What's the most intimidating dive you've done or thing that happened to you?

[drbill]

Well, it wasn't the 14 ft great white that swam behind my back. Didn't even see it.

I guess it was the time I decided not to attach my pony bottle and went out expecting to dive to a max depth of 40 fsw. Encountered a bat ray and followed it down to about 80 fsw. Exhaled and went to take a breath off my reg... and got nothing, zero, zilch, nada. As soon as I sensed that I started instinctively rising slowly toward the surface. Absolutely no additional breaths from the tank. Didn't think to breathe the little air in my BCD. Arrived at the surface in 70 seconds for an ascent rate of about 1 ft/sec.

Initially I was furious thinking that the fill station hadn't filled my tank, but then I remembered having checked the SPG prior to descent and it was at 3500 psi so that wasn't it. Found out there was a particle stuck in the dip (debris) tube in the tank valve that prevented ANY air from coming out of the tank. The particle must have fallen from the tank bottom as I descended steeply head-first after the ray.

I had done an emergency ascent from 90 ft back in the late 60s when I discovered I was using an empty tank that had been placed on the filled tank rack and my J-valve had been pulled (we didn't have SPGs back then and the topside gauge was missing).

Lesson learned: Take pony bottle with me and do not descend vertically head first

 

[divekraz]

I was diving on the Dixie Arrow by Hatteras Village in N.C. We were diving on the Under Pressure with Capt. J.T. Barker which is a great outfit to dive with. We were mid wreck at 85fsw. and stationary for at least 2 minutes. I had just finished video filming a moray for 2 full minutes when my wife suddenly spun me around and I saw a 10' Ragged tooth aka Sand Tiger Shark coming straight at me. The pectoral fins were angled down. I turned on the camera the second I saw the shark. It took less than 3 seconds for the shark to get me. When it was just a foot away I moved the camera towards him and he bolted.

I typically see at least 6 of these sharks on most dives in Hatteras and was told they were not aggressive. If my wife had not turned me around or if I didn't have my camera and lights on as he came at me, I'm not sure what would've happened. I have never been overly concerned about the Sand tigers as I understood they were not aggressive and many times I have been within a few feet of them when the swam by me. This particular shark was a big boy of at least 10' or more, probably the largest one I've seen to date. My wife says the internet claims the ragged tooth/sand tiger is the 4th most aggressive on the scale with 50/50 provoked and unprovoked attacks. I don't know if this is accurate or not.

look at the you tube video link above or search for Shark Encounter 8-26-06 Hatteras on you tube.

 

[Banyan]

The first time where I seriously thought that something was probably doing too much dive was directly onto Peleliu Corner in Palau. I didn't really understand how fast we had to descend so, when the guide counted down to the back entry off the boat, I didn't have all the air out of my BC. Looked down from the surface and the DM was kicking hard straight down. I caught up just before the current took me off the corner, and likely wouldn't have been able to clear head down if I had done that dive a year earlier. We head out to the tip to see the trevallies, hiding from the current just under the ledge, and saw the only truly enormous bullshark I've ever seen beneath us. Eventually make our way back to the "jump off" point and kick out to let the current take us into open ocean. I notice that the DM is somehow 20 feet above me and he signals that I'm in a mild downcurrent. I kick out of it and eventually the bubbles that got sucked down comes up in very fine champagne-like bubbles as we're ascending, without external reference points, for the boat pickup. One of the most beautiful and disconcerting sights I've seen while diving.

I would also add Cenote Angelita near Tulum, Mexico, at 125 ft below the hydrogen sulfide layer wondering if I would run into a tree branch when I went back up, and Belize's Blue Hole, where I was furious with myself to be among the cavern stalactites at about 145 ft on 80cf of air. In all those cases, I surfaced thinking I had gotten away with something stupid.

 

[Steve_C]

The most intimidating was probably a shallow reef dive at Key Largo. There was a stretch where the top of the coral reef was flat with lots of holes and channels. I was drifting with the current looking down into the reef about two feet above it. I look up and see that a very large green moray eel is swimming in and out of the top of the reef and heading right for me. There was no time to swim up. I did not want to waive my hands in front of his jaws. I inhaled and held my breath remaining motionless as it passed a few inches below me. As we passed I remember thinking don't bite me in the face, don't bite me in the chest, don't bite me in the stomach, please oh please do not bite me ....

 

[KeithG]

as a vacation diver my input should seem pretty tame. we have had a few dives where unexpected currents became the focus of our dives.

first time was in png and we ended up spending a large portion of the dive hiding behind bommies and resting as we slowly made our way forward of the boat so that we could drift back to the boat as we surfaced. not life threating, just a new surprise as the dive briefing did not prepare us for this. 45 minute dive and we swam 3 lengths of the boat, saw nothing but our gauges.

Years later we encountered a nasty surface current that resulted in me sucking about 1/3 of my tank to get to the anchor line way in front of the boat. From our PNG trip we knew about darby lines, but this boat did not have one. We thumbed that one after a few minutes rest on the line. shortest dive of my life.

A while back my divebuddy had a low pressure hose split. But this was not really intimidating. It was just a simple equipment failure that we handled calmly and cooly. Well she did freak a little once we got back to the boat and i gave the signal for "lets look around here a bit" and she replied with the "are you stupid?" signal. She still had lots of air...

well there was the time that the dive boat left us behind on a night dive. a long swim resulted. no tip for the dive crew that week.

 

[REVAN]

A lot of these have to do with currents. It is a major diver issue that many divers don't want to admit is a problem. If your intense dive was current related, I recommend taking a look at this: Diving Performance - Beyond Drag (article Series And Discussion)

 

[jodylynn007]

Sometimes you don't know before the dive what's going to happen.

This had the potential for intimidating ... she didn't even know they were coming down on her like that ... but it turned out to be an exceptional experience ...

Most times, how intimidating a circumstance turns out to be depends on how you react to it ... and you have a great deal of control over that ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Haha... that's ME (yes, it really is) and actually I DID know they were coming down on me like that as I had just spent the last 5 minutes doing a selfie video with them at the surface where they had all pulled me up to. One lion wrapped around each leg makes it very hard to kick and we slowly ascended from about 25 ft (no biggie).

Anyhow... yeah, that dive (or all those dives we did that weekend) probably would have been pretty intimidating for many divers, however those were the best dives of my life and I can't wait until next year when I head up to that site to dive with the sea lions again near Hornby Island, BC Canada (about a 6 hour journey from my home, so not terribly far, but does require 3 ferries).

 

[k_sheep]

Mine was my second ever night dive, about dive #20 for me. My husband had just gotten his AOW so we went and did the wreck dive at Tulumben, Bali. I've got pretty bad night vision anyway so I'm always a little uneasy on night dives. We were diving with a DM and one other AOW who was a loud mouthed fellow who told us how he'd been diving for 20 years before we were born.

Drop in, see loud mouth guy sink like a stone. DM signals hubby/buddy and I to stick together and he goes to retrieve the other guy - 20s later I see him shoot for the surface with a disgruntled DM after him. We met up again at depth, and clearly this guy had been diving for a long time but not a good time - his buoyancy was just terrible, and I managed to cop rather a lot of kicks to the head before I managed to get far enough away from him.

Coming up near the end of the dive, I lose a fin. DM, other guy were out of sight so I tap my tank to get their attention. They go look for my fin while my buddy and I hang steady. At least I thought we did - turns out we were ascending fairly rapidly. My ascent alarm went off but I didn't hear it (I dive with a hood) but buddy did, so he kicks down and takes my reg out with it. I manage to recover my reg straight away but by that stage I'm surfacing.

I surface and try to get my breathing back under control enough to descend - but I'm obviously too wound up. I can't get back down. So I signal "OK" from the surface with my torch, and the rest of the group does the safety stop.

Just one of those dives where everything goes wrong. Still too scared to night dive again And didn't recover my fin!

 

[gekodivebali]

Just one of those dives where everything goes wrong. Still too scared to night dive again And didn't recover my fin!

Don't let that experience scare you again. The best thing is really to get straight back in the water!

 

[Kevrumbo]

The first time where I seriously thought that something was probably doing too much dive was directly onto Peleliu Corner in Palau. I didn't really understand how fast we had to descend so, when the guide counted down to the back entry off the boat, I didn't have all the air out of my BC. Looked down from the surface and the DM was kicking hard straight down. I caught up just before the current took me off the corner, and likely wouldn't have been able to clear head down if I had done that dive a year earlier. We head out to the tip to see the trevallies, hiding from the current just under the ledge, and saw the only truly enormous bullshark I've ever seen beneath us. Eventually make our way back to the "jump off" point and kick out to let the current take us into open ocean. I notice that the DM is somehow 20 feet above me and he signals that I'm in a mild downcurrent. I kick out of it and eventually the bubbles that got sucked down comes up in very fine champagne-like bubbles as we're ascending, without external reference points, for the boat pickup. One of the most beautiful and disconcerting sights I've seen while diving. . .

Especially along the walls of Peleliu (Palau) --when you see your Dive Guide gesturing to ascend up and away from the wall, do so without delay and stay together with the Guide. There can be a strong down current on the Peleliu Express drift dive near the end, where the wall starts to quickly descend beyond 18m/60' to well over 39m/130' & deeper (i.e. Past Nitrox32 MOD, and getting low on tank pressure). And do not forget to bring an SMB and know how to deploy it from depth.

Too many divers (usually novices) start the Peleliu Express dive using the wall as reference, and before they know it, they inadvertently follow it as it slopes away, finding themselves at 30m/100' deep AND caught in a stiff downcurrent, drifting right to left past the south point plateau descending into blue water abyss (see map link).

Deploy your SMB at least at your safety stop if you get separated from the group; if you're not low on gas or fightng a downcurrent, deploy earlier at depth depending on how much spool/reel length you've got. You gotta get that SMB up so the dive skiff driver can see you early, before passing the plateau drop-off & into blue water open ocean with potential surface swells (makes seeing a small SMB harder to see). For this dive site, I always carry extra length spools, a Halcyon inflatable Life Raft, and a surface deployed Personal Locator Beacon (PLB -Mcmurdo Fastfind Plus in a dive canister; some of the Liveaboards are utilizing similar units).

Last time I was there was an early AM special advanced dive charter to see the Black Snapper schooling/spawning, during a full moon (i.e. very strong currents); got caught and swept over the south point plateau in a 3 knot current and decided to ride it out as it it pulled me down to 36m --on Eanx32-- and hence the worst case Nitrox Diver's Dilemma & Nightmare: You just inflate your BCD/Wing and do the best you can to slow or maintain depth; try not at all to physically over exert yourself which induces Hypercapnia which increases the chances of Oxygen Toxicity; hope the downcurrent slacks off in time to pick an instant to kick out of it ascending back above MOD; and deploy your SMB from depth quickly so the boat crew sees you early for eventual pick-up (or else next pick-up point is 1000km to the west in Mindanao Philippines). . .