I recently experienced a severe down current while diving Open Circuit and taking photos with a large DSLR camera set up. It was at the end of an interesting drift dive basically along a wall quite close to shore at a Komodo island dive site. I had completed my safety stop and was about to ascend when I was caught in a down current which within what seemed a few seconds had taken me from 5 to 25 meters. I still kept going down to 35m despite fully inflating my wing. If wasn't so scary watching your exhaled bubbles descend faster than yourself is quite an unreal experience. Anyway I tried to swim out away from the island (wasn't close enough to grab hold of anything otherwise I would have) and eventually got out of the extreme down current. I still had to fin pretty hard to get back to the surface even with the wing fully inflated. When I did eventually surface I was more than 400m out from shore, so it was quite a wild ride! My buddy managed to grab hold of the reef and climb up hand over hand and just made it back with about 10 bar.
BTW I usually dive quite conservatively so had plenty of gas left at the end of this dive (100 bar) but I blew threw pretty much all of it by the time I was back on the surface (15 bar), so that conservatism certainly saved my butt.
Not sure I agree about the comments of trusting your DM. Our guy, unbeknown to us, had not dived the site before and when the current hit, he saved himself and left us behind. Needless to say neither my buddy or I were impressed by his actions.
Not sure I have any advice about how to prepare for this. SMB is a good idea, but in my case even though I had one I did not have a chance to deploy it. I can't really describe just how fast the current took me. Drifting with the SMB inflated for the whole dive is something I would consider in the future. I would also seriously consider diving in a tropical drysuit so I had redundant source of buoyancy (I am usually a cold water diver and always in a drysuit, so am comfortable with this). Diving conservatively and keep thinking are probably the two things that saved me.
Cheers
Larry
This. I know it's an old post, but it's still relevant. I've recently been diving a lot in Indo, mostly Raja, and I'm headed to Komodo for many more months. The down-current horror stories shared by my Raja guides, including a recent death, have made this more than a fatty-tail risk in my book. And that all came shortly after I unknowingly visited the site of a few deaths (some apparently survived with permanent injuries) from a group of divers in New Zealand who were caught in a massive down-current.
I think current-related risks are enhanced for certain locations, and if you're frequently diving in one, it's not a bad idea to use a bcd with more lift. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try multiple things (hang on or climb reef if possible), but fully inflating your bcd may become necessary. Interestingly this was cited as failure of the divers in New Zealand, none of whom inflated their vests or dropped their weight belts, which is a standard recommendation for many emergency situations.
I think fearmongering over an uncontrolled ascent afterwards is senseless when you have multiple dump valves. If necessary, pull the cord(s) then restore mildly positive. That's much easier to deal with than suddenly finding yourself shoved down to 35m+ with only the safety margin in your tank. Mask potentially flooded, regulator half-yanked out of your mouth.
But you do need to familiarize yourself with your dump valves and practice using them, same with all basic scuba safety measures. Otherwise it'll be operator error to blame, not the prior step of inflating your vest.
Interestingly, I found a
dive-shop blog from India that also mentions down-current as a recommended factor in choosing bcd lift. It's another straw on the proverbial camel's back that suggests it's not just fat vs. muscle, extra gear, wetsuit, and tech diving configurations that matter when choosing bcd lift. Location matters too.
Deploying your SMB may help, but as a poster above mentioned, there may be very little time and numerous other demands on your attention.
I know people will defend the gear they bought to their graves, but I'm of the mind it's entirely fine to have multiple pieces of gear that are suited to different locations, and I just don't see 18lbs of lift cutting it anymore for SEA. I'm therefore considering adding a very reasonably priced cressi solid (33lfbs of lift, weighs only 5.73 lbs in medium). I prefer weight belts anyways, so no loss there. Can add a shoulder d-ring for $10. The pockets on the solid are nice and roomy, and it's built for dive shop abuse so it'll likely last a long time if treated well. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm going to feel a lot better knowing I have 83% more lift power when in Komodo. Let's hope I never need it.
Cheers.
