Description:
Drift diving is different from the diving most people learn in Open Water. The current carries you. Your job is to stay neutral in the water column, stay close to your buddy, and stay aware of where the group is relative to the surface support. Drift speeds typically range from 1 to 3 knots, fast enough to make swimming back against the current impractical. The boat picks you up where you surface, not where you went in.
Planning matters more on a drift than on a static dive site. Where will the current take you? Where can the boat reach? What's the bailout if the current strengthens? These get answered before you enter the water. You learn to use surface signalling: surface marker buoys, whistles, mirrors. The buddy team stays close together throughout, since separation in a current is much harder to recover from than separation on a static reef. Entry and descent in a current are practiced as discrete skills too.
The course is open to PADI (Junior) Open Water Divers aged 12 and up. You complete two open-water training dives, both in a real current with the instructor close by. No prior current diving experience is needed. Buoyancy and gas management are tested harder than usual here, so a few logged dives between Open Water and starting Drift Diver makes the course feel less overwhelming.
Technical
