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Most divers would expire in a one knot current before covering 25 meters. On Wed, 6 Nov 1996, Andy Schmidt wrote: > George Irvine wrote on Wednesday, November 06, 1996 7:30 AM > > >> I do not know what the New England guys do, but I can not get down an anchor line in a full Gulf Stream current , whcih is slightly less than four knots. << > > Most divers have a tendency to misjudge the actual speed of a current. More than once have I had divers tell me how they swam against a 3 or 4 knot current back to the boat - and when questioned they had no way of actually measuring the speed and had no clue how fast THEY are able to swim in full equipment for any duration of time. They simply meant to express that it was a "ripping" current - and 2 knots would sound too wimpy to be true. <grin> > > Case in point - most dive master candidates are CHALLENGED to swim 900 yard in 18 minutes during their evaluation. If I got my "imperial" calculations correct, that this would amount to about 2.8 knots - and that's in skin diving equipment (no cylinder and empty BC). If they had to swim that with full scuba gear - potentially even doubles - I doubt if they could sustain themselves against a 1 knot current for any prolonged period. > > During my advanced classes I suspend a measured line under water along which students conduct buoyancy control exercise and measure air consumption in cubic feet - and swimming rate. On average, most scuba divers casually swim less than 1/2 knots. With effort, they would swim 1 knots - but at least one buddy would get tired quickly or cramp up - or. > > I certainly would not be capable to sustain myself against a 3 or 4 knot current (300 to 400 ft/min) - and I doubt that anyone could. > > Andy > -- > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@terra.net'. > Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@terra.net'. >
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