By John M. Malecky
ICE DIVING OPERATIONS
By Walt “Butch” Hendricks & Andrea Zaferes
Available from:
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ISBN 0-87814-843-4
Price: $49.95 + S & H
This book is a soft cover measuring 10 inches by 7 inches and has 14 chapters covering 454 pages. There are questions at the end of each chapter with answers at the end of the book. There are four appendices and an index.
Readers may be familiar with other books by these authors, includingPublic Safety DivingandSurface Ice Rescue.The number of pages alone indicates that ice diving is not just a minor extension of what the other two books covered. The fact that the ice forms a ceiling should tell the reader that this is a much more dangerous venture or at least one with an added obstacle.
As with their previous books, the authors take readers through detailed training and preparation for this dangerous work. They offer every bit of their experience and back up all of their techniques and suggestions for the safest and most proficient operations by emphasizing physical and mental conditioning. Many textbooks teach techniques without always giving reasons for why certain actions are taken. This book provides the answers to everything–even going into detail about certain equipment that has worked best for the authors.
The 14 chapters cover an introduction to the ice diving operation, personnel certification, ice courses and training, equipment, tethering, cold stress, immersion hypothermia, drowning and other immersion factors, cold stress, immersion hypothermia, drowning recognition and first aid, ice diving procedures, spring pre-planning for safe ice diving operations, recreational and public safety diving training sites, communications, public safety diving operations, and contingency planning for underwater emergencies. The chapters addressing cold stress and first aid are exceptionally informative, especially pages 178-180 where the “mammalian diving reflex” is addressed. The authors disagree with the popular, accepted meaning of it regarding its effect on humans.
Varying levels of physical and mental conditioning notwithstanding, you can rest assured that you will be otherwise well prepared to perform ice diving operations using this book as a reference.
