When you’re scuba diving in a current you need skills that many divers rarely use. And the lack of experience, or practice, gets many divers in trouble when the water movement wants to carry them away.

On one dive adventure I joined some friends for a trip to the Bahamas. We rented a sailing yacht out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida for ten days.

One incident on that vacation sticks out as a lesson that I’ll never forget.

Four of the group dove. Typically two went into the water while the other two stayed on board as safety support.

This particular incident happened off the island of Bimini. We anchored, I geared up with my dive buddy, and we entered the water.

At first the water was calm, and we enjoyed a pleasant dive. But as time progressed a current developed. It grew strong, but I didn’t notice it immediately because the coral and fish life distracted me.

Late in the dive I noticed my partner moving away. I thought he was low on air, and headed back to the boat, so I followed him. That was when I recognized the current, but not how strong it flowed.

At one point I looked off to my right (the direction the current came from), and spotted the anchor rope. Seeing that my scuba diving friend kept finning away, and down current, from the anchor, I thought he wanted to explore some new sight he’d noticed. So I continued to follow him.

After some minutes my pressure gauge told me the dive neared its end, and the other diver continued swimming away from the boat.

Finally I got his attention, gave him a low on air signal, and pointed back in the direction of the boat, but he didn’t understand me. We surfaced to talk, and I found out he thought the boat was still out in front of us. I again pointed back to the boat, and we started swimming in that direction.

The current proved to be strong at the surface, so we descended to fifteen feet for easier finning.

Our friends on the boat, watching our bubbles, saw us surface then drop back underwater. Deciding we were in trouble they pulled the anchor, and came searching for us.

Fortunately we spotted the hull coming in our direction, and headed for the surface once again – making sure we broke the water outside the path of the boat.

Diving in current poses hazards for the inexperienced diver. But with practice, and knowledge of drift diving technique, you can minimize those hazards.

If you rehearse a few basic lessons before entering the water, and keep them in mind while you’re drift diving, you’ll have a more pleasant dive. And a safer one too.

 

Always know where your exit point (boat or shore) is, relevant to where you are – up current or down current.

Always start your dive finning up current from your exit point. That lets you “ride” the current back during the second half of your dive.

Keep a closer eye on your pressure gauge. Finning against the current makes you work harder, and breathe faster. You burn through your air much faster than normal.

Never swim down current from your exit point when your dive is near its end.

Current is usually stronger at the surface than at depth. When you must swim against it stay at least ten or fifteen feet down for easier finning, less work, and to save your scuba air.

 

We were fortunate on that dive because we exited the water safely. But our actions offered opportunities for injury, or possibly life threatening accident, to either one of us.

Scuba diving is a safe, and fun sport when you keep your skills practiced. But when you let them rust you risk putting yourself in danger.