How to get skills prior to diving in currents in Raja Ampat

[hiker11]

As a followup to @sunseek’s post about the experience needed to dive Raja Ampat, I have some additional questions. Instead of hijacking her/his thread, I thought it might be better to post my specific questions separately.

My husband and I are headed to Raja Ampat over Christmas 2023-- 11 days on the Amira followed by 7 days at the RA Dive Lodge. I consider myself a novice diver— we currently have 150 dives each (AOW, Nitrox). My air consumption on my last trip ranged from .43 cf/M to .55 cf/M. Our experience includes two LOBs --in the GBR/Australia and Turks & Caicos. We have also done diving in Rangiroa (Tiputa Pass), Bora Bora, Fiji (Tavauni), Grand Cayman, Bali, Loreto/ Baja, Hawaii, etc. We have two dive trips booked between now and RA to log more dives (10 days in Belize in April and 7 days in Loreto/Baja in Sept).

After reading about the challenging currents, I'm a little nervous about diving RA, to be honest. We often hire personal guides on our trips if they are available, but the Amira does not offer that-- they have 1 guide per 4 divers. We have never done diving that required reef hooks --we only recently purchased them in preparation for our trip. While we have our own DSMBs, we're not proficient at using them and have relied on our DM to deploy his. We've never done what I think is a negative entry, although we dove Rangiroa’s Tiputa Pass from zodiacs with a relatively quick back roll entry required.

My question is this: if you haven't used reef hooks or done negative entries before, how do you get that experience before going places that have strong current that require those skills? I’ve deployed a DSMB in a pool, but I know I should get some open water experience doing it before RA and I think I'll try to hire a private DM to do that with me in Belize when we’re there next month.

I welcome any advice on how I can improve my skills before heading to Raja Ampat as I like being prepared.

 

[Indah]

You might want to drop the word 'nitrogen" and just use the word narcosis. A good chunk of the narcosis people experience is CO2 related more than Nitrogen........ 10x more narcotic......

Thanks, indeed often overlooked. I found this very good article about it: Carbon Dioxide, Narcosis, and Diving

 

[ginti]

Nitrogen narcosis can occur in shallower depths as well.

Exactly.

Actually, narcosis does not start suddenly after a certain deep. It is a gradual effect that begins as long as we put our heads under the water, but the effects at a few meters of depth are almost non-existent. However, it is absolutely possible to incur significant narcosis effects even at 20 meters, depending on the circumstances (maybe even less if there is hard work involved, but I do not know). I could feel some effects at least twice at depths lower than 30m/100ft.

I don't know why narcosis is so underestimated...

To me, the only reason to make a very quick descent is to avoid accumulating gas in tissues when doing tech dives with accelerated deco. And even in this case, one must always be able to see the buddy/buddies and stop very quickly in case of any problem (for example, a team member has some ear issues) - so definitely not going down like a stone.

In all the other cases, I tend to go as slow as possible, compatible with the environmental conditions and the fact that I want to reach the bottom at a certain point

 

[NootFish]

I got a lot of good current, reef hook, and negative entry experience in the Maldives! Definitely practice with the SMB, keep it in the same spot on your BCD (I usually clip it towards the back on the left) and play around with inflating it. If you really want, borrow a few of them and make a bouquet on the surface for practice. That's what my tech instructor made me do to make sure I could get it perfectly erect every time.
With any device underwater, know where it is, know how to get it ready to use, and get comfortable with the steps of using it. For me, if it's a current and the plan is to hook, I get it in hand with the rope ready to go well in advance of when I need it, then am looking for an ideal spot to attach (dead rock with nothing sticking out that can get damaged by moving back and forth). Also good to observe the area for bitey/stingy critters like eels and scorpionfish as you don't want to encounter those unaware. Of note, both reef hooks and DSMBs have strings attached, which can get tangled up (with you) if you don't tie them up properly. Observe how people pack away their reef hooks after use!