Dangerous conditions in Coz right now.

[jd950]

I wrote about this in the "craziness" thread, but since that was a fairly light-hearted thread, thought this deserves its own mention.

The currents this week in Coz have been impressive and weird and led to some interesting dives, but also resulted in me getting caught in a down-welling that ended up with me floating in the boat channel waiting to be "found" and from what I hear, resulted in a diver getting lost and as far as I know, not recovered despite a large search. I am sure we will hear more in the next day or two.

If you are here or coming and the currents don't settle, be careful.... consider having signalling devices and some awareness of what to do in the event you get caught in a down or up-welling or separated from your group. In these conditions it is entirely possible.

I heard another story this afternoon from a DM that in the last week he and his group of 6 divers got blown down to 170' and at least some of them did not have a clue what to do and he had to inflate their BCs for them to get them back up, and lead them back to a safe depth.

Please be careful.

 

[cicopo]

An unfortunate situation. I hope things improve & more importantly hope people are wise enough to abort the dive before it's too late.

 

[Kilili]

The current's a good reason to carry one of those over-sized SMBs.
As for downcurrents like that, isn't much fun, to say the least. Sometimes just adding air isn't enough to change the downward direction, and you need horizontal movement as well. It's a bad feeling when that happens, and can be easy to panic.
As for those that were clueless, that's downright scary. At least, hope they learned something.

 

[jd950]

An unfortunate situation. I hope things improve & more importantly hope people are wise enough to abort the dive before it's too late.

Good point, but with some of these currents right now, the conditions can be okay to good and then turn to crap with no warning.

 

[scubawife]

I heard another story this afternoon from a DM that in the last week he and his group of 6 divers got blown down to 170' and at least some of them did not have a clue what to do and he had to inflate their BCs for them to get them back up, and lead them back to a safe depth.

Please be careful.

Damn lucky for those divers that the DM was close enough to them to be able to assist. There's lots of destinations they might not have even had a DM in the water with them...

Down currents are something most divers never really learn about, or even experience. My first thought is that if it's been such a hellish week for crazy, unpredictable currents, then maybe the DMs need to include some more safety instruction in the dive briefings. Second thought is that what I'm reading about this week, and knowing how most Cozumel dive shops operate, maybe they someone from the shop should be informing the less experienced divers of the conditions and giving them the option of opting out for the day if they aren't up to the potential situation they could find themselves in.

You might only have one week a year to go on a dive vacation, but nothing is worse risking it being your last. A signaling device and SMB should be standard, required equipment for every diver, especially on drift dives. There are just too many divers who had lax instructors who gave them only happy, feel good aspects of diving and never really touched on all the things that can go wrong and how to deal with them. Anyone who's been diving long enough knows that it's not IF the **** hits the fan, it's WHEN.

Maybe the DMs should be including a little more instruction in their briefings for how to handle the type if currents being encountered this week. And for divers, it's not enough to just carry the gear, you have to know how to use it and be comfortable doing so in an emergency. If you've been carrying an SMB and never used it, on a good day, do so, get used to it so that in a crazy situation you'll be able to do so without having to really think it through.

I've had the odd, crazy day in Cozumel over the years, but never a week like what I'm reading about. All of you there, stay safe, dive safe, and if you're less experienced or not so sure you can handle the worst case, consider sitting it out until things calm down. It's vacation. It's recreational diving. A challenge is good. Unnecessary risk just isn't worth the potential outcome. Dive smart. Stay safe. There's always tomorrow.

I asked it on another thread, but it might get seen here quicker - has the port master in Cozumel ever shut down diving because of unpredictable or dangerous currents? I know I've never seen it, but I've also only had random days of nutty currents, not several in a row.

 

[robint]

I doubt they would ever close the port due to dangerous currents for several reasons.
#1. Dangerous currents are hard to predict where, when, and how long they last
#2. Dangerous currents are usually short lived, just like rip currents at the beach
#3. Just like rip currents at the beach, the down currrents are narrow... swimming across them is the shortest path to escape, not fighting them kicking up which will tire you and carry you farther away
#4. Dangerous currrents and/or downcurrents can occur at one reef, and another reef a mile away may be completely calm


these are just the first things that come to mind for me right now... I am sure people can add to my list.

My husband dove Barracuda a few years back and got a great briefing on the area that has a downcurrrent. He was told to stay against the coral... when they came to an open spot to swim like heck hard in a straight line to the next coral head. It worked. He said he felt the downcurrent hitting at that exact spot, he swam hard and went down about 10-20' but made it to the other side safely as did the other divers.
Same thing happened to us in Palau. There was a point where current would be hitting us from two directions all of a sudden, causing a downcurrent. We were briefed to swim hard across that area as fast as possible, staying as close to wall as possible. Getting out from wall or stopping to take a photo at that spot meant we would be pulled down down down into abyss. We all obeyed the DMs and we all made it across safely. It only lasted 30 seconds, but I can tell you I didn't stop to look around... I kicked like a momma!

robin

 

[Karibelle]

I asked it on another thread, but it might get seen here quicker - has the port master in Cozumel ever shut down diving because of unpredictable or dangerous currents? I know I've never seen it, but I've also only had random days of nutty currents, not several in a row.

Not that I've ever seen, scubawife. The only port closures I've heard of are due to wind and waves.

kari

 

[GBOGH]

Wow. Stay safe everyone. I will be there in a couple weeks myself. Hope it calms down by then.

 

[redacted]

May be a good time to focus on the shallower sites away from the "walls".

 

[logansar]

I was there two weeks ago and dove in the normal south to north current 2 days then the third day at Santa Rosa had a north to south current and a thermocline (visible - fuzzy water) that went from 80 to 75 degrees.... It was so screwed up my Son and I floated for 18 minutes before getting picked p. the current scattered divers for a very long distance.

Day 4 we were headed North again....

Very strangle

Sarge


Sarge
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