Best Thing you have seen!

[Like-a-fish]

One October day, ascending the anchor line of The Mercedes wreck (Ft. Lauderdale),
I looked up into the glaring sun and saw the dark silouette of the big dive boat.
Hey...wait a minute...
what's our boat doing way down here at 50 feet??!
Then "the boat" sprouted fins and a tail. The unmistakable outline of a humongous shark.
Not knowing whale sharks (harmless) are indigenous to the area, I assumed it was a Great White, eeesh. It disappeared as we continued to ascend through its space.
My buddy said he saw spots on it so the divemasters said it was probably a large, no kidding, whale shark. I learned they do migrate through the area sometimes!

First time I ever got stabbed by that primal "you're-not-the-top-o-the-food-chain" feeling. A revelation.
Too bad fear was involved on my part. Shame on me, but i couldn't help it.
I know divers travel the globe in search of an exhilarating lucky experience like that.
I won't be afraid if it happens again. And I will be doubly grateful.

 

[NJ to FLA]

Not hard at all. While I have seen some truly remarkable things as a diver, by far the best was a pair of hammerhead sharks for the first time.

It was not seeing the sharks themselves that was so remarkable. I wasn't that close to them,they are skittish and swam off before I could get a decent photograph. But my 13 year old daughter, Sammi, pointed them out as we were diving in San Salvador, Bahamas. She had never seen a shark in the water before and I had never seen a hammerhead.

It was a magical moment and one I will never forget.

Here is the article Sammi wrote about it for ClubMedInsider.com: Teen diver in the Bahamas | Thoughts from the Road | Expert Advice | Club Med Insider

Jeff

^^^^^ Jeff, that article was a very very cool thing to read.. especially since I have a soon to be 13 year old brother (in October) that will not dive with me. You are very very lucky.

Now.. the best thing that I have seen.. out of my TWENTY total dives... was in Key Largo Dry Rocks reef and Christ in the Abyss.. the luminescent school of squid.
On my dive this morning I saw a HUGE Manta Ray about 5-6' wide. That was coolest thing in a day dive.
What about you???

 

[Buoyant1]

Toss up between the Scorpionfish on the Benwood, or the weird looking peacock flounder. (I think it was on the same dive)

 

[BioLogic]

Hovering at 15 feet on a safety stop in Kona, HI ... conveniently 18 inches above a reef ridge. I'm hinging in the middle of a mixed school of reef fish, maybe fifteen species of psychedelic colors and patterns. The surge pulls us back, and I scan over the reef head. There's an eel in his hole. Surge shoves us forward over the same stretch, there's a crab in the cauliflower coral head. We surge back, I pick out the white candelabra shapes of nudibranchs swaying in the surge. We surge forward....you get the picture. The same fifteen feet of reef, but more to see every time. And that school of fish just surging back and forth with me.

We weren't fighting the surge; just letting it move us up and back. I was one with the ocean for that time.

Thanks for asking. It's worth remembering.

 

[Scared Silly]

Two spotted Eagle Rays swimming off the bow of a ship in Truk Lagoon. (I can not remember which ship). It was quite memorizing.

Of course seeing somewhere over 50 sharks hanging out on the Blue Corner in Palau this summer would be a good second choice.

 

[Kaliber35]

I chased a 5-6 foot Manta Ray in Dania today. Blew my calf muscle out trying to get a little closer. Ill post a vid in the Florida section this week!

 

[redrover]

Obviously you don't know Walter.

 

[Kellykins]

Haha I love reading these !
Come on keep them coming...Even if you have more than one !

 

[hydropunk]

Diving D'Wall at Layang Layang Atoll off Sabah, Malaysia.

Descended to 90ft and when I looked up I saw a migrating school of hammerheads. I couldn't count how many there were. They never let us get close enough for any good observation but it was a trip seeing that many at one time.

 

[GrimSleeper]

18-foot Giant Manta cruising less than 5 feet over my head. Followed by a Thresher shark. And I'd been wondering whether I really wanted to go to the Philippines...

Grae