Your most dramatic dive moment.

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Best Moment: My first dive out of British waters, in the Red Sea. As soon as I entered the water, I looked down and could see the seabed, 20 metres below me. Up until that point the most vis i'd ever had was about 7 metres! It was breathtaking and I almost got vertigo :)

Worst Moment: Doing a night dive on the Thistlegorm, my cylinder came out of the tank band, so I had to get onto the wreck at 22 metres, remove my scuba unit, undo the tank band, reposition the tank, fasten tank band and then put it all back on, all the while struggling not to float off the wreck! It was almost a spare wetsuit moment, but it all worked out and I had a really great dive - it was a real confidence booster too.
 
It was my second day of diving on a private charter of the Telita in PNG. We were tied off to a palm tree on Dinah's Beach, which we'd dived a few times the day before. The rest of the group was having breakfast. I jumped into the inflatable with a Papuan crew member and headed about a kilometer upcurrent and backrolled in alone. I had my Nikonos V with extension tubes, and drifted slowly along the wall about 50' deep, looking for nudibranchs.

Out of the corner of my right eye I saw something in the blue water approaching. I turned to see a 15' great hammerhead swimming from the depths straight towards me. My first thought (I was a new photographer) was, holy #$%!, what f-stop do I need. When I realized I couldn't take any photos with my extension tubes I relaxed a bit. The shark kept swimming purposefully and directly towards me and, without thinking, I instinctively curled up into a semi-fetal position. It looked huge head-on, with a fat body and big dorsal fin. When it got to within a few feet of me it made a lazy turn, slowly passing me. I finally relaxed, reveling in an awesome moment.
 
I had an uncontrolled free flow at about 90ft that lost all my air in about 30 seconds. Tank valve jammed.
Caused by demonstrating DSMB inflation in cold water (doh..). As it was the on the bottom demo i had an empty BC as we have to kneel to show it first. Result was no air, very negative and 90ft.
No real drama, just switch to necklace pony and manually inflate BC but it was my first incident of equipment failing requiring some sort of action.

Probably the most nervous was a wreck dive where we went around a rock corner and got smacked by an exceedingly fast current. DSMB up immediately but lots of rock outcrops, kelp and low vis meant you banged into everything at a high speed. Staying together over this ground was very hard. Signalled to abort the dive and as i did saw buddy getting swept away sideways.
Buddy was not carrying his own DSMB.

Surfaced as normal, got picked up to the boat to be asked "Wheres ***** <name removed>". No sign of him at all. It was near 10 mins later he surfaced without a marker aid down current. Apparently his computer had thrown a stop for no real reason so he sat that out but my first reaction was "oh no. Is he stuck,tangled,smashed into something". To date thats still my worst dive although the description makes it sound tame.
 
Most awesome moments: first time feeling neutral, seeing a 4-meter tiger shark just 5 meters away - or a group of about 20 curious hammerheads.

And my favourite: 5 minutes of being cuddled by a lovesick leopard shark, after it was done courting me it fell on its back onto the rocks - the other divers swore that it would have lit a cigarette then if sharks could smoke. I was just as loved up as the shark :D

Most dramatic: being kicked off the ladder in huge waves in the shipping lane of Tiran. Had handed up my fins, so was pretty helpless - at least I had enough air, first thing I did was looking at my gauge, thinking "ahh, almost 100 bar, that'll keep me alive for a while". The boat came out after me, but the waves were so high I couldn't see it. They threw a rope, which I didn't catch first time, then came around again. I just saw the white sundeck cover once in a while and the panicked faces of the divers on the boat. Finally got a rope and was towed after the boat into calmer waters (getting water into mouth, nose, mask, everywhere and shoulders and arms aching as if they were being torn off, just concentrating on holding on to that rope), where the crew finished the job and towed me onto (literally, ouch) the ladder. I had been very calm throughout the situation - but when I was back on the boat, I really started shaking. Half an hour later, another group ended up at the same place - but their captain refused to go out and get them because of the hight waves. 8 Months later I met the same dm and captain and they told me their version. Wouw, it was even more dramatic than I had experienced it - and a couple of times, the dm had been sure that the boat would go down. He said he'd never been so scared for a diver and had nightmares for months after it - and he's a real hardcore tech diver...Next time I had to enter a boat in big waves, I was not feeling too well btw :wink:
 
Climbing up the dive boat ladder with the realization that I had just fulfilled a 27 year old dream by becoming a certified diver.

I had issues with being nauseous on the first 2 OW dives but I worked through it. Number 3 dive I finished all of my skills. Number 4 dive was just a dive. Scorpianfish, Tangs, Turtles, Reef Triggerfish, Cornetfish, Whitemouth Moray, the list goes on.

Sweet victory!

Did I say # 4 was just a dive? No it was a glorious completion to a life long dream or I guess the glorious beginning.
Jeffrey
 
My first dive on Conch Reef. Unlimited visibility on a dive off WPB, saw a 6 - 8 ft Black Tip. Diving with my kids.
 
mine was getting to see my daughter stand on the bottom and look so shocked. She looked at her feet on the sand, looked up at me in front of her, looked back at her feet, then looked at me with the widest eyes( made to look bigger by the mask) and waved like a nut. I was so proud of her. She has gone on to get certified and I can not wait to share many more dive stories with her.
 
Most memorable...very 1st dive in Coz! previous 9 dives were local quarry with 3-5' viz and temps as low as 48*
 
hmmmmm...... during cert dive in Key Largo, diving the City Of Washington... Very cool dive... BUT...... two people we were diving with decided to grab onto a nurse shark that was "playing" around us during skills, swimming in between us during the fin pivots... well, they would not let go of him, and he was getting noticably P**sed off. I happened to be in direct line of said little guy, and he was mad. Despite the shark's efforts to get free, they would not let him go. Our instructor immediately came over and MADE them let go, only for sharky to make a beeline in my direction. Ok, laugh at me, 4 ft. nurse shark, but he was angry..... This was the first time I had ever seen one... I had a few different emotions going through my mind.... like Cool! He's coming my way! and...... HOLY CRAP, he's coming my way!! Well, he swam by, giving me a bump on his way through...... I thought that was one of the coolest things.......

Scariest feeling.....

While diving in Cuba, we were headed to a dive site that was farther out than most of the dives we had done, and the waves were quite high. I am fine while the boat is moving, but when it stops, I need to get in, and get down.... (fish feeder). This was the 4th day diving with this crew, and they were awesome with me... So the boat stops, and I immediately start to turn green. I suit up and get in with one of the DMs (he hadn't dived with me yet), he misunderstood what the plan was, and we waited on the surface for the other 8 divers...... So, I just told myself to relax, go with the flow, and it actually worked for about 10 minutes (it took a long time to get everyone in the water with the little boat and big waves), then I started being sick. Ok, done, on with the dive..... My dive buddy came over to me, and his tank kept coming loose. In trying to fix it, I got sick again (didn't hit him!). Finally, ready to descend..... About 5 metres down, I started to get dizzy, vertigo, and feeling like I might pass out. It was a terrible feeling, and I decided to call the dive. I figured that I would rather pass out on the boat than in the water. So up I went... Then I spent the next 45 mins on a boat, being thrown about by huge waves....... Lots more sick....... I felt pretty beat up for about 24 hours....... All was not horrible, though, the Crew gave us a free shore dive the next day! End of book........
 

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