Most Memorable solo dive

[DennisS]

It was off the beach in about 15 ft of water. I saw a dark spot in the water and first thought it was a cloud passing overhead. I saw a few silver sparkles and then I was in the middle of a school of bait fish, swimming back and forth. It was about 30 seconds of just being surrounded by silvery fish. It was an incredible experience.

 

[ScubaErgoSum]

Two stick clearly in my mind

For obvious reasons, my first ever solo in a lovely little place called Port Cornaa. Max 10m, no current, cobble bottom so usually good viz and sheltered from prevailing winds. No shall I/shant I moment really. A little anxienty which disappeared after a couple of mins and then a lovely half hour with the fishes. No other car but mine, no people except me. The stunning tranquility of just your breathing and the feel of the water. I came up more glowing than smiling and knew this was the way I wanted to dive.

My second was a far more recent one, dove from a jetty along a site called crab row then turned right and finned all the way down the outer breakwater. Turned around to come back and where the outer breakwater meets crab row theres a kind of banked turn. A little movement caught my eye to my left and not 10m away (viz was about 15) a 6-7m basking shark glides right past me. It got to within three to four metres had a look I guess and swam slowly off. Hard to hold the reg in with a smile that big....

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Last July. At the end of World War One Germany surrendered its remaining submarines to England, which in turn gave two of them to the United States. After a couple of years serving in the US Navy as a war bond drive, the UB88 was sunk somewhere off Long Beach California on January 3, 1921. Its location remained a secret until it was discovered in 2003. Unfortunately, the group who found it kept it a secret. I finally located it earlier this year and made what I believe is the only solo dive on it so far.
[youtubehq]OfPXkyBiHJ0[/youtubehq]

 

[Jax]

My best dives were my two Solo Diver Certification dives . . .

Diving San Carlos’ San Pedro Island, the water was 75 and vis about 45’ . . . bad for that area, due to storms. I was being the good little diver and paying attention to my parameters so I could pass the cert test . . .

The sea lions came out to play, first two, then three, then four! Since I was alone, I was ‘different’ and quite the curiosity to them, and we did spins and flips and such fun. Then, out of nowhere, comes the bull . . . Now, I’m not a scaredy cat, but I understand wildlife behavior and he was unhappy his ladies were playing with me. I carefully assumed a still, no-bubbles, non-aggressive stance . . . but the gals were having none of it and continued to spin around me. When the bull came up between me and ‘she’, that 800lb goliath was less than an inch away.

I proceeded to exercise the greater part of valor and set course to blue water, then navigated to come back to the ship. Unfortunately, I blew my time limit and failed my cert dive! I didn’t mind, though, because looking over everything I’d done and could have done, I was satisfied I’d done the right thing.

The next dive was the same . . . this time, I was having none of that nonsense of not returning in time, so I was back at the anchor with five minutes to spare. Putzing around the anchor which lay at 20fsw, I’m looking for things to photograph, and was Blessed with the cutest little nudibrach that insisted on teasing me by hiding in and out of a seaweed. I sat there for quite the while, practicing hovering (not so well) while trying macro photography.

The suddenness of the explosion startled the bajeezus out of me – I thought some boats had collided or maybe an engine had blow up. Then someone began tapping me urgently on the back . . . spinning around, the massive bubbles engulfed me, and I realized I’d blown a hose – worse, an LP inflator hose that could empty a full 80cf in 83 seconds. . . and I’d been down 25 minutes.

Even as I grabbed for my pony, I realized I could simply fold over the hose and gently ascend. I had been photographing the nudibrach at about 15fsw for close to five minutes.

The fun part was realizing that no matter what happened underwater, I would think my way out of the situation. What a glorious feeling!

 

[kanonfodr]

2 come to my mind:

1) My first solo dive ever on the North Shore of Oahu. It was this Feb and I thought I caught a break in the swell model, only 1-2 foot waves with supposed to be gentle swell. To be fair, I had been dreaming of diving this place again for a year and a half. Well the waves weren't that bad, but the swell was long, 6+ feet. Needless to say, that was a working dive, but it was my favorite 45 minutes of bottom time to that point. It just felt so good to be that water.

2) Back to Shark's Cove in Oahu, went out on a weekend to play in the caverns and do some exploration on my own so I loaded my trusty LP95s and my AL40 pony into the Jeep and hit the road. Both dives were some of the most relaxing dives I've ever had, even though I was breaking rule after rule. I wasn't worried much about my own safety, I keep a healthy level of paranoia going on when I'm down there alone but I felt like the water was mine and mine alone. No other divers in sight and I earned myself a lot of knowledge of that area. It felt great accomplishing something for myself.

Peace,
Greg

 

[helimvee]

Bonaire

67 minutes of videoing in 85 degree water not having to keep an eye on a buddy.

The connection to the water and reef is impossible to describe. The following dives were also incredible, but there was just something missing. I guess first times are special.


LeadTurn is this similar to what you saw? YouTube - Bonaire Turtles

 

[Rhone Man]

The one that stands out was a few moths back I got up at 4.30am for a pre-work midweek dive. Blissfully calm clear day. Went out to one of my favourite spots and caught two of the biggest lobster God ever put on this earth. Still made it to work by 8am.

Sad end to the story was I decided to save the lobsters to show them to my sons so I left them in buckets of water (I figured these things can live for 4 hours in the air, so 7 hours in a tub of water was no problem). Suffice it to say that the Caribbean sun meant wife and kids came back from school to meet dead smelly crustaceans. Real wrencher. Me and my damn vanity.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My most memorable happened just a few days ago, on a trip to Nootka Sound with the crew of Advanced Diver Magazine. I hadn't initially intended for it to be a solo dive, because I went on the trip with a buddy of mine planning to go seeking a type of cold-water gorgonian that only grows at 150 feet and deeper. Unfortunately, on our first night ... the day before this dive was to happen, Valerie got a call from her sister informing her that her mother had suffered a heart attack and wasn't expected to survive. The next morning, Valerie found out her mother had passed away, and she had to leave to take care of family matters. That left me without a dive buddy. OK ... so I had 240 cubic feet of trimix and a pair of deco bottles, my camera, and a somewhat modified dive plan. I'd drop down with Curt and John, who were planning to go deeper than I wanted to go, and peel off when I reached my target depth. Going solo, I pared my dive back to a max depth of 170 feet ... just deep enough to see some of the larger ones ... stay for a max time of 20 minutes ... then make my way back up the wall and play in the cloud sponges and strawberry anemones for 15 minutes or so till I hit 70 feet, where I'd switch to my deco gas and complete the dive.

Despite the stiff current, which often required me to duck behind a boulder ... or hang onto something when I could find a bare patch of rock to keep my breathing (and CO2 level) under control ... it was one of the most incredible dives I've ever done. I posted a couple pics in another thread a short while ago ... here's a couple more, from further up the wall in the cloud sponges and anemones ...

Total dive time, 73 very memorable minutes ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[sylpha]

My most memorable happened just a few days ago,
... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Iam not jealous, I am not Jealous I am not jealous

glad you had a great time - guess what too much wind to go diving here - again:depressed:

 

[james croft]

Years ago I was diving solo not too far from shore and found a large anchor about ten feet long. I went back to shore and deflated my Zodiac. I sucked all the air out of the boat by reversing the hose on my foot pump.

After getting all the air out I swam the deflated boat back out to the anchor and pulled it down to it with ropes. After lashing the anchor to the boat I re-inflated the Zodiac with a scuba tank and floated the anchor up. I drove the Zodiac back to the boat ramp and was able to slide the anchor onto the boat trailer. The boat was no worse for wear and the anchor looks great in my yard. Nobody could figure out how I raised it by myself, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now...