The fear of "whats in the water"

[SteveC]

I actually have a similar (and sometimes odd) fear of "whats down there."

My deal is that I don't have a problem with anything down there thats natural, but man-made objects tend to cause me some varying amount of fear. For some reason pipes are high on the list. I think if I were ever swimming along and ran across a cable (electrical or communications) I would be terrified.

Of course, on the surface I have a healthy fear of cables and electrical boxes that hum too.

Good thing none of those exist in the lakes that I've been...

I agree completly. Man made stuff can really give you the creeps. It's not a rational fear, but very creepy none the less.

 

[Charlie59]

Have you seen the Cave Divers forum, yikes that's scary!

 

[jeckyll]

Here are a couple of pictures I took a few years back. First on is an Ocean Triggerfish from Cozumel; second is a Queen triggerfish from Cuba. Been around quite a few of them, and while I've heard the stories of their aggression, I've never experienced it.

Buddy of mine used to travel and teach (Africa / red sea, Australia etc) and he said he's seen triggerfish make grown men cry and take dime sized chunks of skull with their bites ...

YMMV.

 

[RikTikTavi]

"WARNING, diving is addictive, and can lead to a serious condition known as DD (Diving Disorder). DD can lead to massive gear spending, entire weekends spent UW, and in severe cases waking up in the bathtub with your regulator in your mouth!"

And all that time my mother thought I was doing naughty things in the bathroom! Really got so hooked on diving that I would soak in the tub with my tank on for hours (just testing the equipment and checking my breathing rate. Right).

Seriously, I was very creeped out about what was in the murk until ***I*** became the scary thing in the water. Familiarity made it sooooo much better - I realized that there really isn't much that can hurt you in the water and even less that would want to. Did you know more people die from lightning strikes (on land) than have been hurt by sharks? If you need to worry about something, consider such things around piers - broken bottles, fish hooks and filament. Not good, but not the end of the world, either. Prepare for these things, get lots of practice and experience and you should find that your fears will either evaporate or at least lower to a managable level.

What I fear now is having to LEAVE the water!

- riktiktavi

 

[highdesert]

What you will find underwater for sure is some part of the "blue planet", the one you see on all the Discovery type TV shows. I tell non-divers that diving is literally like going to another planet, totally different than the one above the surface. And in places like Florida, usually very peaceful and beautiful. You'll get hooked, and turn into a dive junkie.

 

[highdesert]

Buddy of mine used to travel and teach (Africa / red sea, Australia etc) and he said he's seen triggerfish make grown men cry and take dime sized chunks of skull with their bites ...
YMMV.

We got chased by a nesting pair of titan triggerfish about six days ago at Wakatobi. Tried to take a piece out of the divemaster's fins. But we saw them ahead, knew they were "guarding", and just gave them room. It felt good to know that you can spot potential trouble and avoid it.

 

[watercooled]

mono and treble hooks outside that not much really. of course my dad tells me "that's 'cause yer touched in the head".

 

[Jrock1062]

my first OW dive was like that it was cold dark vis was about 6 inches and all i could think about was getting out of the water after a few breathsand a couple of minutes it was all good but for a minute there it was looking like a flight to safty straight up LOL

 

[Jrock1062]

The movies are the main problem. JAWS was a fiction based only slightly on a single 1930s incident about a white shark along the New Jersey coast. But even in California and Australia, places where white sharks abound, you do not see such events transpiring, other than occasionally strictly in the case of surfers. Yet the mentalities instilled by these type of movies causes paranoia for the greater part of the population. And this is seen among new scuba students as well.

The fascinating underlying question though is why do people go to horror movies? What do they get out of it? Do they want to be frightened to their wits' end? I believe that the answer is Freudian.

I myself do not like horror movies and avoid them like the plague which they are. And so, I have no fears of the oceans, and certainly not of lakes either.

it was a bull shark off the coast of Jersy in fact it attacked two people in a fresh water river sorry i am just a wealth of useless knowledge

 

[Lock Down]

Don't put your hands in any holes, and animals are to look at not to touch. If you remember that you will be fine and you will love it.