Ice Diving - I want to go again!

I can't believe I have to wait all year to do that again. I am now a Walleye.

I promised Jenna that no pictures of the Ice Diving incident would wind up on Facebook so I won't be including them in this post (because my blog automatically posts to Facebook).

Amanda and Jenna and I hauled ourselves all the way out to Excelsior (I know, it's just south of Canada and right next to the Moon) where a rectangular hole was cut into the ice on Lake Minnetonka. Beth met us there and watched the Ice Divers for a time before picking her daughter up in Plymouth. (The city limits of Plymouth actually share a border with Canada.)

When we got to the event center Jenna began to understand the enormity of this undertaking. It was packed. We hung around for a little while and talked together with Beth. Then we got in line and headed downstairs into the queue of divers. They had a warming tent this year. (I think they learned from the ridiculous experience of having 900 people packed in one room last year.) We actually were so late in the queue that we wound up not having to use the overflow space in the warming tent, we just waited inside and then went straight to the dock. Amanda and I jumped together and Jenna wound up jumping with a girl who was alone and needed a partner. Then we regrouped inside and compared notes about when specifically in the jump our brains had turned off *ahem* compared experiences.

I think the funniest part of the day was the look on Jenna's face when I said, "you want your shoes to be on tight enough they don't come off when you're swimming, but loose enough that you can get them off if your shoelaces freeze". I didn't tell her about my contacts freezing last year until after the dive.


What was different from the first year:

• Amanda was not physically up to par - oh wait, that's the same as last year. Last year Amanda was starting to get Influenza the day we jumped. This year, she had a residual foot injury. I was actually kind of surprised she jumped. We decided I'm a very bad friend for wanting her to jump so badly.
  


• Another diver, plus a spectator. With Amanda's foot injury I thought I was going to be diving alone so I recruited a running partner to jump with me. At the last minute Amanda couldn't stand being left out so we were all three going to jump together. I thought a second running partner and her son were going to jump as well. That running partner's husband "vetoed" the idea, but really just gave her a nice excuse to stay warm and dry. (We'll get her next year when she reads about all the fun we had.)


• No contact lenses. Last year I had a little issue with my contact lenses freezing as I was getting out of the water. No, seriously. I took them out last night and wore glasses to the lake. (Another reason there will be no pictures.) My eyes did not freeze this year.


• Robe, not towel. I learned from last year that a big fluffy robe is the most desirable attire for being wet in sub-freezing temperatures. A towel is simply inadequate.


• Swim cap, which Amanda called cheating. When I was thinking about this and going through all the steps in my mind the part I was dreading the most was walking back to the car with wet hair. (I have a lot of hair on my head and it takes forever to dry.) So I wore a swim cap. Amanda called it cheating. Her hair was dry by the time we ate and left.


• I swear the water was deeper than last year. Last year I remember being able to see the bottom before we jumped in and I remember being able to push off the bottom. I don't think I pushed off the bottom this year to get under the rope but it's hard to say. Landing in the water is not a part of the day I remember very well.


• Similarly, I swear the hole in the ice was skinnier, probably because the ice was so thick, too much work to cut it any wider. The whole looked skinnier in width, definitely not a shorter length to swim.


• I swam all the way across this year, no firefighter dragging me. That was actually my goal for the dive: get across on my own power. I needed help getting up and off the ladder onto the dock, but I did get all the way through the water on my own. (So glad I spent all those years on the swim team.) Amanda, in an hilarious move, actually told the firefighter to get ready for her before we even jumped in the water.


• I waited outside, wet, to see Jenna jump in with the partner she met in line, Torie. They were about ten pairs behind me so I had time to put on my robe. My feet kind of hurt (from being wet and cold) but what really hurt while I waited was my hands. They were so cold. I had each one wrapped in it's own blanket. I kept thinking, "I'm gonna loose all my fingers and Gordon's gonna be right about this being a bad idea." Actually my fingers stopped hurting long before my feet thawed and stopped hurting. I'm afraid walking around in shoes with numb toes is more likely to make me loose a toenail than marathon training.


• Much better crowd control this year, made for a much more pleasant line waiting experience. Last year Amanda and I almost got crushed and we waited in line for at least 90 minutes. And didn't eat breakfast. This year we waited for about ten or twenty minutes in line (inside), jumped, and ate. I ate Jenna's bacon. The potatoes and the coffee were the best.


• It was much colder than last year, leading Amanda to suggest we have a minimum jumping temperature. I think 3* may be the magic number. ("Three's my lucky number.)