Difficulty holding safety stop in current

[fred32176]

Yesterday I dove Breakers Reef and Flower Garden out of West Palm Beach, FL. Our first dive was Breakers Reef and I wasn't able to hold a 15' safety stop for 3 minutes. The current once you hit about 20 - 25 feet seemed like it wanted to take you up. I could only tell I was moving upward as I could see the depth change and the ascent indicator on my computer. On our second dive at Flower Garden, I managed to remain in the safety stop range, but had to occasionally fin downward to avoid drifting up. I had a deployed DSMB and no gas in my BCD on ascending both dives. Both dives were hot drop drift dives and the current was much faster on the surface than at depth.

I got sharkskin T2 for Christmas and dropped my fresh water weight to 8 lbs with a AL 80 and 0 lbs with a steel farber bse 100. Yesterday for the salt water dives, I was using steel farber bse 100 cylinders with 32% O nitrox and 10 lbs of weight. I had no buoyancy problem at depth. On the first dive I didn't put any gas in the BCD and pulled the dump valve before ascending. On the second dive I put two puffs of gas in the BCD and I dumped the BCD gas before ascending.

How do you maintain a safety stop in fairly strong current with a DSMB deployed. I did not deploy my DSMB while on the bottom rather I did it during the assent to to safety stop. Should I have used a couple of more pounds of weight? Would it help to deploy the DSMB from the bottom?

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Get yourself a Jon Line.

Dive-Rite Jon Line

 

[Tadpole Frogfish]

Had that happen in the Phillipines. We deployed the SMB and attached the reel as a makeshift reef hook to a corner of the reef and held on. Made for an exhausting but amazing soft coral dive.

 

[Outbound]

Get yourself a Jon Line.

Dive-Rite Jon Line

I haven’t used a Jon line before so maybe I’m wrong, but I always thought they were for clipping off to an anchor or mooring line? OP was holding onto the reel end of a DSMB. A Jon line would’ve effectively just added a few more feet of line, no? Not sure how that would help a diver maintain a safety stop depth if this specific instance. But I might be missing something, so please let me know if I’m wrong.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @fred32176

I don't think the respondents realize these were drift dives, including the safety stop. I would guess that you may have been a little underweighted if all the gas was out of your BC.

At the beginning of the dive, you will be heavy, at least the amount of gas you are going to consume on the dive. You will need to counteract this at depth with gas in your BC and vent it on ascent to be neutral at your SS.

If the current at the surface is much greater than at your SS, your SMB may be pulling you, including up. You can largely control this by leaving more line out on your SMB, increasing the scope.

 

[inquis]

Current should have no effect on buoyancy if you're drifting with it. Either there was still air in the BCD or you're under weighted. Given your comment about not adding gas to the BCD at depth, I strongly suspect the latter.

 

[Tadpole Frogfish]

I haven’t used a Jon line before so maybe I’m wrong, but I always thought they were for clipping off to an anchor or mooring line? OP was holding onto the reel end of a DSMB. A Jon line would’ve effectively just added a few more feet of line, no? Not sure how that would help a diver maintain a safety stop depth if this specific instance. But I might be missing something, so please let me know if I’m wrong.

The reel ended up untangling itself. Wasn't the best safety moment. Now I bring a pair of gloves.

 

[johndiver999]

The current should cause you zero problems with maintaining a stop there.

The easiest way to do it, is to be a few lbs heavier than you need to be neutral. Deploy the smb from as deep as you feel comfortable doing. Then work you way way up and when you get to the desired stop depth, dump air from the BC and hang down on the smb string/reel/spool with 3-5 lbs of force.

People will say this is lazy and sloppy, but that is what I do generally when diving that area.

 

[Tadpole Frogfish]

How do you maintain a safety stop in fairly strong current with a DSMB deployed. I did not deploy my DSMB while on the bottom rather I did it during the assent to to safety stop. Should I have used a couple of more pounds of weight? Would it help to deploy the DSMB from the bottom?

The easiest way to do it, is to be a few lbs heavier than you need to be neutral. Deploy the smb from as deep as you feel comfortable doing. Then work you way way up and when you get to the desired stop depth, dump air from the BC and hang down on the smb string/reel/spool with 3-5 lbs of force.

People will say this is lazy and sloppy, but that is what I do generally when diving that area.

Having some spare reef hooks. That could work, but for me I don't really dive with anything in my BC. I pull the valve at the outset...so if it were not for reef hooks, drift drift drift.

 

[fred32176]

Get yourself a Jon Line.

Dive-Rite Jon Line

There wasn't a line that you could hook a Jon line to. The boat just finds you by your DSMB and picks you and your buddy up then finds the next pair or group of divers and repeat.