Am I being silly? I’m going on a cruise at the end of the month and had originally planed to dive in Cozumel, but as it gets closer I’m Terrified at the thought of drift diving. I just got certified over the summer and all my dives have been fresh water quarries. What should I do? I’m almost to the point of just taking a discover scuba in Cozumel so that I can get my feet wet so to speak…I’m not afraid of diving in fact I’m very excited to be diving in Ft Lauderdale post cruise, I’ll be there for 3 days and plan to dive day 2 and 3. I just can’t over come this fear, not to mention the fact that I know they will push me beyond my training (i.e. go to deep)
HELP!!!!
Sean
1) bring a decent sized safety sausage...but forget about bringing a reel for now...you're going to be task-overloaded. If you get separated from your group and are on your own, as you ascend and do your shallow safety stop......and then prepare to surface...rotate in slow 360 degree circles....LISTENING for the sound of approaching boat engines......and looking upwards. If you hear boat motors getting closer...do not surface until you hear the motors getting further away...otherwise you risk getting 'torpedoed' by a boat/props!
2) wear a dive slate, on which you will be writing down the name of your dive boat...that way, if you surface and another boat spots you first, they can radio 'your' boat to recover you...assuming you remember/wrote down the name of 'your' boat.
3) get familiar with your own dive computer...if you get separated from your group, it will be up to you alone to be able to read and follow your own computer to ascend safely.
4)...your air consumption will likely suck...which is to be expected......don't get paranoid about it....but do pay attention to that!
5) ....how's your bouyancy control......are you still pretty clueless or are you at least 'passable' in that category?
6) in drift diving, your body/BC acts like a 'sail', your 'radar cross section' will determine your drift speed relative to the rest of the group. If you find yourself drifting too fast (ahead of the rest) get horizontal, head facing the current to reduce your 'sail' area exposed to the current.....also, if you are terrain-following (like a cruise missile) duck behind large coral heads to hide from the current until the rest of the group catchs up to you.
7) don't be in the very front of the group......use the 'advance guard' divers as providing advance warning of oncoming water/current/updraft/downdraft conditions...see what's happening to them so you can prepare if you see something 'radical' happening 'forward' (this is most useful in the event of a major upwelling/downwelling)
8) enjoy the scenery, but maintain situational awareness, don't drop to the bottom for a minute to look closely at something, then look up and find the group has 'vanished'.
9) make sure you don't have overly sensitive ears/sinuses...sometimes currents move at different speeds at different depths...they can also move in different directions at different depths......to stay with your group you might have to make something of a 'crash dive' to drop down to a depth matching the group/DM......if you're stuck on/near the surface ear-clearing, the group may accelerate away from you as they catch a deeper current.
10) wouldn't hurt to have one of those LOUD air powered horns that connect to your inflator hose to surface signal a boat...or warn off a boat that might not see you and run over you.
11) wouldn't hurt to carry a small dive light...so you can look inside/under things...or if you do a wreck dive......also, if you end up doing a twilight dive, an emergency dive light is useful if it's dusk/dark at the end of the dive and you need it to signal a boat.
12) gloves and knives are officially not allowed inside the Marine Park
13) don't touch the coral or any of the animals !
14) stay well hydrated...the #1 cause of decompression sickness is dehydration !
15) don't forget the mask defog !
16) probably don't bring a camera, at least until you are a lot more comfortable and your bouyancy control is decent.
17) gonna suggest at least a moderate thickness wetsuit....3 mm full suit isn't a bad start...new divers ALWAYS underestimate their thermal protection needs...and a cold diver uses even more air...and your air consumption will suck anyway and you'll need all the help you can get!
18) don't forget your small bills (tip $ plus small expenses if you do a surface interval at a beach side restaurant.)
19) partake of any boat offered snacks/fruits......trust me, you will burn up the calories.
20) don't make a very common rookie mistake, especially bad to make in a high current, of trying to swim 'upstream' if you blow past the DM and DM has spotted something cool for you to come look at.....you will burn an incredible amout of your already limited air fighting your way upstream to see what he's pointing out...and whatever he's found, there will likely be another critter just like it just 'down the road'...this is why you let the DM stay a decent distance in front of you, and you monitor the DM, and when he pulls over to show the group something, you can anticipate things and plot an intercept course....versus trying to reverse course and swim uphill after you've already passed him by. And honestly, if the DM pulls over to look at something, and there are already 12 other divers swarming around 'it'.....that's usually a big "cluster" and I don't bother seeing that critter/item.....the other divers will kick you in the face and have probably already scared off whatever it was anyway...there's always stuff you can look at on your own...you don't need to be spoon-fed everything.....enjoy your own dive and what YOU see/discover !