Cold as ice

Tom Wilson · Issue 13, Jun/Jul 2003 · pp. 22–26

Products mentioned: Nikon F4, Nikonos V

22 Cold, dark and a little scary: while these words have likely been used to describe many an ex-spouse, we’re here to talk about ice diving. For those of you in the tropics blessed with seemingly limitless visibility, myriad fish species, and water the temperature people bathe in, this is not your average day at the beach. I’m sure there are many areas around the world where ice diving is as normal as any other form of diving, and the Southern Ontario region of Canada is one of them. Sure, most of the diving here is done during the summer when temperatures reach 30 degrees Celsius, but not everyone is blessed with having their own sled dog team around here (to be honest, I don’t know anyone with one, despite what some people like to tell visiting American tourists) and ya hafta do SOMETHING in the winter, so why not ice dive? Right behind “Are you insane?”, the question we hear the most…