Thrillhouse
Contributor
A couple weeks ago I was diving with a buddy from my club, one of my first times doing so outside of our organized club dives and at a location I'd never been. The site itself was great, and the person I went with was a great buddy. While down at about 55ft we hit a really strong lateral current which would have been very difficult to fight. It swept us along quite quickly which we took advantage of for a bit, then ascended about 10 to 15 ft to escape it. All went well and we finished our dive at a more shallow depth, finished up and headed home.
I'm currently AOW with 36 dives, though I did my OW 3 years ago. If they mentioned anything about currents then I've long forgotten it, as they've never been an issue at the spots we usually dive. My biggest concern (especially here in BC, where there are some tremendous vertical drop-offs) is hitting a downward current and not knowing what to do. Do these exist? If so (I'm almost positive I've read about them here before), what's the procedure to escape them calmly and safely?
I'm currently AOW with 36 dives, though I did my OW 3 years ago. If they mentioned anything about currents then I've long forgotten it, as they've never been an issue at the spots we usually dive. My biggest concern (especially here in BC, where there are some tremendous vertical drop-offs) is hitting a downward current and not knowing what to do. Do these exist? If so (I'm almost positive I've read about them here before), what's the procedure to escape them calmly and safely?