the most surprised you've been on a dive

[Rusty Roo]

Just curious as to what's the most surprised you've been on a dive. this can range from "the water was warmer than though" or possibly a sighting that is unusual for either the time or location of the dive.

Mine isn't that odd but did surprise me. Dived the giannis d in the red sea and pretty much fell on top of a large pod of dolphins. I know dolphins are fairly common in the red sea but this was the first time i had seen dolphins whilst underwater.

also i was surprised once when after a 4:30 am wake up, to be told during the buddy check "where is your mask" to my response "i thought i was wearing my mask" ended up once i hit the water as i woke up and had a good dive.

over to you.

 

[nolatom]

At Stetson Bank during a u-bolt drilling work trip, was coming up the mooring line concentrating on psi and nitrogen on these repetitive dives, so wasn't looking up or out.

Then I did--whale shark. Right in front of me so close I didn't see the head, just the massive gray with blue polka-dots, then the tail as it glided by. Of course no camera, we were working.

 

[Peter Guy]

Don't know when I was "most surprised" but:

a. Watching DMs "jump up and down" and then see a dark shadow which quickly turned out to be a humpback whale doing a fly by!

b. Minding my own business at about 85 feet, taking pictures when I see another (much smaller) dark shadow which turned out to be a cormorant fishing.

(BTW, have photographic evidence of both!)

 

[James R]

I was taking photos of frogfish in Malaysia a few years ago, when all of a sudden I was in a shadow of something above me. I assumed it was another diver, so I looked up to see a very large turtle coming in to perch right on top of where the frogfish were sitting. It totally blocked them from view, without a care about us being there at all.

 

[drbill]

Hmmm... not sure I'm surprised at anything as I always expect the unexpected underwater (that's why I've dived for over 50 years now). Human beings often "surprise" me such as when the put their hand on top of a subject I'm filming and don't even see it or me filming from two feet away, or when a diver drops down on top of me or an entire class with their instructor WALK over my back while I'm on the bottom filming.

Then again there was the day I was filming in poor visibility near our sea lion hauling grounds and sensed a large presence nearby. Thinking it was a great white, I hunkered down into a large crevice for the rest of the dive and when I surfaced those on the dive boat asked if I had gotten any footage of "it." Turned out it was a juvenile gray whale that rested above me in about 35 ft of water and I never even saw it.

 

[TSandM]

I think the most surprised I've been was when my friend Claudette swam up to a Giant Pacific Octopus that was sitting on a ledge, and the next thing I knew, the animal had leapt onto her head and was trying to pull her mask and regulator off.

More pleasant surprises were diving between the first and second reefs at Ulua Beach on Maui and hearing Peter screaming into his reg, and looking up and seeing a big, black manta slowly flapping past us (in 15 feet of water). Two days later, we were in roughly the same place, and it was a big pod of dolphins.

 

[diversteve]

I dropped off the T/C Explorer one dive. Practically had to straddle a 6' reef shark going right under the boat at the exact same time. He seemed mostly unconcerned but I had a pretty tense moment as I kicked it in the back. It took off, seemed more startled than I was. I looked over and the Captain (diving under the boat) was laughing so hard he almost lost his reg.

We dive often near a sea lion colony off Guaymas, MX. They like to come and play. I tell friends to leave their snorkels on the boat but someone always forgets. Usually that means fighting to keep their mask when a seal tries to liberate their snorkel - they like shiny tips. I have video of them admiring themselves in my housing port - before either blowing bubbles or trying to bite the "other" seal. When I'm filming something else and one pops into view, it's a little unsettling.

My buddy had the best story though. He was diving in the Kelp in SoCal and noticed this odd black dot about the size of his fist. As he got closer to it - it closed (blinked) and the whole wall of kelp suddenly moved rapidly 10' toward him. He thinks it was a Blue Whale resting there. He estimated it as twice as long at their dive boat - which was about 40'

 

[MaxBottomtime]

It was more of a pleasant surprise that I expected, but after searching for years for the WWI German submarine UB-88 I dived to what I believed to be its location. The visibility was only ten feet, but my down line was right next to the conning tower. As it came into view I felt a sense of relief and a "so there!" feeling to those who would not disclose the location.

 

[TMHeimer]

That's a tough one. The obvious time was in Panama when the DM (it was just me and him, and he was excellent) jumped in with an empty tank and needed to share Air at depth. Goes to show it can happen to anyone if you dive enough.

 

[Lefty Writer]

Wow, so many cool stories. Mine is going to seem tame by comparison.

This last June, several from my dive club took a road trip to Florida. One of the highlights (at least for me) was diving the Mighty O.

On our first dive, we were descending the line, and at about 60 feet or so, I was taking a look around and spotted what looked like very pale, snub nosed dolphins. Of course, my camera was in my BC pocket at the time, so I don't have photos.

Anyway....

My first reaction was "Holy cr@p!" I glanced at my computer to check the depth, thinking "It's only 60 feet, surely I'm not narc'ed!" I looked back up and they were gone!

I just wrote it off as an overactive imagination and continued the dive. I wasn't going to mention anything about it afterwards until someone else asked "Hey did anyone see those two dolphin lookin' things?"

After discussing it, the consensus was that we saw a pair of Risso's Dolphins.

I sure wish I would've had my camera handy. Lesson learned!