Where have you experienced the strongest currents?

[canadiancavedigger]

St.Clair river in Ontario and parts of the Niagara river (upper and lower) 4+ knots- with some spots being on the verge of utter chaos

 

[jiveturkey]

St Lawrence river ar Lock 21

Love that divesite.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

The St. Clair river & St. Lawrence Seaway (especially the Eastcliffe Hall wreck)

 

[uncleavi]

Mississippi River in November La Crosse Wisconsin.

 

[Brandon]

La Paz, BCS for me too - diving La Reyna in 2007. Hands down the best dive I've ever been on. The fish love swarming around that little seamount when the current is ripping and it was incredible. The resting fish in the lull areas of the reef were so thick you needed to reach out and brush them aside to clear a path - a literal wall of fish. So peaceful when you were up against the side of the reef, and so incredibly violent when you moved away from it. It was like merging into traffic with the schools of fish circling the outside!

We did two dives there that particular day, and the second was the one I remember so fondly. The current was much calmer on the first dive, but still more than two of the divers on the boat were prepared for. They wanted to give it a go the second time in hopes that moving closer to the seamount would lessen the current, but the current increased during the surface interval. Good judgement shown on their part - once they realized the current was stronger than they were comfortable with, they climbed back in the boat and let the rest of the group enjoy the dive.

-B

 

[lmorin]

.......
Someone else did Cideral Pass in Cozumel, i have a little vid here (YouTube - Snowstorm - Underwater current in Cozumel) of the sand flowing over the rocks, me and my buddy had great fun doing hand stops in the sand (stick your hand in the sand and let the current flip you 180 degree in half a second!)
........

My wife and I experienced similar currents on two dives at Cozumel a couple of years ago. Hands in the sand didn't even slow us down. Because of the speed, the dives were rather uninteresting save for the need to attend closely to the route in order to avoid being rammed into a coral head. We refer to those dives as "highway" diving with various bits of presumably lovely scenery flashing by, but no way to stop and check. I know some folks love the speed, but as far as I'm concerned the two highway dives were a waste of time.

 

[liuk3]

St. Lawrence River. Very cool place to train for current. Awesome well-preserved wrecks.

 

[akscubaduck1]

Whittier cruiseship dock last year on a work dive.
La Paz back in 1994.
Both 3.5 to 4 knots.
The Whittier dive they did the lift of a 30' piece of S.S. railing before I surfaced and was forced to drift to the entrance of the small boat harbor for my exit.
Thank god for my SMB!

 

[shawrg]

A couple of sites in Fiji had their way with me.

 

[elmer fudd]

Most folks tend to overestimate current speed ... primarily, I think, because moving water is such a powerful force to deal with ...


Although currents in the Narrows can reach those speeds, dive charters won't take you there on very large exchanges. A typical drift dive in the Tacoma Narrows is going to be between 2 and 3 knots of current. Anything over 3 knots and the dive charters are unlikely to put you in, due to concern over turbulance and downcurrents.

Here's today's Narrows currents ...

Currents at The Narrows (North End), Puget Sound, Washington

I didn't say I dive it in either 4 or 7 knot currents, only that on an average day the currents peak at about 4 knots, (about 3 today, but about 5 a week from now), and that on very strong exchanges the currents get close to 7 knots. Personally when I'm diving in the Narrows Passage, (Titlow mainly), I try to time it for the slack tides, but that doesn't change the fact that the currents get wicked strong there.

I remember trying to run a San Juan 21 with a 7.5 horse through there against the current one time and being pushed back the other direction in the vicinity of Salmon Beach. I also remember breaking a shear pin on a small outboard when I was a teenager trying to fight against those currents by staying in the shallows.

To be honest, I have experienced stronger currents diving under the Fox Island Bridge when I timed the slack wrong, but the currents in the Narrows passage are typically much stronger than in Hale Passage.