Japanese tourist missing in Crystal Bay (Bali)

[kaerius]

You're trying to use an equipment solution to resolve a skills issue. The skill here is dive planning and avoiding the hazard. Once in the hazard, the techniques mentioned in the post you quoted involved hanging onto the reef and being patient for the current to subside.

No I'm not, and hanging onto the reef may not be an option.

Indeed I've been in current dragging me down enough to necessitate full BCD inflation before, and this in open water after letting go of the reef, due to an abort being signaled because my dive buddy was severely CO2 narced, this current was also taking me away from the reef, and much too strong to fight it. If it had been stronger and pulled me down with full BCD, then I would have had no choice but to follow it down. This btw was an unexpected downcurrent that the dive op had not themselves anticipated, and is not usual for the site.

So it's gearing up to meet the demands of a very real enviromental hazard, which when in it, there is nothing else to do except inflate fully and kick up. I know there are other dives like this as well, heck I know of some where full inflate and kick is part of the diveplan(!)

 

[peterbj7]

If I found myself in that situation I'd rather work out which way I was going when I entered the down current and swim the opposite way.

 

[kaerius]

If I found myself in that situation I'd rather work out which way I was going when I entered the down current and swim the opposite way.

Again, not always applicable.

It would have done nothing in the situation I was in(a very wide current which was going downward into the channel after coming over the submerged reef, if I hadn't inflated I'd have gone down to the bottom at around 50-60m and then up 2-3km away at the other side of the channel, about 5 minutes later, very strong current), nor would it in another common downcurrent situation: the dropoff at the end of a channel drift dive, these can pull you down several hundred meters in extreme cases.

Note: I entered the current by letting go of the reef, our dive was being aborted due to a diver being narced. The point of no return to the reef was maybe 5 meters out, at that point I could have dived under the current and then returned, after that there was absolutely no chance whatsoever of exiting that current short of riding it out. The downcurrent started 40-50 meters out, about 3-4 seconds after letting go, and 2.9-3.9 second after passing the point of no return. I needed to have my BCD fully inflated for about 30-60 seconds before I was gaining buoyancy again and needed to dump all that air.

 

[divewench1]

perhaps I'll look into getting one of those 45lbs lift semi-wing BCDs before I head down to indonesia.

My husband (Instructor Trainer in Bali) swears by his Tigullio T52 Hover for the amount of lift it gives him, especially with dive guests hanging on every D ring,lol.

Having had a Singaporean DM dive guest with me in Crystal Bay, who swam up to me giving the out of air signal, who then managed to drag me to the surface after I had donated my occy, whilst I was trying to do a safety stop, I know all too well of the problems caused by CB, and divers putting themselves into a situation that they are ill prepared for.

We surfaced 1 metre off the moving propeller of a dive boat, and knowing that the previous year there had been a propeller fatality in just the same area, boy oh boy was my heart racing when I finally surfaced safely. Needless to say, the DM got an earful for not checking his SPG AND not being correctly weighted enough to hold a safety stop, 'who the hell qualified you as DM'??
Every year, as divers try their damndest to see the fabled Mola Mola, they will opt to dive in CB, when there are 'easier', quieter dive sites that can also come up trumps on Mola2.

In my opinion (and that's only MY opinion), if you have a minimum of 50 logged dives, advanced certification or preferably with some experience of drift or current diving, have dived within the last 6 months, are fit and healthy and carry a surface marker buoy, you should be 'qualified' to dive CB, after listening hard to the dive briefing, keeping your wits about you, whilst staying close to the reef and your dive guide.

Some of Bali's dive sites are NOT easy, and please.........never dive CB as your first dive back in the water after an interval of years :cool2:

 

[kaerius]

My husband (Instructor Trainer in Bali) swears by his Tigullio T52 Hover for the amount of lift it gives him, especially with dive guests hanging on every D ring,lol.

Thanks for the model name for that BCD! I've worked with another instructor who had one and swore by it as well, but I'd forgotten the model, I was looking for it recently and the closest I found was the Mares Prestige MRS. But those red wing bladders are quite distinct on the Tigullio, and I recognize the logo, it's definitely the one I was looking for.