Whether you are considering becoming part of an under-ice rescue or recovery team or simply enjoy ice diving and want to take it further, an advanced ice diving course will help you to meet your goals head-on. Advanced ice diving courses are designed to build on your basic ice diving skills, increasing your knowledge as well as your comfort level while allowing for greater exploration in unique under-ice environments.
What You’ll Learn in an Advanced Ice Diving Course
Your initial ice diver certification provided you with the basic skills required to dive beneath ice safely; an advanced ice diving course will provide you with hands-on experience in every aspect of ice diving, including emergency situation management and advanced safety techniques. You will also sharpen your leadership skills while building familiarity with and increasing your comfort in difficult and complex ice diving situations.
Not only will you learn how to safely dive beneath pack ice, you are likely to gain experience with wall dives beneath ice as well as with wreck diving under ice, locating wreck sites in winter, and dealing with various technical aspects of wreck diving combined with ice diving.
In addition, you will gain additional familiarity with ice diving equipment and the issues that can arise during cold-water diving operations. You’ll learn to gain greater proficiency with managing free flows, handling stage bottles, running emergency drills, and helping less experienced divers stay safe.
Participants in advanced ice diving courses often gain added insight into ice diving dive site preparation, along with equipment reviews and remote access logistics. Many advanced iced diving courses are designed for those who plan to lead other ice divers, or who want to ice dive without the added safety margin professional supervision provides. Still others are tailored to underwater photographers and videographers who need the skills required to get outstanding shots while maintaining comfort and safety beneath the ice.
Prerequisites for Advanced Ice Diving Courses
If you’re already an ice diver, the odds are good that you are qualified to participate in an advanced ice diving course. While different agencies offer different courses that focus on various aspects of ice diving and are tailored to appeal to different segments of the scuba diving population, many of the courses offered have some prerequisites in common. These often include the following:
- Drysuit qualification / certification
- Ice diver qualification / certification
- A certain number of logged drysuit dives
- A certain number of logged ice dives
- Enriched air certification is sometimes required
- Deep diver certification is sometimes required
Because advanced ice diver courses call for extreme conditions, they often take place at remote locations. Plan to pay a premium for an all-inclusive course; prices typically exceed $2,500 USD and can be much higher than that in the event airfare is included. You will normally need to supply your own equipment including two environmentally sealed regulators, and you should be prepared to spend some time in the classroom as well as plenty of time outside and under the ice.
An advanced ice diver course will expand your diving horizons in ways you might have never imagined. If you’re an ice diver with an itch to explore further, consider increasing your training level. Investing in advanced training is the best way to give yourself the gift of access to exciting new underwater adventures.