I should go ahead and admit that I dont have much more than anecdotal references to give with this particular incident because it didnt happen to me. Instead it was an experience a good friend had that he shared last night over dinner. The story he told me scared me enough that I thought I would try to get better understanding of it by posting what I do know here and getting some calming and sage advice from the SB membership.
As his story goes, he was in Puerto Galero doing a drift dive somewhat early in the day to about 30 meters. He was with a highly experienced tech diver at the time so things were meant be easy.
As they reached depth something rather horrifying and almost surreal happened as he described it. A monstrous down current grabbed them and started dragging them downward off the reef. My friend said that he needed to fully inflate his borrowed OMS tech BCD. His buddy had to do the same as well. On top of this they still needed to kick consistently to maintain depth. He said that he had to stare at his dive computer which was beeping like hell while he kicked to get some sort of orientation. It showed him to be at 58 meters, nearly double what they had planned for! And there was a lot of empty space still below them.
As I sat at the table drinking wine and pondering this scary situation, he told me that he knew he was suffering terrible nitrogen narcosis and he was breathing heavily as well due to the stress. He swam to his more experienced buddy who could tell immediately that my friend was in distress. He tried to warn him not to breath too heavily. They locked an arm. His buddy then inflated his floatation sausage to get more lift and the two began working their way against this down current to get back to the surface.
You can probably guess what happened next. The current let go and the two of them had to purge air quickly at about 28 meters, which they did successfully.
Luckily, he told me, this happened so early in the dive that they both had plenty of air. The entire dive lasted something like 18 minutes.
Later at the bar, my friends buddy came to him to talk about the incident and to congratulate him on keeping calm enough so that they could make it back. He told him that if he had lost it down there, his buddy would have to have left my friend on the spot, a chilling thought that made me shake when I heard it. Then he added that it was a good thing that they had tech BCDs. If they had had recreational BCDs, he claimed, they would have been goners.
I am pretty shaken by this, especially since Puerto Galero is in my near diving future. Im off to dive there next weekend. My friends explanation concluded with the idea that these things do happen and, well, diving is dangerous.
I guess what I want to know is if this tale is something that I should take at face value (my friend is not one to exaggerate by the way). I am also very concerned about this notion that recreational BCDs wouldnt have had the lift to pull them out. Is this an exaggeration, or should I be thinking about another BCD?
Also, if this strong current is possible, what causes it?
Thanks for any feedback you can give me.
Cheers!
As his story goes, he was in Puerto Galero doing a drift dive somewhat early in the day to about 30 meters. He was with a highly experienced tech diver at the time so things were meant be easy.
As they reached depth something rather horrifying and almost surreal happened as he described it. A monstrous down current grabbed them and started dragging them downward off the reef. My friend said that he needed to fully inflate his borrowed OMS tech BCD. His buddy had to do the same as well. On top of this they still needed to kick consistently to maintain depth. He said that he had to stare at his dive computer which was beeping like hell while he kicked to get some sort of orientation. It showed him to be at 58 meters, nearly double what they had planned for! And there was a lot of empty space still below them.
As I sat at the table drinking wine and pondering this scary situation, he told me that he knew he was suffering terrible nitrogen narcosis and he was breathing heavily as well due to the stress. He swam to his more experienced buddy who could tell immediately that my friend was in distress. He tried to warn him not to breath too heavily. They locked an arm. His buddy then inflated his floatation sausage to get more lift and the two began working their way against this down current to get back to the surface.
You can probably guess what happened next. The current let go and the two of them had to purge air quickly at about 28 meters, which they did successfully.
Luckily, he told me, this happened so early in the dive that they both had plenty of air. The entire dive lasted something like 18 minutes.
Later at the bar, my friends buddy came to him to talk about the incident and to congratulate him on keeping calm enough so that they could make it back. He told him that if he had lost it down there, his buddy would have to have left my friend on the spot, a chilling thought that made me shake when I heard it. Then he added that it was a good thing that they had tech BCDs. If they had had recreational BCDs, he claimed, they would have been goners.
I am pretty shaken by this, especially since Puerto Galero is in my near diving future. Im off to dive there next weekend. My friends explanation concluded with the idea that these things do happen and, well, diving is dangerous.
I guess what I want to know is if this tale is something that I should take at face value (my friend is not one to exaggerate by the way). I am also very concerned about this notion that recreational BCDs wouldnt have had the lift to pull them out. Is this an exaggeration, or should I be thinking about another BCD?
Also, if this strong current is possible, what causes it?
Thanks for any feedback you can give me.
Cheers!