Down Currents.. how real of a threat?

[kneptoon]

Crystal Bay Nusa Penida?

 

[Landlocked123]

Thanks feedback from everyone. Diving cozumel next year. Good information to have.

 

[tracydr]

True, tortuga68. He had CO2 narcosis and nitrogen narcosis. Not to mention buddy separation anxiety,etc,etc.

 

[Kilili]

I got caught in one in the Philippines a couple of years ago. Full wing, and kept going down. Finally eased off, and I kicked up. If there was a wall, I never saw it. Not too bad, 110 ft.

 

[tajkd]

I just went through one of these a week ago. It is scary but, like everyone has said, easy to get out of. If this down-current coincides with being low on air as mine was, it can be doubly scary as you descend deeper and deeper continuing to use up your air. I went from 30ft down to 90ft in about a minute with water swirling all around. It was pretty confusing. The big problem for me was being so ingrained to do my safety stop that I couldn't imagine inflating my bcd and blowing the stop. Luckily I did and I survived. My issue was all mental and I had a difficult time deciding what to do. As many on the board have said before, having an Oh Sh*t moment can actually help you in the long run. This was mine and now I believe I can handle that down current any time I find it again.

 

[sunstorms]

I was wondering why he would ask him to go back down. As a paramedic I would remove the person from the stressor not send him back into it. I'm gonna guess it had something to do with the safety stop, I'd love clarification though.


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The reason he wanted to bring him back down is because of DCS or decompression sickness AKA "the bends". you can think of it as a can of beer. when the can has been sitting a long time undisturbed then you can open it very fast and it won't fiz up. this would be your normal dude sitting in the water at 5 m and suddenly surfacing. As you go deeper your body get saturated with more gasses. Under normal diving conditions you come up slow to allow the gasses (nitrogen) to gas off. You can think of this as a can of beer that has been shaken up but opened very slowly so that the beer doesn't fiz up. When you come up fast the pressure difference is extreme and the gasses are released rapidly. This can form bubbles in your blood system resulting in some very serious conditions such as AGE or Arterial Gas Embolism (causing a stroke or cardiac arrest). You can think of this as shaking up a can of beer and cracking it wide open. it makes a big mess.
The advice to immediately descend is intended to minimize this effect and it is an arguable course of action. It maybe too late to reverse the bubbles and having a patient in the water experiencing an AGE induced stroke is much harder to treat.
The recommended procedure is to exit the water, place the patient on o2, and immediately evac to the nearest emerg unit while making preparations for ASAP hyperbaric oxygen treatment. It's a judgement call and to be honest it's a hard one to make after they have surfaced.
My response (if at all possible) would have been to subdue the diver while still at depth (before he surfaced) and to forced a safety stop while holding the regulator in his mouth. It's easy to say but very difficult for even a well trained instructor like myself to preform on a panicking diver.
I truly hope I am never in this position.

---------- Post added July 26th, 2013 at 03:02 AM ----------

Crystal is a fantastic dive, but yes you must respect it. Crystal Bay is not a dive you want to be doing with the cheapest shop you can find. Last year it killed 2 very experienced divers (1 was an instructor with over a 1000 logged dives) in 3 days.
The best way to survive a strong down current is to see it before it has you in it's grip. WATCH THE FISH! If you look up ahead and see fish swimming like hell towards the surface but not going anywhere or moving backwards, they are in a down current. Your immediate reaction should be to STOP. Get as close to the reef as possible, turn around and swim away from it.
When I dive at these sites (I am an instructor in Bali), I have a reef hook mounted to my bcd and tethered to me on a 2 meter rope. The most important thing is to stay calm. If you get caught in a down current it's time to say "screw the reef" if you want to live. get a good hold of the reef and climb out hand over hand on a diagonal up and out. If you can't get to the reef, then just stay calm and CONTROL YOUR BREATHING. It's almost impossible to panic if you have control of your breathing and you may need every breath of air in your tank to decompress before you can safely surface. Try to swim across the current until it spits you out. Remember to equalize, put some air in the bcd until you start to ascend, but you must remember to control your accent, if your dragged down to 60M and you pop the surface your going to be in a world of DCS hell. Even if it does take you to 60M, as long as your calm you will be ok. If you get up to a safe depth and you are running out of air then find another diver and get on the alternate. Make a safety stop for as long as you can and calmly ascend to the surface. Being caught in a down current won't kill you, reacting to it badly will.

---------- Post added July 26th, 2013 at 03:04 AM ----------

Crystal Bay Nusa Penida?

When I dive at these sites (I am an instructor in Bali), I have a reef hook mounted to my bcd and tethered to me on a 2 meter rope. The most important thing is to stay calm. If you get caught in a down current it's time to say "screw the reef" if you want to live. get a good hold of the reef and climb out hand over hand on a diagonal up and out. If you can't get to the reef, then just stay calm and CONTROL YOUR BREATHING. It's almost impossible to panic if you have control of your breathing and you may need every breath of air in your tank to decompress before you can safely surface. Try to swim across the current until it spits you out. Remember to equalize, put some air in the bcd until you start to ascend, but you must remember to control your accent, if your dragged down to 60M and you pop the surface your going to be in a world of DCS hell. Even if it does take you to 60M, as long as your calm you will be ok. If you get up to a safe depth and you are running out of air then find another diver and get on the alternate. Make a safety stop for as long as you can and calmly ascend to the surface. Being caught in a down current won't kill you, reacting to it badly will.

---------- Post added July 26th, 2013 at 03:15 AM ----------

The best way to survive a strong down current is to see it before it has you in it's grip. WATCH THE FISH! If you look up ahead and see fish swimming like hell towards the surface but not going anywhere or moving backwards, they are in a down current. Your immediate reaction should be to STOP. Get as close to the reef as possible, turn around and swim away from it.
When I dive at these sites (I am an instructor in Bali), I have a reef hook mounted to my bcd and tethered to me on a 2 meter rope. The most important thing is to stay calm. If you get caught in a down current it's time to say "screw the reef" if you want to live. get a good hold of the reef and climb out hand over hand on a diagonal up and out. If you can't get to the reef, then just stay calm and CONTROL YOUR BREATHING. It's almost impossible to panic if you have control of your breathing and you may need every breath of air in your tank to decompress before you can safely surface. Try to swim across the current until it spits you out. Remember to equalize, put some air in the bcd until you start to ascend, but you must remember to control your accent, if your dragged down to 60M and you pop the surface your going to be in a world of DCS hell. Even if it does take you to 60M, as long as your calm you will be ok. If you get up to a safe depth and you are running out of air then find another diver and get on the alternate. Make a safety stop for as long as you can and calmly ascend to the surface. Being caught in a down current won't kill you, reacting to it badly will.

 

[SSpiffy]

Being caught in a down current won't kill you, reacting to it badly will.

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding!

As with so many things, in diving, panic will kill you.