I did ice dive training up the columbia gorge at a private lake north of Stabler, WA in January. Most often it's done with 1 diver and tender with 2-3 standby divers and tenders ready to go out via there own tethers if something goes wrong.
A redundant air source is a must. Everyone was using a pony bottle, but I used a stage bottle which made more sense to me in case you free flowed on your backup. I took off my primary 2nd stage and just used my 2ndary on my necklace, which worked well. The idea is that you won't be donating air and it eliminates one potential free flow on your back gas.
If the lake isn't totally frozen you could put in from shore, or use a chainsaw to cut a triangle shaped hole. We did both, the triangle was better because you had more room to lay out your ropes, but it would depend on ice thickness. Having someone knowledgeable in climbing equipment and knots would be handy, and ice screws work great for anchoring tethers. Diver to tender communication was accomplished via line tugs, and worked well, a good tender could guide your search based on where he thought you were. A line that floats is better than climbing rope, and frog kicking is a good way to tangle your foot...
We had special ice harnesses, but anyone diving a harness and wing likely could just use that. You just want to be sure to have a strong connection in case you give 4 tugs and have your tender pull you out before you drown :biggrin: .
There are tons of ice dive opportunities in Washington if you head east a little bit. I'd advise someone near Seattle to get on I-90 and head east. Anything beyond Snoqualmie pass would likely be iced up most of the winter. When I lived in Ellensburg we regularly would walk out on iced lakes, some even ice fished. Pretty neat, being that it's like 2 hours from downtown Seattle.
The OR guy who teaches ice stuff is Phil Graf (
omnidive@gmail.com). They teach it in Klamath Falls, OR or McCall, Idaho.