Buddy speeds

[Paul Vining]

I am trying to understand something that happeened on a drift dive at the weekend and am getting conflicting stories as to why...

ok the situation is the a pair of divers on a drift dive at 20 meters diver A has a DSMB deployed diver B does not. Diver A is of a small build and has a twinset and side slung on... Diver B has a single 15, is 6ft tall and heavyer set.

Diver B travels much faster even though neither divers are finning at all. One person told me that the diver A with the DSMB should be travelling faster as the current would be pulliing the buoy with the diver, but I thought that Diver A would have more drag with a SMB deployed and the bigger kit

Does it have anything to do with body mass ?

Any ideas anyone ?

Many thanks

[PeteM]

I am trying to understand something that happeened on a drift dive at the weekend and am getting conflicting stories as to why...

ok the situation is the a pair of divers on a drift dive at 20 meters diver A has a DSMB deployed diver B does not. Diver A is of a small build and has a twinset and side slung on... Diver B has a single 15, is 6ft tall and heavyer set.

Diver B travels much faster even though neither divers are finning at all. One person told me that the diver A with the DSMB should be travelling faster as the current would be pulliing the buoy with the diver, but I thought that Diver A would have more drag with a SMB deployed and the bigger kit

Does it have anything to do with body mass ?

there are all sorts of things that could be happening for example:-

a) Divers at different depths. Often the drag near the bottom makes the current run a bit slower there so the shallower diver will move faster. Small differences in depth can make big differences in speed

b) drag from line and blob. Particularly if the wind is pushing the blob with or against the tide or the current is different at different depths

c) sub conscious fin movements. If one diver is less at ease then they may give the odd minor kick to stabilise themselves, over a dive this can build up. My money would be on this as reading between the lines A is more experienced

Build and equipment will not make any difference to speed as the diver will go at the speed of the water flow, it will however make a difference to how quickly they get up to the speed of the water as a streamlined diver will be accelerated slower

HTH

Pete