Well, hell, you can't live forever. LOL
Palau undercurrent close call...
- Thread starter mars2u
- Start date
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Maybe it's the same incident were referring to Detroit. I could have swore that it was more recent than a couple of months from what Terri (the D.M.) was describing. Matter of fact they had the womans weight belt on board the Big Blue.
Seems that one of the folks from a previous trip dropped a camera lens and said that he thought it dropped next to a weight belt at Blue Corner. When the guys went to retrieve it they found the belt and lens near it. Perhaps he was referring to finding the weight belt a couple of weeks ago...that might be more feasible. Some people thought it was a bit eerie finding the belt.
The rest of us were more concerned about the story that she couldn't surface. Again, it's difficult to speculate without being in that situation, but in retrospect I would have used my knife to cut the hook to surface in that current. I guess she wasn't strong enough to pull herself down to the hook and unhook it herself and basically drowned with the reg in her mouth. I don't know if she had a knife either.
The scenario is entirely feasible since I can attest I was sucking on water on my "almost new" Legend LX during this dive and trying to adjust my venturi until I figured out that it was the current messing with my reg.
Sorry for the long note and date confusion, but I believe we are talking about the same incident.
We arrived Saturday May 17th. and left May 24th....so 7 days. Stayed in Oahu for 5 days on the way back to wind down...yeah right...check out my web site to see what I describe as winding down in Oahu....lol. Kind of pissed me off...I think I'm hooked on a new hobby.
Tim Ingersoll
Contributor
Great post. I haven't dove in that kind of current and am not sure I want to. So what does one do when the current starts flooding the reg? Obviously, abort the dive, but is there anything practical to do in the meantime? Does it help to turn into the current and face away from the flow?
Sounds like quite a ride. Glad you made it out OK.
Tim once bubbled...
Good question. If you turn facing into the current, it seems like a current that strong might make your reg freeflow.... but i think you mean to face away from the current and use the back of your head to block the current from your reg.
I guess I might try to sort of cup my hands around my reg to block the force of the current and inflate my BC enough to try to lift me to the surface. But then again, I've never dove in a current that strong, so it might not work as well in reality.
What advice would those of you who are more experienced with these types of currents give for a situation like this?
Tim once bubbled...
Good question. If you turn facing into the current, it seems like a current that strong might make your reg freeflow.... but i think you mean to face away from the current and use the back of your head to block the current from your reg.
I guess I might try to sort of cup my hands around my reg to block the force of the current and inflate my BC enough to try to lift me to the surface. But then again, I've never dove in a current that strong, so it might not work as well in reality.
What advice would those of you who are more experienced with these types of currents give for a situation like this?
scuba-sass
Wreckmaniac Extrordinaire
We dove in pretty significant currents during WreckMania I, in 2002. Obviously, the worst effects were felt while we were decending or ascending on the line. (Trust me - you HAD to use the line!) I found that I had to face directly into the current, to keep my mask attached to my face, but angle my head slightly downward to avoid the current depressing the purge button on my reg. And of course, hang on with both hands for dear life! 
Mars2u - glad everyone survived with only some scrapes and bruises!
Happy Diving!
Scuba-sass
Mars2u - glad everyone survived with only some scrapes and bruises!
Happy Diving!
Scuba-sass
annie
Contributor
I learnt a little bit about currents while diving in Bali . . .sort of related to the thread about what size knife to have - currents like these are another reason to have a good size knife. The advice I had in Bali was to dig in with your knife, but I guess the best advice was to stick close to the wall or bottom if you can. There were a couple of currents which blew up and I was able to shelter a bit as I was already hunkering against the bottom in case of current. Not much good if you're flying along in mid water.
Back in the late 70's, a buddy and I would dive a site near Point Dume, Malibu that had intense current. There was a straight rock wall to a sand bottom at about 30 feet and the rock wall was covered with scallops. So we would take the marbles out of our AtPacs, fill them with lead shot and way overweight ourselves. Then we'd jump from the Zodiac boat we were in and plunge straight to the bottom, where we would walk against the current on the sand bottom on our knees (sometimes pulling on the rock wall) and collect our limit of scallops. The goal was to end up where we could swim up at a downstream angle and hit the boat (no safty stops back then). But we found that as long as we kept our heads straight up and down at a vertical angle the freeflow would stop. But if we looked down, it would start again. We would do the entire dive without ever becoming horizonal.
At the time, I guess we thought it was fun...
At the time, I guess we thought it was fun...
chepar
Contributor
And it's something I never want to do again - unless it's planned as a drift dive, I suppose. Even then, you would be flying pretty fast over anything there was to see.
I suppose the first clue was when the boat's anchor ripped up from the sea bed and multiple attempts to anchor it into the sand were unsuccessful - all the while the DM being dragged along the bottom.
The spookiest part was when you realize that your buddy has been "whisked" away - turns out he turned and aborted without anyone knowing he had gone. It still surprises me that the rest of our group more or less were able to stay together. Trying to alternate between holding onto your your reg so it won't be pulled out of your mouth and keeping a grip on whatever handhold you found in the sand to prevent you from disappearing into the deep blue yonder kind of sucked, too. Don't even get me started on the issues with my mask. :
Glad to hear you were all ok.
Hindsight is 20/20. I consider myself a very comfortable diver. For example, I had a mask problem later that week that some of my scuba friends said would have freaked them out. My self purge mask screwed up. After messing with it for 10 min, I almost ended the dive because I was messing with it too long and the entire group were waiting on me :blush: . I found that I could inhale through the reg and breath out through the nose during every breath to clear the mask as it filled through the purge valve during every breath...did this for the rest of the dive...35 minutes.
I digress...
I thought the same way you did until I got in the situation. Remember...when you breath out, the bubbles are whipping all around you in this case. Any way I turned I tasted saltwater. I Kept thinking that there was something wrong with my reg and kept adjusting the valves until I realized that it was the current. The current is whipping in different directions and the speed can vary between different depths and lastly can change at any time at any depth. Yes there were times when it was less wet than others, but there wasn't much to do but abort.
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