How do you know if you are ready for strong current diving?

[mantajohn]

Sharka

When i first started diving in strong currents, i found it very challenging - now i love it. The turning point was taking an SSI Course called 'Currents & Tides'.

I don't usually 'collect badges' but this course was excellent. 1:2 tuition, a couple of evenings theory & then 4 dives again 1 guide to 2 pupils. It taught me how to read the underwater terrain/fish etc to figure out what was happening with the current. The instructor even took us in on his current check & then talked us through what he had seen & how he then incorporated it into his dive briefing.

Really enjoyable & interesting couple of days.

Perhaps i just got lucky with the standard of tuition in my resort, but if you are thinking of diving a lot in strong current, it might be worth keeping an eye out for this course?

enjoy your trips

John

 

[gee13]

Hi Sharka, Im sure you will find this site useful.

http://www.starfish.ch/

follow link for > dive travel > travelog and photos > special topics > judge the currents

My main advice is follow your instincts, as others have said consult and ask as many questions from your operator/ dms. Ensure they are a good operation (seek reviews and feedback beforehand). Also exposure to current dives can be safe and rewarding if dived with the right people who know the sites well and experience will ensure future confidence. Undoubtedly the most interesting critters can be found where currents are. Just remember that there is no glory in bragging about diving the strongest currents. The saying stands - "There are old divers, but not that many bold divers"

 

[danvolker]

Hi! I have been a long time lurker of ScubaBoard – I read a lot but don’t really contribute much I have a “lucky” problem here – my husband is currently negotiating a new job out in Asia. We have a 99.9% chance of permanently relocating to either Hong Kong or Singapore (currently living in New York, but we are not Americans though!). Once he has signed on the new job, he will need to take a 3 month mandatory paid leave. We are planning to use this time to pack up and move to Asia plus do some wicked traveling. The time frame of the diving trip is most likely going to be late April or early May 2011 for 2-3 weeks and we don’t really have a budget (we are willing to spend money when necessary to reach a certain location and we def want hot water and A/C all the way, but Four Seasons type accommodations not a pre-requisite). I have a bucket-list of to-dive locations and we hope to do one of the following in no special order (the more remote the location, the better, since hubby usually needs to stay in touch for work on holidays, it’s a rare break for us to travel to someplace with no cell reception):

1) Fiji
2) French Polynesia / Tuamotus
3) PNG
4) Raja Ampat
5) Wakatobi
6) Komodo
7) Palau/Yap
8) Australia Barrier Reefs
9) Thailand Similan

My hubby and I dove Grand Cayman, Belize, Philippines Bohol, Sipadan and Lembeh in the past. We had approx 60 lifetime dives before under moderate conditions. So we are not newbies who cannot control our buoyancy, yet we have never really encountered mask-ripping current before. Hubby is into photography (Lembeh was great!) We are in our early 30s, in good health conditions.

This trip will be departing from HK, since that’s where I will get free babysitting from the grandparents (I have a toddler son). I am ruling out Similans (tail end of the season – we can always do it another time from HK) and Oz (winter there right?). French Polynesia is too difficult to get to from HK (and expensive!) so it’s out of the picture. There is a weekly direct flight from HK to Nadi and Port Moresby. There is a direct flight from HK-Guam to connect to Palau (layover slightly annoying, but doable though) or we go via Manila or Taipei. HK-Bali or HK-Jakarta is a piece of cake. I’ve heard all of the remaining locations have strong current condition – so question for you guys – how do you know you are ready to take the plunge and do some ripping current diving? I love diving, but I also don’t want to risk my life to do something I am physically not ready for. My hubby’s heart is set on Raja Ampat (ever since he has heard about it from an Indo friend) – is diving in Raja Ampat “relatively easier” than other locations (excluding Similan) on my list? I personally want to try either an extended Palau trip or a Lembeh / Raja Ampat combo. We have never done a liveaboard either – so dunno how we would feel about it. What would you recommend for us? Thanks!

Hi Sharka,
My wife and I have been diving the most extreme current areas of Palm Beach for close to 20 years. We have hyper advanced areas with currents far beyond anything in the Indonesian area...we have been to Fiji ( we loved Beqa Laoon Resort and the diving there !!!!) and found the areas they thought were big current were so mild boats would often still anchor ( in a real current, anchoring would be foolish and imposible for return to boat).
I would say that 95% of the divers I have seen with problems in large current have very bad bouyancy and trim skill, essentially rendering there propulsion abilities irrelevant in current....the "poster child" for this condition is a diver swimming head up and feet down, at maybe a 40 degree angle. They push a huge bow wave, and are swimming up almost as much as forward. Typically they have far too much weight in their weight belt or BC weight pouches, and often have large amounts of trapped air in the BC they are not aware of, and never really get rid of. The heavy weight belt issue exacerbates the problem, by acting as a lever to rotate the diver ( who "should be swimming flat horizontal--as in lying on a floor) with so much weight in their hip and leg area, that they tend to swim feet down.
If you or your husband resemble this even slightly, you will become much better divers if you fix this now----and currents will never bother you anywhere near as much with optimal trim.

First, you always want to be using the minimum weight you can use....I weigh 207 pounds, and in my full 3.5 mm freedive wetsuit ( warmer and lower drag than scuba wetsuits, also easier to tear) and need a total of 7 pounds to dive optimally...this is from my steel back plate ( 6 pounds) and reg + single tank adapter ( 1 pound) and aluminum 80. If I had a heavier wetsuit, weighting would be more complicated on deep dives.....I would be inclided to use a steel tank with a 7 mil suit, so I would not have to add a weight belt, but at 100 feet or deeper, the suit would have little bouyancy, and at that point I would be overweighted, and would have to swim with the extra drag of significant air in my wing ( still far less drag than most jacket style bcs with significant air in them). For this reason, I go with a drysuit if goig deeper than 90 feet, or in water colder than 74 degrees. The dry suit bouyancy will not shift with depth, so a steel tank can be used safely--and your weight distribution will remain higher up on your torso --this allows you to swim flat horizontal ( and to be comfortable and warm).

Other things you can try are strapping a 6 pound weight between your tank bands---Brownies makes one ( Brownie's Third Lung )

Concentrate on how your trim is in water and have a friend video you swimming along a diver for several minutes....watch the footage later and decide how efficient your position is---you need to be absolutely flat horizontal.


Fins, while I get involved in "which is best" threads constantly, are no where near as critical as trim and bouyancy....once you nail the Trim and Bouyancy, then a soft freediving fin like the Cressi Gara 3000 LD's would make a huge difference in allowing you to work less to go faster against or sideways to a current. If you use a drysuit, there is an open heel version I believe. Soft split fins will be the worst mistake, as they are pathetic in currents.

Hope this helps!

 

[Bora_Horza]

We have hyper advanced areas with currents far beyond anything in the Indonesian area...

LOL! Thats a rather bold statement! I feel I have to respond to this (plus it gives me an opportunity to show off some of my video footage...)



(PS: just having fun!! )

 

[danvolker]

LOL! Thats a rather bold statement! I feel I have to respond to this (plus it gives me an opportunity to show off some of my video footage...)



(PS: just having fun!! )

I like that dive!!!!
I may have to post some of our big current dive videos

 

[Big fish63]

i went to komodo last year. i had never been diving in strong currents. the first day of diving we turned up at GPS dive site and the water was just like in your vid... to say i was unprepared was an understatement, i should never have been allowed on that trip. but theres no way you can truely prepare yourself for this you have to go with the flow and experience it.

 

[Magrone]

I like that dive!!!!
I may have to post some of our big current dive videos

Please do! I'm curious about this comparison to Indonesia.

 

[highdesert]

I think it's cool and all to swap vids of crazy currents (I have one I shot at Batu Bolong in Komodo where the water is literally about 18" deeper on the upstream side of the island than it is on the downstream), but let's not forget what the OP asked about in this thread. Don't turn it into a horror story.

Sharka ... no DM is going to take you into a dive with currents like those in the video, and no smart, experienced diver is going to splash here just for giggles either. Don't let this round of "Oh yeah, that's nothing!" scare you away.

 

[Bora_Horza]

Highdesert: yeah, agree with what you've written.

To clarify and all:
First section of footage from a boat: taken around Alor, crossing a channel to a distant dive site (we did not dive where this current was!) Think it was around full moon, when stronger tides were running.

Second section of footage from a boat: taken at Batu Balong, Komodo, when the tidal currents were running very strongly. This is a divesite, but not dived when the currents are running so powerfully, dives are timed to be around slack tide here normally, when things are calmer, and are in the sheltered lee of the island.

Underwater sections: taken at Batee Tokong, Pulau Weh, Sumatra - the strongest current dive I've ever done - an 'interesting' experience, and we aborted and surfaced not long after. Looking back, I learnt something from this dive - I should have aborted much sooner! I was getting stressed, but was thinking I should stick with the group - now I would signal 'problem, surfacing' and go up.

And here's a vid of the more 'ordinary' dive conditions around Komodo...

 

[Magrone]

(I have one I shot at Batu Bolong in Komodo where the water is literally about 18" deeper on the upstream side of the island than it is on the downstream),

I would love to see this video as well. Maybe we should start a thread dedicated to current dive videos. When I went to Komodo, Batu Balong was the sight that the DM made sure everyone was paying attention during the briefing. We also heard some crazy stories of the tremendous down currents at this sight that literally ripped gear off of divers who strayed too far from the Zig Zag dive plan up the sheltered side. My girlfriend and I were both a little nervous, with only 40 dives at the time, but we stayed with the DM and the current was practically non-existant. It was one of the best dives I've ever done.