Learn To Dive

 If the spirit of adventure and unusual, challenging diving appeals to you, try diving under the ice.

Naturally the time frame for this is rather short!  Our lake froze over for a total of four days this year - so keep an eye on our website www.wraysbury.ws in January and February to see if it freezes over next year!

During the course, you dive with a PADI Professional in one of the most extreme adventure specialties recreational diving offers.

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 Red Sea holiday 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, football.

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 organise 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 specialised ice diving equipment, safety lines, signals, communications, line tending and line-securing techniques
• How to manage equipment problems

Prerequisites:

You must be:

• A PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification from another training organization)
• At least 18 years old

• About the effects of cold, emergency procedures and safety-diver procedures

You use your basic cold water scuba diving equipment, dive knife, and a redundant air source (recommended, not required: doubles, pony cylinder). It is important that your regulator is in good working order to function under colder temperatures.  We will make sure your equipment is suitable for ice diving - don't worry we have cold water rated regulators available if not!

Give us a call when the weather is right for more information but be quick!!