2 Russian tourists died while scuba diving in Verde Island in Batangas City

[touny71]

Along the wall, or away from the wall? Logic tells me away from the wall, but I dont want to assume.

Also, it seems like a conundrum. The wall seems like it could be a refuge - you can grab it. But is it where the current is strongest?

Away from the wall. Sometimes that might be 5m others 25m. And yes, it's scary swim into the blue when you're being pulled downards

 

[DanBMW]

Along the wall, or away from the wall? Logic tells me away from the wall, but I dont want to assume.

Also, it seems like a conundrum. The wall seems like it could be a refuge - you can grab it. But is it where the current is strongest?

The idea is to not try to fight the downward movement and get perpendicular to it. I'd also hesitate to add much air to any flotation. The first sign, at my last experience was swirling bubbles then a downward pull. It can happen quickly.

 

[Dan]

Also, it seems like a conundrum. The wall seems like it could be a refuge - you can grab it. But is it where the current is strongest?

If you are not far from the wall, I would swim towards the wall, as you said, you can grab it.

I had experienced such down current in Blue Corner, Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia in August 2022. Dive guide told us to stay close to the wall around 20m depth, while he was in deeper (around 30m) in the blue to search for Mola Mola. When the down current occurred, you could tell small fish started to swim upwards, bubbles hovering around me, some actually going down. So we immediately swam towards the wall and grabbed on rock or crevices until the downcurrent subsided. I needed to look up and face squarely up against the current to keep my mask from flooding. Fortunately this happened for only 2-3 minutes.

 

[Centrals]

The idea is to not try to fight the downward movement and get perpendicular to it. I'd also hesitate to add much air to any flotation. The first sign, at my last experience was swirling bubbles then a downward pull. It can happen quickly.

I had came across down current several times in PG, very common at the Canyons and Horse Head and if I did not inflate the bc I would not had made it to the surface.

 

[Centrals]

Some operators in PG will insist on minimum of 70 bars to ascend from the Canyons.

 

[rongoodman]

Fortunately this happened for only 2-3 minutes.

The problem seems to be there's no way of knowing how long the down current will last. If you use up all your gas hanging on to the wall, you won't have any left to swim away from the wall if it doesn't let up.

 

[Dan]

The problem seems to be there's no way of knowing how long the down current will last. If you use up all your gas hanging on to the wall, you won't have any left to swim away from the wall if it doesn't let up.

Some of us were actually rock climbing underwater. I had enough gas time remaining in my tank to hang on the wall for few minutes before climbing up the wall.

 

[Dan]

Wow! YouTuber named Visions actually posted the Blue Corner downcurrent experience. You can actually see the bubbles going down.

 

[touny71]

Wow! YouTuber named Visions actually posted the Blue Corner downcurrent experience. You can actually see the bubbles going down.

That's a strong current, but not a downcurrent

 

[tridacna]

I had a similar experience at Verde in November last year. It is truly scary. I held onto that wall like a limpet. Getting back on the boat was equally challenging.

Ironically, I decided to do Coral Gardens on dive #3 that day while others did Washing Machine. They had zero current while we were washed around in insane currents. I called that dive after 15 mins of absolutely no control. I've done that dive 4 times previously with zero current. Totally unpredictable.