1st Ice Dive of 2025 on Delavan 1/18

Off to Lake Delavan

Sunny, windy and just a slight chill in the air 4 Seasons Scuba Divers were back in the water for the first Ice Dive of 2025! 4 divers attended and 3 divers dove.

Pete, John and Otter checked the ice 2 days before we went, we were so excited to jump in again, since last year the ice in SE Wisconsin did not favor our winter hobby.

Roger started the holes with some supervision from Pete, hoping we did the right triangle for the hole.

Petey taking charge here it goes, good thing he had the 36" blade on, not much traffic so far on the lake, but we were warned about the ice boats.

There he goes, notice the ice boats lined up on the shore, we tried to get as close to the ice heave as possible to stay out of their way.

oh boy I think i see the first boat coming up to check out the hole, I wonder if they can jump that hole? Guessing no, but you never know.

Roger is set, only a few components icing up.

Jeff is excited, I hope he didn't forget his gloves that would be a really dumb move forgetting some equipment in these temperatures. Yup, Jeff's equip froze up a bit too.

All set, visibility was great, could see the bottom down 23', well before Jeff mucked...grrr

See you boys enjoy the 35 degree water and you won't need a torch with the sunshine.

We gave them 40 minutes, they were so excited

Can see Rogers tank quite well under the ice

Down they go

Wow could follow the rope out all the way to the divers at 200'

Water was so warm Jeff had to change outside the trailer to cool off ;)

Now time for Pete, go warm up and eat some yummy food Jeff in the trailer unless Roger ate the entire Danish and didn't save you a piece?

Pete wanted to do some stretching over the ice hole before he started finning, not sure that is a good spot, but you don't question Pete. I wonder if his BC even worked?

Nope, his BC wouldn't inflate, but hey who needs that anyway, he has a dry suit. Oh right the dry suit was leaking, tore a cuff. John told him to keep his arm down! He is such a nice guy giving out good advice. There Pete was out 240' to pick up those anchors and other goodies left just out of reach of the the muck monsters.

Pete made it back, with 3 anchors, needed a little help getting them up to the surface. Now time to warm up and eating some goodies and drinking some good brews.

Jeff was looking forward to that.

As for Roger, he ate the LAST piece of Danish before Pete could have some, look at that guilty face. I think he feels really badly, do you?

A feast for champions, hey wasn't their 4 divers? What happened to John? Guess we will never know, no pictures no proof they say. Maybe he will join them on Pewaukee next weekend? A great day! Yes, the Ice boats were all out on our exit, all good!