18 replies to this topic

[Sharklover]

What has been your favorite dive to date and why? I wanted to ask this question because we all probably have some preconceived ideas of different dive environments and what they offer, and I hope to pick up some new ideas about places and environments that I might enjoy diving in.

Mine is a tie!

1. Night dive in Little Cayman-This was in 2009, when I was fairly new. I had only done one night dive before, didn't particularly have a good experience, but decided to take the plunge and try it again. My buddy and I quickly split off from the group as there was too much light and the group was too tightly clustered together making it a fin fest. So we are just putzing along with our little lights (small Tusa LED), seeing what is to be seen. Nothing much going on. I don't know what made me do it, but I took my light and started scanning the water around and above me. I saw what I thought was a huge school of baitfish. But they had translucent eyes. I got a little closer and they were pink. I realized that it was a school of thousands of tiny pink squid up from the deep for a visit. My buddy was on the bottom. I took my light and signaled to her. She came up and literally started laughing in delight through her regulator. We turned our lights off and on, covering most of the light with our hands when they were on, and they would dance with the movement of the light. We played with them for about 20 minutes. Then we signaled to the rest of the group, they all came over, someone turned a big HID light on them, and they were gone. So I became a big fan of night diving that night.

2. Rough NC wreck diving day-I went out to the Proteus in NC with my favorite dive buddy who sadly is in NY now. It was a rough ride out. I was seasick because I had not taken my bonine. Karen and I suit up and jump, me feeling like dished up dead. But I'm always fine once I hit the water, so in I went. There were sandtiger sharks everywhere. Up, down, sideways, lined up like they were in a regiment. I looked back up at her on the anchor line and asked if she was OK descending right on top of them and she gave me the OK sign. Sandies don't generally pay divers much attention. I think we stopped counting at 50, and that was because our visibility was limited to perhaps...40 feet or so. Such regal and elegant creatures. What a gift to have so many of them lined up at attention. It has happened on some other wrecks since, but what a stunning moment.

[shadragon]

Solo night dive on the Bimini Barge. Full moon and no need for lights. I was the only diver in the water on the second half of the dive and it was the most peaceful one I ever had.

[ev780]

San Francisco Maru, Truk Lagoon. Hands down!!!!!

[Parrotman]

Kimbe bay Papua New Guinea. The most spectacular coral that I have ever seen in 17 years of diving. The colors were truly amazing. All of the reef fish were cool too but I have never seen hard coral color like that anywhere else.

Second best was Fathers reef also PNG. A blue ring octopus came out of his hiding spot to see what we were doing. Stayed out and entertained us for a good 15 minutes.

[peterbj7]

Day dive at South Male Atoll, Maldives. Honking current as usual, but amazing amounts of fauna. Watched seven large turtles all eating or hunting in coral at the same time, two pairs and three singles. The ten of us were swimming in a crocodile at one point, with maybe 50 ft between each pair, and at one point a medium-sized hammerhead swam into the crocodile just in front of us andbehind our friends directly ahead. He/she was there maybe 5 minutes, yet at no point did our friends look behind them and see it. They were astonished when told of it. Shows you should look up, down and all around you when diving.

Edited by peterbj7, 01 February 2012 - 04:33 PM.

[grim reefer]

San Francisco Maru, Truk Lagoon. Hands down!!!!!

Truk is also very high on my list. A must see. I was invited to go in 2012 but have a conflict with the dates, I'm hoping to get out there in 2013.

My favorite open water dive was a dive on the SS Proteus last Summer on which at least 20 sand tiger sharks decided to school with me at one point near the end of the dive. They followed me from the prop along the keel line and then turned as a group when I did. I was a little bit nervous being surrounded by so many especially when a juvenile got a little too close to my thigh once. When I got out of the water, all I could say was Damn!!

My favorite cave dive was this past New Years eve. While the rest of our friends went out to party at a local bar, my friend Paul and I went to Ginnie Springs. We synchronized our dive computers and entered through the Devil's Eye and made a half mile plus circuit and traverse through the system. When the calendar flipped we were jumping back onto the main line for our exit (marked with a star on the attached map). Our agreed upon signal for the ball dropping is the high five followed by a fist bump We exited through the Devil's Eye, turned off our lights and completed our decompression obligations in the moonlight. That was a totally awesome way to ring in the new year.

[ScubaSis]

Maui in March 2010! Not particularly the sights, but the sounds!!! I was totally overwhelmed listening to the whales sing under water!! AWESOME!!!

[sharkCrazy]

Maui in March 2010! Not particularly the sights, but the sounds!!! I was totally overwhelmed listening to the whales sing under water!! AWESOME!!!

Sounds amazing..no pun intended.

[WreckWench]

Hey Grim Reefer...why don't you join us in Truk in Feb 2014?? The interest list is HERE!

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Has to be a nearly 2 hour dive in the muck in Secret Bay, Anilao, Batangas, Philippines.....where I spent a lot of time with this guy, and lots of other unusual critters!

[Jerrymxz]

San Francisco Maru, Truk Lagoon. Hands down!!!!!

Mine too!!!

[grim reefer]

Hey Grim Reefer...why don't you join us in Truk in Feb 2014?? The interest list is HERE!

Talked me into it

[dive_sail_etc]

GBR, Queensland Australia, night dive around a coral head 30 feet across rising from 200 foot depth. A school (university, really) of adult black tip reef sharks decided to circle the coral head with us. No feeding, no attracting (that was a daytime dive later in the trip). A big bait ball was circling around and through our group, but the sharks (thankfully!) never grew aggressive, I never could decide whether they were tracking the bait or simply drawn by our lights.

So here were all these small fish swirling all around us and what had to be dozens of sharks circling in an almost solid ring farther out. A surreal experience which had slipped into distant memory until your topic gave me pause to recall. Thanks for that, Leslie aka Sharklover!

P.S. At the time (1993) I had no UW camera, but thought I would be equipped to tape my adventures instead. Unfortunately, the UW video housing ordered at the last minute was out of stock and the replacement offered was not a match for my video camera, but that's a less dazzling tale for another time...

[Sharklover]

You are welcome dive_sail_etc!

I love hearing these stories. Truly magic moments, aren't they? I too love the ones which include sharks.

This thread helps me build my bucket list, and to understand the many ways people love and appreciate diving. May also gives Wreck Wrench some good trip ideas!

I really need to get to AUS. Thanks for sharing!