First-hand account of down current, with video footage

[Shasta_man]

Way late to this party but you could see right from the beginning how little progress video diver was making getting to the wall. The big spread of all the divers right away indicated a CF. I'd hate to be a dive guide here with the mix of experiences you get with a boat full of tourist divers. Tough.

 

[Mantawoman]

Perhaps divers should plan their descents so they are over hard sandy bottoms, preferably less then 60 feet deep. This might be a valuable thing for low time, low experience divers to discuss with their divemaster before entering the water. Usually, you can just glance down at the start of the descent while finning to avoid the edge of the drop off where currents are strongest.
Or you can go straight for the wall. But I suspect this is something a judicious diver would avoid.

I dove this site the week before this accident and we were warned of the down current and strongly cautioned to be aware of our depth. The dive operation the we used (Scuba Cozumel) dropped us on the top of the reef, then the DM gathered all the divers and THEN we descended over the edge and down the wall. We were all able to stay together. Granted, the current may have been calmer when we were there, but it always increases the chance of a mishap if everyone follows the briefing and is patient with slower divers.

 

[gypsyjim]

I think you mean de-creases the chance of mishap, but yes that is one reason for the predive.

 

[Sorrows]

I dove this site the week before this accident and we were warned of the down current and strongly cautioned to be aware of our depth. The dive operation the we used (Scuba Cozumel) dropped us on the top of the reef, then the DM gathered all the divers and THEN we descended over the edge and down the wall. We were all able to stay together. Granted, the current may have been calmer when we were there, but it always increases the chance of a mishap if everyone follows the briefing and is patient with slower divers.

I forget--did the divers here report that they didn't get that kind of (IMHO, basic) briefing? Did the DM do a "current check" before letting everybody into the pool? I've only used SCC in Cozumel, but the DM did that each dive.

---------- Post added May 1st, 2012 at 12:31 PM ----------

Sorry. To be clearer, I should have said "if a diver is relying on the divemaster..." I also should not create the impression that my buddy habits are above reproach; they are not.

The Maldives is the only place I also came across a terrifying current. Maybe I wouldn't find it so scary now, now that I'm a little more experienced. But it went from nothing, to strong, to fierce, to completely ****ing mental in a couple of minutes. Channel & tide combo. Forget trying to stay with a buddy or anything vaguely similar.
John

I think this is the point I was trying to make--it's not always buddy failure. During my one scary experience (swimming TOO far away from the wall to avoid being taken over and instead being taken way out and way down) I was glad my buddy was closer to the wall--at that moment, there wasn't a thing he could do to help me--I either had to swim like hell up and back to the group (which I did) or fin up and ascend, using the sausage (which I've never had to do by myself, and it occurs to me I ought to practice.) In any case, as John describes, this is something that literally happens in the blink of an eye--suddenly you are in the spin cycle--whoosh!

 

[ErikNYC]

Thanks for sharing. Glad everyone is okay.

I appreciate the knowledgeable feedback as well.

 

[ScubyDoo]

What an amazingly terrifying video. I am so glad that all the divers in this group escaped serious injury. A co-worker of mine was diving the area that day and told me about the diver who was lost. I am leaving for Cozumel in the morning and could be diving on Santa Rosa wall, so I wanted to view this video to know what to look for should it occur. Hopefully these strong downcurrents have subsided by now? I agree with previous comments that the dive seemed to be disorganized from the start. There did not appear to be a clear sense of direction, and the divers were well out past the wall when they began their descent. Its possible that occurred due to the disorginization on the surface. Personally Im not a big fan of wall dives. The colors are largely lost at that depth, the dives are short, and the quantity of reef fish to see and photograph are greatly diminished. Given a choice, all my dives would be in the 40'-70' depth range. Anyhoo, glad your party survived this very scary ordeal. Thanks for sharing the video with us.

 

[tadawson]

I just got back Wed from 9 days in Coz, and did a lot of walls - no downcurrents experienced by our group anywhere . . .

- Tim

 

[ChrisM]

Video we took at Santa Rosa Wall 3/28/12 at 10:05a.m. Santa Rosa Wall 3-28-12 @ 10:10 a.m. on Vimeo​

Wow, that is not a fun video to watch.. glad you all are OK. Not going to pile on, but to me I see a few parts where bubbles are definitely going down.

THis may have been covered but the thread is long... How many dives does your son have? What is his weight, what exposure, and how much weight? I only ask because at the beginning there is no downcurrent as the bubbles are going up, but it seems like as you wait (for your wife) to descend, he is a good 40 + feet below you very quickly. By the time you are down at that level, he is way off the wall and by then the SHHTF.

Every Coz dive I have done where there is any current starts over the reef edge of the wall, not in the blue

These are good discussions to have

 

[billt4sf]

Thank you Frontier Nurse and Rubber Ducky, that helped me to understand the video, the situation, and the recovery method.

I feel like an idiot. In the words of Denzel, "Explain it to me like I'm a six-year-old." I am not sure I understand what I'm seeing in this video so it is hard for me to learn from it. Someone mentioned "look at the bubbles at 4:35." OK. What do you see? What does it mean? What were the divers experiencing? I'm getting that they dropped down quickly, then the one with the camera was breathing fast and yelling. But why? What was he experiencing? How was that represented in the video? What was the father experiencing at that time? The video poster says, "spent the rest of the time trying to bleed both bcd's with one hand on the camera guy (my son) and one hand operating the bcds I couldn't keep up with bleeding the bcds down and was trying to flare but it seemed like all the bubbles were just pushing us up..." What does "bleed a BCD" mean? What does he mean by "trying to flare"? Was he trying to go up or down? If they were caught in a down current does that mean they inflated BCDs at some point then tried to empty them when they were in the video bubble storm? So at what point did they inflate to get out of the down current? Is that represented in the video? Or was it a horizontal current? I'm so confused! Was the video bubble storm created by the breathing of the 2 divers and the emptying of BCDs, or the currents? I'm a little frustrated because I want so badly to learn and understand and I think vagueness and lingo is getting in the way? No judgements on the actions of the divers... I just don't understand what happened. Sorry if I'm the only one with this issue. Feel free to ignore me.

 

[Skydiver1]

Thanks for the video, really informative.