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

[Ojai Diver]

The African Queen can be a nice dive but that sounds like a day to abort early. I've found that when the vis is bad at the beginning of the dive it rarely improves. Sometimes it's better to dive another day.
Here's the African Queen on a good day.

Great pictures, thanks. Not exactly the dive I had there...

 

[tlj3071]

Great thread. While not as intimidating as many of these stories are, my worst case was also my on my OW checkout dives off Key Largo in mid-March. There were four of us in my group getting certified - myself, my daughter, and two sons-in-law. Water temperature was ~68 degF, and I had a brand new (very floaty) 5mm wetsuit. We get out to the dive site (the Benwood if memory serves), and there are 5-6 foot swells - questionable conditions for new divers I think. The boat has about 20 divers, and is completely out of lead by the time we splash. Unfortunately, none of my group has any idea of how much lead we'll need, and all of us are pretty substantially under-weighted, so there we are, bobbing like corks on the surface - up 6 feet, down 6-feet, up 6-feet... you get the idea. One son-in-law starts getting pulled away from the boat by a surface current and freaks out - thinking that he'll get lost at sea - and decides to thumb the dive and heads back for the boat. The rest of us divvy up his lead and finally are able to get beneath the waves - only to be confronted with a pretty good amount of surge. This wouldn't bother me now, but back then we are all trying to fight the surge (bad idea). We do our skills, and swim around looking at the reef/wreck for a little while (I remember seeing a small electric blue eel protruding from a deck plate, and we got to swim for awhile with a sea turtle), then surface to find out the waves are now 6-7 feet. Getting back aboard is "interesting". Lessons learned: 1) know how much lead you really need by testing a new wetsuit FIRST, 2) large swells benefit from a negative entry, 3) don't fight the surge - the fish don't, so why should I?

 

[fjpatrum]

I don't do dives that intimidate me. I have had a couple of "new to me" (and innocuous) dives that made me take extra precautions and pay close attention to the dive brief.

 

[bmorescuba]

Way back, I decided it would be a great idea to go to South Florida in mid December to get my AOW/Nitrox certs over 4 days. I get down there and the chop is 4'-6', with various small craft advisories. I called the shop and asked the captain if she was still going out - I interpreted her laugh to mean - of course. I get seasick, and no amount of meclazine would have helped this. She saw how large I was and said - give him a 120. So, I'm throwing up on the boat, I get geared up - my first time diving a steel 120, first time on Nitrox (38% to allow for minimal surface intervals), and my deep training dive. Get in the water, and my AOW instructor (his first AOW class) has equipment failure once we get down to the wreck at 70fsw. So I had to help him back up to the boat. I was sick on every single dive over those 4 days. My arms, legs, and shoulders were bruised to hell from smashing into the ladder, trying to get back on the boat. At the end the captain said - I think that's good enough to call advanced. And that was that. Don't think I ever learned more on a dive trip, but I was intimidated as hell.

My biggest lesson - spring straps. When you're being smashed against the ladder in rough chop, the last thing you need is to be screwing around with fin buckles for 5 minutes...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I don't do dives that intimidate me. I have had a couple of "new to me" (and innocuous) dives that made me take extra precautions and pay close attention to the dive brief.

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)

 

[fjpatrum]

@NWGratefulDiver that to me would be a fantastic dive! But I've never been harassed by sealife before either. I suspect if some large marine mammals decided they wanted to play with me a little more aggressively than I like I'd get a little freaked out. That's an amazing photo though!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

They like to "nibble" ... arms, legs, hands, head ... wherever they can get their teeth. It's how they play ... kind've like dogs ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

@NWGratefulDiver that to me would be a fantastic dive! But I've never been harassed by sealife before either. I suspect if some large marine mammals decided they wanted to play with me a little more aggressively than I like I'd get a little freaked out. That's an amazing photo though!

When I was dog piled by at least 8 of them as you see here in my profile pic, I turned my camera around to take pictures. I really couldn't move. So when I had enough, I simply stopped moving, they got bored, and went on to the next diver. Their playfulness is based a lot by how much you interact with them.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

@Grateful Diver that is just an awesome pic! I hope i am lucky enough to have an experience like that, and thanks to you and wetb4igetinthewater for the info bout those sea dogs nibbling And how to get them to shoo.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

@Grateful Diver that is just an awesome pic! I hope i am lucky enough to have an experience like that, and thanks to you and wetb4igetinthewater for the info bout those sea dogs nibbling And how to get them to shoo.

I learned an important lesson on that dive ... don't be the last "toy" out of the water. As we were surfacing I got gang tackled by at least a dozen of them. They literally pushed me back to the bottom ... from about 8 feet depth to about 50 feet. I found a little rock ledge to duck and cover, protecting my camera as best I could, and just went completely still. After about 10-15 seconds they decided I wasn't much fun anymore and went off to find somebody more interesting to play with (each other, most likely). Gotta admire their enthusiasm ... but it wasn't intimidating, just like playing with a pack of large puppies ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)