I’ve never tried ice diving before, but I decided to join my freediving friends a Saturday in January. I brought my 3 mm wetsuit that I used frequently for a year while diving in Asia. Yes, it was cold. Severly cold! But still a very pleasant experience. And yes, I also decided to get a 7 mm for diving in Sweden in the future.
We went to an old limestone quarry south of Stockholm. We made a hole in the ice with one (very small!) axe, attached a buoy to the ice and dropped the line to the bottom. My friend was wearing a 7 mm wetsuit, obviously less brave, or just much smarter, than me.
Since we had -10 degrees (Celsius) above the ice, the 4 degrees under the ice felt quite ok. The breath up was a bit trickier than usual and it took some extra focus to maintain a calm breathing.
While diving down to the bottom at 12 m I could feel that my lips instantly got numbed, and the pressure was more noticeable due to me tensing up a bit. Down at the bottom and looking up at the ice was however an amazing experience, and I instantly forgot all about the freezing cold water surrounding me.
After the dives we quickly removed all of our wet gear, put on dry clothes and started making burpees. An excellent way to get your body temperature up, especially my feet and hands that were quite cooled.
I enjoyed it much more than I thought that I would and will definitely do it again! (preferably with a 7 mm wetsuit…)