Comment loop not working right

I have modified my comments so that the list is hidden and the comment_ID is pulled and used for numbering so that i can style the numbers better.
The problem I am having is that my comments numbers are starting at 34 for everypost, rather than starting at 1.
any ideas?
here is the loop code I am using:
<ol id="commentlist">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : $i++; ?>
<li id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" <?php if ($i % 2) echo "class='alt'"; ?> >
<span><?php echo $i; ?></span> <?php comment_author_link() ?> left a <?php comment_type(); ?>
<?php comment_text() ?>
<?php comment_date() ?> @ "><?php comment_time() ?>
<?php edit_comment_link(__("Edit This"), ' |'); ?>