First-hand account of down current, with video footage

[Mike]

Watch the video between 4:15-4:45 everything you need to know happens in those 30 seconds.

The current is clearly visible as a strong LATERAL current. Watch the bubbles. There are small bubbles coming at the camera divers face, bubbles run with the current and No Bubbles are going down anywhere in the video.

At 4:22 you hear the camera diver for the very first time put air in his BCD.

All this is, is a diver way to aggressive, coupled with ignoring diver buddy training, couple with a buddy ignoring diver buddy training. I'm sure they've been diving this way for a long time and as is the case with diving, you can break the rules a long time until 1 condition changes the equation and it all catches up with you.

The camera diver dropped like a rock to the wall, he didn't even think to start adding air to his BCD untill 4:22, at which point he was feeling the current running at him and downward along the wall face, he only puts in a couple of puffs of air, you can hear them in the video, two quick puffs, he's using his legs and fins instead to compensate and he's feeling the current continue to pull him down, at 4:30 he starts to panic, you can see the difference in his breathing, you start seeing big bubbles coming up out of his exhales, he's still trying to use his legs and fins against the current and it takes him until 4:45 to put 3 larger puffs in his BCD. It's taken him until 4:45 to achieve neutral buoyancy, where he should have been back closer to 3:50. The video is scary to watch because you feel for the panic of the camera diver, but this is just poor diving habits catching up to somebody.

 

[Firefyter]

The current is clearly visible as a strong LATERAL current. Watch the bubbles. There are small bubbles coming at the camera divers face, bubbles run with the current and No Bubbles are going down anywhere in the video.

I saw it the same way. It looked more like an uncontrolled descent than a significant downcurrent. An uncontrolled descent over a hard bottom delivers a hard landing. An uncontrolled descent next to a wall is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[frontiernurse]

Thanks for breaking it down. That was helpful. In my training I learned to flare as part of an out of air scenario... I don't think it was adequately explained that you flare to slow down your ascent. I too was confused about the direction of the bubbles in the video. I have to admit, I made a too rapid descent in a cenote (so no currents, clearly) and went to 115 feet and got a little narced. I checked my depth gauge, noticed I no longer saw the other divers (I was in a hydrogen sulfide cloud), and just figured "meh," there's only up and down in this hole so I'll go back up. I felt no panic. I went back up 20 feet and there were the guys. I looked at my PSI and in what had felt to me like 30 seconds, I had used 1000 psi. I guess the point is, if I had been by a wall, dropped too fast, got narced and lost time like that, I would just have kept going down or been caught in a current like this guy. OK, take home points: slow descent, swim laterally in a down current (if possible). I'm very simple-minded.

 

[DandyDon]

I think the biggest failure in the video and your Cenote descent is lack of buddy protocols.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Proper weighting might have helped avoid this situation altogether. Often DM's will overweight new divers to keep the group together or to avoid problems at the end of the dive when their tank becomes positively bouyant. Many new divers have new equipment that is much more bouyant than old neoprene, another reason for needing more weight. When I first started diving I used 14 lbs, I now use 8, or less depending on conditions. Last trip 4 lbs in my trim pockets with steel tanks. My son used no weights and for the first time in over 100 ocean dives, stated that it was the first dive where everything was perfect, no equilization issues, no mask fogging,no cramps, not too hot or too cold, no issues whatsoever, total comfort. Might have been coincidence, but I also feel more in control if I am properly weighted. Lately I have been trying to figure the weight of my video rig into my total weight. I also use more weight on the first dives of a multiday trip. As I adjust and my wetsuit gets compressed I reduce the weight.
Second point is about the wisdom of going back down to complete an omitted safety stop. The divers were clearly in a somewhat panicked state. I don't think going back down was the wisest plan. Being a dad who has dived with his son since he was 11, I recognized the tone of the dads voice as a direct parent to child command used in serious situation, that is unconditional and not to be disobeyed. The decision to force a panicked/startled/or scared diver back under water could cause more problems than a missed safety stop. If the video was unedited, then the total time underwater was insignificant for nitrogen loading and the potential for lung overexpansion from rapid ascent would be more of a concern. Something that going back down will not help fix. A little more time on the surface would have allowed both divers to calm down, the dad more so than the son.

 

[frontiernurse]

Agreed Don. Take home point: Don't descend/ascend alone. Although once I figured out I was alone in the cloud. I ascended 20 feet out of the cloud and the guys were all staring at me. They had been staring at my bubbles so they knew where I was, and were prepared to come fetch me if needed so it was my fault, not theirs. Anyway, I hope I'm not dragging this off topic. But yes, agreed.

 

[WSOPFAN]

Yes away from the wall and up, it took me 30 seconds to make it 10ft. I added air to both bcd's and kicked like hell, there were bubbles everywhere and I couldn't see anything, It felt like we weren't making it anywhere, checked my gauge and it read 80ft "oh **** time to put on brakes"

The 2 divers that grabbed the wall don't look like they had the same currents as you 2. The currents can be totally different 10 feet away and it looks to me like your son got pulled into the wall currents of a whirlpool right before you got to him. Then when you were trying to go up it looks like there was a wall of bubbles which is exactly what it is like inside of one. It can be very disorienting and it is hard to tell up from down. It is obvious you had a computer and you say you were ascending too quick and tried to slow at about 80. What exactly was your max depth? You 2 and the other 2 divers looked to be kinda deep on that wall maybe 150? That is the tricky part of currents like that........if you are not watching your depth and fail to get neutral by 80-90 feet you may find yourself a few seconds later at 150 and still going down. I have had quite a few dives there along the wall when I had that depth gauge in my hand almost the whole dive checking it constantly just to be safe especially at the dive sites up north.

 

[scurbyduck]

150ft for me and my son and 165ft for the other two.

 

[Sorrows]

That is good advice. You know, I've never had to drop weight, have never even considered doing so. Would it have helped this boy to drop some weight, or would that be too difficult? I mean, he didn't try to inflate for quite some time, right? Sorry, count me as one who has difficulty seeing beyond the wall of bubbles and the panicked cries for help.

Second point is about the wisdom of going back down to complete an omitted safety stop. The divers were clearly in a somewhat panicked state. I don't think going back down was the wisest plan. Being a dad who has dived with his son since he was 11, I recognized the tone of the dads voice as a direct parent to child command used in serious situation, that is unconditional and not to be disobeyed. The decision to force a panicked/startled/or scared diver back under water could cause more problems than a missed safety stop.

I don't know, lionfish-eater, having been on both of the receiving and the dispensing end of that particular voice, it can be strangely comforting--that is to say, I wouldn't consider the son to be just your average panicked diver getting instructions (that run contrary to natural instinct) from a stranger. This was his dad, telling him what he had to do.

I can't really comment on the wisdom or necessity for a re-do of the safety stop, except to say I totally get the fear of DCS. I'll keep reading the comments from those more experienced than I--can't say that I am enjoying the thread, but it has been very instructive.

 

[citycountryguy]

OK, in my look at the video, it seems clear that there are bubbles going down from other divers in a brief segment between about 5:43 and 5:45. Not sure what that means, but it does look like currents were quite random and affecting divers who were quite close to one another in quite different ways. You have to ignore the sounds, and just look at the bubble track, but I see all kinds of things happening there...the proverbial washing machine.