The Best Dive You Never Had

[northernone]

Mine was checking out cenotes. Hauled tanks ~4hrs through the jungle to try some leads I had tried freediving and thought looked hopeful. All walled out about 5 breaths in putrid water. Emerged covered in leaf matter and hiked out smelling like the rotting corpse of whatever drowned recently there.

The other team drove to a lead only a couple minutes back in a known cave system... and found a traverse that they had been looking for to connect two systems for a decade. Beautifully decorated passages as well.

That and I came back covered in a few dozen ticks.

 

[rhwestfall]

There have been many in my nearly 30 years of being certified. The latest was this past August. We were in Tobermory, and I spent two days diving the shallows with my daughter (loving every minute of it). For dive day three I had a double scheduled on the Forest City and Arabia, and my regular buddy was up too to join me. Well.... I tweaked my back badly the day before, and there was no way I was going to pull it off. To add insult, I drove my buddy to the dock, and also got to watch the charter go out as I sat at the cottage sipping coffee. He returned telling tales of mirror flat water, and good vis. CRAP!

 

[Diving Dubai]

It can happen in reverse.

On dive my wife binned early on as she had a bit of grit under her contact lense. I got her to the surface and sorted, and then rejoined another pair. We had an uninspiring dive. It wasn't bad but nothing special

While she was on the boat waiting for us to finish diving, she was treated to 2 Bryde's whales on the surface for 20 mins

Dammit!!! The dive I should of binned

And yes, she did have video proof to rub salt into the wound

 

[Gareth J]

Mine might be cheating a little - as it was a whole trip.

We went to Northern Ireland to dive the wrecks off Malin head. (HMS Audacious, SS Justicia, Empire Heritage, etc)
We had spent part of the summer doing warm up dives. A number of those having been on Trimix. Including some full bailout runs from 60+m.

Got over to Northern Ireland and the whole week was blown out. So we ended up diving Rathlin Island. Which was very nice diving, but basically recreational - 35m max, 30 minutes deco max. We got one Mix dive in on a tanker (Santa Maria)- and I got swept over her and ended up at 65m on the seabed - no wreck - so not the most successful dive trip I've ever had.

Worst of it was that the weeks running up and directly after ours where excellent - one of the best seasons off Malin head .

I got home and Discovery channel ran a documentary on the wrecks off Malin head, just to rub salt in the wounds!

 

[bmorescuba]

My very first ocean diving trip was to the British Virgin Islands. On the first dive opportunity of that trip, the boat was going to the RMS Rhone. I was not confident in my skills at all (for good reason) so I decided to start with shallower reef dives (which were fantastic) and the rest is history. BUT, I really kick myself for not diving the Rhone. It's not even deep!
Later, I found out that some parts of the 1977 classic The Deep were filmed there, and I was kicking myself even more. That movie is one of the reasons I became interested in diving in the first place! I guess you could say I exercised good judgement, but it feels like I missed a great opportunity. No idea if I'll ever get back to Virgin Gorda, so that was probably my only chance....

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Later, I found out that some parts of the 1977 classic The Deep were filmed there, and I was kicking myself even more. That movie is one of the reasons I became interested in diving in the first place! I guess you could say I exercised good judgement, but it feels like I missed a great opportunity. No idea if I'll ever get back to Virgin Gorda, so that was probably my only chance....

I love that movie! I'm still in love with Jacqueline Bisset. I was watching a movie where she played Jesus' mother Mary, and I found myself having less than holy thoughts about her. I had to change the channel.

Robert Shaw was superb as Romer Treece. The Deep was my favorite book. If you haven't read about Teddy Tucker (real treasure hunter on Bermuda who inspired Benchley to create the character) and the mystery of Tucker's Cross do some Google searching. Intriguing stuff. Sorry you missed the Rhone. I had the poster on my wall as a kid. Dove Bermuda, but not in the BVI to visit the Rhone.