Under Currents What To Do In Case You Get Caught ?

[DocVikingo]

You might find useful this "Undercurrent" piece that I wrote on dealing with vertical currents---->

http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/articles/Upwellings200102.shtml

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[kevink]

Still have not made it to Coz, but I have a year in Palau under my belt. The vertical walls there were also prone to upcurrents and downcurrents. The Undercurrent link is worth reading.

For people new to wall diving, since you lack any bottom for reference, you need to do one of three things to even be able to realize you are in a vertical current - -

1. Diligently monitor your depth. Swim with your computer or depth gauge under your nose.

OR

2. Pick a point on the wall even with where you are swimming and aim for it. Do this about every 20' or so. This will make it so that you are going from point to point along the wall.

OR

3. Run the exact profile your guide is running. Trail them if you have to. These guys & girls do this everyday and they don't want to run zigzag patterns and get bent.

I can't tell you how many times I have looked back at groups to see them zippering all over the wall because of mild vertical currents we were encountering. These aren't the sort of drop-dead-easy 60' sandy bottom mooring line dives you encounter in the Caribbean. Use use your head and be safe out there.

 

[z28pwr]

Thanks for the info. I will continue researching this matter and will hire a personal divemaster to babysit us for the first few dives just to play it safe.

 

[ColdH2Odvr]

OK, sorry for the cliffhanger, that post was at midnight so I was pushing it as it was.

There was no sign of mike when we surfaced. We looked for bubbles or any other clues to where he might be but with a bit of a swell and some surface current, there wasn’t much to be seen. I wanted to go after him; Mary wanted to go for help. Fortunately, we never had to make that decision as Mike popped up just as the adrenalin was starting to surge again. He hadn’t made it to China but he was out quite a ways. He was also fairly happy to be back on the surface. It turns out that mike was kicked out of the current at about 40 feet. He said he could see what we were going through but few feet away from the wall where he was, he was fine. He said he hung out for a bit and watched, and then when he saw we had things under control he started up. Things were going just fine until he hit about ten feet then got shot right back down to 30 again. This time he had had enough so he aired up and got the hell out of the water.

All in all, it was a beautiful and exciting dive… :flusher:

I have about 100 dives at that site. I’ve seen quite a bit of current there but that was the only time (before or since) that I’ve encountered a down current there. Now I’ve spent quite some time watching the tide turn there to figure out what happened. It turns out there’s a brief period on the flood after slack where whirlpools form above where we were. Once the current picks up, the current pulls out way from the wall and the whirls stop. Looking at the tide and current tables, there shouldn’t be much going on just as the tide turns to flood, and on most of that site there isn’t. We were just in the right place at the right time.

Dave