Madiera this Saturday

[Punky]

"As I entered the water and started to put my fins on in waist deep water, I was suddenly pulled-out to deeper water without warning,"
"I found myself being pulled-out to deeper water at a fairly fast rate. My mask was on and my reg was over my soldier, so all I had to do was inflate my BC, which was done fairly quickly"
In this situation I would guess that any buddy he had would be busy dealing with the same problems Scubafreak was, assuming they entered the water at the same time. If he entered ahead of his buddy I doubt the buddy would be able to react and fin fast enough to be much help until the current
let up. Then the help getting back to shore would be nice.
I'm glad you were able to keep your head and deal with a situation that could be bad if a diver panics.
Just my .02