Drift Diving

Drift Diving, a step by step pictorial guide. This article is for persons who are either unfamiliar with drift diving, or have never experieced it in Palm Beach (where Drift Diving originated and is practiced in its best form).

Unlike anchor diving, the drift diver is followed by the boat. This is facillitated by the diver or dive guide pulling a float ball, or float-flag (typically boat captain preference).

On Splashdown Divers, in Boynton Beach Florida (part of Palm Beach), flag-floats are the preferred type. They are very easy for boats to see, and offer little drag to the diver towing it.

Float balls, the other alternative, are preferred by the Captains in the northern Palm Beach area.

At the Captain's "DIVE, DIVE DIVE!" command, you will giant stride into the water, and you, your guide and group of 3 to 6 divers, will gather at the surface, and then descend as a group.

Some divers descend slower than others, particularly when they practice air kicking like this diver. Speed of descent does not matter here, so you can do this any way you like!

You and your buddy will head down at a relaxed pace, and join up with the main group at the bottom (assuming you don't descend at the same pace with the dive guide or other group members---no matter how slow you go down, you can always follow the float line from the surface down to the dive guide.

At the bottom, your group begins to move along with the dive guide, aided by the gentle current which helps you travel along the reef ledge. Some people enjoy dives with next to no swimming at all, due to the ideal motion of the water.

Just follow the diver with the float line.

The dive guide will make sure everyone gets to see the coolest parts of the reef.

And the current does the work of taking you by far more beauty than you could ever see on a still water anchor dive.

Meanwhile the boat is following your flag or float ball, so that when ever you come up, they will be very close.

Finally it will be time to come up (as a group of course), and the dive guide will signal everyone to head up the line. EVERYONE will do a stop at 15 to 10 feet.

During this stop, most divers will watch their computers, and do at least 3 to 5 minutes before surfacing to the waiting diveboat.

Once you have surfaced, the boat will back up to within about 15 feet of you, and with zero exertion, you will be back at the boat.

This Drift Diving feature is how most divers will experience drift diving in Palm Beach. There are a few variations of this that advanced and technical divers use, but this feature covers the major aspects of Drift Diving. If you would like to read more about Drift Diving, click here

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