Drift diving is fairly easy to adjust to, and once you get used to it, the easiest, most relaxing diving that there is. Just a few basic concepts, a few easy rules, and some basic skills and tricks are all it really takes.
(1) The current is your FRIEND - it's going to do most of your work for you, as long as you don't try to fight it. Drift diving is like taking a tour of the reefs while riding on one of those moving walkways you find in airports. If you have to change terminals in an airport, would you rather make the half-mile walk on your own, dragging your bags all the way? Or would you rather just stand still while the moving walkway takes you to where you are going?
(2) Stay BEHIND the Dive Master! Let the Dive Master take the lead - he knows where the group is going, and you don't. He'll stop to show you stuff that you never would have spotted on your own, like a Splendid Toadfish hiding under a reef, a Green Moray hiding out in its hole, a sea horse or arrow crab or juvenile trunkfish (the cutest little things on the reef, IMO), and if you get out in front of him, you'll waste a lot of energy and air trying to swim against the current to get back to him. No need to crowd him, or bunch up in a tight group. Just try to keep the DM in front of you and within easy sight, and pick out something about the DM - his fins, his wetsuit, his goofy do-rag, whatever is easy to recognize - so that you'll know him underwater. And if, as sometimes occurs, two or even three dive groups come together on the same site, know your DM and dive group so that you don't follow the wrong set of divers out of there. Not that it's dangerous, but climbing up on a different boat than the one that brought you is bad form, and can be really embarassing (BTW, that is NOT something that I've ever done).
(3) Control your buoyancy. This is important.
(4) Don't helicopter way above the group, or get way below the group. The current often moves at different speeds at different depths, and if you decide that you'll use less air by hanging 15-20 feet above the group, you might find yourself being swept right past them or lagging way behind.
(5) Get a good trim - try to stay completely horizontal, with the smallest cross-section in the current. This is important if you want to swim a little ways back against the current, or hover in place to look at something interesting. The smaller cross-section you can present to the current, the easier it is to stay in place or swim into the current.
(6) The current normally moves the slowest immediately adjacent to the bottom, and if you want to stay in place without being carried away, get right up close to the bottom You can even anchor yourself in place with one or two fingers, but be careful where you put them - find a clean sandy spot on the bottom. Sticking your ungloved hand into a bunch of coral or plant life is a good way to get stung by hydroids and other tiny creatures, and is not good for the reef. You can also get out of the current altogether by ducking behind a coral head or wall.
Once you get acclimated to drift diving, and letting the current carry you on a great ride, it'll be your very favorite kind of diving.
