Tips for dealing with surge?

[JaneMitchell]

Navigating underwater was one skill I thought I'd never get. I could do everything else but I would always get lost or find my way back to where I wanted by pure chance. Sometimes it was the conditions and sometimes it was just getting distracted by all the stuff there was to see. Just go diving and eventually something will kick into place...well that's what happened to me! I can't say there are times where I still don't get lost but they've become far fewer then they used to.

 

[Kiwi303]

Then why do they teach it? Besides "that's what the book says to do."

Is it like math class where they teach you the hard way before they show you the easy way?

:zen:

They teach you because there are times when it is useful... Scalloping in low vis on a sandy bottom for one. If on rock with plenty of landmarks, gnarly memorable boulders and distinctive crevices while looking for lobsters, then natural navigation and returning the same way is useful, but on a plane sandy bottom, then out, reverse heading and back into the current is suitable, then with no current, a square will maximise the ground covered while looking for those tasty molluscs.

Match your nav method to the conditions.

 

[oddible]

Then why do they teach it? Besides "that's what the book says to do."

Is it like math class where they teach you the hard way before they show you the easy way?

:zen:

Funny that so many folks say just look around for landmarks - fair water divers! All of my local dives around Vancouver have had patches or even clines of silt / plankton / algae at specific depths. Unless you penetrate the cline vertically, you've got .5-1M vis while swimming through it. Very helpful to use UNav techniques to have a sense of where you are in that. It is an essential skill - if you're in a situation where someone kicks up a bunch of mess, it is very helpful to make your way out of it without bumping into things.

I did my UNav dive in the middle of a giant silt cloud, fortunately no surge. Nice to finish up my square and bump right into my instructor from out of the fog.

 

[Walter]

Don't swim against the surge. When the surge is pushing you back, stop kicking and relax. When it's pushing you forward kick. You move along nicely and if you get the correct timing of the surge, you'll travel as fast and as quickly as when there's no surge. When you kick against the surge, you waste energy for very little benefit.

 

[DevonDiver]

Personally, I don't think that kick cycles are a particularly effective distance-measuring technique for use in agitated water conditions. I am surprised that your instructor didn't offer alternatives.

Dealing with surge consists mostly of not 'fighting' the water. Relax and kick only when you are being moved forwards. Rest on the back-wash. This will move you forwards consistently and save effort. A critical factor in surge is situational awareness - planning your route ahead, predicting your movement and ensuring that you are not swept into an obstructions.

 

[DevonDiver]

Then why do they teach it? Besides "that's what the book says to do."

Don't assume that some scuba instructors have any wider range of experience or knowledge than what they themselves learned 'out of the book'. :shocked2:

 

[The Chairman]

My two AOW dives last week ended up not going so well because of the surge off the south shore of Kauai. My second dive was Underwater Navigation and while the instructor signed off on my logbook, I feel like I flunked

As an instructor, I feel you learned a LOT from this course. I was a part of a course where the instructor did not allow much leeway and it was horrible!!!

Like any skill, you now have the basics. It will be up to YOU to perfect those skills as time goes on. Don't be afraid of trying these new skills out and "failing". Just keep on diving and learning.

 

[Quero]

As others have said, don't fin when the surge is coming at you head on, only when it is pushing from behind. That way your kick counts will be more accurate. Kick cycles, I have found, are most useful as an aid to swimming patterns for search and recovery. For ordinary diving, the navigation method I use most is definitely natural features, followed by compass headings (or a combination of features + headings). As doubler mentioned, I always tell students to look at the feature they are making note of from the opposite direction so that they can recognize it on the way back.

As far as feeling that you failed because you missed the mark by 30 feet while swimming the square, consider the real-world use of being able to navigate (regardless of the method) back to your starting point--it's not because that's what the book says to do; it's because that's where you left your boat or that's where your beach exit is. If you surface 30 feet from your boat, that's okay--it's close enough to swim to on the surface. And if you come up slightly down shore from your entry point, that may be okay too, since you won't swim straight up onto the sand like a beached whale, but instead you'll surface near the beach but far enough out that you can still do a little surface swim to get closer to the exact place you want to be. What you are trying to avoid is coming up so far from your boat or from your beach exit that you have a long, tiring surface swim to get to it.

So while you may feel that you have not passed with flying colors because you missed the mark or because your counts didn't work out perfectly, I believe you did deserve to pass, and in addition, that you learned a great deal from the experience, which is the main thing. I often think that students who nail the nav tasks perfectly the first try learn less than those who struggle a bit.

 

[The Light Eternal]

Give yourself some credit, at least you didn't join the 'puking underwater through your regulator' club!

 

[Charlie99]

I see several suggestions of not finning when the surge is opposing you.

I find it easier to just ignore the surge and continue kicking normally. As many have pointed out, the net effect after one complete cycle of surge is close to zero.

I do find that I often use kick cycles for navigating. It's a bit easier in my case, since I'm counting frog kicks of about 4-5' length each, so the counts are much lower than for flutter kicks. It doesn't seem like surge affects the kick counts very much.

The only time exception to just ignoring the surge is when coming back into shore. Then I will often grab the bottom when surge is coming out, and then let the surge push me in. That way I get a free ride back up into waist deep water.

Surge can be very disturbing when you first encounter it. Fighting the surge can be very tiring. When you just go with the flow, then it becomes much easier. In clear water, you can often figure out where you can safely fin between rocks and corals by watching the fish. They have already figured out how the surge swirls and curls around rocks and reefs, and by watching how they are going back and forth you can "see" the water movement.