Tourist lost - Cozumel

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Ask @Christi who has been diving in Cozumel more than 2000 times about handling Cozumel down current then. Read her post # 3 of this thread:


I've talked to dive shop people in Coz that have been in them. Jeanie, at P3, told me she had an extremely hard time clawing her way up the wall. The DMs I have talked to said to swim away from the wall.
 
I've talked to dive shop people in Coz that have been in them. Jeanie, at P3, told me she had an extremely hard time clawing her way up the wall. The DMs I have talked to said to swim away from the wall.
The down currents I have experienced were not last very long. You don’t need to claw up the wall. I would just get a hold of some outcropping rock or crevice or dead coral on the wall and wait until the down current subsided. At least you are no longer going down during the burst of down current and not to get to an uncontrolled ascent by over inflating your BCD when the down current subsided.
 
The down currents I have experienced were not last very long. You don’t need to claw up the wall. I would just get a hold of some outcropping rock or crevice or dead coral on the wall and wait until the down current subsided. At least you are no longer going down during the burst of down current and not to get to an uncontrolled ascent by over inflating your BCD when the down current subsided.
The only one I was in was in St. Lucia. I would describe it more as a rip current. I kept inflating, but kept going down and out. When I got out. I quickly dumped my air. It was weird, but not uncontrolled.
 
The water in a down current doesn't disappear down a giant plughole in the seabed. Learn about down currents. It's part of scuba diving in the ocean.
Whatever, I am just asking those who experienced a down current. I have not. We do not have them in Florida. The information seemed a bit confusing. Of course I did not think that there was a giant plughole in the seabed. Thanks for no help.
 
Swim to the wall would be my reflect, as I don’t know how wide the “waterfall” is. From physics, the velocity of the downdraft is zero at the wall and maximum away from the wall, as shown, below.

There are plenty of stuff to grab on at the wall or overhangs to hide under.

Waterfall
Brown = wall.
Dark blue = increasing velocity vectors with distance away from the wall.
View attachment 765532

You need to face square towards the current to avoid your mask being flooded or got ripped away from your face by the current.
This picture is for laminar flow, which the down-current on a wall is probably not. It will be much more squished up, with the transition region from zero to a lot being pretty thin.
 
I'm hoping for a bit more on what to do when you see the 'sand tornadoes' (other than 'take pictures' as I have) - and what I think the consensus is, in regards to what to do if you find yourself in the down current, is to swim away from the wall. R (husband and dive buddy) says also to keep an eye on the soft coral on the wall, and if it is bending down avoid that area.

Again, this is all assuming that we notice something peculiar in time to remember what to do.
Also try and watch what any particles ahead of you are doing. Instead of staying pretty stationary or going horizontally across a wall, they might be heading downward or swirling.

Everything I have read says to swim away from the wall. Eventually, the "waterfall" loses it's reach.

That was my experience in Belize while cave river tubing in fast, high water right after/during mainland flooding. Just before we converged toward the wall of a particularly fast moving cave river that most sat out, the guide yelled, "kick away from the wall!" to redirect our tubes that we had daisy chained with our arms. The girl beside me pressed my tube down as she kicked off the wall and my tube flipped. I was dragged down by a downcurrent and held under at least 10 feet - WITH a lifejacket. I held my breath and kicked up with all my might, to no avail. I suddenly remembered what he had said and kicked off the wall as hard as I could, and I shot away and up in a split second, getting rushed through and spit out at the mouth of the cave.

Here in the St Lawrence river, usually only people with doubles or who have very good gas consumption are allowed to do the Lillie Long Drift by the charters. Only doubles divers who have proven themselves are allowed to do the Lillie Extra Long Drift. Both of these routes have converging currents with downcurrents, upcurrents, and back eddies, and require strict adherance to the depth and timing intervals given in the briefing.

I know a diver who got whisked down to 170 feet in seconds on the Lillie long drift and then swam out.
I have had a couple of buddies who didn't realize the importance of getting down to the first target depth (90 feet+) quickly, and got whipped up, down, and backwards in that nasty 40 - 80 foot range with me strongly signalling them to come down.
Even at 90 feet, we can still get pushed to 102 or so for a short time.

In Cozumel way back, a couple of divers on our LDS trip on another boat went from 90 feet to 130 feet, and then got spit out. After filling their BCD's, it took time to deflate and slow their rapid ascent. The instructor initially said that the other 2 divers must have lost control of their buoyancy simultaneously, but it later came out that he swam his way out.

From my and others experience and from reading, getting away from the wall seems to work, as you said. It seems that going across the downcurrent in any direction (away/toward the wall) or across the wall may work. I'm not confident in swimming toward the wall because that's where the current is rushing down and converging with the cross current. Trying to swim up or inflating a BCD, SMB or lift bag is likely futile. Once you get out of the downcurrent, you have a runaway ascent to deal with too.
 
Many experienced divers here say swim to and cling to the walk. Many other experienced divers here say swim away from the wall. Most of the training materials I have searched opt for the latter. As someone pointed out, there may be no one and only answer to the scenario. Maybe both are viable, and certainly there is an unknown element regarding the size and speed of the downcurrent.

I think what I have learned is that if I ever find myself in one, I will first try and hug the wall. If that is not working, I will attempt to kick away from the wall at a 45 degree angle, trust my gauges, and manage my ascent as best I can.

I am also going to upgrade my signal devices. Thank you to all of the very experienced divers on this thread who have shared their input!
 
Many experienced divers here say swim to and cling to the walk.
I'm one of those who said that, but that is only if I'm already on/at the wall.
I will first try and hug the wall.
But only if I'm close to it. If I've got to swim to the wall, better to swim away and up.
 
I have been searching for a week for an update. Every news article is of the original story that they are searching. Do we ever get an update of where the person is from, what happened, age, etc? I find it odd that there has been nothing at all.
 
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