I'd inflate my bc
How would you react to this ?
- Thread starter Phil_C
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scagrotto
Contributor
I'd want to swim away from the wall. It might be caused by tidal flow through some kind of restriction, but it also might just be current flowing past some feature on the wall. If it's caused by moving water reacting to some kind of topographic feature, then getting away from that feature should get you away from the vortex.
There's also a chance it's an interaction between two currents that have met. In that case it might not matter which direction you swim (so long as it's not parallel), but since the wall might be the cause I'd still swim away from it.
diver 85
Contributor
Very weird---I'd try to get out of it by ascending a little---looks like diver shooting the video did OK by staying 'above' it.....
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I have no experience with that sort of thing. Before reading posts I too thought just inflate, ascend, release air and swim away from it.
One of the two divers caught in the vortex was our dive guide on our recent trip on the Rocio del Mar. He told us he initially just didn't understand what was happening, and fought physically to get free. Once he figured it out, he inflated his BC and rose out of the phenomenon. The other diver did not think of that solution and got very tired and used a lot of gas trying to swim free.
Roca Partida is a very sheer-sided pinnacle which can experience significant currents. This was a very bizarre result of them.
Roca Partida is a very sheer-sided pinnacle which can experience significant currents. This was a very bizarre result of them.
Ricky B
Contributor
Here's my stab at translating the Spanish:
It looks to me like they are playing in the horizontal whirlpool.
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What do you think a whirlpool would do. If not pull you down?
This was amazing footage. Can't imagine what I'd do. How would one figure out where the wall is when being rolled like that?
Ricky B
Contributor
I think the whirlpool was horizontal. At least, that's what the poster of the video said on FB.
Zog
Registered
To me, that is one scary video. If he lost a fin, or a mask during the spin cycle, he could have totally panicked. And what if this happened at the end of his dive with near empty tank. Scaaaarrry. I wonder what the other divers could have attempted which might have been effective to get him out of that whirlpool.
clownfishsydney
Contributor
Pretty sure this has been posted before, perhaps a year or two ago (or it is a near identical event). Scary, but as others have said, use BCD to try to lift yourself out of it.
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