DRIFT DIVING IN COZUMEL BY Rick Maxwell SDI Instructor Trainer # 9763 Welcome to Cozumel, Mexico! It is here that the vast majority of the world diving population learns the joys of Drift Diving Cozumel Style. Drift Diving or Live Boating as it is sometimes called, is the preferred diving technique when diving in currents too strong to comfortably swim against. In Cozumel there is always a current on the reefs. While there are times the current is so gentle that one could swim against it and do a conventional style dive, nobody in Cozumel would desire to do this! Instead the divers here prefer to jump in the water, do a free descent to depth and follow the current to wherever it takes them. Fortunately, the current always runs parallel to the reef structures, thereby taking the divers exactly where they want to go! Rules of Drift Diving in Cozumel • All dives are led by a DM • All divers must be ready to enter the water together when the Crew gives the order • Be properly weighted. All descents are without down lines. • Keep the DM in sight during your descent and stay behind him throughout the dive • Should you have trouble equalizing on descent stay above the group until you can comfortably descend to depth. Because surface and mid water current are often stronger than bottom currents, you should swim into the current with gentle kicks to keep from getting ahead of the group during your descent. • If you cannot descend due to an equalization issue after 5 minutes, signal the DM that you are aborting the dive, return to the surface and signal the boat to pick you up. Inflate your signal sausage to increase visibility while you are waiting to be picked up. • When a diver in the group reaches 700 psi, they should inform the DM who will deploy a sausage. At that time the diver and his buddy should ascend to the safety stop depth, complete the safety stop and ascend to the surface close to the sausage. • Should divers choose to ascend early or if they get separated from the group, a safety sausage should be deployed to alert the captain of their position and to protect the divers from other boats. • Often, when currents are strong, the Captain will drop the divers far upcurrent of the planned dive site. In order to conserve both air and bottom time divers should descend on a gradual diagonal towards the site. This is especially true on deep, small sites like Devil’s Throat or Cathedral at Punta Sur. • Think of current as an underwater wind. To get out of the wind you can duck behind a coral head. • There are many swim throughs in Cozumel. If you are not comfortable going through them, swim over the top staying with the group’s bubbles then rejoin the group when they exit. • Unlike many other locations where the group leader carries a buoy that the Captain can follow throughout the dive, In Cozumel the Captains follow the group’s bubbles. There is magic to Cozumel Captain’s ability to track even several groups of divers at once. I’m not sure but it might be an ability unique to the Cozumel Mayan community. At any rate it is an incredible skill. • Photographers face challenges when trying to stop and take pictures. You need to turn into the current or duck out of it to be still enough to take a photo. Beware though, swimming into the current in Cozumel can burn up a lot of air very quickly! • When you are on the surface waiting for pickup, do not swim to the boat. The Captain will bring the boat to you. • The most important tip is to relax and enjoy the ride!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 18:48:14 +0000
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