Currents and diver experience level

[MMM]

I dive in Cozumel Mexico a lot where it is ALL drift diving. Some days it is faster than others and some days some sites are faster than others. A person can acquire skills of diving in current by starting off at some of the easier sites, learning how to position your body, how to hide from current etc. etc. Then, when they encounter faster current at more challenging sites, and/or downwellings etc. they will manage it better. And I fully agree with Quero that buoyancy and air consumption skills are critical. You will blow through A LOT of air if you are having to fight current; this plus the anxiety you feel could put yourself in a low/out-of-air situation. The most responsible operators in Cozumel will not take divers to the more advanced sites (no matter what the diver says about their skill levels) without having seen them dive a more benign spot first.

 

[fjpatrum]

I've read many posts now that advise against particular dive sites for new divers due to strong currents. I've always wondered what difference a diver's experience level makes in a such conditions. Rather than experience level, wouldn't physical fitness be a better indicator of whether a diver can handle strong currents?

There are very few instances where physical prowess will outperform experience, no matter what sport or activity. It happens, but very very rarely.

Drift diving is a different skill entirely than "standard" diving and it takes a different mindset to be truly comfortable, I think. I've only done one true drift dive and very much enjoyed the experience but I was also "fighting" the current a lot more than I should so that I could see things. Had I been doing something deeper than 20 feet I'd have blown through my gas in a ridiculously short time, which can cause a whole host of other issues. In my shore dives with significant and obvious current, I also burn gas at a higher rate. It's just something you need to be aware of and we, as newbies, are often just not cognizant of how quickly we burn gas in new conditions or "difficult" conditions so people often recommend doing "easy" current/drift dives before doing dives with currents that are known to be strong or shifting.

EDIT:

TAs far as experience goes, I can understand that more experience = better diver = more appropriate for challenging dives. What I would like to know is what does it take to be a "more experienced" diver. What is the criteria? I don't think number of logged dives is necessarily an accurate measurement of one's abilities or "presence of mind". If that's what the scuba community feels is the best indicator, then so be it .. I'll just be in the minority then.

What I'm trying to get at is, how do you get experience if you need experience to get it? For example, how would one know what to do in a downcurrent if one has never experienced it? Just having 200 dives under one's belt won't teach you the proper techniques and responses to such a condition. It's kind of like telling someone that you just need experience in dealing with riptides in order to cope with one .. surely there are techniques involved in down/up/strong currents (just as there are for riptides) that ought to be taught somewhere.

What it takes is diving, in lots of different environments. Experience really can't be gained without experiencing, right? I agree with you, we can learn a whole lot from other people's experiences (it's one of the reasons I'm a scubaboard addict) but in the end we can't know things without experiencing them for ourselves and making that connection to the information personal.

I also agree with you that the presence of mind we hear about so often isn't something that people necessarily have to learn through scuba. We are definitely in the minority in that belief. I've been emergency trained for so many years that it's in my nature to act "appropriately" in emergencies. I've never panicked in any emergency I've ever been a part of, whether as a responder or as a victim. I've had a few underwater situations where that training kicked in and I dealt with the situation in a calm and reasonable manner.

I, like you I suspect, consider myself one of those people who is "natural" in the water and I consider myself a better than average newb and more capable of handling myself well in more advanced situations than my dive count would indicate. I do recognize though that a lot, perhaps all, of the more experienced divers and instructors giving the "take it easy" advice have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of newbs like me and they still say that truly natural and comfortable newbs are rare. Why is that? My suspicion is that while confidence can overcome a lot of things, in the end it really doesn't make up for the experience. It can help us gain the experience quickly, but it can't actually give us the experience.

So you get the experience by diving. You can still dive "easy" dives in a lot of places that have a reputation for being difficult. You can choose to put those "difficult" places off until you have more dives in easier places. Also, consider that you are talking as a "we" in your posts. Does your dive buddy have the same comfort level you do? How about actual experience? When you're considering these difficult dive locations you're going to have to think about the possibility of something happening to your dive partner as well, and how is that going to make you feel if you can't help?

 

[Quero]

I got caught in a down current at Penida.

When we offer advice here on SB, the only measure of experience we have is how many dives a diver has done and the locales in which they were done. The fact of the matter is that a new diver with 20-odd dives simply cannot have much breadth of experience. How does one get this experience? By doing ordinary dives, not overly challenging ones. During these ordinary dives, the serious diver works to gain insight into himself as a diver, continually looking for ways to improve and hone his skills.

The boat I was on for my Galapagos cruise had a rule that nobody with fewer than 100 dives could even book the trip. Even so, there was a checkout dive, just to be sure, and the operator reserved the right to deny the most current-prone dives to those who were not deemed to have sufficient control. Unfortunately, many dive ops in Bali and on Lembongan will take anybody with the money to pay for the booking on these dives, and sadly, a number of divers have perished.

For me, it's a moral issue--do I recommend other, less challenging adventures to an inexperienced diver like you whom I have never seen in the water, or do I simply say to you, "if you're determined to do the dive, go for it, but I hope we don't have to read about it in the A&I forum."

 

[Rhone Man]

Agree with much of what has been said above, but I'll add one more point. When life in a current turns nasty, more experienced divers are likely to be better able to deal with the adversity than newer divers, regardless of physical conditioning. Physical conditioning certainly helps, but experience really is important.

I recently got caught in a vicious current (see first post in this thread), and it certainly causes the panic flutters even in experienced divers.

 

[Cosmographer]

I'm reading the Cozumel threads in the A&I forums now, actually, and it does seem rather intimidating. But I do find it helpful to read about Rhone Man's experience and the other "dealing with downcurrent" threads that I've just come across. It seems to me that knowing what to expect goes a long way towards avoiding panic when it does happen.

 

[Mike]

Task Loading - it's always about task loading. How many tasks can you handle before you're over-loaded and start putting yourself in danger. A brand new diver might be having mask fogging problems, on a simple shallow dive they can handle the additional task of clearing their mask over and over. Add another task such as dealing with surge and they might end up scraped against the reef as their concentration on buoyancy is over-loaded due to their mask issues...

The more experienced diver you are the better you're equipped to deal with any extra task loading, and you'll deal with it quickly and easily because you're practiced and its routine to you. There could be circumstances where a brand new diver could get lucky and have no other issues and easily deal with a strong, unpredictable current, with nothing else to deal with he could devote his full attention to dealing with the current and have no problems. On the other hand the same new diver on the dive could have events begin to unfold such as their buddy is having problems and they start diverting their attention to him or an equipment issue, suddenly their concentration is being split and they are getting over-whelmed and that's when bad things can happen. That's why it's so important how much diving experience somebody has, and how proficient they are with all the basics before they start adding task loads. Best example is a new diver with a camera, watch them crash into everything, the reef, the bottom, other divers... as they over-load themselves with the attention stealing concentration of using a camera on a dive.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I think we should differentiate between a drift dive, and other diving in current where you are not just sailing along with the current intentionally. Drift diving in gentle to moderate current is easier than diving a site in which you are confronting current that wants to take you where you do not care to go. That circumstance is a challenge even for very experienced divers.It's also not a lot of fun ( I recall diving off Ft. Lauderdale in horrible current that caused to abbreviate the dive, but afforded us a lot of exercise in a long surface swim) In contrast, drift diving in light to moderate current can be handled by most divers who have good buoyancy skills and enough bottom time to be comfortable in the water. The point is to dive within your limits, and when you are getting ready to expand them, do so in natural, graduated steps. Learn your dive sites, dive with local experienced professionals if you are not familiar, and ask lots of questions.
DivemasterDennis

 

[BVickery]

As a new diver, and realizing that to gain experience, well, I need to get out and dive them. I want to hone my skills and realize that SB only does so much, and that its a great sounding board for ideas. But to get it right, to really get used to currents is to start off with drift dives that are relatively easy (for me, keep hearing that Crystal River in FL is a rather easy Drift Dive). And then gradually progress from there (hopefully/ideally with a buddy who has more experience than you at drift diving to teach you some more tricks/tips)?

 

[TSandM]

There are drift dives and drift dives. It's not unusual, here in the Sound, to do a dive centered around slack at a current-sensitive site. You drift gently one way, and when the current reverses, you drift gently back. Those dives are not difficult for beginners, but the divers are highly dependent on a boat captain who can time the slack properly.

High velocity drift dives, especially along walls, are a different animal. When I did my trip to Bunaken, I had about 150 dives or so under my belt, and I got caught unawares a couple of times by up and down currents, and it was highly unnerving. It did help that I knew my equipment well and that managing my buoyancy had become a very fluid thing.

To me, one of the big issues with strong currents is diver separation. If you aren't pretty vigilant, it's very easy to be swept into an area of faster water, and get separated from your buddy or your group. (This is also very true with up and downwellings, which may be quite localized.) One of the things newer divers tend not to be very good at at all is situational awareness. They don't have the bandwidth to manage their own gear and their dive, sightsee, AND remain constantly aware of where their buddy/team is and what the water is doing. It's like asking a new driver to juggle a cup of coffee and a cell phone while shifting gears -- ten years later, it's easy

You're right that you can't learn how to dive strong currents until you do it, and that education, though it can help give you tools, can't replace experience. But it is a good idea to have a strong sense of where you are as a diver, and how much challenge or stress you can manage in stride, before you start expanding your horizons in an aggressive way.

And, BTW, I'm not at all sure I would be real happy diving the Galapagos, and I've done a lot of diving in a lot of places. When somebody who handles currents well describes a place as difficult or advanced, it's a good idea to listen to them!

 

[lmorin]

Here is an example of the sort of thing that can happen and speaks to what TSandM wrote above. On our first trip to Cozumel, we were still novices with about 30-35 dives. The very first dive was to an average depth of about 80 ft (we'd never been below 70 or so) and very strong current. So strong, that if you grabbed on to something, you whipped around and waved like a flag. The current was too strong to swim against. Well, we had been warned that about midway through the dive we'd encounter a down current followed immediately by an upwelling that would propel us between two really tall coral heads. We were warned about not getting sucked below about 95 ft or we'd be unable to make the turn up and through the slot between the coral and, if we made it OK, to avoid crashing into the coral toward which the upwelling was pushing us. Well, I went to 96 ft and had a tough, but successful time getting through the slot, missing the coral by a few inches. My wife, who only went to 89 ft, did much better. Two guys behind us with 120 cf tanks could not make the turn, went to about 130 ft, with one violating his no decompression limits and subsequently being banned from the second dive. While neither my wife nor I were particularly scared, we were worried, especially worried that all of the Cozumel diving would be like that first dive. Not particularly enjoyable. Obviously, not all the dives were like that one (but there was one other), and we have been back to Coz a second time knowing what to expect. Current conditions the second time were not as severe as the first. Or, maybe we were just more prepared for them??