Your Most Innocuous, Yet Memorable Dive

[Diver0001]

What's your most memorable, non-life threatening dive?

When I first got trained I had a good OW course and felt (and still do) that I was well trained for a beginner in the context of the time. But just like the first time you drive your car solo on the freeway, there are nerves. The weekend after we got certified I went diving with one of my OW class-mates at the same site where we had last check out dives the week before.

At that point I had a little trouble with navigation and wasn't very sure of myself without the instructor to lean on. My buddy was even worse. I noticed him looking to me for a plan.....

So we entered the water and swam a similar line to the last OW checkout dive we did. During the dive I got ... well ... lost. Instead of surfacing to see where we were I started working my way to the shallows. The dive went from a dive at about 50ft to a dive at about 10ft of water -- or less -- and I had the most surprising revelation. In the shallows we had *the most* amazing time.

I'll never forget that dive. On a scale of 1-10 for complexity this dive was a zero but it taught me that having a lot of water above your head doesn't make the dive more interesting.

R..

 

[stretchthepenn]

My most-memorable-for-not-being-memorable dive happened shortly after I got certified.

I and my dive buddies, all n00bs, caught a cattle boat out of I-forget-exactly-where in the Los Angeles area one day during early spring, probably sometime in March, for a two-tank day trip. The boat was crowded, and although the seas weren't too, too rough, the weather was raw: overcast, windy, sprinkles of rain. Mix in borderline hypothermia from marinating in low-60-degree water while wearing 5mm wetsuits and being unable to actually dry off during the surface interval, and you've got a recipe for just plain miserable.

Thus, once the day's second dive rolled around, I wasn't exactly feeling positive about diving, or life in general for that matter. Even so, I was gonna get this dive in.

I geared up--damp wetsuit...ugh!, weight belt...fricking uncomfortable, BC and tank...awkward!--waddled across the deck, did my giant stride off the gunwhale, splashed, and headed downward. Suddenly, everything that had been bugging me--the gray skies and chilly wind, getting rained on, the pitching boat, the lack of elbow room, the clammy wetsuit--was just GONE. It was just me and the water; I was weightless and worry-free.

Plus, as I looked around, I found myself between the sheer rock walls of small submarine canyon. I hiked myself up into a halfway-fetal position, and as I drifted downward slowly, slowly, ever so slowly, I chilled out and watched the wall glide past. Down, down, down... In a word, it was a transcendent experience.

That short descent set the tone for the whole dive. It was an easy dive, super-chilled out, and other than the first few moments, totally unmemorable...but it was sooooooo great.

 

[drbill]

So many memorable dives, so little time to tell their stories (if I could remember them!).

Night dives here off Catalina were always special. As a kelp forest ecologist, to understand an ecosystem one needs to dive it during different times of day/night and different seasons. Watching the large kelp bass and morays go after the blacksmith prey, hiding in crevices, was always a good example of the Mutual Eating Society munching one another. And then there were the examples of the other "M" word, mating... polychaete worms rising in the water column, abalone spawning, etc. So cool.

Diving repeatedly to a maximum depth of 200 fsw off Catalina to film critters for an episode of my regional cable TV show ("Dive Dry with Dr. Bill).

And, of course, hearing the "Jaws" theme (filmed partly off the island... whoever saw giant kelp in New England waters?) as the landlord cruised by.

Foreign travel? Sharks of several species in the channels through the reefs in Tahiti. Sharks and a wealth of biodiversity in Palau. Watching turtles feed from two feet away on the Great Barrier Reef. Free diving a shallow bummy near Cousteau's resort in Fiji. A Zodiac ride to Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea when the several liveaboards there wouldn't even drop their divers in the water due to the swell. A huge loggerhead on Molasses Reef in the Florida Keys. Diving the King Cruiser wreck in Thailand.

So many memories! Now where did I leave my glasses?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Most memorable innocuous dive ... mine would be at my local mudhole, just a few minutes from my house. I've dived this site hundreds of times, mostly because it's so convenient I could just for a dive after work whenever I felt like it. This particular dive was in December ... so it was a night dive. That time of year I like to just kick around the shallows, in the eel grass, and see who's home.

A few moments after getting in the water I chanced upon some hooded nudibranchs ... hundreds of them ... merrily making babies. I love hooded nudis ... they're graceful and otherworld looking ...

After leaving them behind, I found what I thought would be the prize of the evening ... a tiny lumpsucker ... a fish so ugly it's cute ...

... a few moments later a dogfish (a small shark) came swimming by, looking for a snack among the many small schooling fish in the eel grass ...

On the way back to the beach a penpoint gunnel swam up and stared at me ...

... and then, just before I was ready to stand up in maybe three feet of water, an opalescent squid came charging out of the darkness and snatched a tubesnout for dinner ...

It was one of my best dives ever ... I wrote an article for a local diving magazine about it ... and I never got below 15 feet ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[kensuf]

It was back in 1997 or 1998. Back then I regularly freelanced doing check-out dives for S&S Undersea Adventures in Atlanta, and they brought me to Cozumel for a four or five day trip. The arrangement I had for the trip was that I didn't get paid, but all of my expenses would be covered and I had unlimited shore diving from the Scuba Club Cozumel docks after the morning check-out dives were completed, and I would get one day of diving for myself to go do one of the more advanced sites on the island.

After the check-out dives were finished and the students were graduated on the second day, I grabbed a fresh tank and swam 50' from shore until I found a nice coral head in approximately 15' of water. It turned out that the coral head also had a cleaning station and I spent the next 45-60 minutes playing with the sergeant majors, damsels, and angelfish that came in to be cleaned.

Easily one of the most memorable dives I've ever had.

 

[KathyV]

That would be my "But I really saw them!" dive.

One of our first dive trips was to Jamaica. Later we realized that Jamaica wasn't the best diving, but we were so new (we had about 10 dives under our belts when we arrived in Negril) that it was just thrilling to be diving in the ocean and seeing any sea life. And I'm not complaining, we had a lot of fun in Jamaica. I saw my first Octopus there and lots of other cool stuff, too.

One day we were out on a dive, following the divemaster, and I was lagging behind for some reason when I looked out seaward and saw 3 giant black manta rays! Two of them were huge and one was a little smaller and they were sailing along gracefully. I frantically tried to get the attention of my husband and the others but by the time they noticed my wild gesturing the mantas were gone from view - and nobody could figure out what I was so excited about.

As soon as we got back on the boat I excitedly told everybody about my thrilling encounter but nobody believed me because mantas are rarely found in the Caribbean - and to see a group of them was especially rare. The DMs were kind but they told me that I had probably seen Eagle Rays or Stingrays but I was positive (and I am still positive!) that they were giant black mantas. My husband was supportive but I had a sneaking suspicion that he also thought that I must be mistaken - because he hadn't see them either!

I didn't see giant mantas again until we went to Hawaii about a decade later and did the fantastic night dive with mantas off of the Kona coast - but I had seen them first in Jamaica and it was a memorable dive!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

A buddy and I were diving the Caissons off Los Angeles Harbor once. I've made many dives there but this was the first time we had poor visibility. It was about three feet vis all the way down to 165 feet. We aborted the dive as soon as we hit the sand. We decided to make a safety stop at fifteen feet and were glad we did. Within a minute of stopping a female dolphin with a newborn came right up to us. They each looked at us for a few seconds and then swam off. In 29 years of scuba diving those are the only dolphins I've seen underwater. One of the worst dives became one of the more memorable.

 

[CWK]

My earliest memorable dive took place 30 years ago. I did 4 OW dives for certification in October 1987. My 5th dive was a check out dive on a Coral Sea LOB in December. Two further dives followed the next day (my 6th and 7th), then the DM asked if anyone wanted to do a night dive, and of course I just had to do one. Come time for the dive, the DM paired me with another novice diver - a young lady from America - then he said, "The pinnacle is over there, find your own way back to the boat. Have fun." My buddy and I jump in and she immediately grabs hold of my hand and held on for dear life throughout the dive. There we were, two novice divers in the middle of the dark, dark coral sea experiencing the pleasure of pissing in our pants. I've had many memorable dives since but I have never ever forgotten that dive.

 

[Wingy]

I've done a few dives in some 'bucket list' destinations seen a few rarities large and small but -

I was a buddy for a gentleman on his last two OW check out dives in a very bland spot in Thailand. Being a solo traveller I'm used to getting buddies with "random" but this guy was special. A 72 year old retiree who had saved spare change all his life and kept a dream alive all through a working class mans grind in central Canada. Inspired by Cousteau and Sea Hunt etc he learnt to swim a year prior to going to Thailand, had gotten great advice from his doctor, terrible advice from his adult children who declared his desire to travel halfway round the world to scuba dive "ridiculous". The joy and wonder in his eyes was the most rewarding experience...i would've normally been bored sh*tless diving there but he needed a buddy and I had a week before going to Richelieu so..I became his buddy.

Not sure if he ever dived again after he left Thailand ..but sometimes..it isn't all about you. If you're out there old Bill - hope you're still having fun mate.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've done a few dives in some 'bucket list' destinations seen a few rarities large and small but -

I was a buddy for a gentleman on his last two OW check out dives in a very bland spot in Thailand. Being a solo traveller I'm used to getting buddies with "random" but this guy was special. A 72 year old retiree who had saved spare change all his life and kept a dream alive all through a working class mans grind in central Canada. Inspired by Cousteau and Sea Hunt etc he learnt to swim a year prior to going to Thailand, had gotten great advice from his doctor, terrible advice from his adult children who declared his desire to travel halfway round the world to scuba dive "ridiculous". The joy and wonder in his eyes was the most rewarding experience...i would've normally been bored sh*tless diving there but he needed a buddy and I had a week before going to Richelieu so..I became his buddy.

Not sure if he ever dived again after he left Thailand ..but sometimes..it isn't all about you. If you're out there old Bill - hope you're still having fun mate.

I love that ... nothing like helping an older person experience something they've dreamed about their entire life. Back in the mid-90's when I was ski instructing I had an older (76 years) woman student whose dream was to be able to ski. I usually taught kids, but when I realized that none of the other instructors on duty that day wanted to take her as a student I volunteered to. Took some patience, and a lot of effort on her part ... but by the end of the day we were skiing top to bottom on a groomed, blue run. I never saw her again after that day, and I don't even know if she ever got on skis again. But to see someone's beaming face after achieving a dream like that was one of the high points of my entire ski instructing career ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)