(Arnolds Park)– A special event over the next several days is bringing divers to the Iowa Great Lakes from all around the U.S and even internationally. The annual Ice Hole Diving Festival is getting underway today (Thurs.) on Smith’s Bay of West Lake Okoboji. Rich Thomas of Dallas, Texas is one of the organizers. He says this marks the 6th year the event has been held in the Iowa Great Lakes…
“I came up to try it just as a bucket list thing about nine years ago and the people up here were just so amazing and they asked to come back so that they could participate. We started inviting other people and it just started growing. What I realized is ice diving just takes a lot of teamwork and it increases the bond after a weekend of doing this. So we started inviting shops from all over. A lot shops shut down to scuba during the wintertime because they consider it seasonal, but if you have the right equipment and the right training you can dive year round. So we’re bringing shops from Florida, Georgia, we had people come from as far as Mexico, California, we’ve had some Canadians come down to participate. What we do is we set the whole event up with all the infrastructure. It’s a lot of work to do just for a few people, but if we have all these shops coming together, working together, it’s a lot more fun and it’s a great experience for our divers.”
Kevin Pernick of Boji Divers says they’re thrilled to host the event…
“You know Boji Divers has a good relationship with the group that’s here. We want to be good hosts while all the divers are here. It’s amazing how well the community comes together. The amusement park has been helpful in helping us get set up; The Hut has been helpful; Bridges Bay. I mean the entire community comes together just like they do for everything else, and it’s just amazing to be able to show off all of the wonderful things that we have here to people from all over the country.”
Thomas says they’re appreciative of everyone in the area who help make the event possible…
“The restaurants and hotels, everybody’s been amazing. Even the Boji Recovery Company cut the holes for us. We keep coming back because we love the community and we try to support it and be a part of it as much as we can.”
