Strong currents, if swept away, what to do?

[Texasguy]

What one should do if is swept away by strong currents while scuba diving?

 

[redacted]

Generally speaking, you don't have a lot of choices. Go with it and don't kill yourself trying to fight it.

Now, their are some relatively limited currents. like a rip tide, that you can try to swim across the current to reach calmer waters. But you have to be able to recognize the situations where this is possible and then judge the shortest and safest way out.

That would then lead us to a discussion of signalling devices and rescue protocols.

 

[261311]

Gain buoyancy and signal for help assuming you're boat diving. If not, swim across the current to the closest shore/ exit point. Frankly, if neither of those are options the currents are too strong for you to really be in without support :S

 

[faze]

Go with it and look to exit to the side, failing that, it's time for your SMB to make an appearance, surface and enjoy the ride (presuming you have surface cover?)

Also watch your air, I once got caught in a strong current and was so busy concentrating on doing everything brilliantly that I kinda forgot the little thing of air!!!!

Fortunately I surfaced with 50 bar so all ok but it only dawned on me afterwards that I had been totally oblivious to my usage.

 

[Kilili]

Inflate your SMB, keep cool, and wait it out. Deploy at depth, so it will be spotted sooner. If you have one of those dinky 3-4 ft. sausages (or none at all) you might try prayer. They tend to disappear quickly from sight in choppy water. If you carry something at least 6 ft tall, your chances are far better.

If you have a loud signal horn, use it. If it's getting dark and you have a camera with flash, use it as a signalling device. Carrying a signal mirror is another option. Also, a small strobe is a handy thing to have with you.

Try to get "lost" with a buddy. Two bodies are easier to spot than one.

 

[toddster541]

The first thing is to know what currents to expect and to have a plan. Usually this means diving at predicted slack current, but it might mean riding along with a current. And current predictions don't always pan out. It's why I prefer live-boat diving, if you have enough people in the group. If the currents turn out to be too strong, you can abort the dive and the boat (which has been drifting along with you) can pick you up as you pop up.

Once, in the course of surfacing, I got caught on one side of a rip while the other three divers were on the other side. The boat went to pick up those three and lost track of where I was. I was rapidly floating toward Canada. So I swam perpendicular to the current and made landfall before I got too far away from the island. It took the boat about half an hour to find me. If I had waited, I would have been out in the middle of the channel. The stupid sound-making devices were worthless. A sausage-thing would have been better. But this is the reason that I'm tempted to buy one of those Nautilus submersible VHF radios.

 

[Texasguy]

Say you are at 60-70 feet. You are going with a current. You deploy your SMB. It rises but near the surface the current is of slower speed, can it rip SMB rope out of your hands leaving you without SMB?

 

[Kilili]

Say you are at 60-70 feet. You are going with a current. You deploy your SMB. It rises but near the surface the current is of slower speed, can it rip SMB rope out of your hands leaving you without SMB?

Beats me, but if I were being swept away by a strong current, I would be inclined to get a lot higher in the water column.

 

[flots am]

Say you are at 60-70 feet. You are going with a current. You deploy your SMB. It rises but near the surface the current is of slower speed, can it rip SMB rope out of your hands leaving you without SMB?

Only if you let go. The thin cave line is rated for a couple of hundred pounds, so if you don't let go, it's not going to break.

About the worst that would happen is that the SMB will be pulled back underwater.

flots.

 

[danvolker]

Say you are at 60-70 feet. You are going with a current. You deploy your SMB. It rises but near the surface the current is of slower speed, can it rip SMB rope out of your hands leaving you without SMB?

At least off of South florida, the current is strongest mid water to surface, and close or touching bottom is very reduced in power.....So if you are trying to get back to an anchored boat, aside from the fact that the normal deal is to swim upcurrent for the first half of the dive to make the return easy....if you are having to go up current to get to the anchor line, then hand over hand on the bottom ( preferably non-live bottom) at a slow and steady pace, will use up far less air than kicking....This is no way to plan a dive, what I am talking about is solving what you suggest is a near emergency scenario. You can even go hand over hand pulling along on a sandy bottom, better than you can propel by kicking alone in a strong current. If the current is huge, you may need some combination of kicking and pulling.

Now if you are just going with a current, on a drift dive, there is no reason I can think of to worry about it--the boat will get you when you want them to....