Too much current for comfort ...

[jeckyll]

I had an 'incident' a couble of weeks ago.

I was diving with 2 folks that I had been with before, and because I hadn't been diving very much (ony about 4 dives in 2 months) we went to a spot all of us know well.

We were at the site at the end of slack and decided to do a dive around an islet which would lead to the tide pushing us into the direction we wanted to go. I'd done this dive many times and was most familiar with the location. We entered the water and notice some current right off the bat. Not much but it was noticable.

When we reached the furthest point at about 60 fsw we were getting pushed off the wall and into the boating channel. One of the divers was pushed upwards, I was pushed "down and away" and the diver in the middle was least affected. I'd never felt the current move in this direction! I thought a few hard kicks would get me back into position and over to the islet wall. But no such luck. This is where I made my mistake. I decided to kick a bit harder. Still no luck. Now I noticed I was breathing very hard and I know I'd have to work to slow my breathing. Remembering my training I was supposed to look for something to hold onto and rest. Ok, that was the _problem_. I was getting blown into Howe Sound which has a depth of around 600 - 800 fsw. There wasn't going to be a place to hang on and rest.

I'm still breating to hard and turn around and call the dive to the buddy behind me. My ascent was faster than I would have liked, but I was fairly stressed at this point. I did keep an eye on my computer (which wasn't entirely happy, but not maxed out on ascent rate). We'd only been 10 minutes into the dive with a max of 80 fsw.

I had never felt like this on a dive and spent a fair bit of time analyzing the situation. (My buddies were fine with my calling the dive and we re-grouped at the surface where I inflated my safety sausage to ensure boats saw us, surface swam to the bay where the current was negligible and continued the dive).

Lessons learned:
1) Stress can come on very fast.
2) If the current is too strong make sure you don't fight it and swim diagonally (I found the 'too strong' to be very hard to judge btw).
3) Even sites that you've been to many times can still hold surprises.
4) You think about odd things in time off stress. I clearly remember thinking "Yup, it really is impossible to overbreath these Atomic's. Cause I'm really trying too" :blinking:

During the SI I talked to one of my friends, who was teaching an OW class and she mentioned that there was alot of swirling caused by the incoming tide, which was unusual.

FWIW, I'm rescue certified with 60+ dives since getting my OW last October.

Bjorn

[dlndavid]

Sounds like you did good, and a SMB is a must when diving areas that can get you into the position you did. I had a similar dive in the Philippines. The current was ripping, we were flying over the reef around 50 feet. Cleared the reef and were shot down to 100 feet. Got buoancy under control and made an ascent. When we surfaced the boat was picking up divers from all different locations. The place is caled the Washing Machine, what a rush.

[roturner]

Lessons learned:
1) Stress can come on very fast.
2) If the current is too strong make sure you don't fight it and swim diagonally (I found the 'too strong' to be very hard to judge btw).
3) Even sites that you've been to many times can still hold surprises.
4) You think about odd things in time off stress. I clearly remember thinking "Yup, it really is impossible to overbreath these Atomic's. Cause I'm really trying too" :blinking:


Dude, your reaction totally rocked! You found yourself in a unfamiliar situation that you weren't sure you could control. You remembered and followed your training and you called the dive for the safety of the whole team. What more do you want?

As for a couple of your points above... In my experience:

1) There is a difference between "stress" and "distress". I've seen a diver who I am sure could witness the end of the world with calm resolve blow a fuse from hyperventilating in heavy current. My lesson that day was that breathing isn't functional to diving. Breathing is everything...... What we learn in OW courses about 'just breathing normally' is all a load of incredibly naive bull l**** from people who have become instructors before becoming experienced divers..... There is a way to breathe on scuba and it isn't the way that most people breathe. "*Dis*stress" comes from not understanding (and training) this and it's the most dangerous myth that we have in scuba diving.

2) How hard the current is blowing is also a function of how fit you are. Of course it's hard to judge if you consider that some people can hardly stand up and walk to the fridge while others are able to run a marathon in a little over 2 hours.....This should, perhaps, stand to reason.

R..

[jeckyll]

Dude, your reaction totally rocked! You found yourself in a unfamiliar situation that you weren't sure you could control. You remembered and followed your training and you called the dive for the safety of the whole team. What more do you want?

....

R..

First, thanks for the positive comments.

Second, I think the reason this episode bothered me is because until this point I really haven't been in a situation where I've been stressed under water. I was really breathing hard and very stressed. I wouldn't say I was at the panic point as I called the dive and checked my gauges (breathing deeply the entire way to the surface ;) ), but I don't think I should have been as stressed as I was. There was a fairly good chance that if I'd gone with it for a bit and just continued in the direction I was heading originally, instead of trying to get to the wall to rest, we would have been out of the current. Of course, there is no way to know for sure :)

In a way I'm glad this happened. I think the lessons I learned will be very helpful next time I'm in a higher current situation.

[all4scuba05]

Hey, I envy you. Some things will never be known until we experience something like that. Now you know how it feels and how you handled it. Sounded to me like you handled it fine. Many divers go years without any incident happening and therefore can only THINK that they'll handle it nicely when it DOES happen. You now know more than them in that aspect.

[creamofwheat]

Whytecliff? I've experienced some WEIRD currents there.

[S. starfish]

Nicely handeled

Whytecliff is a super place for wierd currents. Once you learn to read them tough they're pretty neat, I know that out on the cut it is possible to do drift dives and end up exactly where you started.
I actually had a similar experience in whytecliff when I had 20 something dives. It was a night dive off the cut, the viz wasn't stellar but it wasn't bad for whytecliff. I was diving with two other guys, we met another group of divers going the opposite direction so we moved off the wall to let them go by and take a brief pause to check our air. Looked up and the wall was gone, looked at the guages, we'd just done from 50ft to 80. Being out in absolute nothing was really freaky. We ended up, after much difficult swimming, pulling ourselves back to the enterance along the rocks. It definitely taughtme a new respect for the ocean and it's currents.

[Darnold9999]

Good call, you really need to get out diving more:D (I was supposed to be on that dive but had to cancel)

Had an experience a couple weeks ago that taught me how fast you can get get into trouble breathing hard re stress. Was swimming really hard parallel and about 10 feet to the side of a turtle trying to get ahead of him for a shot of him coming toward me. Turtle was having none of it, the faster I swam the faster he swam. After a couple of minutes of this I was breathing hard, and made the discovery that you in fact can overbreath my regs. Could not get enough air, felt the start of the panic cycle even though the only stress was just a hard swim. Had to really take hold of myself and slow the breathing down even though I wanted more air.

Note to self - no marathons underwater!

[jeckyll]

I thought I'd post a little addendum:

Found myself in a very similar situation last week. As we were coming over from The Cut into the bay the current was so bad at one point that I was hanging onto the rocks. As I turned to look for my buddy who was behind me, I presented a larger side profile to the water and lost my grip due to the increased force of the water.

Called the dive at that point. Still really don't like current, but I thought back to this experience and stayed calmer. We ascended together and completed our safety stop in 'green' water.

I've come to the realization that swimming into current sucks ;)

[Cacia]

what was your viz?

Nothing like the "being flushd down the toilet" feeling. If I could not see...I think I would be very unhappy.

Getting in at slack tide and not knowing which way the current will go when it kicks in, is the problem with slack tide. In some instances I feel safer going with a known entity...like a current that has established itself and drifting it...

Some days, we can see a divers bubbles in 150+ viz being blown horizontally almost off the wrecks....

Very intimidating, that much power. And..sometimes the current will free flow your reg!

[jeckyll]

Last weekend? About 6 - 10 feet. Good viz in other words ;)

[Cacia]

yikes.

that means they would never find my body.

[jeckyll]

Catherine, I'll take the poor viz over the current any time. I guess it all comes down to what you are used to and comfortable with :)

[Darnold9999]

Jeckyll - heavy current is where the good stuff is.

Quadra Island comes to mind - doing a trip to Dodd Narrows next month. Drop you in at one end - pick you up at the other end. Supposed to be 6-7 knot during flood - I suspect we won't be doing it at flood:D

However I too am not wild about swimming into current - that's what boats are for.

[Cacia]

aren't you afraid of getting slammed into something, or tangled?

I need to see...

[Darnold9999]

Catherine - vis in Quadra was pretty good both times I was there - 40 feet plus so no surprises. You don't dive full flood or full ebb (at least I don't, have heard that some do) so currents are at most 2 maybe 3 knots. Fast enough so it feels like flying, slow enough so that you can hover for a few seconds if you have to. Not a chance you are going to swim back against the current for very long however.

Dodd Narrows I believe is much the same becuse the water gets flushed significantly you get pretty good vis so no bumping into things.

Just looked at the current tables for Dodd Narrows for the month - max current on one ebb of 9.7 knots. Should be lots to see in the slack.

[S. starfish]

I haven't dove dodd narrows in a while. I miss it, drift diving is way better when you don't have to worry about where exactly you're getting out of the water.
This past weekend i was over in victoria with a couple of friends and we wet to dive 10-mile, it started out nice and calm but ended up with us holding onto rocks with both hands - it was exciting times.

[Lightning Fish]

... There is a way to breathe on scuba and it isn't the way that most people breathe.

Rob,

Can you expand on that?

Bill.

[NWGratefulDiver]

Jeckyll - heavy current is where the good stuff is.

Quadra Island comes to mind - doing a trip to Dodd Narrows next month. Drop you in at one end - pick you up at the other end. Supposed to be 6-7 knot during flood - I suspect we won't be doing it at flood:D

However I too am not wild about swimming into current - that's what boats are for.
At 6 to 7 knots you won't see a thing ... by the time your mind registers what you're seeing, you'll be past it.

Did a dive in Agate Passage at about 5-1/2 knots once ... it was like watching a movie in fast forward. Don't even THINK about doing anything except going with the flow in water moving that fast ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[NWGratefulDiver]

This past weekend i was over in victoria with a couple of friends and we wet to dive 10-mile, it started out nice and calm but ended up with us holding onto rocks with both hands - it was exciting times.
Is that the dive where you get in on one side of the point (near a small parking area) then drift around the point and exit into a slot between some houses? Then you get to walk a block or two back to the parking area.

If so, I did that dive once and it was a great dive! Tons of life along the ledges and boulders ... but the entrance was a bit dicey ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[S. starfish]

Is that the dive where you get in on one side of the point (near a small parking area) then drift around the point and exit into a slot between some houses? Then you get to walk a block or two back to the parking area.

If so, I did that dive once and it was a great dive! Tons of life along the ledges and boulders ... but the entrance was a bit dicey ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

That's the one but we drove over to the "beach" on the other side of the houses and then went down about halfway through the bay, you get more wall in that way. It's such an excellent dive, a bit scary when the current gets really rippin though. By the time we pulled ourselves out it had to be six or seven knotts.