Just to amplify supergaijin's post: If you are shore diving, do your homework. Find out everything you can about the site from whatever resources you can, including local dive shops, other divers, internet reports or posts, websites, or books. Learn whether there are likely to be currents, and if so, whether they are predictable and how to choose the safest time. If you get to an attractive site on a weekend and NOBODY else is diving there, that's cautionary. There may be a good reason! The best way to avoid having to cope with a problem is to avoid the problem in the first place.
If you do get in the water and current begins to build, be a constructive chicken. The time to abort a dive is when you can still get back to shore, not when you can no longer hold position.
We dive current-sensitive sites all the time in Puget Sound. I've made mistakes on timing and gotten my butt handed to me; I've been in strong currents trying to sweep me away, and one downcurrent that was absolutely scary. It's WAY better to avoid the problem than to deal with it! But there is almost always a solution, in our water, if the diver keeps calm, although it may involve several hours in the water and a lot of swimming. Places like the Indian Ocean or the Red Sea may not be as friendly (we almost always have land in sight).
If you do get in the water and current begins to build, be a constructive chicken. The time to abort a dive is when you can still get back to shore, not when you can no longer hold position.
We dive current-sensitive sites all the time in Puget Sound. I've made mistakes on timing and gotten my butt handed to me; I've been in strong currents trying to sweep me away, and one downcurrent that was absolutely scary. It's WAY better to avoid the problem than to deal with it! But there is almost always a solution, in our water, if the diver keeps calm, although it may involve several hours in the water and a lot of swimming. Places like the Indian Ocean or the Red Sea may not be as friendly (we almost always have land in sight).