It never fails . . .

[TSandM]

My husband and I arrived on Maui late last night. We went and collected tanks and weights today and went to Ulua Beach for our "shakedown" dive, to make sure all the gear was working and that we had our weights right. Because it was a "shakedown" dive, we wanted to make it simple and minimize task loading, so of course, that meant no cameras.

So, in addition to seeing hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, fireworms, two different types of nudibranchs, what I think was a small frogfish, and a monster turtle, what happens? We're out on the outer reef, in about 35 feet of water, when I hear Peter hooting wildly. I look up from my cleaner wrasse and what is right in front of me? A big, honking MANTA! It swam by, no more than 15 feet or so from us. It's only the third one I've ever seen.

So lets hear YOUR stories about what you saw on shakedown, or gear-testing, or other dives where you didn't take YOUR camera?

 

[Griffo]

During my rescue course, we were doing a"panicked diver on the surface" drill. One of the DM's was acting panicked, and the instructor said "now we look underwater to look for anything like a jellyfish that might be causing the diver to panic". We all dipped below and saw one of these swimming by all of about a meter away. While not a Manta ray, it was just freaking amazing to watch slowly swim by with what appeared to be it's own little eco-system. Nobody had cameras as we were doing the course, and this is the first decent photo i've seen of once since.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/480342_494792817236682_836518379_n.jpg

 

[chs8084]

I never take my camera on the first day of a dive trip. Also in Maui, an octopus swam past and parked itself nearby. I am generally not a good critter spotter, and I found this, so was doubly bummed.

 

[Jai Bar]

g

My husband and I arrived on Maui late last night. We went and collected tanks and weights today and went to Ulua Beach for our "shakedown" dive, to make sure all the gear was working and that we had our weights right. Because it was a "shakedown" dive, we wanted to make it simple and minimize task loading, so of course, that meant no cameras.

So, in addition to seeing hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, fireworms, two different types of nudibranchs, what I think was a small frogfish, and a monster turtle, what happens? We're out on the outer reef, in about 35 feet of water, when I hear Peter hooting wildly. I look up from my cleaner wrasse and what is right in front of me? A big, honking MANTA! It swam by, no more than 15 feet or so from us. It's only the third one I've ever seen.

So lets hear YOUR stories about what you saw on shakedown, or gear-testing, or other dives where you didn't take YOUR camera?

It always fails- if you deliberately leave camera behind hoping to cheat Murphy

There are no short cuts on this- for "it never fails“, one must truly forget the camera (or charge batteries), have memory card full, or housing flooded- then Neptune will show off his best of the best upon you.

Sent from my myTouch 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

[Frosty]

In my case its more I got the pictures all clear and bright on my camera.Some reall doozies too.My dive buddy said. "hey doya wanna back those up on a disk". Sods law I said no.
Next dive the cheap cruddy piece of 2c clip I had the camera on broke its pivot. The camera was new so no ballast and it did a pretty good imitation of a high speed cesa 18m up to the surface which was a 1.0m chop with frothy tops. Bye bye camera

 

[DevonDiver]

Same story... did a mandatory 'check-out' dive in the Maldives off the house reef. Got buzzed by a Manta. I'm sure they must know....

 

[Doubler]

That's why I quit doing weight check dives and always carry my camera

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I take a camera on every dive now, but years ago on a dive in SoCal I was shooting video of a deep site. During my deco stops, long after my camera battery had died, a large Yellowfin tuna swam right past me. On my first drysuit dive I had a thresher shark cruise slowly by. No camera that day.

 

[Rhone Man]

I lived in the UK for many years and was away from diving. When I got back to the BVI, we did a trip on a liveaboard and the instructor insisted we had to do a check out dive, but to avoid interfering with "serious" diving we agreed to just drop under the boat at some random mooring with an eel grass and sand bottom.

So of course we saw sharks, tritons, stingrays, barracuda... dull topography, but an excellent dive.

I took it as a life lesson - no matter how cruddy a dive site looks, go in with an open mind. You never know what you'll see. Heck, if you can see a whale in the River Thames...

PS. Hope Maui is treating you and Peter well.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Let's see..1) we were doing a dive at Maeda Point on Okinawa, JP. Rainy day with very little vis. Friend was clearing his mask and looked up to see the largest turtle...we all saw it...we have ever seen. 2) The quarry put in three Paddlefish. I, as well as others, have never seen them in over a year. I got a video housing and was testing it out. Buddy and I got seperated. I saw one Paddlefish and followed it around for about 10 minutes videoing it. Little did I know that the camera had an automatic shut off to save battery energy. I got nothing! 3) We were diving at Sarakaki Okinawa and I was trying out my newly purchased Motor Marine. We were at about 60 FSW when a Cuttle fish (one of my favorites) showed up and presented the best light show (color changes) I have ever seen. The Lt. asked about the pictures post dive. I threw him the film, still wet from the flood, and said, "there is your damn pictures!" There are more but these are a good start.