Ice Diving Operations.

Ice Diving Operations by Walt "Butch" Hendrick and Andrea Zaferes, Penn Well Corporation, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2003.

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Ice Diving Operations is a comprehensive and well-produced book by two experienced professionals. Both authors are among the most qualified experts in the field of diving, credited with thousands of ice dives involving real-life emergencies backed by over 20 years of experience as instructors.

As a technical book, it is designed so that its contents, when followed, will ensure a sound understanding of the required diving safety techniques, methodologies, applied operational standards, and equipment to save lives. The text ranges from setting up and executing effective training exercises to carrying out resourceful search, rescue, and recovery operations in emergency situations.

Ice Diving Operations is written to increase the number of victims saved and help create uniform procedures and guidelines to meet National Fire Protection Association and Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards. In setting the stage as to how critical the profession is, the authors incorporate real-life incidents involving some of their experienced colleagues killed during dive operations.

Students of ice and water diving, certification instructors, test preparers, in-service trainers, and policy and procedure analysts and writers should read this book in its entirety. Commencing with the first chapter, the authors have written and designed the book in a progressive manner incorporating technical and nontechnical information based on each chapter and building on the previous ones.

The authors address the hazards and how to eliminate and control dangerous situations. They present the duties and responsibilities of the diver, the above-ice tender who assists the diver under ice and water, the must-have approved tools and apparatuses, and body-removal operations backed by proven contingency plans. The book covers all aspects of an ice diving system, including responses to the scene, rescue and recovery issues, hypothermia concerns, cutting through the ice, and the team and communications required for an effective and successful operation.

The authors provide excellent detailed checklists that profile search patterns, required life-sustaining equipment, ground operations, and a response incident command system. Other checklists cover tender equipment and additional safety items. The authors include the checklists to ensure that diving standards and guidelines are established and followed to save lives.

The book identifies criteria as to what constitutes an experienced, intermediate, and new diver in terms of the number of black-water searches completed to ensure that responding divers, in fact, can perform such missions safely. The book contains clear photographs that enhance the content in all of the chapters.

According to the authors, this book in no way replaces hands-on training involving public safety and recreational ice and water diving. They emphasize that the book also does not cover mixed-gas diving operations due to the fact that 95 percent of the book's readership does not use mixed-gas diving.

Ice Diving Operations is a must-have book for public safety and emergency services personnel and recreational divers, as well as diver certification and dive-master courses of instruction at all levels, including special operations by the armed forces and the National Park Service. Many strong points occur in this book. Two super strengths standout: the comprehensive checklists on all aspects of water and ice diving and the 341 end-of-chapter summary questions and answers that reemphasize the critical information provided.

Reviewed by Larry R. Moore

Certified Emergency Manager

International Association of Emergency Managers 

Knoxville, Tennessee