the most surprised you've been on a dive

[MXGratefulDiver]

Was taking a picture of a ling cod on a sunken ferry when suddenly I saw an arm attached to a speargun appear, literally, over my right shoulder. The diver had swam up behind me, reached over my shoulder, put the tip of the spear about six inches from the head of the ling cod I was photographing, and pulled the trigger.

Surprised, and just a bit pissed that he couldn't at least have waited till I got done with the picture ... not that there weren't at least 20 other lings elsewhere on the wreck he could've shot ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[dshorwich]

Probably the time a sturgeon swam by me in the kelp forests of Monterey Bay. Fortunately I recovered from my surprise in time to get some video:

[video=youtube;lAoEnKxbmT0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAoEnKxbmT0[/video]

 

[Tigerman]

Going out from the reef towards a big shadow in the blue,, which turned out to be the school of fish we thought it would be.
What we DIDN'T expect was what came shooting through the school, raising its fin, changing color and shoot away in surprise - a sailfish hunting the fish in the school...

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Probably the first dive I did with my DPV. Went looking for the wreck of a bomber (or more probably, large transport aircraft) off the windward coast of Oahu, using a handwritten map/notes from a local spearo circa 1980s. Anchored at the top of a ledge in ~200' or so, with epic viz for hundreds of feet...could see the bottom below the ledge at ~250' from the surface no problem.

Figured I'd just drop down a ways and follow the ledge deeper for a couple minutes, then loop back around and search the other direction. Cruised along around 140', watching the bottom fall away out to sea and looking for signs of a large aircraft, for less than ten minutes. Suddenly realized I had no idea where I was and couldn't see anything familiar.

When I finally admitted navigational defeat and surfaced to locate the boat, I was really shocked to realize just how lost I'd gotten myself. I was almost half a mile away from the relatively tiny-looking boat on the horizon. All's well that ends well, though, as we did finally find evidence of an aircraft wreck right next to a bottom feature described in the notes.

 

[PfcAJ]

When I worked in the Keys at Sea Base, my buddies and I would go out to the Cannabis Cruiser off Islamorada for a change of pace every week or so. ~110ft, vis wasn't great, a lil' narced. My buddies and I were swimming around the wreck looking for lobsters, and a weird shape caught my eye. Wtf is that?

not actual picture of the one I saw

It was a sawfish! Whoa! Really awesome, I guess they're pretty rare creatures. Just as quickly as we saw him, he took off into the murky water. Naturally we all had the giggles, and half the people who we told didn't believe us. Seeming some rare nature is really sweet.

 

[sbl212]

I was just minding my own business on a dive, just swimming along. I look to my right, nothing there, then I turn to my left and about and arms stretch away is a green moray eel swimming right beside me, jaws wide open. I was a bit shocked. This was only a couple of dives after I got certified and although I've seen them before I never saw them out of their hole. That thing was a lot longer than I imagined.

 

[j2s]

Three things; 1) Was pulling a port hole off an old ship and looked up to see an old dolphin a few feet away watching me...2) Diving off Ft. Jefferson (Keys) and found a clump of silver coins sticking out of the sand.....3) Solo diving in a cave and found two dead divers, waaay back where they shouldn't have been.......

 

[freewillie]

Twice I've had the good fortune shore diving to have a seal swim by and spend some time swimming around me. Once the seal came within a few feet of me checking me and my buddy. I did get a little nervous not knowing what it would do but then swam off.

The only time I experienced something little unexpected was on a night dive in Cancun. I was drifting along with my daughter as my buddy when my flashlight lit up a 5 foot nurse shark not too far away. We keep our eyes on the shark for few minutes and it just swam along the edge of the reef nearby. But all of a sudden it turned directly to me and then started swimming towards me. I kept telling myself that these sharks are not particularly aggressive and tried to stay still and stay calm. The shark continued to swim directly at me and wound up swimming about a foot directly over my head then disappeared into the dark. I immediately turned to my daughter and she had her hand over her heart like "wow, that was a little scary." My heart was beating a little fast and the rest of the dive was unremarkable.

 

[GrimSleeper]

I've been surprised a few times… Mostly by my own stupidity, but here are some of the better ones:

Dropping in to search for a WWII Japanese plane wreck and pretty much landing on the wreck of a Bell P39N Airacobra instead. Nobody knew it was there, and there's at least one historian who still insists it can't be! Never have found the Japanese plane (probably a Kate or a Val, going by descriptions from WWII).

Descending on the same Airacobra ahead of a group of divers, only to find not one but TWO Guitarfish (aka Shovel-Nosed Rays) lying on the sand next to it. Spent a very happy three or four minutes lying next to them before the customers came down and scared them off!

Shark-calling 'whoa!' moments bound. Two of the best involved Silvertip sharks (large, curious, bold, fast-moving&#8230. Once I had a large female, around 10 feet long, come over my shoulder from behind, so close that her pectoral fin smacked me in the back of the head. Another time I was on the lip of a vertical wall at around 120 feet. My attention was on the school of Grey Reefs in front of me, so I was a little taken aback when a large male Silvertip came screaming up the wall and straight up the length of my body, about six inches away. There was a point where I was looking up at its snout a couple of feet above my head, and then looked down and saw that its tail hadn't reached my fins yet… Had my mask knocked off by a Grey Reef shark at 170 feet, too, but I knew I wasn't in trouble because I could hear my dive buddy/loving wife p*ssing herself laughing!

Oh, and getting that hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck feeling and turning round to find a Giant Manta right behind me. I have no idea how long it was there...

 

[btw2459]

Diving the St Andrews State Park Jetties between Christmas and New Year 2013 when a large Gulf Sturgen swam past. Unfortunately could get my camera up quick enough to shoot it.