TIDES & CURRENTS

Tides

Have played in the beach for more than 6hours? Did you realise the same spot that you were playing become dry? Where is the water? When I was young, I thought it was magic but as I grow older than I understand that these changes are called tides due to the result of the gravitational pull of the moon and to a smaller extent, the sun.

Tides affect divers by exposing or concealing rocks that are or near the water's surface. For example, a low tide may expose rocks that make the entry and exit hazardous, but when the tide rises, these rocks may be completely submerged and safe to swim over. You may also avoid long surface walk if you are diving in high tides.

Currents

In the ocean, currents are formed by winds, waves, tides, and the rotation of the earth. In the northern hemisphere, currents move clockwise and in the southern hemisphere, current move counterclockwise.

As divers, we need to know the different kind of currents and to response correctly to avoid any accident. There are few currents that I would like to share with you; Longshore, Rip & Tidal Currents. 

Longshore Current

Longshore currents run parallel to shore. Like offshore currents, they are considered standing currents, which means they rarely change direction if ever at all. It can move you far from your entry or planned exit location. To avoid a long surface swim or losing your dive party, you must determine the direction and speed of the current and plan your dive accordingly.

There are several indicators that can help you determine the direction of a longshore current. One indicator is the direction from which waves approach shore. If the waves approach the shore from the south, the current is likely to come from the same direction. Another indicator is the direction anchored boats face. Most boats are anchored from their bow, so they face against the current.

Rip Current

Rip currents move perpendicular to the shore, and are common at most beaches. These are transitory currents, which means they can suddenly appear without warning. Rip currents are form when backwash from surf is forced to travel back into the water through a narrow passage such as a reef or sandbar. They are identified by a stream of foam traveling away from the surf zone.

While rip currents can be too strong to swim against, they are also quite narrow in size. If you become caught by one while trying to swim to shore, the best response is to swim parallel to shore until you exit the current. Some rip currents can be beneficial. If you are surface swimming to a dive site, a rip current can assist you during your swim and carry you closer to your destination.

Tidal Current

Tidal currents form when incoming or outgoing tides force water through a narrow passage. Since tides move in and out several times a day, the direction and force of tidal currents changes throughout the day. Currents of this type are often too strong to swim against, so careful planning is required before diving in areas with tidal currents. The safest diving is during slack tide, which is the period when tides are about to change direction.

Diving In Currents

The direction and speed of currents are major factors to consider when planning your dive. Most dive plans require that you exit at or near your entry point. If you allow a current to carry you away from the boat, you may have to surface before you reach your exit location. This will require you to make a long surface swim against the current to make it back to your exit location.

The best approach to diving in a current is to begin your dive against the current. This allows you to turn around half-way through your dive, ride the current back to your exit location, and remain there until it's time to surface.

When strong currents are present, a rope should be extended behind the boat. This is called a current line, and is used to pull yourself against the current and back to the boat. If you are diving into the current, it is important that you always dive with a safety sausage so that even you are far away from the boat, the boat is still able to locate when you surface from the dive. It is also advisable to have an audible devise while diving so that you are able to get attention when you surface.

Current In Boracay Island

The usual question I usually received when divers asked about diving in Boracay; what are the currents situation in Boracay? Can I dive in Yapak now? Can I do a Channel Drift now? Diving in Boracay is relatively easy but there are few dive sites that we need to consider the current of the day. If we plan to dive in Yapak or Crocodile Island, it is important that we dive when tides are going up. 

Yapak that is situated at the Northern part of the island, the current will move in clockwise direction and as you descend, you will be swimming towards Yapak. In Crocodile Island that is situated at the Southern part of the island, the current will move in counter clockwise direction and you will be swimming towards Crocodile Island.

However; if you are planning to dive in Channel Drift or Santos, do make sure that the tides are going down when you dived in these sites. When tides are going down, the northern part of the island is going counter-clockwise and the southern part of the island will be going clockwise direction. Diving in Santos during low tide will bring you towards Balinghai, the southern west of the island. 

When you want to dive in Channel Drift, you will get into the water perpendicular to Crocodile Island and as you descent you will be swimming towards the southern west of the island. Remember diving in these sites, for the sake of safety, you are required to dive with a visible & audible devise. If you are drifted too far away, these devises will assist you to get attention from the boat. 

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TECHNICAL DIVING

Technical Diving Is Scuba Diving's "Extreme" Sport, Taking Experienced And Qualified Divers Far Deeper Than In Mainstream Recreational Diving. Technical Diving Is Marked By Significantly More Equipment And Training Requirements To Manage The Additional Hazard This Type Of Diving Entails. Tec Diving Isn't For Everyone, But For Those Who Hear Its Challenge Call, The PADI Tec Rec Courses Are The Answer

What Is Technical Diving?

Technical Scuba Diving Is Defined As Diving Other Than Conventional Commercial Or Research Diving That Takes Divers Beyond Recreational Scuba Diving Limits. It Is Further Defined As And Includes One Or More Of The Following: - Diving Beyond 40mMetres Deep. - Required Stage Decompression. - Diving In An Overhead Environment Beyond 40m Of The Surface. - Accelerated Decompression And Or The Use Of Variable Gas Mixtures During The Dive.

Because In Technical Diving The Surface Is Effectively Inaccessible In An Emergency, Tec Divers Use Extensive Methodologies And Technologies And Training To Manage The Added Risks. Even With These, However, Tec Diving Admittedly Has More Risk, Potential Hazard And Shorter Critical Error Chains Than Does Recreational Scuba Diving.

How Long Has Technical Diving Been Around?

Most People Would Agree That Cave Diving Is A Form Of Technical Diving. Cave Diving Developed In The Late 1960s And 1970s, Developing Into A Discipline Largely Like It Is Today By The Mid 1980s. In The Early 1990s, Several Groups Of Divers Around The World Began Experimenting With Technologies For Deep Diving (Beyond Recreational Limits) To Explore Both Caves And Wrecks. These Communities United And Emerged As "Technical Diving" Or "Tec Diving" With The Publication Of Aquacorps (No Longer In Print), Which Dedicated Itself To This Type Of Diving

Tec Diving Not Only Has More Risk, But It Requires Significantly More Effort, Discipline And Equipment. It's Not For Everyone, And You Can Be An Accomplished, Avid Top-Notch Diver Your Entire Life Without Making A Tec Dive. That Said, There's A Cadre Of Individuals Who Want To Visit Places Underwater That Relatively Few People Can. Many Spectacular, Untouched Wrecks Lie At Depths Well Below 40m. Deep Reefs Have Organisms You Don't Find In The Shallows. Some People Enjoy The Challenge And Focus Tec Diving Requires. Still Others Love Being Involved With Cutting Edge Technologies. These Reasons Make Tec Diving Rewarding.

The PADI Tec Rec Difference

The Tec Rec Program Debuted In 2000. Although Tec Rec Is Not The First Tec Diving Program (Cave Diver Training Has Been Around For Decades), It Repeatedly Receives Accolades For Its Merits. - Tec Rec Courses Are Integrated Into An Instructionally Valid, Seamless Course Flow That Takes You From Beginning Tec Diver To One Qualified To The Outer Reaches Of Sport Diving Using Different Gas Mixes. - Each Level Introduces You To New Gear, Planning And Procedures Appropriate To Extend Your Diving Limits. - The Tec Diver Course Is An Integrated Sequence Of Three Sub courses: Tec 40, Tec 45 And Tec 50. You Can Complete Them Continuously Or You Can Complete Each Level Separately With A Time Span Between Them. This Gives You Learning Efficiency, Instructional Integrity And Schedule Flexibility.

The Scuba Gear You'll Use

Tec Diving Uses Much More Equipment Than Recreational Diving. The Technical Scuba Gear Typically Uses Two To Four Or Five Regulators, A Dive Computer, And Some Accessories.

Prerequisites

• 18 Years Or Older.
• A Mature, Responsible Person Who Will Follow The Required Procedures And Requirements Strictly And Faithfully.
• Medically Fit For Tec Diving (Physician's Signature Required).
• Willing To Accept The Added Risks That Tec Diving Presents.
• An Experienced Diver With At Least 100 Logged Dives.
• Certified As A PADI Enriched Air Diver And PADI Deep Diver Or Equivalent (For This Program Equivalency Is Proof Of Training In Recreational Deep Diving 18m To 40m Consisting Of At Least Four Dives And Training In Nitrogen Narcosis Considerations, Contingency/Emergency Decompression, Making Safety Stops And Air Supply Management OR, Have A Minimum Of 20 Logged Dives Deeper Than 30m)

The Fun Part

The Fun Part Of Tecrec Is Rising To The Challenges As You Dive Deeper And Longer Than Most Divers Ever Do.

PADI TECHNICAL DIVING FLOW CHART

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GOLDEN TREE SPA BORACAY

Golden Tree Spa is located at Lapus Lapus Boracay specializes in Stone Massage Therapy. It was designed in modern theme providing an ambience of well-being and total relaxation and offers a holistic range of touch therapy and restores to balance your mind and body.

Stone Massage Therapy creates a deeply relaxing and healing treatment that helps the body’s energy and blood circulation. Using both pressure and placement of warm stones on the body and combined with aroma therapy, this therapeutic massage restores energy flow.

Your guests will be greeted by our therapists upon arriving at the spa and you will be served with our authentic Marongay Herbal Tea, its call The Tree of Miracle that provides lots of vitamins to the body. There are 4 Aroma Oil to choose: Lavender, Peppermint, Green Spa and Eucalyptus. Guests will be guided to the room by our therapists, we have 18 private rooms and every room have a private toilet and shower amenities. There are over 30 therapists ready to serve you and your guests. While massaging, your guests can enjoy the view of Boracay Sea and peaceful music of the spa.

Time of Session:

1. 1000hrs – 1200hrs

2. 1330hrs – 1530hrs

3. 1600hrs – 1800hrs

4. 1900hrs – 2100hrs

5. 2130hrs – 2330hrs

We provide pick up and drop off services in any place in Boracay Island, guests are required to be in the spa 15mins before the start of session. Is advisable to be picked up 30mins before the start of session.

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SIDEMOUNT DIVING

What Is Sidemount Diving?

Sidemount is a scuba diving equipment configuration which has diving cyclinder mounted alongside the diver, below the shoulders and along the hips, instead of on the back of the diver. It began as a configuration popular with advanced cave diving, as smaller sections of cave can be penetrated and tanks can be changed with greater ease. The same benefits for operating in confined spaces were also recognized by divers who conducted technical wreck diving penetrations.

Sidemount diving is now growing in popularity within the technical diving community for general decompression diving, and is becoming an increasingly popular specialty training for recreational diving. 

Terminology of Sidemount Diving:

Sidemount Diving

Sidemount diving is the, now increasingly formalized, approach towards conducting dives with 2 or more primary cylinders secured at the side of the body and in line with the torso – with no cylinders on the diver’s back. A common feature that defines sidemount configuration is the use of bungee cords to provide an upper attachment on the cylinder valve, normally routed from behind the diver’s upper back, whilst the lower cylinder is secured to the diver’s lower harness (butt-plate or waist D-rings) via bolt-snaps.

Sidemount Staging

Sidemount staging is the practice of using sidemount configuration (bungee loops and/or buttplate rails) as a means for stowing stage/deco cylinders in a streamlined manner against the sides of the torso, when otherwise diving in back-mounted doubles or CCR.

Stage-Only Diving 

Stage-only diving is the use of standard deco/stage cylinder configuration, without back-mounted cylinders, on an otherwise standard, or partially modified tec/rec BCD. The lower cylinder is attached to waist D-Rings and the upper cylinder to shoulder D-Rings, both via direct bolt-snap. Some divers (untrained in specific sidemount diving techniques) often incorrectly assume this approach to be sidemount diving. No bungee cord is utilised in the upper attachment, causing the cylinders to hang low beneath the diver and not in line (parallel) with their torso beneath their armpits. Without modification of the BCD design, the lack of back-mounted cylinders also causes taco’ing of wing designs and considerable instability.

Monkey Diving

Monkey diving is the use of sidemount configuration/procedures, whilst only carrying a single cylinder. It is presented as an option on some recreational level sidemount courses and may also be a considered strategy for certain overhead-environment (cave/wreck) penetrations. The use of a single cylinder may require a strategy of counter-weighting to prevent diver instability in the water, depending on the buoyancy of the chosen cylinder.

No-Mount Diving

No-mount diving is a specialized overhead-environment strategy for dealing with particularly tight restrictions. This may involve divers wearing a very basic harness under their existing configuration, or simply hand-carrying cylinders. Upon reaching a restriction through which they couldn’t otherwise pass, they will ‘strip down’ out of their primary gear, hand-hold or attach a cylinder/s to their ‘no-mount’ harness and move forwards. A ‘no-mount’ harness can consist of nothing more than a weight-belt with several D-rings attached. The evolution of sidemount techniques and configurations has largely made this approach unnecessary, as a minimalist sidemount harness/BCD can be worn beneath back-mounted doubles, or even a CCR.

Benefits For Sidemount Diving:

Flexibility

The sidemount diving approach offers divers significant benefits to the flexibility of their approach. Unlike back-mounted doubles, acquiring and transporting sidemount suitable cylinders is often much more convenient and accessible. Sidemount diving configuration allows the travelling diver to conduct technical and/or overhead environment dives without having to source traditional back-mounted cylinders. When diving in remote locations, the transportation of diving logistics, especially by hand, is considerably less physically taxing. Sidemount diving equipment is also considerably lighter, and less bulky than back-mounted alternatives – allowing for easier and cheaper (considering the rate of many airline’s excess baggage costs) travel.

Accessibility

Unlike back-mounted cylinders, the sidemount diver has immediate access to, and observation of, the regulators and tank valves of their cylinders. This enables immediate problem identification and allows swifter resolution, without recourse to ‘behind the head’ shut-down drills that require a higher level of mobility, flexibility and freedom to operate.

Streamlining

Sidemount diving configuration places the cylinders under the diver’s armpits, in line with their body. This decreases water resistance (improving air consumption and reducing fatigue) whilst also allowing the diver to pass through smaller restrictions than would otherwise be possible in back-mounted cylinders. The flexibility to remove tanks, and propel them in front, allows the diver to pass through very small passages and holes when penetration diving being limited only by the size of their bodies and exposure protection.

Safety

Increased accessibility to life-supporting regulators, first-stages and valves improves efficiency and speed of critical cylinder shut-down procedures, allows immediate gas-loss identification and provides the diver with quick access to alternative safety procedures; such as regulator swapping (between cylinders), valve-‘feathering’ to access gas within a cylinder whose regulator is malfunctioned/free-flowing or even breathing directly from a tank valve.

In addition, stowage of the cylinders next to the diver’s torso, and beneath his armpits, serves to protect vulnerable valves and regulator first-stages from collision, impact and abrasion damage, or accidental shut-down through contact with a ceiling. It also significantly reduces the risk of entanglement behind the diver, where it is least easy to rectify.

Comfort

Many divers will testify that sidemount diving configuration offers greater stability and easier-to-attain trim and control in the water. It is also less physically tiring to carry, and get into, sidemount equipment than with traditional back-mounted doubles – especially when operating from a small boat or a rough shore entry.

The ability to attach, remove and replace cylinders whilst in the water allows the diver to avoid ever having to carry heavy-weight back-mounted cylinders. This is combined with reduced physical exertion when conducting regulator shut-down procedures, which is a major benefit to technical divers who suffer from shoulder or back discomfort or reduced mobility from old injuries.

Redundancy of gas

Whilst technical divers have always utilized a redundant gas system, either isolated-manifold or independent back-mounted cylinders, recreational divers have traditionally resorted to using ‘pony cylinders’ or ‘ascent bottles’ as contingencies against out-of-air emergencies. Whether attached to the primary cylinder, or slung at the chest, these cylinders often presented problems with stability and streamlining, whilst simultaneously only providing a bare minimum supply of air for emergency ascent. Sidemount diving with two cylinders helps resolve stability and streamlining issues, and ensures that a truly capable redundant supply of air is maintained.

Technical divers debate the pros and cons of independent cylinders versus isolated-manifold doubles. Back-mounted manifold cylinders provide easy access to complete gas supplies, in the event of a regulator failure and shut-down. However, the manifold itself creates additional o-ring failure points and a failure in that component will deprive the technical diver of, at least, one-half of his remaining gas supply. Independent cylinders, when sidemounted, provide true gas redundancy, whilst offering access (via switching regulators between cylinders or feather breathing of all remaining gas.

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