What do YOU consider a good dive?

[spagettimnstr]

I have 6 years of experience, whereas my mom (and buddy) has 30; this is sometimes frustrating, because to me, and good dive is practically any dive. To me, the concept and practice of diving is so exhilarating compared to everything else in my life that I'm happy whenever I'm underwater. She, on the other hand, has been diving in the Red Sea, Caribbean, Galapagos...etc, so she defines "good diving" as something completely different. It's sometimes frustrating because it makes it hard to convince her that it's really "worth it" to go down to Monterey (55 degree water + 20 foot viz) for a weekend.

 

[TSandM]

Hard to convince someone to go down to Monterey? Wow -- that's jaded! I'm doing almost thirty hours in a car this coming weekend, just to spend four days diving Monterey. And I've dived the Red Sea, the Caribbean, Indonesia, Australia . . . Monterey is in my top ten list.

 

[spagettimnstr]

Haha, maybe it'll help if I show that to her

 

[ding dang]

as long as i get in the water, and i don't die - it's a good dive. simple as that.

a GREAT dive?

that's a little different.

 

[donzi]

I agree with ding dang, just getting in the water usually makes my day. I live in the Baltimore area and dive almost every week of the year. If I am not traveling somewhere warm or to New Jersey to wreck dive I dive a local, private, 135' deep quarry. No fish, some cars to look at, the bottom is 38 degrees most of the winter and gets up to 41 in the summer, but you can't beat breakfast at the diner, followed by a couple of dives with your friends, topped of with a couple of beers when you are done.
donzi

 

[binobanana]

a good dive? I had ones a good dive in jupiter!
I consider a good dive! when:

When i am back on the boat, but my mind is still down there!!!
And i can,t stop talking about this dive!

 

[Mike Boswell]

This might sound a little weird, but the divers I admire the most are the ones who dive in some cold, murky lake or quarry, and swim around in 3' visibility looking at a muddy bottom and the occasional old piece of junk. To me, those are the really hard-core divers, the ones who love diving even at its worst.

Reading about the dive sites that other divers have, it really makes me appreciate how lucky I am. We San Diegans are spoiled with good weather and great diving. I complain when the vis is only 15' and the water temps get down to 54 degrees. A bad day here would be awesome to a lot of people.

For me a good dive has to have good conditions, especially visibility, and I need to see something amazing, like a pair of Swell sharks, or a Giant Sea Bass, or a herd of a hundred lobsters massed like an army in the eelgrass.

Swimming down through the cold clear water off San Clemente Island, cruising through the giant kelp stalks rising 100 feet from the bottom, is an incredible experience.

Dropping off a boat anchored out on the Farnsworth Bank, swimming down through blue water to the tops of the pinnacles encrusted with bright purple hydrocoral, is simply breathtaking.