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Most memorable Scuba Diving Experience?

Gooberlx2

Gooberlx2

Lifer
For those of us who can scuba, what was your best experience and where?

Mine was a shallow night dive off of Harbor Island. Two things happened that night.
1) My buddy and I were explored by a curious (or oblivious) octopus.
2) Swiping my hand through the vegetation and seeing first hand the bio-luminescence of millions of micro-organisms was astonishing and beautiful.
 
2) Swiping my hand through the vegetation and seeing first hand the bio-luminescence of millions of micro-organisms was astonishing and beautiful
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yeah, fun to do that on night dives with all lights out.

Its hard for me to pick a "coolest" experience as every dive has something interesting. Back in november I was in cozumel and got to hang around a couple of good sized (8 feet at least, hard to tell underwater though) nurse sharks feeding. I was a little concerned simply because they were feeding, but it was beautiful to see how effortlessly they hunted in the coral.

Hand feeding a moray eel in Caymans.
 
I've never been scuba diving...but I've been snorkeling on a few different occasions...During a stop on a cruise to the Bahamas my sister and I snorkeled at an amazing place...tons of fish, rays, etc., and it wasn' touristy at all. Last summer I snorkeled in Playa del Carmen in Mexico, and it sucked; pretty much everything was dead, and the only fish that were around were there because the guy taking pictures was feeeding them.

<-- Hates touristy places
 
I dove at this place called Octopuss hole. As you descend down, it drops off to a cliff, and some Wolf eels live there. I got to watch my dad hand feed them.....pretty cool🙂

Gooberlx2, do you use a drysuit, or do you prefer neoprene?
 
nater -

If you like snorkel and are comfortable in the water you could always take a resort scuba class. They spend two hours going over the basics and take you on two dives at may 40 feet. There's always tons of stuff going on in the shallow reefs from 20-60 feet.

Or better yet, just get certified. Even the classes are fun and you learn lots of important safety points specifically on diving with your buddy.
 
SMS Brummer at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland. Rests at approximately 120 feet. Karlsruhe lies nearby and was also a cool dive.
 
Last Feb in Belize, on the Nekton Pilot. On a wall at 105 ft, a turtle was holding on with his left fin and munching on some coral. Actually holding on !!!. Completely ignored me.
 
am i the only one who went :Q and cringed when i read "my buddy and i were explored by a curious octopus"?
 
Circled Los Arcos in Puerto Vallarta, found a Moray eel the divemaster had never seen (a local) & played with it, ate a snail we caught afterwards...

Beat the crap outta my open water test in Lake Sakakawea & the 8 inch visibility in North Dakota.

Kids are finally old enough to take classes, so I'm ready to dive again😀
 
I'd love to get into this hobby. I've been snorkeling to many places, but always wanted to try/learn scuba.

Can some of you scuba enthousiasts tell me how expensive is this hobby? How much do certification classes usually run? How expensive is the gear and maintenance of it?

Thanks!
 
calbear -

There are two basic gear sets with scuba - the actual underwater breathing stuff (BC, regulator, tank...this stuff is expensive - 500 regulator, 500 BC). And the mask/fins/snorkel which you can get for about 200.

Lessons are between 150 and 250 I think for full open water certification.

I only own mask/fins/snorkel plus some other fun gear like digital camera and housing, dive lights, knife, etc. I rent all my gear for a few bucks a dive. Even though I have 70 dives under my belt I doubt I would get my own BC and regulator...too much hassle to carry on vacation.
 
Buonancy compensator (spelling?).

It is a flexible bladder like device that is strapped to your torso. The tank and regulator are held in blace on your back by the BC.

The bladder can be inflated or deflated with air to control your buonancy. In scuba you adjust to have a neutral buonancy - you neither float nor sink, but effortlessly and weightlessly maintain a constant depth.
 
Every dive I've been on has been an incredible experience.

This summer, while on my honeymoon, I was able to dive a sunken Russian cruiser in the Cayman Islands. Wandering through the dark passageways, sitting on the bridge in 100 feet of water... it was an incredible experience.
 
now this is my thread 🙂 my sig says it all! i did a dive in cozumel last christmas--the vis was great. i looked up to see this big manta ray hovering about 10 feet above me. i looked down and saw an octopus below. i signaled to my buddy to go lower to get a better look at the octopus and he points at his gauge. heck, i was 50 ft down, at 600 in my tank and didn't realize it :Q i just totally loose track of time when diving. makes me wanna break out my gear now 🙁
 
Scuba diving is alot of fun. I got certified through a class taught here at the University of Texas (in Austin). We got alot of practice, and entire 2 hour classes were taught underwater. You also had the option of getting certified, which was what I did. The whole thing only cost me $100, and $50 in books/divetables and the University provided the scuba equipment. Not a bad deal.
 
for us divers, what's the opinion on when to go for advanced open-water certification? myself, i'm thinking about waiting another year or so, until i feel really comfortable & not such a rookie. but i'm anxious to try out the cool stuff that you can't do without advanced(i.e. night diving, deep diving, etc)
 
do advanced whenever you feel like it.

<---naui advanced certified.

Night dives were VERY rough in cozumel in November. There was a killer current going on that is no big deal in the daytime but difficult at night, the current wanted to throw you into the wall/reef. Not only that but they're just plain spooky.
 
Originally posted by: tigerwannabe
for us divers, what's the opinion on when to go for advanced open-water certification? myself, i'm thinking about waiting another year or so, until i feel really comfortable & not such a rookie. but i'm anxious to try out the cool stuff that you can't do without advanced(i.e. night diving, deep diving, etc)
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To be quite honest, you should do it pretty soon after your basic class. It gives you more time with instruction and equipment, and it helps you much more when you do your "normal" dives.

The advanced class is much more fun too, not a bunch of tasks like mask clearing and such. The best part is you will learn how to navigate with a compass, which I think should be a major part of the basic class.

 
Originally posted by: love1u0
I dove at this place called Octopuss hole. As you descend down, it drops off to a cliff, and some Wolf eels live there. I got to watch my dad hand feed them.....pretty cool🙂

Gooberlx2, do you use a drysuit, or do you prefer neoprene?
Click to expand...

Well Harbor Island was in the Bahamas, so I was using a 3mm shorty. Otherwise I use a skin in warm nice warm water. For colder I'll go 6mm longs, but unless I become a rescue diver I don't intend on using a dry suit. 😉
 
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