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Ice divers
like Rich Henry say the lake waters are calmer in the winter
than in the summer.
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If exploring underwater Wisconsin for
six months of the year just isn’t enough for some people, there’s
always ice diving.
It’s kind of like ice fishing, says
Rich Henry of Deep Blue Dive Center, except that a person goes through
the ice instead of a hook. A winter lake is calmer than in summer —
the water, undisturbed by wind, is still and clear. Light does
penetrate the ice, if there is no snow cover on top. And divers can
swim right up to sluggish fish.
Henry and Larry Gamble co-own Deep
Blue, with stores in the Northshore and Franklin. They are passionate
about sharing the sport with others, including diving in the dead of
winter.
It takes more preparation than just
jumping off a boat, however. Four or five guys may work for an hour to
cut a triangular hole and to push the block of ice under the surface.
Next, the dive crew drops a line to the
bottom, which divers must remain tethered to, since it’s possible to
become disoriented. But for reinforcement, they’ll shovel long paths
through any snow, pointing to the hole. "If there’s a heavy
snow cover, it shows up very dramatically," says Kevin Cokain, a
Milwaukee resident who makes several ice dives every winter. "It
almost resembles a landing strip at an airport."
The water is frigid, but in full
dry-suit gear, divers don’t get particularly cold. "It’s not
much different from diving Lake Michigan in May," Cokain says.
Only inland lakes are suitable for ice
diving; Lake Michigan does not freeze significantly (and in recent
years, it’s harder to find thick ice anywhere). But the Great Lake
offers "the best shipwreck diving in the world," Henry says.
At Atwater Park in Shorewood, "there are three shipwrecks right
there," he says. "They’re in 20 feet of water."
Deep Blue offers many diving classes,
usually with two days of instruction in a pool followed by a trip to
an inland lake. The cost ranges from $225 to $325, including rental
equipment.
Diving is "the closest thing to
being in space," Graham says. "You’re floating, you’re
drifting; it’s more than the pretty pictures."
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