
The better instructors, like yourself, will continue to build your reputation as being worth it, both in terms of time and money invested into classes. Plus, there is a degree of comfort in knowing you trained a better diver, right?