San Juan - Not Just Another Downwelling

[skicolby]

Agreed, but it wouldn't have been a night dive in any case unless it had been with Death Wish Divers....

People do night dives there...
Barracuda Reef, Cozumel

Just curious....any idea how close to the wall you had to be to get caught in that downcurrent? Can it sweep you to and over the wall from some distance away or do you generally need to be near or over the wall to get in that situation?

Thanks.

 

[DandyDon]

Glad you made it thru that... scary stuff.

One suggestion if you ever find yourself in that sort of situation again (and I hope you don't)... get away from the wall...but you did everything else very well.

I carry different reels, depending on how deep I am diving or could be diving. Most are more than 100 ft, so sending one up from 80 would not be an issue.

Using the "inflate the vest" trick is scary stuff, as sometimes you get suddenly let go of...

Thanks for the post.

I argued with a Coz Instructor on the Coz forum over this one. I like to get away from the wall, swimming across the down current, and do a blue water ascent, not having to worry about hitting the waterfall at the top like it sounds like Jen did - but I was outclassed. I still agree, swim away from the wall to get out of it completely, but I am not an Inst nor want to be.

When caca hits tho, it's then and there - do something good! Jen did, even tho I agree with your thots.

Inflating the BC has some risks yeah, but you do what you gotta do at times. It's a risky option, but do keep the fast dump ready to use - not the deflate button.

 

[Sue Sue]

Thankyou for your report. The information you have shared is something to learn from and keep in mind for my future dives.

 

[lemon]

scary stuff, no doubt. one possible thing to consider as well would be to ditch your camera. anything that increases your drag in a down-current is going to push you deeper. not easy to do, granted, but you can always buy another.

 

[JenLoves2Dive]

Thanks Pufferfish, but I think I might have to differ with this particular instance. Although the downwelling usually occur close to the walls, in this particular case it was not an option. Matt, the diver behind me was much further out from the wall than me and I saw him get sucked down. The only thing I can figure out is that there was such a strong current pushing from the West (shore) that perhaps the downswell was further out from the wall than normal? I don't know, but my option was to get TO the wall. I could visually see his bubbles going down and to head away from the wall was NOT an option. I am sure every case would be different and you just have to go with gut and an ability to read the situation. Just lucky I guess. DandyDon I still disagree given the cross current.
Lemon, I absolutely considered ditching the camera. <sigh>

 

[JenLoves2Dive]

One more thing: A Cozumel DM friend of mine told me that if I found myself in that situation again and was trying to go up, that the best thing I could do was to tuck everything in, including my arms and get as vertically aerodynamic as possible and kick hard to get up.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Thanks Pufferfish, but I think I might have to differ with this particular instance. Although the downwelling usually occur close to the walls, in this particular case it was not an option. Matt, the diver behind me was much further out from the wall than me and I saw him get sucked down. The only thing I can figure out is that there was such a strong current pushing from the West (shore) that perhaps the downswell was further out from the wall than normal? I don't know, but my option was to get TO the wall. I could visually see his bubbles going down and to head away from the wall was NOT an option. I am sure every case would be different and you just have to go with gut and an ability to read the situation. Just lucky I guess. DandyDon I still disagree given the cross current.
Lemon, I absolutely considered ditching the camera. <sigh>

Understand... it is typical that the current would be much stronger a bit away from the wall. And by going away from the wall, I meant way, away from the wall. That can be very difficult to do.. as you would be swimming into the blue water, and lossing every reference point you had. And you would be swimming into a stronger current (at least for a short time), which could take you deeper. Understand completely why you did not do that. The danger of doing that is loosing your direction and not actually swimming out of it.

That will get you out of the dowward current, but usually puts you into another current.in blue water...which some people seem to worry more about.

Nothing quite like being 100 ft down, in the middle of nothingness and being sucked to who know where. I like to think of it as a great time to look for jelly fish.

It helps, by the way, to only look at the next objective and not worry about anything past that.

And just so you know, been there done that in several different ways. And done the rock crawl (but I had gloves on)

 

[EvaL]

Thanks for sharing, JenLoves2Dive. Your description was so detailed I felt like I was there and asked myself what I would have done at every juncture. It's amazing the situation was back to normal only a few minutes later and anyone in the water then would never have known what had just happened.
Obviously you made the right call and got yourself back up to the surface safely. I'm glad and relieved everyone's made it back safe and sound.
Dive safely.

 

[lemon]

One more thing: A Cozumel DM friend of mine told me that if I found myself in that situation again and was trying to go up, that the best thing I could do was to tuck everything in, including my arms and get as vertically aerodynamic as possible and kick hard to get up.

Hi, yes, this is what I meant by ditching the camera - especially if it is of any significant size. Any time you are moving against, or trying to prevent being swept further along by, a strong current you want to be as streamlined as possible. scary stuff.

 

[ggunn]

The only thing I can figure out is that there was such a strong current pushing from the West (shore) that perhaps the downswell was further out from the wall than normal?

When you are diving San Juan (and most of the other Coz sites), the shore is to the east of you.