What was your favorite dive?

[Bogie]

What was your favorite dive?

It is hard to choose just one for me. The corral reefs in Mexico were fun dives.

My favorite place to dive so far is Point Lobos. I dove with Mike where I saw my first Leopard shark. My first dive at Point Lobos was incredible. Diving through the middle channel with a good deal of surge was a bit scary but exciting. The beautiful blue, orange, red colors of algae and all kinds of critters. The rocky sea floor offers a terrian for an abundant sea life. Diving through a 60 foot kelp forest was magical. I love diving at Point Lobos it is just incredible.

 

[El Dude]

I agree it's hard to choose. It has to be a tie for me. Both were on Catalina...

Blue Caverns near Two Harbors: I did my first drift dive there. It was awesome to fly along at 70 ft and see the bottom at around 150 ft. Also saw a blue shark. It really put my world in perspective.

Torqua Springs near Toyon: A coworker and I kayaked over on our day off and I must have seen a handful of 6+ft Soupfins within arms reach at times. I knew I was safe but the fight or flight adrenaline was out of control!

I have a talent at attracting our chondrichthyen relatives!

 

[Peter_C]

My favorite to date was a drift dive in Maui. We jumped off a cliff into the ocean and never got deeper than about 25 feet. Most of the dive was around 15-20 feet, and the reef was alive. Maybe it was just because I was new to say the least, but it still stands out in my mind. The reef was a place few people ever visited. We came out onto a beach much like Monastery with it's shore break.

Since then I have had days on the California coast where we had 80+ feet of vis and no surge conditions. Dove in Mexico and Honduras, on remarkable reefs, and in caves. 95% of my dives have been cold water, with some phenomenal dives at Point Lobos, since I got my own boat.

 

[kathydee]

My favorite dive was in Malaysia Borneo. I had logged about 26 dives and happened to be traveling in Borneo where I heard about Sipadan.

At the height of that day we were 80 ft down, sheer coral covered walls, 130ft vis, 1,000ft deep blue saphire water, hundreds of schooling barracuda spiraling upwards, black tip, white tip and gray reef sharks, turtles, and countless colorful reef fish all at the same time. It was truly unbelievable! That’s the day I fell in love with scuba!

Of course that day has a rival. Dropping down 100ft onto huge ships in Coron Bay Philippines last summer, some up to 450ft long. Huge gaping bomb holes from WWII battle, more passages than you can imaging!

Here's a clip from my travel journal:

Giant stride into still dark water. Drop like a feather through 30ft vis water following the rope. Then out of the dark blue this huge form materializes, my heart rate rises - (relax deep breaths) - its such an amazing sight- for a minute my air consumption rises!

Keep dropping deeper and deeper, down the hull - 2 minutes to reach 100ft then start exploring! Penetrations passages everywhere. You can see the bomb holes, and the destruction from fire before it sunk where huge steel platforms crushed down on the deck. Peering into the dark silt covered surrealistic hallways - and into the gaping bomb holes revealing destruction on many floors - I wonder how many Philippines lost their life in this short battle?

Even though I am not certified for penetration, we still swim through tons and tons of swim-through cracks and holes. Peeking into many holes and dark hallways - its absolutely amazing & the passages are so inviting! I've never seen anything like this underwater.

Dove two more wrecks today. Hundreds and hundreds of jack fish schooling around us on the the deck of the first one. And a thousands of small silver fish that looked like tiny barracuda schooling the other way. They encircled the giant coral encrusted black smoke stack towering stories above the coral covered deck. This site much be a tech divers dream.

My favorite local dive was day I joined Clinton for my first and only commercial local boat trip. We dropped down on the outter pinnacles & must have had 70ft vis. I saw my first hydrocoral (beautiful colors), the kelp was stunning! [url=http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/v/local/carmel_9-20/]Carmel Bay from the Cypress Sea[/URL]

I wish everyone SCUBA days like these!!

 

[Jim Ernst]

The Philippines, But Catalina and The Bahamas also rock, as well as Monterey!

Oh Hell.... I loved them all!!!

 

[Jim Ernst]

The Philippines, But Catalina and The Bahamas also rock, as well as Monterey!

Oh Hell.... I loved them all!!! HELP, MODS CAN YOU PLEASE REMOVE THE DOUBLE POST, Thank you !!

 

[NateSmith]

Well aside from here in Monterey and North Carolina I've only dove in Spain (2005) and Haiti (2004). This place is my favorite thus far. As far as local spots to dive. When I get a chance to hit it up again, I'm going to dive the DFG weather station just south of the Carmel Highlands. That place is incredible on a good flat day. Last time I dove it (2 years ago) we had 80 foot vis. Hundreds of fish, curious and playful sea lions, calm entry and exit. The place was amazing!!!!! It is something I would recommend to anybody who hasn't been there before. Walking in the gear all the way down there can be a bit of a pain in the butt, but getting in is definitely worth all the effort to get there.

 

[dannobee]

S-O-L (that is, South of Lobos) has some incredible shore diving. World Class in every sense of the word. Getting in and out is a challenge though. The weather station has awesome diving, I just wish the gate was open so you could use their pathway to the "beach."

Well aside from here in Monterey and North Carolina I've only dove in Spain (2005) and Haiti (2004). This place is my favorite thus far. As far as local spots to dive. When I get a chance to hit it up again, I'm going to dive the DFG weather station just south of the Carmel Highlands. That place is incredible on a good flat day. Last time I dove it (2 years ago) we had 80 foot vis. Hundreds of fish, curious and playful sea lions, calm entry and exit. The place was amazing!!!!! It is something I would recommend to anybody who hasn't been there before. Walking in the gear all the way down there can be a bit of a pain in the butt, but getting in is definitely worth all the effort to get there.

 

[kathydee]

S-O-L (that is, South of Lobos) has some incredible shore diving. World Class in every sense of the word. ."

World class, humm ? Can you share more? How long is the hike? Where is this?

 

[nilsdiver]

I love Carmel River Beach on a flat clear day. Amazing site.