My only downcurrent experience was at Palancar Deep, July 23, 2002. It will always be one of my most memorable dives for several reasons. We got off to a bad start when I dropped down to 30', felt a little buoyant, and realized I had left my weights back on the boat (couldn't get to my weight pockets where my BC/tank was stored on the boat so I was going to do it at the last second, then, uh...). So my buddy and I ascended, I waved the boat over, they handed me my weights, stuck them in my pockets, and away we went to follow the bubbles of the rest of our group. After an exhausting swim fighting current, we finally met up with them in a swim-through at 90', out of the current long enough for me to catch my breath and I thought my buddy was OK too. We followed the group out of the swim through and boom, that's when the downcurrent nailed us. Most of our group were somewhat experienced cold-water (SoCal) divers, that being dive #173 for me, but my buddy only had around 50 under her belt. I don't remember any one changing position, whether to get away from or closer to the wall, but that certainly wasn't going through my mind at the time since I had never heard those bits of wisdom prior to this incident. I also never considered adding air to my BC, probably a good thing in retrospect. As I recall, all of us were just kicking at full speed trying to maintain our existing depth. I remember looking at my computer and watching the bubbles go straight down and kicking as hard as I could and still watching my depth go 85, 86, 87, 85, not being able to make any headway toward the surface, not really worried even though I was down to nearly 500 psi. Finally the current relented or we moved out of it because were eventually able to ascend without a problem, even managed to squeeze in a minute or so safety stop.
Back on the boat, there was a collective sigh of relief. Most of us were excited, happy we made it, exhilirated from the adrenalin rush. My poor buddy, however, was in tears. She never really did catch her breath in the swim through and was exhausted from kicking against the down-current. She had never breathed that hard underwater and was freaked out that she was going to run out of air. Upon further questioning, I found out she had about 1,500 psi left when the down-current hit us and ended up surfacing with 1,200. I showed her my AI computer which was reading less than 250 and she felt a little better, but she still sat out the next dive which was unfortunate since it was the Felipe X in slack current, very peaceful and calming compared to the previous experience.
If it ever happened again, at least I'd have the comfort that I'd been through it before, and maybe I'd try swimming away from or closer to the wall as I'm learned since. However, as close as I was to running out of air the last time, I don't think I want there to be a next time. At the least, now when I dive Cozumel I'm on a 120 and that allows a bigger safety margin if it ever occurs when we're deeper. I'll also never forget my weights again, that's for sure. Live and learn.
and I hear he will be rolling around a dive shop soon and learning how to do e mails 
