What's the most wonderful thing you've seen on a surface interval?

[shark girl]

Surface intervals can vary from lazing on white sandy beaches to huddling up against driving rain on a small tinnie... A few weeks ago, I was on a small boat in the Cavelli Islands after diving the Rainbow Warrior. A group of 4 bottlenose dolphins came into the bay where we were moored. They swam up to the boat, and my buddy and I donned fins and masks and jumped on in. We spent half an hour in the water with them, it's the only time I have ever been reluctant to head off to the second dive site of the day. I got to wondering what amazing things other people have seen whilst on surface interval? What's your best SI experience?

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/149472

 

[TSandM]

Well, in Hawaii, I have often seen whales and calves, sometimes quite close. In the Pacific Northwest, I've seen sea lions, dolphins, otters and eagles. But nothing quite equals getting back on the RIB in the Red Sea, and hearing the cries as people discovered there was a very large pod of dolphins quite near us. We jumped into the water in our suits alone, and it was the only time in almost a thousand dives that I wished I'd had a snorkel, because there were probably 20 or 25 dolphins just beneath us, and they stayed with us for a long time. I got to watch one of our DMs doing beautiful free dives down to them -- he was slender, clad in a black wetsuit, with long black hair and long legs using a dolphin kick. He was almost as graceful as they were, and it was art in motion to watch.

 

[shark girl]

That sounds magical- and so beautifully written!

 

[gcbryan]

I've seen a Grey Whale and a pod of Orcas as well as a bunch of jumping Pacific Whitesided Dolphins.

 

[Louie]

My favourite surface interval distraction would have to be the whale shark - a fair sized one, nearly as long as the little wooden dive boat I was on! - while teaching an Open Water Course in Thailand. It was a thrill for the students who were breaking after their first ever OW dive. They just jumped in for an up-close-and-personal snorkel with the shark and didn't stop talking about it for the next three days.

My second favourite SI spotting - something that looked like a male swimsuit models' convention parading on a beach in Australia. I was actually sorry to have to get back on the boat...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

If I'm on the surface waiting for the boat to pick me up and a gray whale is swimming toward me, does that count as surface interval? He got within about 100 feet, then submerged.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Royce]

Nice thread, Shark Girl. Thanks for posting it.

 

[shark girl]

Some amazing surface intervals! I'm glad I asked! Thank you all for sharing, please keep the stories coming. Bob, I think the whale counts (you were on the surface!). And the swimsuit contest sounds interesting!

 

[scuga]

In Aruba there were these fish that jumped out of the water and "flew" for 50 yards or so. They looked like humming birds, I asked about it and the DM said something about digestion. Anyway it was really neat.

 

[kanonfodr]

Here in Hawaii I've had monk seals swimming around our boat as we were pulling up to the mooring for our 2nd dive of the day, then he was swimming with us 10 minutes into our dive. Of course I've also seen Spotted Eagle Rays and plenty of Green Sea Turtles as well.

In Monterey it was amazing to watch the otters play around on the OW class's bouy. A mom was teaching her pup to hunt and it was great to watch them dive off the bouy, swim around, dive, then jump back onto the bouy. We also had one give us a flyby, within arm's length of one diver, while we were swimming back out on our 2nd dive of that day.

At Lake Travis I've seen pretty bikinis on jet skis, riding on boats, and old people at Hippy Hollow . That and drunk dudes fishing too close to the scuba playpen at Windy Point.

It's all about perspective, really. I love watching the seals and otters frolick, but getting friendly with drunken bikinis pays off a bit more .

Peace,
Greg