frozen water dive

[treasureman]

We had a warm spell recently... went from -36 to -25. I was up at the cottage area, and watched all the ice fishing huts spring up almost over night. of course there is always someone who insists on driving their ski doo as close to the edge of the ice as possible.

Sometimes i wonder why I even bother to try. I sopke to this ski doo woman who had a real nice ski doo. had to be a 2005, big machine. Note the word HAD.

well she didnt listen, and the ski doo is now gone to davey jones locker.

I havent ice dived in about ten years, and had forgotten just hoiw freaking cold it was even in a 7 mm wetsuit with a 7 mm farmer john under the it.

we used one oc the ice huts with a quebec heater in it for a base, the approprita etriangle hole was cut well back from the edge of the open water area, lines secured, extra divers on hand, and down i went with my bestest RAM.

I think my lips lost feeling in the first ten seconds in spite of lip grease.

But i have to tell you. that RAM, the same one i used for six hours dredging last summer, was now in the icy grip of DJ.s locker,.

Not hiccup, not a single breath was skipped. at 45 feet, the snow mobile appeared. I was smirking to myself which is really hard to see a smirk underwater in a wetsuit hood... but i was smirkijng at how this machine ended up here, and the stupidity of some folks.

Inside of ten minutes, lift bags were placed, dsecured, and inflated as it was tugged back to the opening which was i must admit rather laeger than what was needed.

all told, less than 30 minutes of freezinf for a 400 dollar paycheck. Should have held out for danger pay too!.

It turns out, that this woman and her husband are very well off, and went and bought another new machine, didnt bother getting the recovered one serviced, just let it sit on their property.

Now if I can just get myself a few more denero, i could make it down to the caribean and my pyrate brethren.

I look forward to getting the ram and daam uopgraded to prams, i have to say that the RAM is still a great performer when it is tuned by a pro like Bryan. I sure did not starve for air

[standingup]

Thanks for the interesting info- but have to ask- they paid you 400 and then just left the machine to rot?

[swimjim]

That affuent and effluent sound so simular is not an accident. Sounds like at least second generation wealth to me. Ha
My hats off to you Treasureman. Sounds like a heck of a dive.

Jim

[JES]

Thanks for the story. Sounds like it was an interesting dive.

Snowmobiles are not something we have to worry about recovering in Florida.

[fishb0y]

Only $400? The last sled I pulled was $500 and that was about 8 years ago. I'm thinking that if I still lived in upstate NY I could make a living plucking sleds out of Lake Ontario during the winter.

[JES]

Only $400? The last sled I pulled was $500 and that was about 8 years ago. I'm thinking that if I still lived in upstate NY I could make a living plucking sleds out of Lake Ontario during the winter.

Very nice, at $500.00 it would only take 3 recoveries to pay for a new Dive Rite Dry Suit.

[Nemrod]

And what does Joe need with a dry suit?

Nemrod

[JES]

And what does Joe need with a dry suit?

Nemrod

To stay dry of course in these bitterly cold Florida Springs...

[SDAquamaster]

Here in South Dakota, Game Fish and Parks makes the owners of what ever gets sunk get it out of a lake by March 1rst. I probably under charge, but I charge $200 per diver to show up plus $100 per hour per diver for the recovery.

It rewards those smart enough to call while the hole is still over the object and those who have the brains to get accurate WAAS GPS coordinates if they wait for the thaw as the entire recovery can be over in 1 to 2 hours start to finish.

Of course, on the other hand if you don't know exactly where it is at and I have to spend several hours looking for it in zero visibility, I still get paid even if the recovery does not happen. With zero visibility and 2-3 feet of very fine silt present on the bottom of some of the lakes in the area, a no cure no pay contract is not real enticing.

[treasureman]

I had a recovery for a mercury 200 hp engine that somehow fell off the transo of a speedboat. The owner was a dipstick, but he wanted me to go down and get the motor. His insurance compnay was having words with him, so he promised to pay me what I asked if i could get it, and he would deal with the insurance.


Well in the early morning (not a winter day) you could see the oil slick kinds hit the surface , just like some wrecks do. In about 70 feet of water in a cold spring fed lake (wonder why all my dives have the word cold in it), i came upon the prize, hooked a line to it, leet the float go up, waited for the rope signal, and pulled the heavier line down.

My brother was on board the recovery boat, which happened to be the same boat that the dipstick had lost the engine from (minus the engine of course). Once the lone was secured via shackles to the engine mountings, I made for the surface.

Didnt have lift bags in those days... actually they did, but i did not.

So i got to the surface, hauled my ass out of the water, took off the gear and started to haul away as we pulled the engine up. We were going to row the boat towards shore with the motor just under the water. When it got near the surface, dipstick attached a rather large inner tube to the line that connected to the motor mount.

I thought it was strange, so we talked as werowed to shore, I asked him for the dough that was agreed upon, whereupon he stated "what money" "did we talk about money"?

I guess he missed that big shark knife I had strapped to the inside of my calf, as it came out in a flash, cut the inner tube and slashed the secured line, and I watched transfixed as the engine went to the bottom again, and as it would turn out, in deeper water still.

Dipstick was really upset. We were about 150 yards from shore, so i put my tanks back on, went over the gunwhales, inflated my horse collar and swam back to shore. Meanwhile dipstick was screaming obscenities which as you all know cartries a long way over water. I almost choked on the water i was inhaling i was laughing so hard.

next day dipshit.. i mean dipstick shows up with his posse at my cottage door telling me i owe him for the motor. Aparently his insurance did not like the number of claims he made that year and cancelled him.

As luck would have it, my bros, who is eight inches taller than me and about 50 pounds heavier (6.6, 270 pounds), happened around the corner , and told disptick and his posse that they would be Musky bait if they didnt leave the property.

Anyway, dipstick has a character flaw, which islying topeople, and apparently he really did not like the way I handeled negotiations on payment.

A good friend of mine who i told about the motor went down, put a line on it, pulled it up and claimed it as his own "salvage". He fixed it up and sold it for about 1500 dollars which was a steal. He also gave me 300 bux for putting him on to the whereabout of it

[1969ivan1]

Treasureman..........Quick thinking by cutting the innertube. That turd had that comin to him. Sometimes the good guy wins after all.

[scubajim1]

Love the story.

He got what was coming to him.

Scubajim1

[standingup]

I used to jump start cars in chicago in the winter. I learned real quick that you had to keep the cables disconnected for a couple of minutes to get paid. If you started the car too quick for them - they would just drive off and stiff ya. Tried getting in front of the cars but after being hit twice I figured that wasn't such a bright idea.

[treasureman]

I still get a chuckle thinking about that wingnut. Aparently he bought another engine, but the darn boat kept on sinking tied too toghtly to the dock and the hydro folks chose to raise the water level. Funny he didnt ask me to recover the boat for him.

[crimediver]

I understand the jumper cable philosophy. When doing a dive recovery for a small item, make it look good. Even if you find it right away, burn some air and come up now and then draped in moss and take some surface bearings. Repeat as necessary.