Barracuda/San Juan in late July?

[jdevic]

The currents on barracuda can vary from day to day, even hour to hour just like the rest of Cozumel. I've done it with almost no current to absolutely ripping. When she's ripping, it's a blast, maybe even my favorite dive but you have to be on your game. One pair got in a down current and went from 90 to 130 feet almost before they knew what was happening. They hated it, my wife hated it, I loved it.

There is no stopping without ducking behind a corral head if you get ahead of the group. No fin is going to hold you in place, but I would take the larger ones for dealing with the currents. Picture the top of a mountain range and you are superman flying amongst the peaks...thats Barracuda. I would not bother with a camera unless you are just going to video the entire dive. There won't be any stopping to see something you just flew by.

It's an amazing dive and loads of fun. The theme from Topgun plays in my head and I actually suck water around the mouthpiece from grinning. The only downside is because of depth and breathing rate, Barracuda is usually a shorter dive.

The finger corral at San Juan is beautiful, and much less current usually.

Now that I have said all that...you will be there on a day with zero current!

Safe dives,
Jay

Thanks - I figured I may at most take a gopro instead of my camera rig.

 

[jlyle]

Twice, while diving Barracuda we surfaced in rain storms. How the dive boat found us is a mystery; divers were scattered all over the ocean and the next land fall would have been Cuba. I would suggest taking your passport but the experience was nothing to joke about. Stay safe.

 

[cvchief]

And if anyone else was confused:

Difference between SMB & DSMB

 

[NDL_Diver]

I would not dive Barracuda without my DSMB, flashlight, signal mirror and my Nautilus lifeline with marine radio.

I have rode that roller coaster and had sand storms pop up.

 

[jdevic]

you convinced me to finally order a nautilus from amazon. I've been thinking about getting one for years for liveaboards, but never pulled the trigger.

 

[cvchief]

I had the old Nautilus that you could actual use for voice two way. It finally crapped out. The new one is only push the button, so it doesn't interest me so much. Of course the Nautilus worked great. I sent it in for service once and it was sitting on their work bench in Canada just across the line. I got a call from the duty officer at the coast guard station in Puget Sound. He said was repeatedly activating and setting off the alarms all around up there both in the US and Canada. I was able to find a emergency night number for the liveaboards to have them get someone to go stop it.

I was thinking about a Garmin InReach Mini. Its Sat based, but you can message as well as trip the emergency 'y'all come' thing. Does cost like 140 a year for a subscription, but it good on land or sea.

You can like text the boat your location before you activate a sea air rescue response.

They make a dive case for it too.

Garmin inReach® Mini | Hiking GPS | Satellite Communicator

A straight PLB is about the same size and cost without subscription, but it too is only 1 button to call EVERYONE. Like how long would you float before you hit the big red button?

 

[mcohen1021]

the currents there as said before can be unpredictable. I went and the currents were no different than the south sites. But if I was going to regularly do it, I would invest in a nautilus. My friend / divemaster on the island was swept in a current and wasnt found for a few hours a couple of years ago.

gps-001-Marine Rescue GPS

 

[jdevic]

the currents there as said before can be unpredictable. I went and the currents were no different than the south sites. But if I was going to regularly do it, I would invest in a nautilus. My friend / divemaster on the island was swept in a current and wasnt found for a few hours a couple of years ago.

gps-001-Marine Rescue GPS

That's the one I ordered. It is about $180 USD on amazon.ca - surprisingly not getting ripped off as Canadian this time lol

 

[jdevic]

I had the old Nautilus that you could actual use for voice two way. It finally crapped out. The new one is only push the button, so it doesn't interest me so much. Of course the Nautilus worked great. I sent it in for service once and it was sitting on their work bench in Canada just across the line. I got a call from the duty officer at the coast guard station in Puget Sound. He said was repeatedly activating and setting off the alarms all around up there both in the US and Canada. I was able to find a emergency night number for the liveaboards to have them get someone to go stop it.

I was thinking about a Garmin InReach Mini. Its Sat based, but you can message as well as trip the emergency 'y'all come' thing. Does cost like 140 a year for a subscription, but it good on land or sea.

You can like text the boat your location before you activate a sea air rescue response.

They make a dive case for it too.

Garmin inReach® Mini | Hiking GPS | Satellite Communicator

A straight PLB is about the same size and cost without subscription, but it too is only 1 button to call EVERYONE. Like how long would you float before you hit the big red button?

I read somewhere that the Chinese Beidou (BDS; the US GPS equivalent) has built-in support for two way SMS. I wonder if that would eventually get integrated into something like Garmin Descent. I don't care if the CCP reads my SOS text lol

 

[DeltaWardog]

I need to try to get to these sites on my upcoming trip. Northernmost site I've dived is Villablanca Wall. My usual op doesn't go further up than that. Maybe I need to book a couple days with Aldora so I can do some check dives with them and then hit these.

I always dive with mirror, whistle, dsmb, and a 24h strobe light, but don't have a PLB. After reading about how they didn't even get planes in the air for over a day after the Scubaboard member went missing on a solo dive, I wonder if it's even worth it. Would a PLB signal make them move any faster? Or is your battery gonna die before they get around to looking for you?