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

[ZenDiver.3D]

Centrals - I don't really have a choice here. The free babysitting I get is in HK so doesn't matter if I relocate to Singapore (dunno yet, location to be finalized next month), the trip needs to leave/return HK (unless you are suggesting that I abandon my first born child for diving!)

Regardless, either a relocation to SIN or HK is infinitely a step up from living in New York (in terms of dive travel)!

Have you lived in this area of the world before?
The usual is to have a live in maid/nanny. And then you are fine. We have lived in East Asia for 7 years now. My kids were 6 and 8 when we got here. I had never had a maid or a nanny. Then we move here and find that they are pretty much the norm. And affordable. I am seriously spoiled now. You will love it.

 

[Shasta_man]

Oh yeah, Batu Balong! It had swirling surface currents similar to the video above the day we were there. We had to turn back half way through because they literally could not get around the corner.

 

[Sorrows]

First off, please excuse me while I get my envy under control. Am presently a rather sickly puce-green color. I LOVE your list! You are so lucky!

Secondly, I think the fact that you are even asking this question and taking the issue seriously says a lot about your readiness. I mean, you're obviously not some know-it-all hot-dogger who can't take direction nor a person unwilling to ask for help. That has to be half the battle right there.

I think a refresher course might be a good idea or the course MantaJohn was talking about. Is it possible you could go somewhere for a quickie diving getaway? (There are some cheap fares to Florida right now, for example.) That's what we did to get ready for Palau--went to West Palm Beach. Of course, the currents were absolutely no big deal then, but at least we were diving a mere two months before the big trip. I think part of the problem many of us have is that we just don't have the opportunity to dive that much--two, maybe three weeks a year?--it can be a long time between dive trips.

One thing I do know--you are going to be an OUTSTANDING diver when this is all over! Congratulations!

 

[bugeye]

My advice is to stay at one of the resorts at Raja Ampat. I was there last week staying at Raja Ampat Dive Resort. This was good but not for you (no hot water). There are plenty of more luxurious resorts there as well though. They're all quite pricy but since you have a good budget I think it's worth it for the quality of diving. There are a good range of sites at Raja Ampat some of which have currents but certainly not all of them and our DM seemed to know which sites were which. If you stay at a resort with several boats they can group you with divers of similar ability and interests (macro vs big stuff) and send you out together. I'm not sure whether a liveaboard is able to do this as easily. The "Manta Sandy" (not Manta Hwy!) dive at Raja Ampat is the easiest dive I've done - about 15m sitting on a sandy bottom with no current ... but with 4 mantas circling above your head. More likely than not you'll come back at the end of the trip feeling very comfortable with currents - but even if you don't you'll still have a brilliant dive trip.

Check out my raja ampat video -> search Youtube for "AllClassDivers"