Diving in Strong Current or Downcurrent

[Joneill]

Thanks for the tips. I put as much info in NOAA registration form as possible for my PLB1. My dive buddy will cahrry his old Nautilus Lifeline.

I'm still contemplating about bringing 100' spool for my DSMB. Currently I only have 20' strings attached to my DSMB in a pouch.
View attachment 407919

Do you carry that PLB in a canister? Can you share details on the PLB and canister?

Also, I'm very interested in doing a LOB to Palau and/or Socorro Islands in the next year and curious as to assessing if I'm "ready". I completed my PADI OW cert and Peak Performance Buoyancy cert in 2015. After getting 21 dives under my belt, I completed my PADI AOW cert in 2016. I have 50 OW dives (14 shore, 36 boat) to date - all except 2 in the Caribbean (Grand Cayman, Aruba and Turks and Caicos). Most of the dives have been light current at most - a few in Aruba were moderate current. I'll be back in Grand Cayman in August to get another 16 or so dives in and am considering a trip to Key Largo in July for a few days of diving as well.

So my question is, other than just diving more, is there additional training I should consider before taking trips like these? I find Scubaboard invaluable to educate myself on potential issues and how to be prepared, but wondering what else I should do before planning a diving trip to places like Palau and Socorro. Thanks!

 

[Dan]

Do you carry that PLB in a canister? Can you share details on the PLB and canister?

Also, I'm very interested in doing a LOB to Palau and/or Socorro Islands in the next year and curious as to assessing if I'm "ready". I completed my PADI OW cert and Peak Performance Buoyancy cert in 2015. After getting 21 dives under my belt, I completed my PADI AOW cert in 2016. I have 50 OW dives (14 shore, 36 boat) to date - all except 2 in the Caribbean (Grand Cayman, Aruba and Turks and Caicos). Most of the dives have been light current at most - a few in Aruba were moderate current. I'll be back in Grand Cayman in August to get another 16 or so dives in and am considering a trip to Key Largo in July for a few days of diving as well.

So my question is, other than just diving more, is there additional training I should consider before taking trips like these? I find Scubaboard invaluable to educate myself on potential issues and how to be prepared, but wondering what else I should do before planning a diving trip to places like Palau and Socorro. Thanks!

I updated my post above to include the PLB1 in a Kona pouch, which did OK down to 100', except the hydraulic pressure squeeze flexing the flap cover of the emergency power button & accidentally turned on the PLB alert underwater.

So, I put a paper clip on the flap cover to add extra gap between the emergency button & the flap cover.

I also tried an old camera case, which worked just fine.

Others use a metal canister as shown below

Other than getting more experience, may be you can practice on negative entry, diving without mask, buoyancy control, launching DSMB.

 

[NYCNaiad]

I was caught in a down draft in a whirlpool in the Maldives. I was not near a wall. I got caught in it while trying to come up after my safety stop. (I had already deployed my SMB.) It was very confusing at 1st. I couldn't understand how the boat overhead was getting farther away when I was swimming upwards. My bubbles streaming straight down clued me in. I immediately checked my depth & found I was already down to 77ft. (This all happened very quickly & occurred after I aborted a dive when the current picked up drastically. My air was on the low side, but I was lucky that I had aborted the dive when I did.)

The SMB line got wrapped around my legs when I let it go & it didn't even occur to me to use my knife. (I hadn't filled it yet when I got caught in the current.) I got panicky & had no prior knowledge of what to do to get out of a down current. (Good for you that you're asking the question!) I blew up my BC & tried swimming up...eventually I figured out I had to swim perpendicular to the down current....sideways, not up. I got out of the current, but wasn't prepared to dump the air from my BC so I shot to the surface. Luckily, I experienced no health issues. Side note: I never noticed the pressure changes in my ears as I was sucked downwards until after the dive when my ears hurt.

All of this took VERY LITTLE TIME. You'd be SHOCKED by how quickly it can happen & then be resolved one way or the other. You won't have a lot of time to plan or think. What was scarily funny to me was I immediately said to myself, "Don't panic. Panic kills divers". & then this became a mantra which turned into "You're panicking so now you'll die".

The things I now keep in mind are:

• Don't panic; you can survive this.
• Swim sideways, not up.
• Do not let go of the SMB.
• Keep a back-up mask in your pocket.
• Keep a nice-sized pony on you.
• No Nitrox in downcurrent areas.
• If there is a wall & you are next to it, grab hold. If you have to, you can also use it to climb up or sideways once you get your breath back. Don't worry about the coral or marine life. Your safety is more important. (This helped my dive group who were caught in the same current I was.)
• If you're still going down, put air into your BC, but be prepared to dump the air quickly once you're out of the current. If for some reason this doesn't happen & you begin to pop up to the surface, remember to breathe out continuously so you don't seriously injure your lungs.

 

[Wingy]

I'm not a dive pro but I confess to being a bit of a current junkie - as in fast drifts not downcurrents. Because I like diving passes my diving is often in areas prone to downcurrents, sideways currents, wtf do you even call that currents..and Id just like to echo the other posters -

IF you are diving where there are known currents, be aware you may - may - get a serious spanking and have to grab the wall and climb like hell. Because you are there, doesn't mean you will encounter current.

I think it's a mindset thing. Yes, preparation and being suitably equipped is important Obviously it's scary, there are quite a few of us who've survived.

You've got lots of good information here...but if that moment ever comes...and it generally happens Bam out of nowhere - keep calm, focus on surviving (instinct is a wonderful thing) but don't spend every dive waiting for and fearing a possibility.

I dive air for many reasons, this is one.

 

[Dan]

Interesting reading about down current in Cozumel & how to survive it: current

Here are a few things PeterNBiddle learned:

"Things can go to hell from out of nowhere, and that's okay. Down currents are entirely survivable.

Exercise your safety gear - if you are crappy at deploying an SMB in calm, non-emergency conditions you're probably going to be worse when things go pear shaped.

Intention is as critical as execution - doing something on purpose is better than doing nothing. I think one of the reasons I wound up in the (perhaps arguably) best situation is because I pig-headedly stuck to a plan. Get to the wall, stabilize, get to the top of the wall, stabilize, wait for stragglers for a fixed amount of time, safety stop, surface. I think we were the only group to do a safety stop.

There's more than one right way out - I talked to one of the divers who went deep right off the drop and she went from 20 feet to 90 feet in a few seconds. She filled her BC and swam horizontally away from the wall until she started going up again. She wound up over half a mile down from me but her dive time was only 6 minutes.

You are in charge of your dive no matter what happens. Aspire to be able to provide help, not need it.

Split fins may be instant death in caves but they will get you out of a down current.

A slate is handy for more than just gabbing and fish ID."

 

[northernone]

In a sad note in cozumel an experienced local diver is missing when he and two others were caught in a down current (whirlpool described by the surviving divers who escaped it). As of yesterday he has yet to be found.

I also have a near miss two days ago where hanging on to wait out a current followed by dragging myself hand over hand when it did not stop ended up with me low on gas with a 3 hour rebreather dive (nearly insufficient gas reserves to meet the higher metabolic rate due to exertion plus cascading circumstances and poor decisions). Surfacing directly was an option after leaving the down current and facing the rip current only if I was ok with a rescue on the open ocean. I opted to return to shore along the bottom.

A few new take aways: carry more reserve gas and be prepared to surface in the open ocean far from where you planned to be. And oh, be prepared with gloves/reef hook/knife or willing to have sliced up hands from rocks, even if careful to avoid coral.

Warm regards,
Cameron

 

[Dan]

In a sad note in cozumel an experienced local diver is missing when he and two others were caught in a down current (whirlpool described by the surviving divers who escaped it). As of yesterday he has yet to be found.

I also have a near miss two days ago where hanging on to wait out a current followed by dragging myself hand over hand when it did not stop ended up with me low on gas with a 3 hour rebreather dive (nearly insufficient gas reserves to meet the higher metabolic rate due to exertion plus cascading circumstances and poor decisions). Surfacing directly was an option after leaving the down current and facing the rip current only if I was ok with a rescue on the open ocean. I opted to return to shore along the bottom.

A few new take aways: carry more reserve gas and be prepared to surface in the open ocean far from where you planned to be. And oh, be prepared with gloves/reef hook/knife or willing to have sliced up hands from rocks, even if careful to avoid coral.

Warm regards,
Cameron

Missing DM??? Not sure real or not

 

[george_austin]

Agree and disagree. The best athletes in the world practice for worst case scenarios. When Michael Phelps's goggles broke at the start of one of his Olympic races, he had practiced mentally for that exact situation over and over again so it didn't throw him and he won.

I didn't know that!
Just relax and stay with the group. If you get uncomfortable, call the dive and get back on the boat

 

[NYCNaiad]

...A few new take aways: carry more reserve gas and be prepared to surface in the open ocean far from where you planned to be. And oh, be prepared with gloves/reef hook/knife or willing to have sliced up hands from rocks, even if careful to avoid coral.

Warm regards,
Cameron

Yes, yes, yes! Could not agree with these more. (Glad you're ok. Very scary situation when it happens.)

 

[Abby Diver]

Yes, yes, yes! Could not agree with these more. (Glad you're ok. Very scary situation when it happens.)

How did flat Stanley do?