Beware of French Lady

[zoomzx11]

you have to be comfortable with being on a fast drifting escalator ride. Only one rule is that you cannot go back. For me it beats swimming. Kinda like going to
the movies underwater. Loved Coz and dove the entire length with boat operator following our bubbles. He only lost us once. Just be sure that you do not go past the end of the island. When he lost us we saw the end coming up and swam to shore where he found us.

 

[deborahdelamar]

I would say that you have definitely had some bad luck at that site. And it has plenty of structures to shelter in, as well. Conquering strong current and relaxing in the flow certainly beats SWIMMING, IMO!

 

[Sideways]

My wife does not like the super fast current drift dives that we have experienced at times in Coz. Like the OP said, I think it's a feeling out of control thing. Everyones different. For me...no prob

 

[judydivescoz]

I love the drift as well! It's just a matter of relaxing and enjoying the ride!

 

[kelemvor]

I dunno on the women and drift diving thing. I think it's more a matter of properly planning for the dive at hand. My first drift dive was off palm beach in FL and the women on that dive did just as well as us men.

 

[edclee]

My wife is 70 and I am 69, we just got back from Coz and one of our favorite dives was Francesca with a ripping current, just go with the flow and enjoy it. If the dive master stops, just duck behind a coral head and stop. We love the fast current dives on Francesca, Tormentos, and Punta Tunich.
Ed

 

[Allison Finch]

In all my times diving Coz, I never experienced what I would define as an "extreme" current. A bit fast, maybe, but extreme? Not at all.

If you think that Coz has extreme currents, don't dive Lembongan Island and drop on the Blue Corner!! When the first sentance in the guide books says "DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!! then you know you might have something a bit extreme. The upwellings/downwellings add the the boiling current. The boils when we dropped in looked like class 3 whitewater. I just FLEW!!! I loved it until I tried to duck behind a huge coral head to wait for some other divers. I was tossed and flipped in the eddy like I was in a Maytag washer. It was hard to get out of the eddie, but when I did I almost got whiplash. One of the most extreme dives I've done, and great fun. Many of the other divers, however, were so terrified they were angry.

 

[Kokeldil]

My girlfriend also claims she hates drift diving, but always when we go through our logs to recall our dives and have some good memories there´s 2 dives in her personal top 5 which were drift dives. Now when I ask her then why she hates currents, the response will always be the same: THIS ONE DIVE! Needless to give a description, what it comes down to is, that a guide made his group go all the way against the current in the andaman sea, near Ko Bon - I hated that dive just as well, but the impact on me wasn´t as strong as on my girlfriend who, since then, claims she hates drift dives. Of course this *** dive was not a drift dive but a poorly planned dive and a fight against the water - which you can only lose. It amazes me that she refuses to admit that there have been fantastic dives for us even in current, even though that is a fact. Apparently the bad expieriences have more influence on her memory than the good ones. So anyway .... apart from this all we both are still beginners compared to the most people on this board, I guess.

And even you, OP, with about 100 - 199 dives might still be some distance from the point where you start to feel really, really good even in currents, I don´t know. I can only guess what was wrong there, but to me it sounds like a bad expierience that derived from a multiple factors, including maybe poor planning also and a lack of expierience in currents. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t have that much expierience either but my girlfriend is the best example, how ONE poor dive can spoil EVERYTHING and make you believe currents suck, while it´s not even true. She most certainly enjoyed other drift dives - those led by great guides who invited us to a relaxing water ride along a wall where you could just fold your arms, flip your fins lazily every now and then just to steer and eyjoy the movie floating past.

I yet have to agree with TSandM - I think I´d prefer the mild currents also - anything ripping my a** away in uncontrollable speed and direction would just make me mad, no matter how much marine life might be waiting at those spots.

 

[tomhooper]

Other than the North end reefs I've always thought Tormentos had the most current.
Oh and my wife likes drift diving. To each their own.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

We've done Francesa several times and never found the current to be an issue. Never found current to be a problem any where else, for that matter. The only time it was even close to a problem was once on the C55 off Cancun. Coming up the line we had ' flag waving' current. Still wasn't a problem. We all had DSMBs and the dive plan had included a contingency for someone getting blown off the line - buddies stay together, shoot a bag and wait for the boat.
I'm also at a loss to understand why people wouldn't be able to finish the dive described by the OP.