Special congratulations go out to Kevin and Julie who have completed their first dives in Antarctica!
Here are pictures and their stories about this wonderful experience.
The dive hut - yes there is a hole in there!
What is that in the dive hole? It's not Julie or Kevin. It's a little Weddell seal that was keeping our hole clear of ice.
First - from Kevin: What were his thoughts before the dive? What would you think?
My feelings about diving in Antarctica have been evolving for my entire life. Since I was a little kid I remember friends and family members telling me stories and showing me pictures about my dad diving under the ice. I always sounded so beautiful, yet dangerous. When I found out I had the opportunity to go to Antarctica I kept hearing over and over from people how scary it was going to be under the ice in the cold water. This lead to a good amount of anxiety on top of my excitement to be diving in one of the most remote, hostile places on the planet. This anxiety eased away as the idea of going to Antarctica finally became reality about a week ago. Once here the excitement overwhelmed the anxiety and I just could not wait to get under the ice. I had to go through a week of various trainings prior to my first dive. During that time the conditions became clearer to me. The ice is 20 feet thick in front of McMurdo Station where several of our dive sites are located. This is because the sea ice has not retreated for a decade; it has just built on itself year after year. This has lead to very dark diving conditions!
Kevin and his fellow divers getting ready
What were his thoughts while he was diving?
Sitting in the hut over the 4 foot wide hole in the ice putting on my gear all I could think about was how hot and uncomfortable I was wearing 2 layers of long underwear, a large insulted onesy, a drysuit, 40 pounds of weight, a huge tank, fins, 3 hoods, a mask and a dive light. All I wanted to do was jump in the water.
Kevin waiting to jump in
When my turn came (you have to wait for each diver to go all the way down the hole before the next jumps in) I did not hesitate. I gave myself a twist and pushed off the hut’s floor and I was in tube of ice leading to the vast water below. I immediately breathed out all my air, opened my drysuit’s exhaust valve and down I went. The 20 foot tube passed by very quickly and then I was floating in the clearest water I’ve ever experienced. Using the dive light I could see the bottom of the ocean 70 feet away. As my eyes adjusted to the low light conditions, I realized there actually was a good amount of light under the ice; it came through in patches where there was no snow on the surface as a blue glow. To my surprise, I was not cold. All that gear and discomfort on the surface was really paying off. We (there were 4 of us) descended to the bottom where we looked around at a couple of very large volcano sponges with all sorts of benthic organisms living on them. The dive was relatively short, but what an amazing experience! At the end of the dive we were asked to remove our regulators from our mouths and replace it with out backup regulator. The reason behind this is to both make sure the backup regulator is working, and to make sure that if your regulator comes out, you can get it back in your mouth! Due to the extreme cold water, your lips go numb, so it is somewhat difficult to find your mouth. Luckily I did and all went well.
Upon arriving at the surface I was greeted by a whole bunch of heads peering down into the whole. I was assisted in removing my tank and weights. However it was all a little disorienting. My mouth was numb so it was a little difficult to talk, and with three hoods on it is hard to hear. I eventually got my tank, weights and fins off and climbed up the ladder out of the hole into the hut. I was overjoyed with the whole experience and the thought that I will get to repeat it many times on my trip to Antarctica.
Kevin gives the thumbs up! Life is good!
Way to go Kevin - who incidentally went on another dive this morning. On to Julie, who is under the ice right now, as I type this!
Julie's story:
Before diving for the first time under the ice in Antarctica I was pretty nervous. Who wouldn’t be? Although I have a fair amount of experience diving in cold water in drysuits, I had never been in an overhead environment (i.e. ice over my head) and never encountered water as cold as the water in Antarctica. My primary concerns centered on how warm I would be and how spooky the dive would be. Will I be able to see anything? How dark is it going to be? Will I be able to feel my fingers during and after the dive? What will it be like to descend through a 4 ft. wide hole of ice?
Paul smiles as the divers get ready! Stacy is with the white tank, Julie is the diver in blue, John in purple, and Rob in white.
Lucky for me, I have an old friend and colleague on the team – Jennifer Fisher. She has two seasons of experience diving under the ice and she was a wealth of calming information. She answered all my questions and helped me feel more confident before the first dive.
Julie (left in blue) being helped by Jennifer (also in blue). John (in purple) being helped by DJ
Getting geared up for the dive was a really interesting experience. Usually divers dress themselves; no one sets up gear better than the person actually using it underwater. But in Antarctica, you really rely on the dive tender to dress you. It was an odd thing for me to let someone help me put on my mask, gloves, and tank. Jennifer and Kevin had already completed their dive, so they helped dress me for my dive. We wear three hoods in Antarctica (as opposed to one hood on dives in Washington, Alaska, or New England). Three hoods really jam your mouth shut tight and you have to flex some wimpy jaw muscles to open your mouth to breathe while getting geared up. Those hoods make it really hard to open your mouth! Kevin, thankfully, pulled the jaw section of the hood down to let me relax my jaw while Jennifer crammed dry gloves onto my hand. After more pushing and shoving of gear onto me, I was finally ready to get in the hole. At this point I was HOT. Think about it – we are dressed to freeze underwater, but when we are not in the water we are wearing way too many layers. So we all sweat and then we jump in the water and freeze. At this point I wasn’t nervous anymore, I was just hot and super excited to get in the water to cool off.
So into the hole I went! There was no initial shock of hitting the cold water like I expected, probably because I was so hot at this point. I was more surprised by all the loose ice at the surface; it was like swimming in a slushie. Descending down the hole wasn’t spooky at all either; it was just bright white and, well, icy looking. When I popped out of the hole into the open water under the ice I signaled an “O.K” sign to Rob, our dive safety officer. Then we just floated by the hole while we waited for Stacy and John to come down and join us. While we waited I opened my eyes up for the first time to diving under the ice in Antarctica. I expected complete darkness because the ice was so thick, but it wasn’t that dark at all. Areas of ice on the surface that had little snow cover were a brilliant blue underwater. I loved looking up at the ice. The visibility was so incredible I can’t even guess at how far I could see. The bottom was over 90 ft. down and I had no problem spotting it. It was like floating in air.
Goodbye Julie - down she goes
After the dive, it seemed that most people were excited about the marine life. Because I am a marine biologist, you would expect I would also be excited about the sponges, anemones, and other invertebrates – and I was. But I was more blown away by the clear water and the wide, sweeping views of being under the ice. I have about 1,000 dives logged (this is nothing compared to Stacy, John, or Paul) and I have never seen water so clear in my life. It was beautiful.
By the time the dive was over though, I was freezing and really in need of getting out of the water to warm up. I figured my hands would go numb, and boy or boy, did they ever. For my second dive, I’ll be tweaking some of my gear to improve my ability to stay warm. So cross your fingers that I’ll be a bit warmer on dive two!
Julie - we hope you are warmer down there!
Stay tuned for underwater pictures and stories about SCINI and information about Sea Ice.