What do YOU consider a good dive?

[orm]

When the vis is so clear and the sun's high in the sky and the reef is crystal clear and teeming with life. At times, you 'forget' that you're underwater.

With a kick of your fins, you glide through a swim-though, upside down turning and out the other side, you don't feel the equipment anymore and are almost a fish.

Then you ascent, hit the surface, the water is flat and the sun warms your head.

As you climb in the boat and someone says, "Good dive?" you just smile and nod.

 

[DiverLS]

My best dive was the final two skills for my Intro to cave, find the line and lost buddy. My instructor and my snuggle buddy did the dive. This was after my instructor had blistered me vocally when I totally screwed up on a previous dive. It was so bad I had to swim around the bottom of a lake where she was teaching an AOW class and not bring up any silt.

Anyway, I tried to do it in perfect form. She signaled me to close my eyes and she turned me around, upside down and around again and planted my hand on an area where I could tie off my line. I did that and started the sweep with my hand while playing out the line and hit it. I got the pat on the head so I could open my eyes again, reeled up my line and go the signal for lost buddy. So I tied off to the line and started my sweep. It wasn't hard to find the lost buddy, his computer glowed from the silt. So I went to him, playing out the line, guided him to the cave line, sent him up the line, stowed my reel and swam out in front of my instructor. At the end of the dive, after the safety stop, we got to the surface and she took her regulator out of her mouth and said "Just like a pro" Yipeeeeeeeeeeee.

That was a good dive.

 

[Bogie]

Safety first.

A good dive is when everyone returns from the dive healthy.

All equipment is working perfectly.

Have some decent visibility.

Ocean conditions that are not too rough.

Have a good dive buddy so that it is safe and effortless.

Fun rocks and crevices to look for critters.

Nice exit and entry.

Actually I have never had a bad dive, just some dives are better than others.

 

[tkdgodess]

A good dive is when I'm well rested & hydrated. I have a good buddy with equal or greater experience. A good dive is when I'm looking at Browning Wall around 50' drifting along, the occasional hand sign/glance with my buddy, I'm not cold, the sun is shining above and a sea lion swims by to check me out.

 

[ssidiv3r]

Since I became a Dive Con assisting with certification dives (mostly OW), I consider a good dive to be one where there are no incidents, accidents and all the students complete all the skills comfortably. To be a great dive, it has to be a good dive plus being able to get deeper than 60' (only happens for the occasional Adv. class) for a reasonable amount of time. Good visibility is always a plus but recently I've been wanting to do some night dives

 

[Korsu]

When I am diving with my son and he finds the Frogfish.

 

[rrb]

A good dive: good vis; moderate current pushing in the right direction; something interesting to see; and a good buddy.

 

[BabyDuck]

the word 'smooth'. i don't necessarily mean calm surface or something, but just everything in the zone. that whole zen thing is why i dive, anyway...

 

[DiveLvr]

I have been diving professionaly and for a hobby for 32 years. I have been in water that is clear and murky, still and with a current, fresh and salt, barren quarries and life abundant reefs. What makes the best trip is a good dive buddy who is a also friend to discuss the trip before, during, and after for weeks or months later. If the trip to the water is bad the dive trip itself is not as good. Here's to you JJ (gone to heaven after being my dive partner and best friend for 10 years, so long buddy). In the years since he died I have never had as good a trip or had as much fun as I did with a familiar partner like JJ. Odd man out "buddies" whether on the boat, the landing,or the dive club meeting just aren't the same.

Boats not being overcrowded is high on my list too. Just my $0.02 worth.

 

[deepwater]

It looks like everybody had great answers to this common question, for me it's about like every time I jump out of a perfectly good airplane. If my feet end up on dry ground and I get to walk away then I'll call it good...everything else is just icing on the cake.

dw