blue steal
Contributor
- Messages
- 2,786
- Reaction score
- 402
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
It has been a good thread.
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
I have been going to Coz for 10 years and these 2 threads are the first I have ever heard about downcurrents. How can that be?
The thought of being suddenly sucked downward 30+ feet has me re-thinking nitrox...that bother anyone else?
On 3/day, I usually use Nitrox on the second dive to reduce the adjust air depth, expecting that the boat will do a shallow reef for the third dive anyway.Yes it does have me re-thinking Nitrox, for the 1st dive of the day.
Truthfully, given the cost, I'd only opt for nitrox if I was doing 3 dives in a day, and would only use it on the third dive....
I have been going to Coz for 10 years and these 2 threads are the first I have ever heard about downcurrents. How can that be?
The thought of being suddenly sucked downward 30+ feet has me re-thinking nitrox...that bother anyone else?
When diving up north in the "washing machine" current that is sometimes present we are always told in the pre-dive to stay close to the reef as possible without hitting anything. We always duck into nooks and cranny's to get out of the current when able at Barracuda. There can be some interesting things hiding in the lee of the current. Barracuda reef can be a wild ride ride though. San Juan has humbled me with a ripping current before. One day at San Juan I was stuck at about 80-90' and had to swim laterally to get unstuck from the bottom as the reef was ending and the dive was called. We were on the big boat that day and there was another group behind us. One gent was stuck in the same place, same down current, he did the same as me to get out of it. I could tell by his wide eyed boarding of the boat that he hit the same down currents that I did. My rescue training dive master (Liang) was also on the dive and I thanked her for the training she had given me to react correctly. That being said I've been to San Juan on days when you could do a resort course because there was so little current. Just depends on the day.
Edit:
Check out this video taken at San Juan. Its only about 30 seconds. Notice how fast we are going on the beginning then it slows. Bubbles are going sideways as well. Not a good day to stop and take pictures.
vf31joe's Channel - YouTube
Let me add San Juan (along with Barracuda) to my list of Cozumel dive sites that I'll take a pass on when the current is running fast.
How you gonna know?