Current is the Worst

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Ardy

Contributor
Messages
1,238
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Location
Australia - Southern HIghlands NSW
# of dives
2500 - 4999
In my 35 years of diving I have seen many divers OOA, gear problems and physical problems ie ears but they all got out the water OK. The thing that seems the most common problem is getting OOC (out of control) in current. Every second dive trip I take someone gets swept away mostly only a couple of hundred metres but enough to scare the living daylights out of them. The good operators keep a dinghy in the water to go and collect them. It seems that diving in current is taken a bit too casually by a lot of divers and some boat operators.

It is the one thing, as an old water logged diver that really worries me. I did a dive trip on the Barrier Reef about 10 years ago and we were all going in for a night dive. I looked over the side and the current was ripping past the boat so I declined. The tender was out looking for some of the Japanese for about 30 mins in the dark. Luckily they were all found.

It seems to me the one inconsistent thing that can bring us into a lot of grief and I just dont want to consider a down current.
 
Great topic, Ardy!

I'd say that current of any kind can be one of the more unpredictable and challenging factors in a dive and, since I'm getting older, I have great respect for it, too.

I've had a few dives which seemed to be getting out of control and current was the main factor in all of them. And those were just shore dives! :shakehead:

For me, the biggest risk is becoming winded from excessively fighting the current, since that can bring on stress, anxiety and poor decision-making.

Current is a definitely one of my biggest dive planning considerations. :)

Dave C
 
Time and time again I watch people inflate their BCs per PadI and jump in only to be swept away while fiddling around on the surface trying to vent their BCs. I suck my wing flat before entering the water and growl at anyone who even thinks to put air in it. I roll in and I am immediately swimming down and to the tag line or anchor line or whatever. Often the current is strongest at the surface and diminishes at depth so getting down quickly and underway is imperative. You should plan your dive to return up the anchor line, the boat should be equipped with tag lines and if need be a chase boat like a Zodiac.

N
 
I am really glad local charters do live pickups as I never have to really swim against a current :) Pretty much for most of my diving, it is inside the Bay and I get about 30 mins before slackwater ends. As we ascend I do drifting safety stops on an SMB and the boat comes and gets me wherever I end up - which can be a long way from the boat sometimes if the current has really picked up. When I first started diving I used to try to swim back to the shot line but I quickly realised this caused me to burn through my air very fast and also end up with headaches so now I don't bother.

When I do wall diving, down currents are a bit of a worry though. One time slackwater didn't last very long at all (I am quite sure we'd missed it altogether...) and we basically did a drift dive along a wall - at times it would change my depth by +/- 10m within a few seconds unless I was able to grab a hold of the wall. I think in hindsight I should have ended the dive long before I did and I would do so on future dives as the walls can drop away to 60-90m in parts and I don't want to end up down there.
 
There were 4 or 5 Kiwi's killed a few years ago when they were dragged down to 80-90m before the current let them go, only one of them survived. Scares the bejesus out of me that sort of thing.
 
Time and time again I watch people inflate their BCs per PadI and jump in only to be swept away while fiddling around on the surface trying to vent their BCs. I suck my wing flat before entering the water and growl at anyone who even thinks to put air in it. I roll in and I am immediately swimming down and to the tag line or anchor line or whatever. Often the current is strongest at the surface and diminishes at depth so getting down quickly and underway is imperative.
N

This is very true and in PNG at the Amphitheatre where the currents can be amazingly strong the rules are:
-No air in the BC,
-Make sure you are weighted correctly
-Straight down where you will be swept towards the amphitheatre.
-Then hook on quickly.

Several miss it.
 
Not that I'm an apologist or anything, but in fairness to PADI, and as someone who was just the other day going over the PADI book-learning for drift diving, I feel obliged to mention that they do advise that sometimes a negative entry (BC empty or close) is required by strong surface currents to avoid separation from the group and being thrown off course.

I guess they must assume that OW divers aren't getting off the boat for a normal dive when the current's strong enough to require a negative entry...

I will also say that of everything I know of in scuba to date, a down-current sounds like the sketchiest by far.
 
Luckly I haven't experienced a down current, knock on wood. I will tell you I am somewhat use to the harsh currents. Pretty much all my dives have been 2-3' waves and strong current. So I have been somewhat acclimated to it. I will tell you, I hate the surge. I was just in the Keys, and man in the reef we had 2-3' waves with a wicked surge even at 40'. In WPB, Juniper, Port St. Lucie gets some bad current, and it changes so quickly. I have learned to love my reel, lol. But, yes they should teach more about current, then they do. On my last OW dive, there was 3 couples on the boat, and 2 couples were swept away a good 200 yards. I am not on charter boats to often, so maybe I don't see it that much. Its usually just me and my brother on his boat.
 
I was pretty humbled by the current at North Horn, Osprey Reef, GBR. Drift dive had reversed at our drop in point, taking us AWAY from the livaboard, out a couple of miles to sea. I had 6 close buddies in the group and that definitely made a difference. Took about 90 minutes after we surfaced (with SMB deployed) for them to find us. And ahhh, we had toothy finned friends hanging around :)
 
I was pretty humbled by the current at North Horn, Osprey Reef, GBR. Drift dive had reversed at our drop in point, taking us AWAY from the livaboard, out a couple of miles to sea. I had 6 close buddies in the group and that definitely made a difference. Took about 90 minutes after we surfaced (with SMB deployed) for them to find us. And ahhh, we had toothy finned friends hanging around :)

I have done this dive with Undersea Adventures years ago. This is assuming it is the huge wall where you drift for about 0.5k and it drops to 800 metres rising to 30m. I was surprised when they put someone in to check it first and I thought they were just being over cautious but this explains it. This is the best drift dive I have ever done. Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience.

I dived the white wall in Fiji in strong current and was blown off it after we entered at the wrong spot and had one of the worst 'going ups' ever, think I did about 3 tumbles. Everyone I know raves about this dive and I havent even seen it.
 

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