Breaking Down Expert Techniques for Diving in Currents

Dive into the fundamentals of scuba diving with expert tips on navigating currents. Learn essential techniques for managing strong currents, ensuring safe and thrilling underwater adventures. From understanding tide tables to mastering negative dives, discover key strategies for scuba diving in any current condition. Whether you're a beginner or seasoned diver, enhance your scuba training with insights into currents and dive fundamentals.
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[00:00:00]: Introduction to current diving
[00:00:58]: Importance of skills in current diving
[00:02:05]: Understanding different levels of current
[00:03:19]: Observing and preparing for current before diving
[00:05:04]: Importance of tide schedules in diving
[00:06:29]: Techniques for managing current while diving
[00:07:37]: Risks of swimming against strong currents
[00:08:45]: Dealing with being blown away by the current
[00:09:48]: Ascending safely in challenging current conditions
#scuba #scubadiving #currentdiving #adventuretravel

[@thenomadicprince]

Please dont suck the air out your bcd, if there's any fungus growing in there you'll get lung infection. Just squeeze the bcd while holding dump valve down, your buddy can help you. Stay safe!

[@itravelwisely]

Thank you for your thoughts! I do think sucking the air out is the only surefire way, but I'd add that negative dives should be used sparingly, if you suck out the air from the BCD every dive, that could be more of a concern for your reasoning. I've had situations of doing negative entries in very rough waters where failure to do a negative entry meant have a big boat crash on your head or being blown away in current. For those situations, sucking the air out of the BCD is the only way to be sure, otherwise you'd have to load a lot of lead which has other concerns. I've seen people do this squeeze method and unless you do it in a stable and calm environment, this is very failure prone. A tiny bit of air in there can cause the negative entry to fail and you pop back to the top (so if you were doing a negative dive to avoid a safety concern, that has now failed). I don't do negative entry without strong reason, and I do suck the air as it is thorough when I need to do it for safety. If there are no safety concerns it's probably best to avoid negative dive entry. I have done negative dives by also timing the dump dive pull really well with just a touch of extra lead, but I wouldn't do this when there is a real safety concern and I needed to execute on the negative dive.

[@thenomadicprince]

@itravelwisely Indeed I agree it should be used as little as often. I worked in Mozambique where every dive was negative entry due to bilateral currents at surface and bottom, so we'd completely miss the dive site. If i were to sick the air out each dive my lungs would be dead. I always held the dump bottom dump valve and as soon as hitting the water I'd start kicking down and everything escaped. In extreme cases I guess sucking it out would be best option, but their dive leader will tell them to do so. The average diver should not think it's safe to suck out the BCD when they want, because that's a recipe for lung disease. I agree with you and disagree hahaha.

[@itravelwisely]

@@thenomadicprince No worries, I totally understand where your coming from and great points made!

[@petercaron3799]

@thenomadicprince3311 Totally agree. Particularly in the tropics. Mould spores can be damaging to health. Easy to squeeze out air.

[@freedomwanderer91]

Great info. Thanks.

[@itravelwisely]

Thank you! Glad you found it valuable!

[@charg5583]

You didn't mention anything about getting caught in a down current, what's your recommendation for this situation?

[@itravelwisely]

Ah yes, down and upward currents can be insidious as they can sneaky. Unless it's a big swell, most current is being pulled up or down from rising and cooling water, which creates rivers. They key is to not waste energy fighting it but try to move side ways out of the current. A lot of time and air can be wasted trying to fight the current, which is often where the danger is. There is also current that gets pushed and split by large objects. To which there is a specific radius which the current will be very strong as it moves around it, much like mountains. Avoiding or pushing through or around those zones efficiently is advisable. From my diving, up and down currents are fairly rare at least, I've encountered more washer machine currents that strictly up and down currents!

[@itravelwisely]

Thinking on it more, if swimming sideways is not getting out of it, fast enough, angle swimming against it so your not swimming right at it but also have push against it. I'd avoid using the BCD just incase you do swim towards the up current next to it.

[@stevecoffey4884]

Thanks for this video

[@itravelwisely]

Really happy to hear you enjoyed it!

[@katiaricci9296]

Amazing video! It's so great that you share your love for the ocean. Scuba diving is such an amazing water activity and it's lovely to see you enjoy it, keep going with these great videos. If it doesn't bother you, I'd like to give you a suggestion, a tip for the next videos: Basically, you could try inserting some comic and funny stuff... to give everyone a pinch of humor that, in the world of diving, can never be missing. Now, I don't think much of it, but the first thing I could think of in your sport might be peeing in the water. Once, my uncle, who is a scuba diver, peed in his wetsuit during a long diving session and that moment was absolutely funny, he even wrote "I’m peeing" on a waterproof notebook during the session and he showed it to me while he was doing it. He has always been telling me that there are 2 types of divers and swimmers: those who pee in the water and those who lie. I know it may sound strange as a request but, in my opinion, these are moments of happiness and carefree that always make everyone smile, that's why it'd be hilarious if you included lots of moments like this, if you and your diving mates want of course. I hope you like the idea and I hope you have a wonderful day!

[@itravelwisely]

This is great feedback and really happy to hear you enjoyed the video. Yes, I admit I am a bit stiff at times in the video, it is something I am trying to improve with each video and I love your idea for sharing the jokes. I have a lot of them and will try to share more in future videos! I've heard this exact joke you mentioned from your uncle haha, most everyone does pee in their wet suits, but the wetsuit is a one way membrane so its kind of disgusting to realize its trapped in the wetsuit. Then, there is cold water dry suits which you definitely cannot pee in. So there are these awkward pee valves that you have to use instead. Will be sharing more of the jokes in the future, thank you so much for sharing and also have a wonderful day!

[@katiaricci9296]

@@itravelwisely Heyy man! It's always a pleasure to give feedbacks, I really hope you liked it. Well I can't wait for the funny pee times underwater then hahahha

[@petercaron3799]

That's a Whaleshark, not a whale 0:37

[@itravelwisely]

100% I missed that, I do have an editor that helps me and missed that one in the review. I edit some myself but not this one. Doh, I wish it was easier to make small edits on KZbin. Sadly, have to live with that one. Good spot!

[@Pablo07101]

Correct but please do not suck out the out of your BCD. There is nasty stuff building up inside.

[@itravelwisely]

Thank you for your thoughts, and I'm glad you liked the video!

[@jennifercheney5229]

You showed a whale shark at the beginning- not a whale!

[@itravelwisely]

You're correct, I missed this on review with my editor at the time, my footage but missed the text, sadly KZbin does not make it easy to fix such so I lived with this one.