Why do ya' do what ya' do?

[J.R.]

My dive buddy (wife) and I were chatting tonight about what kind of diving we enjoy most and why it interests us... and the question came up, "Why are some divers absorbed by wrecks... some by pretty fish... some by... oh, whatever?"

So the question is: "What is your favorite dive scenero (... and I ain't talkin' about bar hoppin' around some Carribean town...)... and what about it holds such a facination to you?"

I'd prefer this not to be a "my stuff is cooler than yer' stuff" thread... just curious as to what fires your flares...

 

[Jake]

I'm most interested by wreck diving. First, I'm a trained historian (MA work in Middle Eastern and Cold War US studies), so the life-and-death of it all fascinates me. In addition, I'm a young single male who heads up an IT Division, giving me a healthy love of adventure and danger (on the one hand) and gear (on the other). My holy grail is to do some of the deeper wrecks at places like Truk lagoon.

 

[Mo2vation]

Wreck diving interests me the very, very least. Don't get it, not into it, not my thing. No wrecks are on purpose - someone blew it. Glorifying man's feebleness of the sea just ain't my thing. Couldn't care less.

I'm into topography. Into canyons, walls, pinnacles. I want to see sea life in the sea, on stuff as the ocean was created. I'm very satisfied diving very slowly with my nose against the sand and rocks. The world belongs to the very small, and I wanna see it all.

There's more life and more species in one of my macro photos than in any 10 of my wide angles.

I love inverts probably the best. The colors, the Dr Suess shapes, the environments, the adaptations, the sizes. Oh, yeah. They rule the ocean.

Corals, sponges, Nudis, Octos, and more. The best.

---
Ken

 

[trtldvr]

by far my favorite type of dive (that unfortunatly I don't do enough of) is night diving. I have often said, if the diving gods conspired against me, and said that I must choose between night and day and never dive the other again. You would never see me in daylight. I love everything about night diving, the colors of the coral polyps, the bioluminesence, seeing the shrimp, spotted eels and molusks that tend to hide during the day. One of my favorite parts of a night dive out at the reef is at the end. I enjoy hitting the surface and rolling onto my back and looking up at the stars (truly ahhh inspiring). I feel truly fortunate any time I can do this.

 

[Mauifish]

I have done many types of diving all over the world and my absolute favorite is a little known place in the Gulf of Mexico called Stetson Banks, not to far from Flower Garden Banks Coral reefs. What is so awesome about Stetson is the magnitude of aquatic life, huge schools of fish attracted to the pinnacles that exist on buckled clay plates thrust from the depths. There is no coral growth and therefore not much hiding places for all the eels, lobsters, frogfish, etc. Great place for whaleshark sightings and visibility can be over 100 feet, many species of shark and rays. Temp in the summer is around 82 F. My next favorite place is Maui for the humpback whales of course so my point is I dive for the experience of swimming with aquatic life!

 

[emcbride81]

I dont have a lot of experince even though I have been certified for 8 years. I can't say that one type of dive interests me more than another. Wrecks are cool, regardless of the fact that you know about history or not. Yes, it is a moment of human error...but our lives are marked by error and the wisdom we gain from it. Sadly, some of these men never lived past their mistake. Honestly, I get more from the fact that we are exporing a world we know less of than we do the cosmic universe. Also, there is a connection among divers, where the bond is stronger than that of any fraterity, sorority, or collective people I know. If you go anywhere and run into a diver, you can share tales over a beer till the wee hours of the morning. That is what I love about this sport...not to sound like I have a crush on you all...but the people and the sense of adventure...the lust for life...that is what I love.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Caves (for both me and my wife) - for me it's about the beauty, the solitude, the darkness (every cave dive is a night dive), the adventure, the fact that not many others have been to these special places, and the hope that I may one day be the only one that has been in a particular place (well, me and my wife ).

 

[TSandM]

Up until now, it's been fish for me. The finest experience in diving is floating gently into an enormous school of fish, as though one were entering God's kaleidoscope. They are beautiful and almost a little disorienting as they swirl and spin. Nowhere else can you get so close to wild animals and watch them for so long.

But this week, I got in the caves, and I think all is lost . . .

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Up until now, it's been fish for me. The finest experience in diving is floating gently into an enormous school of fish, as though one were entering God's kaleidoscope. They are beautiful and almost a little disorienting as they swirl and spin. Nowhere else can you get so close to wild animals and watch them for so long.

But this week, I got in the caves, and I think all is lost . . .

I am with TSandM on this one. I also liked (notice the use of past tense) to get back a bit and look at the fish. the more colorful and varied the better. Maui has some really interesting varieties to look at.

But the caves are just fantastic. Like nothing else I have ever been in. Friends of mine are always saying that they could not go in such small places. Small places don't bother me, but I like the larger caves. Not many fish in the Florida caves, but the cave itself is worth the trip for me. I just wish I was able to go more often... Darn job!

Mark Vlahos

 

[Wildcard]

I did a couple of caves. It was OK but I just wasnt turned on by the monochromic landscape. My biggie is nudis. I love taking pics of nudis. Such wild colors! Night dives are right up there too esp when I take someone on there first! The look on there faces and excitment in there voice when we surface is a real rush.
Truk is way up on my list of must do places too. Bought the boat to go for a couple of months, will be installing a compressor onboard and will be doing some more tech training if I can ever hook up with Sherman, then Im Truk bound! Such a huge number of wrecks. Finding a new one would be the ultimate high.