A tale of three currents

[Rhone Man]

Sitting in the airport ready to catch my flight after three pleasant days diving in Moalboal, Philippines, I thought I would share with the board a totally new experience that I had on Sunday.

During the Sunday afternoon dive it was just me and Filipino DM (question: why do people stay in a dive lodge and then only do two dives a day? Anyhow...). We went out to Pescador Island, which is really just a big sheer pinnacle that comes out of the water, and drops pretty much straight down to somewhere around 270 feet (I am told). The plan was to drop in on the West side, swim around the North face, and get picked up on the East side. Start deep, work shallow. Very typical of all the diving we had done. Weather was uncommonly rough topside (most days were idyllic), but hey, that is a problem for the guys left on the boat.

So we drop to about 90 feet. Swimming into a mild current, but no big deal. Enjoying the dive. As we come around the north face, I suddenly realise I have lost track of the DM whilst enjoying the scenery. Irritated with myself, I wonder what to do. Can't go up - the waves would pound me against the cliff. I decide that I had best press on and just try and find the boat again once I get to the East side. I have one more really good look around... and I spot him. He is about 20 feet above me, kicking as if making for the surface, and energetically signalling for me to come up.

My first thought was to look down, to see what it is that he was apparently "fleeing", and I got a bit of the start. There below me were my own exhaust bubbles. Not all of them of course, but any bubbles the size of a quarter or smaller were either static or heading down the wall. I was caught in that mythical diving monster - the down current.

Had a bit of a flutter as one does when we feel something keeping you from the safety of the surface (reminded me of my first time in deco). I thought to just kick upwards like the DM, and then realised that wasn't a smart way to go about it and just blasted some more gas into my wing. Once I got up to 70 feet or so by the DM I stabilised - or tried to, getting bouyancy right in a down current was trickier than I though.

We kept working our way around, when we travelled about another 30 yards or so, the down current abruptly stopped and we were suddenly caught in a ripping currently sweeping us along the wall in our direction of travel. Both the DM and I reversed ourselves to kick against our direction of travel to slow ourselves down, but we still go periodically banged against the wall (me more than him I must say). I badly regretted leaving my thick lobster gloves at home for the trip.

When we got to the exit point, shame to say, we were both clinging on to otherwise innocent bits of coral. With remarkable sang froid, he gave me the signal for "swim around" (in Moalboal, SOP is to finish each dive with about a 12 minute swim around that also serves as a long safety stop). I gave him the signal for you-must-be-fricking-kidding-me and we terminated the dive.

Don't get me wrong - this was no ride of terror, it was enjoyable dive, but two of the three currents were unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. So what do I think that I learned? Well...

• down currents do actually exist
  
• they are not actually that difficult to manage, although a bit scary as a concept
• but it is much harder to get your bouyancy right when you are in one
• when you "pop out" you may need to dump some gas pretty quickly
• most unexpected thing: when your bubbles stop going up, they start to obscure your vision pretty quickly
• a strong current pushing you into a wall is something to be avoided
• if PADI really want to create a useful specialty, they should create a "ripping-like-a-mother current diver" course. But they won't - wouldn't fit in well with the marketing of diving as fun and easy.

 

[blue steal]

Thanks for the tale Rhone Man.
Been in some "ripping-like-a-monster" currents in Puerto Galera. quite a ride and easy to get separated from each other.

 

[TSandM]

Our trip to Indonesia taught me a great deal of respect for strong currents running along walls -- we had downcurrents AND upcurrents (which so far, scare me more). Everything is manageable, if you recognize what the problem IS, but the solutions may not be very pretty . . . I really like having a scooter where there are strong currents

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I enjoyed reading and learning from Rhone Man's post. I think the key to dealing with currents is early detection and compensation. Rhone Man, did you notice the down current before the DM's gesturing? If not, I wonder why not, unless you had no point of reference. I have been in ripping currents but not a ripping down current, so would like more info on the sensation or first indicator as a bit of data if I encounter the same in the future. Thanks for any follow up.
DivemasterDennis

 

[fisheater]

I had similar experiences at Puerto Galera, near Verse Island. With proper briefing (which our great Atlantis DMs always provided), they were manageable and quite exhilarating.

(I, too, wonder why folks travel halfway around the Earth, stay at a dedicated dive resort and then don't do all the dives. I did 60 in two weeks.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Thanks for another well written, entertaining and informative article.

We've been in some fairly heavy currents. Last May, while haning off the line for our safety stop on the C58 and the C55 (we did 3 dives on these two wrecks), the currents were strong enough that you could hear your hoses vibrating, and turning your head resulted in your mask being pulled away and flooding. We thought it was fun, actually, but we all had DSMBs, knew how to use them, and had discussed this before hand. Our decision was that if one got pulled off, we'd all go, shoot a bag, and finish our safety stop on the fly. We did just that on one dive when my wife let her grip slip. We stayed together and the boat had no problem following the bag as we drifted. And in the 100+ foot visibility, we saw a fair bit more reef while we drifted.

On a side note, safety stops are underrated for sight seeing. On our last trip, we saw a large (maybe 6') black tip shark on one stop, a turtle munching on the swarm of thimble jellyfish surrounding us on another, and two 6+ foot marlins on yet another stop. I still have no idea what Marlins were doing in a place with a 40-50 foot bottom. I always thought of them as deep water critters.

Add me to the camp who doesn't understand why people don't dive more at the resorts. Even when we're not at a dive-specific resort (such as when we're in Cancun) we still do 4 tanks a day, generally.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I had a similar experience on a Quadra Island (BC) trip once, doing a wall called "Row and Be Damned". Some of our group got blown back down from safety-stop depth to about 80 feet before they could react. Luckily for me, grabbing a handful of bull kelp stems kept me from getting sent much below about 40.

I've since learned to watch the fish ... they'll often tell you which direction the current's coming from ... when they're swimming "up", it's time to get the heck outta Dodge ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Tigerman]

I LOVE currents as long as I can go WITH them. The ones going downwards is not that fun though. Mostly as the only good they do is screw up my bouyancy

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Sometimes buoyancy isn't the issue ... on my website I have a story of a downcurrent with a different twist ...

To read it, click this link and then select the entry titled "Miso Soup" ...

NWGratefulDiver.com

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Mike Boswell]

Rhone Man - That was a good read. Thanks for sharing. I've never been in a down current like the one you describe. Funny the guide didn't forewarn you about it, though.

BTW - My wife and I sometimes do the morning dives and pass on the PM dives. This depends on how the diving is, whether conditions in the PM are better or worse, where they are going to dive, and what else there is to see and do. Part of the reason we travel is to dive, but part is to see the topside, too.

Very often, we find that the "after lunch" dive is not as good as the morning dives were: Sometimes the wind and waves are up, degrading the vis and limiting where the boat can go. Often, the captain wants to stay close and save time and gas, so the dive site is less interesting, many of the divers opt out, and the crew is less enthusiastic.