the most surprised you've been on a dive

[Aotus]

a couple weeks ago I was taking a cavern class at Vortex Springs FL. It was a busy weekend and several divers were in and out of the cavern. I'd just finished a drill and was on my way up with my buddy. He paused to watch something below so I turned and admired the massive rock wall behind me. I turned back to check on my buddy and he was pointing at something behind me and up...I turned, thinking, "he really is underestimating my awareness of my surroundings if he thinks I'm going to run into this wall, i was just looking at it..." then i see a face in the wall! It smiled and waved a camouflaged hand at me and I jumped (as much as one can when neutrally buoyant). I started laughing into my regulator as I was admiring the camouflaged wetsuit the free diver was wearing, and then I blinked and he was gone again. I saw him at the surface, he told me he thinks he caught my reaction on film, pointing to his mask-mounted gopro. wish I'd thought to give him my email address.

 

[oldogre]

Descending a wall looking in all the nooks and crannies, my buddy started pointing down. I realised what he was pointing to when I touched a stingray! I shot up 3 feet and it swam away calmly.

 

[divekraz]

I was diving a wreck with JT off of Hatteras. You tube link Shark Encounter 8-25-06 Hatteras - YouTube and write up is on scubaboard. You tube will show a 10 foot Sand Tiger Shark charging me on a wreck in Hatteras, North Carolina on 8-25-2006. I had just finished filming a moray eel on a 600' wreck, middle of the deck, nothing around me but space, at 90'fsw with good visibility. My wife Cathy suddenly spun me around and all I saw were teeth coming at me. I immediately turned on my camera. The shark didn't turn until I shoved the camera at it which was way to close at one ft away. This took less than 3 seconds for the shark to cover about 25'. If I wasn't facing the shark I'm not sure what would've happened. My wife says she saved my life, I say she put the biggest piece of meat between her and the shark. If you slow the speed you can see a Remora under the shark and see the clouds of fish in the background to see how large the shark was. Also note the pectoral fins are angled downward which indicates the shark is in a aggressive mode. When the fins are out straight they are relaxed. Divers especially and people in general are not a food source for sharks and are bitten 99.9% of the time due to mistaken identity. This shark probably didn't read the same book we've been reading. Yes, I did go diving on the same wreck the next day and I saw at least 6 more sharks. They pretty much ignored us as they should. I'm pretty sure I saw the same shark who just cruised on by me.

 

[miked]

Not quite as exciting, or potentially dangerous, but still surprising. Many years ago, in Aruba, on the wreck of the Antilla (SP?), we were moving through one of the (ceilingless) holds, and I saw this fish, resting on a pile of wreckage. It then proceeded to WALK along the edge of the wreckage pile.....My first encounter with a frog fish.

 

[KathyV]

This isn't a dive story but it did surprise me. It is very common to see sharks when diving in the Turks and Caicos but I never expected to see one while eating dinner on land! We were enjoying supper on the deck of a dockside restaurant in the marina when I happened to glance down at the water just in time to see a reef shark slowly swimming by parallel to the dock. I yelled "shark!" in surprise and pointed and everybody on the deck leaned over to take a look. The shark turned around and made another pass and then we all just looked up at each other in surprise with goofy expressions on our faces.

I don't know if this particular shark hangs out there all the time, or if this is a common sight on Provo, but it was a first for me. The ironic thing is that the restaurant we were at is called the Sharkbite Bar & Grill!

 

[bergersau]

Great topic.

My best 'surprise moment' was on a recent night dive under a local pier in fairly poor vis.
I was looking up, examining the invertebrate life on the railway sleepers bolted to the side of the pier to act as wave breaks for small boats.
I looked down to find a fur seal 'Up close and personal' maybe 30cm away from my face..
I jumped - then it jumped, and then dissapeared.
My buddy saw the whole thing and was laughing so hard I don't know how he retained his reg. He now make jokes about me startling seals.

 

[victor]

One of my first encounters with a curious cuttle fish. He was just hanging around quite still so I could take some pictures, maybe 3 ft away. On the third or forth shot I looked up just after taking the picture and he copied my flash changing from a mottled dark green to translucent ivory and then back to dark green. My regulator nearly fell out of my mouth as my jaw hit the floor. What a show off he was, as I mover around he would pose in front of differing backgrounds changing his colour to match and after every photo he would repeat his flash imitation. I soon ran out of film and after about a dozen shots. It's happened a couple of times since and I assume that it causes them no stress as they seem happy to hang around.

 

[fiziks]

Diving the shipwrecks around Isle Royale in Lake Superior is a wreck called the Congdon. The shipwreck is in two pieces, with the bow on one side of a reef angled toward the surface and the stern on the other side of the reef. We were in the bow. I was down in the tool room with a DM trainee, when we heard what sounded like tearing metal. It was loud enough that you could feel it in your bones. My buddy's eye's were opened so wide in surprise that I thought his mask might pop off. I'm sure the look on my face mirrored his. We shared a "It's been nice knowing you. See you on the other side" look, and then we both gave the thumbs up sign, hoping to get out before the wreck collapsed on top of us. We took the nearest exit, rather than following our line back the way we came. A friend of mine was still outside the wreck when he heard the sound. He said within about 5 seconds, any hole big enough (doors, windows, hatches, cracks), had a diver shooting out of it.

So what happened? The bow sits facing up the slope of the reef at about a 45 degree angle, so in the chain locker at the bowsprit there forms a very sizable air pocket. A diver in another buddy team in our group had a dive alert ( Dive Alert Signaling Device at LeisurePro ) and decided he wanted to know what it sounded like at depth (the air pocket in the chain locker is at about 45-50 ft, if I recall... my buddy and I were at about 100ft in the tool room), so he gave it a good blast in the chain locker air pocket.

We dove it the again the next day and I recovered my reel.

 

[Dragon_Rckr_PR]

Mine was kinda simple, but still surprising to me...

I was diving with a bud from work, hopefully long term dive bud, in a off-shore dive. We where heading to the deeper end of the site which at that point was 50' and as I was approaching I noticed what seemed to be a sea turtle behind a huge sponge. This was my very first encounter with one, so I went a bit overboard with the dive alert to signal my bud to check out the turtle and guess I startled it a bit. We got to see it look back at us in a curious way and then head out into the deep blue sea. Got it on vid and was great reviewing it and saw my mistake, now I know better and approach in a more calm matter.

 

[PEDiamond]

was at 105 feet at wreck of corsair off oahu, my gopro seized up, was fiddling with it to try to get it unstuck, my DM pointed behind me as I reached the ascent line…turned around and was looking at a humpback 30 feet away….she did three circuits around us as we held onto the line…no photo but the image is burned into my cerebral cortex, will remember that view of the whale over my shoulder till I die……the dm got some great shots of a humpback,surrounded by pennant fish and with the wreck and the sandy bottom a few feet below the whale……..aloha…peter