Tips for dealing with surge?

[OkiMike]

A gentle "cradle" surge can be easy to acclimate to and fun once you "go with the flow".

Strong currents, on the other hand...

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

And yes, if you don't know you are doing this, with each new target point you head more and more upcurrent.

Once I know what was going on, I became more conscious of the "crab angle" and would pick out a new target spot taking that into account.

Consciousness can really be something. It was a significant current day when I scootered to the Carthaginian. I took a bearing on Extended Horizons, which was tied up to the stern mooring and had current holding her south of the wreck. I ended up 60' north, luckily in 100' vis.

Rocket Weather Cocking . . . tan b = V / w

After a windy great plains childhood playing with Estes Rockets, I can tell you that "weather cocking" happens. My mental image of why I missed in the up current direction was that it was due to "weather cocking" as I crossed over way points, choosing the next way point on the fly.

Now in current I chose my next way point before passing over. Still on the fly, but using the old way point as "gun sight" for the new way point.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Don't swim against the surge. When the surge is pushing you back, stop kicking and relax. When it's pushing you forward kick. You move along nicely and if you get the correct timing of the surge, you'll travel as fast and as quickly as when there's no surge. When you kick against the surge, you waste energy for very little benefit.

More often I find myself just holding my ground, or maybe only losing a little ground, then resting with a small fin flip during the "forward" surge. Flutter, flutter, flutter; frog, glide. repeat, repeat

The cookie crumbles in many ways.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I kicked 27 times in each direction but the surge was pushing me so hard that sometimes it took three kicks just to move a little bit, and other times one kick would send me flying forward.

How the heck can a person do underwater navigation with that much surge

Not everyone can easily navigate in strong surge, even among experienced divers. Most experienced strong surge divers can navigate strong surge better than most divers not experienced in strong surge. The brain is very muscle like; the more you train and exercise the better it performs.

Distance is harder than direction, in conditions like your Koloa Landing conditions. Like Querro said, when measuring travel by fin kick, not counting the kicks that don't move you helps, but really it depends on situational awareness. If visibility is 35 feet, I need to travel my "vision" three times to travel 105 feet.

Way points are how we maintain direction in current or surge. Not many locations will "just" have surge; there is almost always also current, and in a cove the currents may "curve." Use you compass to pick a way point, make your way to it and use the compass to pick your next way point. The closer to the edge of visibility your way point, the better your accuracy.

At Koloa', with 35' vis, chose part of the reef at vis edge as way point, swim to it and repeat twice = ~100'

 

[oddible]

It took two swims out to St. Anthony's before I figured out what was going on.

Oi vay, you surface swim out to the St. Anthony!? That's a haul!

Just got my first taste of surge in Kihei this week - puttering around Makena Landing. Kick cycles are going to be severely screwed up in surge - though you have to get tested on it in your course, it probably isn't the best nav technique to use in that type of water condition.

 

[irishsquid]

...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

...The cookie crumbles in many ways.

The Hansel & Gretel NAV Technique: If you can't find and retrace your footprints on the bottom, follow the "Cookie Trail"!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Oi vay, you surface swim out to the St. Anthony!? That's a haul!

I'm pretty sure Charlie99 "dives" out to the St. Anthony. I am one of very few who sometimes does surface swim out to the edge of the artificial reef. That's a minimum 20 minute swim. Plan is usually to "dive" back to shore.

 

[Charlie99]

Oi vay, you surface swim out to the St. Anthony!? That's a haul!.

It's too much work to do it on the surface. So I do it at a comfy 15-20'. There I am not fighting waves, nor dodging boats, air consumption is lower than hugging the bottom, and at 20' I have a good view of the bottom for navigation.

If coming off of Mokapu (end of S. Kihei road) I just go 240 degrees until I hit the tire reef. If going from the end of Ulua outer reef I just head NW (315), then drop down and pick up the 65' contour to move north into the wreck. With a 20-22 minute transit time as I putter along at about 1 kt, it doesn't take too much longshore current to mess me up, particularly before I figured out that I was gradually changing direction more and more head-on to the current as I picked out successive target points.