Regs Report from My Ice Dive

[kancho]

There wer 14 divers doing their ice Dive cert. There were about 4 or 5 leaders accompanying out dives. If you are considering a cold water reg. I am sure if serviced well they should be fine but he what I saw. I have never seen so many equipment failure. I was told our group was pretty good. haha.

Leaders
mares env sealed metal 32 - No problems except his DS sealed leaked
Sherwood Blizzard 4 Leaders ( 16 dives in total ) - 1 free flow at the surface.
The others I wasn't sure what regs were used.

Participants ..
Cressi Sub Ellipse Alaska Titanium (2 divers 2 dives the last 2 dives they borrowed instructor blizzards)
- 1st dive both freeflowed under the surface. When that was corrected they went down again.. 1 seized meaning no air was coming from the reg during the middle of the dive. That is a bit concerning. The other guy free flowed. I don't want to say anything bad but I was told by a local diver that many cressi have been free flowing in colder temps.

their 2nd and 3 rd Dive With blizzards had no issues

Scubapro MK25 with R450 Reg I believe.. (1 diver 3 dives) It free flowed after a few minutes underwater.. the last 2 dives were ok.

Sherwood Brut (rental reg) (5 Divers 15 dives) Free flowed about 6 times out of the 15.

Zeagle 50D I used it (1 Diver 3 Dives) No problems even having 1st and 2nd stage out of water repeatly.. Breathes really well.. Happy with purchase..

Sherwood Blizzard (1 Diver 3 Dives) no problems

Mares Proton XL.. (1 Diver 3 Dives) Free flowed 2 and 3 Dive in less than 3 minutes under water. 1st Dive was 4 minutes and he had a leak in the DS.

There were couple of other people but since I wasn't at the site I couldn't recognize their regs.

This is what I saw at the dive site. I am sure people will swear by their regs but if you ever plan on doing an ice dive be ready haha. Get some good opinions.

BC's is another story.. Many of the BC's inflator froze open at the surface so people orally inflated their bc at the surface. I think the Cobra BC is the one that worked really well. Tusa Platina I used did froze open at the surface.

My friend wanted to buy Cressi but not he will definitely not buy it haha..

If anyone has some stories of cold water and equipment failures post it.

[skdvr]

Thanks for taking the time for that post. Very informative. I always think about my reg freezing up in cold water but never gave my inflator a thought.

Thanks again for the info.

Phil

[rye_a]

Anyone have 1st hand experience with AL Legend ice diving?

[cummings66]

For me, 34 F temps, my Blizzard has never free flowed, nor have my Apeks. To an extent divers cause their problems, for example how many did you see breathe from them before going under? That puts a light moisture film there that will freeze if the outside temps are cool enough, under the water if they freeze you can shut off the air and let them thaw back out. The water is usually above freezing, salt water would be the exception, BC's have the same issues.

It's all about not using them above the water in freezing weather.

DSS inflator, Apeks, Blizzard all work for me.

I'm surprised they let the Bruts go under water, that's not a risk I'd take. That reg is not designed for cold temps like that.

[kancho]

It was a course. We are all instructed to keep the reg out of the water and the mouth until we go under and then when we surface, the reg and 1st stage are not to come out of the water. It will prevent to some extent free flow. The free flow for the blizzard was at the surface. But the bruts worked well most of the time I think. I am not sure if anyone had apeks. THe mares proton xl wasn't made for cold water.. Did so poorly against the Bruts.. I think it would of free flowed in a bit.

The cressi was a different story. it was a cold water reg that didn't like the cold water. Anyone else have a cressi? Also keep in mind at the surface there are ice bits.

I think someone had the legend but I didn't see the dive so don't know how it did.

My face was cold haha.. But I think I would do it again. But don't want to go last like yesterday. The bottom was stirred by the last 12 divers.. Viz sucked for me. The 1st divers supposedly had great viz. Even saw fish haha..

DSS inflator, is that better quality than other inflators?

[kancho]

When your inflator freezes and the exhaust valve freezes. It pops haha.. But not a big deal. Many ppl just orally inflate. Regs free flow at surface is fixed by sticking them in warm water. Works most of the time. It is an experience every diver should try haha..

[DiverJoe]

good info thanks!

I've only had one issue when cold diving (besides lip-freeze) and that was my occy (Oceanic AirXS-2) free-flowed on 2nd dive, no prob, just switched to is and finished dive (return and surfacing), turned out the new o-ring was not that good. Once I replaced the o-ring, all was well.

Safe Diving!

DiverJoe

[CompuDude]

Wow, I love my MK25s, but I would never use them ice diving. It's pretty well reported that they don't deal well with temps below the low 40s (leaving them for "only" the other 98% of the world's diving...). Interesting to see just how many failures there were, though.

I'm glad I have my Atomics for ice diving... once I get around to trying it.

[Hollywood703]

Yes, another misconception with ice diving is that you take your BC out of the water....You should leave the BCD in the water. We take ours off, tie them to a tether and shove them under the ice out of the way until the next dive......The exception to this would be late ice, or Surface Temps above 40 degrees with no wind chill, then pulling the equipment out doesnt pose as much issue

[texdiveguy]

kancho thanks for your dive report....sounds like you enjoyed the time. Free flows are just part of that game.....all regs 'regardless' are susceptible as are inflators, dry suit valves and dang near anything else exposed.