Drift diving means using current as transport rather than treating it as an obstacle, and it is how several of Australia's best sites are dived.
The techniques are specific: negative entries to get down before the current carries you off the site, staying with the group, deploying an SMB before ascending, and communicating with a boat that is following rather than anchored.
Wolf Rock, the outer Solitary Islands, Port Phillip Heads and the Ningaloo reef edge are all sites where drift technique is the normal way to dive, not an exception.
Drift Diver: learning topics
negative entry technique
Discuss how this topic is taught and assessed within the exact programme.
staying with a group in moving water
Discuss how this topic is taught and assessed within the exact programme.
SMB deployment from depth
Discuss how this topic is taught and assessed within the exact programme.
reading current and using terrain for shelter
Discuss how this topic is taught and assessed within the exact programme.
boat pickup procedures for drifting divers
Discuss how this topic is taught and assessed within the exact programme.
conserving energy rather than fighting current
Discuss how this topic is taught and assessed within the exact programme.
Topics recorded in this general course guide, not training instructions or a statement of automatic eligibility. Confirm the programme’s current scope with its agency.
What the course covers
- negative entry technique
- staying with a group in moving water
- SMB deployment from depth
- reading current and using terrain for shelter
- boat pickup procedures for drifting divers
- conserving energy rather than fighting current
The SMB is the critical skill
In a drift dive the boat does not know where you are until your marker appears. Deploying a delayed surface marker buoy reliably from depth, without entangling yourself or making an uncontrolled ascent, is the skill that matters most.
It is worth practising in benign conditions rather than learning it for the first time in current.
Negative entries
At exposed sites like Wolf Rock, divers enter with no air in the BCD and descend immediately, because a surface pause means the current carries the group past the site.
It is a simple technique that feels unnatural the first time and needs to be briefed properly.
Common questions
Is drift diving harder?
It is different rather than harder. Once you stop fighting the current, drift diving is often less physically demanding than a normal dive.
What if I get separated from the group?
Standard procedure is to deploy an SMB and ascend. This is precisely why SMB deployment is the core skill of the specialty.