Best Dive Ever

[exnewwavedivers]

Once day a year ago, I was explaining to one divemaster candidate that sometimes, divers may dive in popular dive sites and forget seeing anything years later. On the other hand, some divers may dive in places most people would not even think about diving and remember that dive for the rest of their lives.

On that particular day, we went out for a dive in Boracay's beach front. Shallow and gentle sandy slope going down to a maximum of 4 meters even if you've already swam 50m from the shore. A few rock formations here and there, some patches of seagrass as you reach 5m.

I figured this would be a good place to train someone with natural reference using sandy contour. While swimming, I accidentally found a small octopus... baby one and the head is just about half-centimeter big. After watching it for couple of minutes, I noticed a flounder not more than 1 meter away. The divemaster candidate and I continued to look at the baby octopus while the flounder worked it's way closer. Suddenly, without warning, that flounder devoured that poor baby octopus with our faces just inches away!

How many times have you actually seen any aquatic animal eating another one?

The divemaster candidate has logged about 70-80 dives in the Red Sea and he proclaims this beach dive to be the best ever he had.

On another occassion, while on an exploratory dive somewhere in one of the unnamed islands in the Philippines, I was informing a group of divers that the dive we're going to do might be a boring one. I've explored one side of that unnamed island and didn't find anything interesting at all. Anyway, we dove the other side and saw something like 7 stingrays before an eagle ray made it's magnificent entrance! It turned out to be one of the most memorable dive for this group of divers.

I have a lot of other memorable dives I can share with you. But wait, tell us your story!

 

[CuriousMe]

I will say that one of my most memorable dives was in Boracay

It was my first dive, just Discover SCUBA...I had known that I wanted to try diving for a while, but hadn't made the time. We were in Manila for the week on business, and were heading to Bangkok on Sunday afternoon. We cut out a bit early on Friday afternoon and ran off to Boracay for the weekend. Saturday morning I did the Discover SCUBA dive, and I was completely hooked. I decided right there and then to become certified. It was a bit of time before I could organize the logistics (I traveled a lot with business)...but finally worked it out!

I think the most memorable thing of the dive itself was I was hanging there watching, what I found out later to be, a clownfish. He was just a little thing, but he was hanging out right in front of my mask. I thought it was very cool that he was just hanging there, all of a sudden...he ran right into my mask. I'm guessing that he saw himself in the reflection of my mask...so I don't know who was more surprised....me or him....I'm sure he was expecting flesh, not glass. I'm sure he got himself a bit of a fishy headache. That was when I found out that laughing underwater is loud and obstructs your vision.

What I found out later is that Clownfish are very territorial, and defend their part of the coral....evidentially I was intruding....didn't mean to.

I hope to go back and dive there again.

 

[Ron Brandt]

Night dive . Cozumel. Petting a small octopus. I had tears in my eyes. I did not want to leave.

Ron

 

[sea nmf]

My last dive a couple of weeks ago was where I witnessed a large critter snacking on a small critter.

The dive was in Edmonds underwater park which is a Marine Sanctuary. There are loads and loads of ling cod there.

After swimming through eel grass, the first fish I see has about 2/3 of a small fish (about 6 inches long) hanging out of his mouth. When the ling cod spotted me, he gulped down the little fish.

Of course, I did not have my camera with me. I probably would not have been fast enough on the draw anyway.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

nt

 

[dc4bs]

I too have to say Grand Cayman north.

I went down for my buddys wedding and we, just my budy and I, did a nite dive from the Cobalt Coast dock on March 29th this year. It's about a 1/2 mile or so East of the Turtle Farm.

It was about 11:30 PM. when we went into the water. Full moon almost directly overhead and the clearest ocean water I've ever seen...

About 10 feet from the dock, we turned off our lights and left them off for the rest of the dive.

Even down at 70 feet, I could still read my watch and dive computer just by moonlight.

Keeping track of each other was easy due to the luminescent algi in the water. Just look for the glowing, green cloud around your buddys fins. We also had cylume sticks on our tank valves for safety.

As we swam along the coral fingers, we saw little, green flashes of light down in the coral. I think whatever creatures were making the lights were responding to the green cylume sticks on our tank valves.

We lay on the sandy bottom for a while and looked up at the moonlight rippling through the waves and ripples on the surface. It was one of the most beutiful sights I've ever seen. I can't really describe it other than to say it was like watching living stained glass. I can only call the color "bright, pale blue". Like I said, hard to describe.

My buddy, who has been diving for over 15 years and teaching for the last 7 or so said he had to count it as one of his top 3 dives. For me, so far, it's far and away my number 1.

The water was never as clear as that first night for the rest of the trip as some creature or other was spawning and there was a whitish haze in the water for the rest of the trip.

 

[srkdvr]

:mean:
As I sat here thinking about that question and what I wanted to write many thoughts came to mind. I thought I would say when I first got certified and how exciting it was, but then I thought about when I was getting AOW and how me and my dive buddie found a small octopus and played with it for a while and how it brought into my mind of a show I saw on Discovery or National Geographic about the octopus, but I just saw it first hand. And then I thought about my first shark dive in the Bahamas last year and said that has to be it.... but no this is it.

About 3 months ago I signed up to be a volunteer dive at the Virginia Marine Science Museum here in Virginia Beach. We clean the tanks and in one we put on a little show for the people who come out. We are in the water for about 20 minutes and we are only about 7 feet underwater, but it has been the most exciting and rewarding dives of my life. To see the childrens face light up as they see me in the tank under the water... it is worth all my time. I will never stop going and giving of my time.


Rich :mean:

 

[OrionQuest]

Tiputa pass. . SHARK CITY!! Drift dive was super fast

 

[divebuddydale]

I have only done diving in Ontario.. One of the best dives I have been on is a Submerged Lock in the St. Lawrence River. This lock (lock 21) was flooded when they expanded the St. Lawrence river in the 50's. She lies in about 60 ish feet of water, and has a fairly good current. It is neat to drift along the upperwalkways (at about 30 feet), then to go into the lock at the 60 - 65 foot range. Being carruied by the water channeling through this lock is amazing.

Dale

 

[danielle]

i havent really been anywhere "cool" to dive except florida (key west and ft. lauderdale) anyways the most memorable dive i have had would have been in key west january 2002 ... thats when i saw my first shark. For me that was the most amazing thing, i have always been completely fascinated by sharks so to see one in its natural habitat was the most amazing expierence, i cant describe in words how awesome it felt to see one, just a burst of happiness and excitement went through me. I will never forget that dive.