Tell us about your 50th Dive

[Lorenzoid]

Looking in my logbook, I see my 50th dive was June 18, 2004, at the Palancar Caves site in Cozumel. I can't say I made any special notation in the log about it being a milestone. However, that dive was part of a trip that is VERY special in my memory. I had quit my job and given myself a year "sabbatical" and was traveling around Central America and Mexico, being a dive bum, tourist, sailboat groupie, student of Spanish, and whatever else. That dive was my first in Cozumel, having stepped off the ferry the day before without a clue about Cozumel, except having heard it was a major dive destination. As I recall, I walked off the ferry, found a hotel room, and wandered around the corner and found a dive shop, Deep Blue. There is a Deep Blue sticker on that page of my logbook.

 

[jonhall]

# 50 was on Dec. 6, 2012: Shallow Wrecks at Butler Bay St. Croix, VI. The famous and fantastic Frederiksted Pier was #51.

Nothing special stood out regarding the dive but the trip will forever be etched upon my mind. We were spending 15 days (my aunt-in-law lives on the west coast) and my wife and I were excited to be in St. Croix. On our 1st day, the no-see-ums were pretty bad and feasted on me, which seemed a daily occurrence. Dec. 1 were our first dives, and although my wife had problems equalizing on the 2nd dive, we enjoyed 2 long dives (1' and 1' 15".) Afterwards my wife's ears never cleared and she didn't dive anymore on the trip. Of course I continued to dive, with N2theBlue, and had a blast. There were never more than 5 divers and the conditions were great.

A few days before we were to leave, one of my wife's ears still felt clogged so we went to an ENT, who wound up draining blood that had pooled in her ear. She had immediate relief but would have experienced big problems had we flown home without that remedy.

On the day we were to fly home, Dec. 13, I woke up feeling sicker than I ever felt in my life. I had never experienced nausea before but it was constant. I decided to fight through it so we could get home. Although very uncomfortable (I had to use a barf bag for the first time ever on a plane), we made it home and I went to the doctor the next day and got nausea meds. They helped some but I still had no energy and was starting to ache in some joints. Ate a little soup and drank Gatorade and was in bed for a week before I felt I could sit upright in a chair. On Christmas day, I went outside for the first time since the doctor visit as we went to a movie. It was another 2 weeks before I started to feel like I could go out again and get back on a regular routine. In hindsight, I wish I would have had the doctor test me for Dengue Fever as that is what I think I had.

Not on dive 100, but on 101, both in a cenote in Mexico, I had an ear barotrauma. I think I need to skip trips or dives that are around the "every 50 dives mark."

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

^ or do a dive in a 6 foot pool

 

[scrane]

Somewhere in Guam, probably in Inarajan Bay, sometime in 1976.
Or thereabouts.

 

[Daved222269]

My 50th was on January 2, 2017. It was at the local quarry- Gilboa. Outside temp 35 degrees, water temp 41 degrees. Noted I was still trying to dial in my weight with drysuit and new undergarments. Helped my dive buddy measure distances for his divemaster mapping project. Max depth 54 ft, 39 minutes. Finished dive number 104 last night.

 

[Stoo]

Hmm... That was a while ago... Like 44 years ago. I was likely working on a pier construction in Hamilton Harbour. I started working as a commercial diver on my 4th dive. Amazing what a cocky young bugger can bluff his way into... ;-)

 

[tilikum]

Haven't had it yet.

 

[boulderjohn]

Mine was at on a bomie, at a site called the Temple of Doom on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It was not particularly deep--55 feet max. The bommie was a spire of coral, with happy little reef fish swarming all over it. It was called the Temple of Doom because as the happy little reef fish swarmed about it, they were being watched by the sharks, travally, and barracuda swimming circles around the spire, watching intently for any happy reef fish that might become a meal. It was watching all those predators swimming side by side that I had a revelation--the old scuba joke was true!

The joke is this--why has no lawyer ever been attacked by a shark? The answer: professional courtesy! It is true! Predators do not attack predators! Predators attack prey! That is why we can swim with them as well--we are taken to be fellow predators.

 

[tilikum]

I wonder if that section is still divable or if coral bleaching has taken over. (Not a hijack, just curious.)

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Because I can't be the only one is this right? @boulderjohn --you can't trust the interwebs ya know

Bombora is an indigenous Australian term for an area of large sea waves breaking over a shallow area such as a submerged rock shelf, reef, or sand bank that is located some distance from the shoreline and beach surf break. In slang it is also called a bommie.