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.

 

[Cali_diver]

@hiker11 if you have done the Tiputa pass then you will be fine. I am a photographer so I have never done a negative entry nor have I been asked to do one. We have been told to get down as fast as we can in certain situations and sometimes that gets your heart rate going. Just control your breathing and pace yourself and never go faster then your ears can handle. You can alway call a dive or ask for a re-drop.

I have done more than 10 trips to Raja and have only seen one guide use a reef hook once because he had two elderly people who needed to hold on to him in a gentle current. Reefs are way too healthy for them in Raja so not many places to even put them. Most boats will avoid current or drift with it. Definitely practice deploying your smb in Belize, but I do not think you need a private guide in Belize to do this. Just tell your guide you would like to practice. Most Guides will help. There are some great videos on YouTube that show how to deploy from depth. You will love Raja!

 

[tarponchik]

Many factors, in addition to individual susceptibility, potentiate the severity of the narcosis at a given depth. In particular, any increase in exogenous or endogenous carbon dioxide potentiates the narcosis synergistically. For this reason, the narcosis is likely to be more severe in the swimming or working diver wearing a breathing apparatus than in one in a pressure chamber (Table 11-2). Similarly, hard work facilitates narcosis, as does very rapid compression, alcoholic excess or hangover, and apprehension.

OK, however, this is about narcosis, not DCS.

 

[tursiops]

OK, however, this is about narcosis, not DCS.

The whole discussion is about narcosis, not DCS. Just say you are wrong and move along. Jeez.

 

[matts1w]

OK, however, this is about narcosis, not DCS.

Ummmm.... OK? I have no idea what I am missing here, but you do you. Peace.

 

[Dan]

On a high end LOB with 4 divers/guide, its almost like having a private guide anyway. I’d expect they will help you as needed and tailor things to their groups needs. They will probably even make the groups to put people with similar desires together as much as possible. Each group might be doing a slightly different dive. If you want some help/practice deploying a SMB, mention it and they’ll likely accommodate.

For example, I was in a group (on Arenui) with my husband and 2 other photogs who preferred to mostly avoid current because its easier to do photography without, and I’m usually just as happy to skip current too. And of course they were critter hunting. He did exactly what worked for his group. Another group might be current junkies, and their guide could choose a different route that got them that.

This is certainly the case with Amira. I was in Raja Ampat on Amira in January 2020. I’ll be on Amira again next week for Forgotten Islands.

Trip Report - Raja Ampat Jan 2020 Trip Report

Summary This is a twelve-day (14-25 January, 2020) liveaboard trip to Raja Ampat on Amira liveaboard. The itinerary, as shown in Table 1, includes 10 days of diving, 4 dives / day, except during long passage and the last dive day for 24-hour surface interval before flying home. Figure 1 shows...

scubaboard.com

 

[Indah]

OK, however, this is about narcosis, not DCS.

Indeed tarponchik. That was indeed my point: " I my experience the chance of getting nitrogen narcosis is much greater with very fast descents. "

 

[tarponchik]

Indeed tarponchik. That was indeed my point: " I my experience the chance of getting nitrogen narcosis is much greater with very fast descents. "

OK, OK. So there are OTHER RISKS, I got it. Nitrogen narcosis is so uncommon at depths <100 ft it did not even occur to me it should be my concern when doing negative. So I assume your quote dealt with quick compression when getting to depths that are >100 ft, where one actually HAS chances do get narcosis, not when diving to recreational depths. For reference, I did 55 dives in Raja and only 3 dives had max depth 100 ft or more. I would consider currents there a higher risk factor, so if you are told to do negative, do it.

 

[tarponchik]

@hiker11 if you have done the Tiputa pass then you will be fine. I am a photographer so I have never done a negative entry nor have I been asked to do one. We have been told to get down as fast as we can in certain situations and sometimes that gets your heart rate going. Just control your breathing and pace yourself and never go faster then your ears can handle. You can alway call a dive or ask for a re-drop.

I have done more than 10 trips to Raja and have only seen one guide use a reef hook once because he had two elderly people who needed to hold on to him in a gentle current. Reefs are way too healthy for them in Raja so not many places to even put them. Most boats will avoid current or drift with it. Definitely practice deploying your smb in Belize, but I do not think you need a private guide in Belize to do this. Just tell your guide you would like to practice. Most Guides will help. There are some great videos on YouTube that show how to deploy from depth. You will love Raja!

Hooks are used only on a certain kind of dives where you have to stay in one place and watch something. We only used hooks at Manta Sandy, where we did 3 dives. There was no current on one dive but strong current on the other 2, so we had too hook to the pieces of dead coral that lay on the bottom there.
Currents were brutal sometimes and sea surface looked like washing machine, but our DMs were experienced and always managed to take us to the split point with little or no current. However, one day we picked up 3 divers from another liveaboard who were blown away and nobody looked for them.

 

[Indah]

OK, OK. So there are OTHER RISKS, I got it. Nitrogen narcosis is so uncommon at depths <100 ft it did not even occur to me it should be my concern when doing negative. So I assume your quote dealt with quick compression when getting to depths that are >100 ft, where one actually HAS chances do get narcosis, not when diving to recreational depths. For reference, I did 55 dives in Raja and only 3 dives had max depth 100 ft or more. I would consider currents there a higher risk factor, so if you are told to do negative, do it.

Nitrogen narcosis can occur in shallower depths as well.

 

[ChuckP]

Nitrogen narcosis can occur in shallower depths as well.

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......