Drift Diving.
If until now your experience has been that currents are something you fight to swim against, drift diving will give you a whole new perspective.
Drift diving grew out of the philosophy, “if you can’t beat “em”, join “em”, and is the prevailing practice in many areas with nearly continuous strong currents.
Drift diving can give you a real adrenaline pump. At some drift sites, the current rips you along far faster than you could swim, or even cruise with a DPV sailing you along effortlessly. Some divers compare drift diving in clear water to hang gliding or horizontal sky diving – but no airplane needed and you don’t have to worry about your chute opening.
Going with the flow.
When you first become a diver, you learned that you need to consider currents when you plan your dives, that strong currents can wear you out and that they limit the distance you cover. Sometimes currents can prevent diving entirely. When you drift dive, the current works for you instead of against you.
Divers associate four advantages with drift diving. First, drift diving usually requires little effort. During the dive, you just go along for the ride, buzzing through scenery with current “swimming” for you. Second, Drift diving opens up dive sites that are nearly impossible to visit any other way. In particular, rivers and some reefs are constantly in a strong current that precludes non-drift dive techniques. Third, since you’re floating along in the current, you cover more area and see more on a drift dive.
Finally, many types of drift diving relieve you of having to return to or look for a specific exit point. The boat travels with you.
But you are diving in moving water; so drift diving does have some concerns that make using appropriate drift techniques important. You and other divers need to closely co-ordinate exit and entry procedure, for one, you need extra vigilance in maintaining buddy contact for another. Most forms of drift diving call for co-ordinating with surface support and supervision. A fourth concern is that you usually need a long, extensive bottom topography, such as along a reef, wall, river or series of dive sites strung in line with the current to drift dive. Otherwise, you spend a lot of time floating along looking at nothing (although there are some spots where you can drift onto a wreck or other specific site).
The techniques you’ll learn in this section, plus additional ones you can gain in the Padi Drift Diver Specialty course, help you maximize the fun and excitement drift diving offers, while addressing its unique concerns.
PADI 5 Star National Geographic Instructor Development Center. 198/12 Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong, Phuket, Thailand. Phone: (+66) 076292052 Fax: (+66) 076293034
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