The underwater research team of the Russian Geographical Society named after Alexei Leonov starts the large-scale training in Lake Izumrudnoe. The task of aqualungers is to find a safe way to spend under the ice at least 10 hours.
Ice diving is technically the most difficult and dangerous kind of diving. In modern practice, there is no life support technique for aqualungers in conditions of prolonged exposure at low temperature and visibility. Team members need to develop a safe technology and test it during a 10-hour dive. This will allow to organize research work in the Arctic in the future, where unplanned delays of being under water are possible due to the movement of ice.
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In March 2018, aqualungers managed to organize a six-hour dive. The researchers spent 363 minutes under water in a way that does not negatively impact their health. As part of the next dive, it was decided to increase the dive time to the maximum possible when working in the Arctic. Under water, aqualungers will work out various possible situations: accidents, equipment failure, mutual aid.
“We are setting up a unique experiment: our guys will work 10 hours under the ice. They will simultaneously build a training ground for the team’s training and solve all kinds of tasks and tests. It is necessary to break all the stereotypes that now exist. First of all, these are psychological barriers associated with a long stay under the ice, that is basically impossible for more than five hours. In the past we had already worked six hours under the ice. Then we were told that it was impossible and we managed to make the impossible to be possible", says team leader Dmitry Schiller.
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The preparatory work began in December. The time spent under the ice gradually increased. The work of the team in providing aqualungers with air was worked out. This year the part of the working group are not only experienced aqualungers, but also youth leaders, who have shown themselves in the most difficult expeditions.
The camp will be organized on Lake Izumrudnoe for a 10-hour dive at the end of January and expert Bozhana Ostoich will be invited. A member of the Board of Directors of the World Confederation of Underwater Activities will record the result, and that will allow to reserve for Russia it at the international level.
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Achievments of the team members will open up new opportunities for underwater explorers around the world. Together with doctors from the Kirov Military Medical Academy, the team creates a system of long and deep-sea diving in cold seas, which will allow to organize work of any complexity in hard-to-reach places on the planet.
Report on diving will be in January.
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