The very best dive site...

[ivansie]

for me the ultimate travel destination has to do with history, that what will make it different from others. You can see beauty in many, many places in their own terms (florida, caribeean, south america, etc, etc) but when you are face to face with history I think it makes a whole new category for itself. In summary, whenever I am ready for this which could take many, many years I would love to do truk lagoon, bikini, the wrecks in the atlantic coast of the US and galapagos to see evolution up close.

bye
ivan

 

[diverkim]

... but I guess if I had the chance I would like to dive in Lancaster Sound above Baffin Island just when the ice breaks up. The Antartic would be cool eek: literally and figuratively) too.
The question was about where one would like to dive and not where is best to dive. Galapagos Is would be neat too. So many places and so little time. ;-0

 

[Scuby Dooby]

scubaredneck once bubbled...


We all know that. The point is that you choose all "warm water resort" type locations with one "token" locale in the U.S.

. . . . but with choices like "Africa, Australia & Asia" you can hardly accuse him of all 'warm water resort locations' with one 'token' US destination. My god, those are three continents!!! with a huge variety of tropical and cold water diving spread across all three.

If anything the choices are biased to North America. Now if you wanted to say it was only meant for US dive weenies who only do resort diving then maybe I'd let it go . .

 

[AggieDiver]

I really don't mean this as a flame to some of yall, but you turn some of us off with your holier than thou attitude towards cold water. The main reason I enjoy diving is to totally relax and see wonders of underwater wildlife that I can't see above water. I know some of yall love wrecks and think warm water is for wussies, but freezing my butt off or looking at a wreck doesn't meet my two prime reasons for diving. Understandably, there can be wrecks in warm water, and cold water has some really cool marine life. But I am not relaxed in cold water, and there are far more interesting areas to see marine life to me than inside an old ship. I think some of the "resort divers don't know what they are missing up here in the cold water" types need to relax a bit and realize what an instant turnoff it is to be written off as a stroke or something just because some of us prefer warm water and relaxing topside accomodations. There are many things I would like to see in cold water, and may someday go try some of them, but you aren't doing yourself a service advertising for your fave location when you start out acting smug about how much wiser you are to prefer cold water over warm. It generally makes me skip right on by the rest of your post when you start out being condescending to "the resort divers".

For what its worth, I would take south pacific/micronesia as my no $ limit/no time limit dive locale.

AggieDiver

 

[caymaniac]

Unless those that think warm is for woosies have dove some real dive sites in South Pac. or Red Sea, or Indian Ocean, they don't have the right to critisize those of us that enjoy warm water dives.
ut:

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[ColdH20diving]

You lumped cold water and tropical locations together, both offer excellent diving. Best cold water diving has to be Vancouver Island, for tropical the list is too long, keeping it in the States, I go with the Keys.

 

[mattiedread]

As a card carrying member of the WWW (Warm Water Wussies) I would have to say if I could spend 4-6 weeks:
1. Wakatobie/Komoto (Indonesia)... since time and $ are no object I might just take the privately chartered boat to the Southern Philipines.
2. Solomon Islands/PNG Easily kill a month here
3. Maldives- Start in the south and end waay north on one of those new, extremely remote islands... may take 8 weeks.
4. Mozambique-->Red Sea... do a little land tour in Egypt/Israel.

If I were to leave my WWW card at home, I think Antartica or Alaska would be top of my list.

 

[Rick Murchison]

is the next one!
What I have found over the years is that by diving and paying attention, every dive is the best dive; there are tiny wonderful things when the viz is near zero, great impressive things when the viz is nearly unlimited, and everything in between. To try to classify the activities of a tiny crab going about his daily routine as "better" than the massive impact of a manta or whale shark may sound preposterous to the novice diver, but if it's a new crab, and I've seen a hundred mantas???
How could I compare the eight minutes nose to nose with a 400+ pound Jewfish to anything? But how could I compare the mating dance of two belted sandfish, and the mad rush of the opportunistic minnows to eat their spawn to anything? How to compare the octopus capturing the crab, the frogfish or the scorpionfish becoming one with the reef?
I have seen "best" dives in local lakes, in the Gulf, in the Bahamas, in the Caribbean, in the Pacific...
It's a matter of education and observation... study, study, study... dive, dive, dive...
Rick

 

[jimisurf]

So every time I dive in BC it just blows me away! Of couse that's were I live and the only place I have dived, but....... It still blows me away.

Jimi

 

[pt40fathoms]

I have never had the pleasure of diving in a tropical location, where the concept of using a chainsaw with a 4 foot reach, just to be able to get to the water line in one pass, is something that is as foreign as walking on the moon. Where the only ice that is ever spotted, is in a glass. Where a red nose is a byproduct of the sun and heat, not the cold. Where the women have warm hearts AND warm hands. Where a runny nose is not a sign of a willingness to pursue your favorite sport. And finally, where the BEER is colder than the air you breathe.

Yup, one day I'll dive warmer waters. But for now I'll have to contend with cold water, wrecks, low vis, and warm thoughts.