Bottom Time E-Mail News Archives 
   May 8, 2013

The ice went off Carmen Lake yesterday. When it goes off my lake it is usually a few days before the ice goes off Little Detroit.  I predicted in the first part of April that there would be a lot of lakes with ice on for opening of fishing this weekend and I think that will still hold true.  I have had a few emails about how the ice dive went on Saturday. I waited to get some pictures taken by Ryan and Doyle before I put it in the newsletter.  It was probably one of the easiest ice dives to set up because we had to only bounce on the hole a couple of times that we had used when we did the ice dive the first part of April and it opened up.  We had to remove a few chunks of ice and we were ready to dive.  We loaded all the gear in my Otter sled and pulled it out to the dive site.  There was no open water at shore so the tenders and those that came to watch did not have to worry about getting wet.  There was still 21 inches of ice with no honeycombing.  Visibility was about 30 feet which was pretty good being it was overcast. We originally had about 12 of us diving but other comments entered in for some so we only ended up with three of us diving and we had a great time. Those diving were Ryan Sandvig, Pat Bettels, and Seal.  Tenders were Doyle Leitheiser, Ricky Rasmussen, and Art Bakker. A special thanks to the tenders for coming otherwise we would not have been able to make the dive.  Now we can say we did an ice dive in May and I think we could still do one this weekend.  Here are some pictures of the dive.

                                 The dive site                                                                               Unloading gear                                                             

Seal checking mask for leaks

                        Pat gearing up                                                                              Ryan gearing up                                                                            

Ready to dive

                        Shot from below the ice.

Hope you can make it out for our SUPER SPRING SCUBA SALE this Sunday May 12 th .  It will run from 10 AM to 3PM.  We will have door prizes and some treats.  All new merchandize will be marked down 20% for this one day only.  We also have some consignment items that owners say we can mark down as they would like to liquate them.

It looks like sucker spearing season will be late this year.  I will post as soon as they start running. They usually start running in the lakes when the temperatures are around low 50 degrees. We usually dive in the afternoon when the sun has warmed up the water.  We normally spear in water that is one to seven foot depth. Let me know if you would like to go along.  The first spear fishing classroom of the season is set for the 17 th of May so if you take that class and can still get in on this springs run.  

Tip of the week for saving air. Stay Shallow
Because your regulator has to deliver air at the same pressure as the water, a lungful at 33 feet (two atmospheres) takes twice as much out of your tank as does the same breath at the surface. At 99 feet (four atmospheres) it takes twice as much as at 33 feet. There's absolutely nothing you can do about that except to avoid being deeper than you have to be. If you're making a transit over an uninteresting sand flat to get to the edge of the drop-off, do it at 15 feet instead of at 40 feet, and you'll save air.

Sea You on the Bottom
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