depth is just a number for planning your dive.
^I love this quote!
I dive deep because I want to see something that no other human has ever seen before or maybe see a frequent dive site in a totally different light (no pun intended).
I know some people think that there is nothing down
deep except for wrecks or darkness with nothing else to see. Not true at all.
One of my favorite dives here on the Big Island has an entirely different community at depth. We've seen fish species so rare at 265' that they sell for thousands and thousands of dollars each in the aquarium trade (Not kidding, I've seen this one species of Angelfish that goes for around $10k).
My main interest in going deep is because I want to do it for my profession. I want to research the "mesophotic zone," the area of coral reefs from 200'-500'. This area has largely been unexplored because it is way outside the limits of recreational diving and because of this, scientists discover new species on pretty much every dive! That is what gets me excited!
Of course there is an inherit risk to what we do. My parents and girlfriend always worry about me until I text them afterwards that I'm safe. Divers always associate cave diving as extremely dangerous but deep diving shares a commonality, if something happens you can't go to the surface. And I'm sure many people reading this are thinking "I have no interest in going 250'" and that's totally fine because it takes an absolutely different mentality to be a tech diver (more so if you are a tech REBREATHER diver). But if you are like myself, loving the thrill of being someplace that probably no one else has been to except for you and your team (lots of exceptions to this), it's awesome.
There are a few wrecks that have been lost but thought to have sank in 350'-400' FSW. While that's outside of our comfort zone right now, we'll slowly be working our way "down" there as we get more experience. And for the majority that doesn't like deep diving, not to worry that's what video cameras and deep housings are for
.
Whether it be shallow or deep, happy safe diving everyone!
(From our shallow-er dives at 190')
[video=youtube;W2mMbjvdCYI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2mMbjvdCYI[/video]