The cold icy winters of Wisconsin are no match for the local hardy freedivers.
Every year, a group of freedivers in Wisconsin decide to chip the ice and beat the chill. Local resident Jon Zeaman has been organising this event for 6 years with the greatest success. Due to the amount of divers tagging after scuba divers carving holes in the ice, it was then decided there were enough people to make it a complete new event.
The Freeze-A-Palooza takes place the beginning of every February on Lake Nagawicka inWisconsin. They rent a beach house and all divers bringfood for a big potluck after the dive. There are hot showers, changingrooms, cook facilities, and easy access to depth all in one location.
Zeaman commented “Some years the snow is thick and the weather is cold so the dives aremore limited- both in visibility and duration. This year the weatherhas been particularly brutal so the sudden warm up left everyone very excited for the dive. All of the snow melted off the lake the daybefore the event- no snow means more light in ice diving. The 45F airtemps felt like a warm summers day after the -20F weather we’ve beenenduring fr the past few weeks. I think it was this spring like weatherthat encouraged so many “suit free” ice dives at this years event.”
He went on to say further that unlike the competitions held in other parts of the world, all of their events are more of a jamboree with everyone diving for fun and laughs-and there were many laughs at this year’s event.
