Dish,
I described one of mine in my thread from a few months back: First Solo. The thread is in the SB Solo Forum.
Safe Diving,
rx7diver
Your Most Innocuous, Yet Memorable Dive
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Dish,
I described one of mine in my thread from a few months back: First Solo. The thread is in the SB Solo Forum.
Safe Diving,
rx7diver
Dan
Contributor
Went diving with an unknow dive operator, which was quite an experience that I never forget & not worth repeating. I had no choice to look for another dive operator. The old dive operator who was recommended by others & which I had gone with, 2 years previously, had sold his business to this new dive operator, including the deposit that I already gave to the old dive operator. So, my group were stuck with this new dive operator.
We went in with 2 boats, the girl's boat (where all the female divers with female DM were in) and the boy's boat (where the male divers with male DM were in). There were not much of briefing, the DM just said, "there is an arch there that we'll go under", once everyone was ready, we all went down. He went down with speargun.
The arch was pretty deep, about 110'. It was pretty long of finning to get there. Then he saw something. He asked me to wait for a few seconds, went under a ledge and came back with a fish on the stake & asked me to hold his net bag so he could shove the fish into. Again, this was at 110' deep. I ran to a couple minutes deco at the end.
On the second day, the captain couldn't find the wreck where we were supposed to dive into. There were no GPS on the boat, just fish locator & radio (at least they had the radio). Both boats were spreaded out to find the infamous wreck. The boy's boat captain thought he located the wreck after 10 minutes of wondering on the sea and asked everyone to jump in. We went down to about 60' to the bottom & found no wreck, but rocks & sands, so we went back up. When we were back to the surface, I saw the girl's boat was about a size of cigaret lighter & their captain radioed the boy's boat captain that they located the real wreck. So, my speargunner DM had a bright idea, instead of us getting back up on the boat, asked our captain to throw a rope so the boat could "tow" us on the surface to the right spot about a mile away so we won't waste our Air tank pressure. I was at the end of the rope, unfortunately, so the weight of everyone hanging on the rope (5 of us) was too much to keep me from floating at the surface. I was on the deepest end of the tow line basically. I had to fin up to the surface to breathe, while holding on the rope at one hand and my camera on the other hand, while being towed. Finally after a couple of minutes struggling to breathe, one of my diving buddies, after observing my head popping in & out of the water, yelled to the DM to stop this nonsense. We all took our time to get back on the boat. We lost about 30 minutes of monkeying around with this circus on surface & wasting about half of the tank air. On the bright side, our short dive time in the wreck was fantastic with tons of fish and with 22 hours no fly time still remaining.
Unfortunately that was not the end of our diving adventure of the day. All of the monkeying around to find the wreck, was wasting our "just enough" fuel on the boats. On our way back to the resort (about an hour of boat ride), the girl's boat ran out of gas. So, our captain said, "no problema, we tow their boat". After about 15 minutes of towing the girl's boat, our boat ran out of gas. So, we were floating on the sea. Our captain called his shop to bring some fuel back to our boats.
In the meantime, a fancy fishing boat came by and rescued the girls & took them back to our resort, but just the girls, not the boys. We were not pretty enough to hangout with the fishermen. We waited another 90 minutes for the mobile gas station to come over.
When the mobile gas station arrived, it was a pretty interesting scene to see how they transfer the fuel from the plastic 200 gallon tank to the boat fuel tank. The captain did the good-old day method of syphoning the gasoline with a hose using his mouth.
In the end we, the boys were about 3 hour late getting back & were so hungry. I could easily devour a meal in a minute like my puppy dog by dinner time.
We went in with 2 boats, the girl's boat (where all the female divers with female DM were in) and the boy's boat (where the male divers with male DM were in). There were not much of briefing, the DM just said, "there is an arch there that we'll go under", once everyone was ready, we all went down. He went down with speargun.
The arch was pretty deep, about 110'. It was pretty long of finning to get there. Then he saw something. He asked me to wait for a few seconds, went under a ledge and came back with a fish on the stake & asked me to hold his net bag so he could shove the fish into. Again, this was at 110' deep. I ran to a couple minutes deco at the end.
On the second day, the captain couldn't find the wreck where we were supposed to dive into. There were no GPS on the boat, just fish locator & radio (at least they had the radio). Both boats were spreaded out to find the infamous wreck. The boy's boat captain thought he located the wreck after 10 minutes of wondering on the sea and asked everyone to jump in. We went down to about 60' to the bottom & found no wreck, but rocks & sands, so we went back up. When we were back to the surface, I saw the girl's boat was about a size of cigaret lighter & their captain radioed the boy's boat captain that they located the real wreck. So, my speargunner DM had a bright idea, instead of us getting back up on the boat, asked our captain to throw a rope so the boat could "tow" us on the surface to the right spot about a mile away so we won't waste our Air tank pressure. I was at the end of the rope, unfortunately, so the weight of everyone hanging on the rope (5 of us) was too much to keep me from floating at the surface. I was on the deepest end of the tow line basically. I had to fin up to the surface to breathe, while holding on the rope at one hand and my camera on the other hand, while being towed. Finally after a couple of minutes struggling to breathe, one of my diving buddies, after observing my head popping in & out of the water, yelled to the DM to stop this nonsense. We all took our time to get back on the boat. We lost about 30 minutes of monkeying around with this circus on surface & wasting about half of the tank air. On the bright side, our short dive time in the wreck was fantastic with tons of fish and with 22 hours no fly time still remaining.
Unfortunately that was not the end of our diving adventure of the day. All of the monkeying around to find the wreck, was wasting our "just enough" fuel on the boats. On our way back to the resort (about an hour of boat ride), the girl's boat ran out of gas. So, our captain said, "no problema, we tow their boat". After about 15 minutes of towing the girl's boat, our boat ran out of gas. So, we were floating on the sea. Our captain called his shop to bring some fuel back to our boats.
In the meantime, a fancy fishing boat came by and rescued the girls & took them back to our resort, but just the girls, not the boys. We were not pretty enough to hangout with the fishermen. We waited another 90 minutes for the mobile gas station to come over.
When the mobile gas station arrived, it was a pretty interesting scene to see how they transfer the fuel from the plastic 200 gallon tank to the boat fuel tank. The captain did the good-old day method of syphoning the gasoline with a hose using his mouth.
In the end we, the boys were about 3 hour late getting back & were so hungry. I could easily devour a meal in a minute like my puppy dog by dinner time.
Bubblesong
Contributor
The time I "became the reef" for some small fish swimming in and around my arms and body for protection from bigger fish.
K
KeithG
Guest
A simple dive from a LOB. We headed towards the mooring ball and kept going to see what was in the shallows.
We found 2 tree stumps dumped in about 12 feet of water with around 50 shrimp of 4 different species. I spent 45 minutes lying in the gravel getting a manicure.
We found 2 tree stumps dumped in about 12 feet of water with around 50 shrimp of 4 different species. I spent 45 minutes lying in the gravel getting a manicure.
Chavodel8en
Contributor
So this involves a dive at the Breakwater in Monterey last Labor day weekend. This is where most Northern Cali divers do their checkout, its the easiest site, the site you go to when other sites get blown out. When organizing dives, I often hear "not Breakwater, I did it recently", or "Im tired of Breakwater, lets go someplace else"
What really qualifies this dive to the thread, is that me & my buddy had a first dive at Otter Cove. It was as meh as diving can get. Poor viz, saw maybe 2-3 fish fleetingly. Nothing remarkable, just meh. I was trying to talk him into S. Monastery, but conditions were iffy, so we decided to go to Breakwater. Parking was a hassle, there were a ton of students in the water, but we eventually made it past them along the Breakwater & descended.
So any Monterey diver has had sea lions buzz them during a dive, especially at the Breakwater, but once we got along the wall a bit, it was like 20X times more intense than ever before. We'd get buzzed, Id turn my head, and then another buzzed from a different direction. They were just constantly swirling around us, and I felt like they got closer and closer with each pass. I actually got a little nervous, bc Id never had sea lions buzzing us so intensely or so constantly. It was always just one buzz, maybe two and then they left you alone. With this dive, I felt like a bait ball of fish.
Then one sea lion stopped right in front of my buddy - within arms reach -- and just sat there staring at him for several seconds, but it felt like an eternity. It felt like the sea lion was saying "You want some?" or was staking its territory. I was torn between giggling and crapping my suit. The sea lion & its buddies eventually dispersed, and we continued our dive. After we turned the dive, we got the same buzzing on the way back.
The day of diving started out blah, and I held little hope that we'd get any more than a basic Breakwater dive, but it turned out pretty darn nice.
One thing I did note is that the sea lions buzzing us were all fairly small - even smaller than the young sea lions that generally buzz divers. I wonder if this was a behavior more common with younger sea lions - like sea lions just entering juvenile stage?
What really qualifies this dive to the thread, is that me & my buddy had a first dive at Otter Cove. It was as meh as diving can get. Poor viz, saw maybe 2-3 fish fleetingly. Nothing remarkable, just meh. I was trying to talk him into S. Monastery, but conditions were iffy, so we decided to go to Breakwater. Parking was a hassle, there were a ton of students in the water, but we eventually made it past them along the Breakwater & descended.
So any Monterey diver has had sea lions buzz them during a dive, especially at the Breakwater, but once we got along the wall a bit, it was like 20X times more intense than ever before. We'd get buzzed, Id turn my head, and then another buzzed from a different direction. They were just constantly swirling around us, and I felt like they got closer and closer with each pass. I actually got a little nervous, bc Id never had sea lions buzzing us so intensely or so constantly. It was always just one buzz, maybe two and then they left you alone. With this dive, I felt like a bait ball of fish.
Then one sea lion stopped right in front of my buddy - within arms reach -- and just sat there staring at him for several seconds, but it felt like an eternity. It felt like the sea lion was saying "You want some?" or was staking its territory. I was torn between giggling and crapping my suit. The sea lion & its buddies eventually dispersed, and we continued our dive. After we turned the dive, we got the same buzzing on the way back.
The day of diving started out blah, and I held little hope that we'd get any more than a basic Breakwater dive, but it turned out pretty darn nice.
One thing I did note is that the sea lions buzzing us were all fairly small - even smaller than the young sea lions that generally buzz divers. I wonder if this was a behavior more common with younger sea lions - like sea lions just entering juvenile stage?
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Diver-Drex
Contributor
In '99 doing a night dive in Sharm el Sheikh on a shallow reef, 35fsw or so. I scan down with my flashlight and see an octopuss out hunting. I was completely fixated on this thing, following along for ten minutes at least. It was really amazed at how it moved. Reaching and exploring in eight different directions at the same time, but purposeful and deliberate in every move.
When I finally look up I had no idea where my group was. I could see the flashlight glows of four or five groups around me, so I picked one and swam over to join that group. Turned out it I picked the right one.
I saw things underwater a bit differently after that. I have a dive flag and octopus tattooed on my leg.
When I finally look up I had no idea where my group was. I could see the flashlight glows of four or five groups around me, so I picked one and swam over to join that group. Turned out it I picked the right one.
I saw things underwater a bit differently after that. I have a dive flag and octopus tattooed on my leg.
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I will offer 2.
1. The Markham is a larger artificial wreck dove much less often than the Hyde. Often called the Murkham. Looked down on by some. It lays on its side. 85 ft of water and it rises to 40ft. A few years back we hit it mid summer with epic viz. The last part of the dive we just hung above the top edge of the book. Seemed you could see forever. Larger bait balls circled overhead as cudas and jacks kept crashing through. Schools of small bait fish kept cascading down like rain. All around us were various fish. A look down and we saw numbers of sand tigers and large groupers. Every where you looked there was life and motion. Hung there for a half hour in a national geographic moment. Still one of my top 4 dives.
2. Opposite was the Stone a tug in 60 ft of water. Used for training and first dives. Not high on folks must dive lists. Usually lots of life. Hit it one day when water was very clear topside. But 20 feet off the bottom there was a slight thermocline and a cloud bank where the viz dropped to about 2-3 ft. Did a first dive with buddy looking around. He bailed on dive 2. Instabuddied with a couple who wanted to see a couple fish I had spotted. Took them down showed them and they had enough. When we got up above the clouds they continued back up to the boat. I just hung there in the water for the next half hour. Every now and then some critters (spadefish, mackeral, etc) would cruise by. Off to my left there was a column of pin fish that stretched all the way from inside the cloud bank to the surface. Off to the right was a fleet of at least 20 young cudas lurking along the cloud top slowing creeping toward the pin fish. Was one of the most relaxing pleasant dives I have had.
PS: For those who care, as always I was in a solo configuration with pony etc. This boat allows solo diving and the only rule is be back in an hour.
1. The Markham is a larger artificial wreck dove much less often than the Hyde. Often called the Murkham. Looked down on by some. It lays on its side. 85 ft of water and it rises to 40ft. A few years back we hit it mid summer with epic viz. The last part of the dive we just hung above the top edge of the book. Seemed you could see forever. Larger bait balls circled overhead as cudas and jacks kept crashing through. Schools of small bait fish kept cascading down like rain. All around us were various fish. A look down and we saw numbers of sand tigers and large groupers. Every where you looked there was life and motion. Hung there for a half hour in a national geographic moment. Still one of my top 4 dives.
2. Opposite was the Stone a tug in 60 ft of water. Used for training and first dives. Not high on folks must dive lists. Usually lots of life. Hit it one day when water was very clear topside. But 20 feet off the bottom there was a slight thermocline and a cloud bank where the viz dropped to about 2-3 ft. Did a first dive with buddy looking around. He bailed on dive 2. Instabuddied with a couple who wanted to see a couple fish I had spotted. Took them down showed them and they had enough. When we got up above the clouds they continued back up to the boat. I just hung there in the water for the next half hour. Every now and then some critters (spadefish, mackeral, etc) would cruise by. Off to my left there was a column of pin fish that stretched all the way from inside the cloud bank to the surface. Off to the right was a fleet of at least 20 young cudas lurking along the cloud top slowing creeping toward the pin fish. Was one of the most relaxing pleasant dives I have had.
PS: For those who care, as always I was in a solo configuration with pony etc. This boat allows solo diving and the only rule is be back in an hour.
nolatom
Contributor
Mine were three really shallow, "working" dives, which is generally a hoot (and an education) for a recreational diver
a) Lost glasses overboard in a marina slip. Next day, dived for them, surface vis 1 foot, vis at depth = zero, reducing to "less than zero" as I stirred up the mush. But after 15 rather disoriented minutes and three "surfacings" so I could read my gauges, found 'em!. Max depth 8 feet. But boy do I remember it!
b) Partly out of curiosity, and partly because I got drafted onto the local public marina board who had to repair hurricane damage at our launch ramp facility (amongst massive other damage at the marina nearby), I dived to see what shape the ramps were in underwater. Not that bad, as it turned out. I called out what I saw to my lovely wife sitting nearby, she wrote it up in a sketch, and what I showed the board turned out to be much like what the repair engineers' diver came up with a year or more later, after we'd got some grant funds to make repairs. Max depth 7 feet, complete braille dive, super easy to get disoriented when you can't read your compass.
c) Scrubbing the bottom growth on a friend's 34-foot sloop, in its marina slip. My first-ever try at this with scuba gear, 2 feet vis reducing to zero as I scubbed. What saved my cookies was a little mini toilet plunger from one of the Carnival krewe parades (whose "king" sits on a porcelain throne) which worked perfectly as a grip in one hand, to hold me in while I scrubbed with the other hand, working solely by feel. Hard work and I used more air than I figured, but it worked and I get to sail this boat. Max depth?? A massive 5 feet, baybee.....
None of these were "fun" til afterwards, then I felt proud I had got it done and not snuffed myself.
And it really increased my respect for search and recovery divers, underwater survey divers, and even the hookah-connected boat bottom scrubbers.
a) Lost glasses overboard in a marina slip. Next day, dived for them, surface vis 1 foot, vis at depth = zero, reducing to "less than zero" as I stirred up the mush. But after 15 rather disoriented minutes and three "surfacings" so I could read my gauges, found 'em!. Max depth 8 feet. But boy do I remember it!
b) Partly out of curiosity, and partly because I got drafted onto the local public marina board who had to repair hurricane damage at our launch ramp facility (amongst massive other damage at the marina nearby), I dived to see what shape the ramps were in underwater. Not that bad, as it turned out. I called out what I saw to my lovely wife sitting nearby, she wrote it up in a sketch, and what I showed the board turned out to be much like what the repair engineers' diver came up with a year or more later, after we'd got some grant funds to make repairs. Max depth 7 feet, complete braille dive, super easy to get disoriented when you can't read your compass.
c) Scrubbing the bottom growth on a friend's 34-foot sloop, in its marina slip. My first-ever try at this with scuba gear, 2 feet vis reducing to zero as I scubbed. What saved my cookies was a little mini toilet plunger from one of the Carnival krewe parades (whose "king" sits on a porcelain throne) which worked perfectly as a grip in one hand, to hold me in while I scrubbed with the other hand, working solely by feel. Hard work and I used more air than I figured, but it worked and I get to sail this boat. Max depth?? A massive 5 feet, baybee.....
None of these were "fun" til afterwards, then I felt proud I had got it done and not snuffed myself.
And it really increased my respect for search and recovery divers, underwater survey divers, and even the hookah-connected boat bottom scrubbers.
archer1960
Contributor
Last dive on last day of a week in Coz, several of us wanted one more trip.. DM says we're going to a spot whose name I don't recall (though it's in my log), and other divers start complaining that there's nothing to see at that area, it's a waste of money, etc. DM says "trust me, I know where the good stuff is" (yeah another "trust me dive"!). The other choice being just to walk away, we went, and it turned out to be the best dive of the week. Turtles, sea horse, flamingo tongues, sharks, barracuda, eels; just about anything that anybody wanted to see was seen on this one dive. Awesome way to end the week!
KDAD
Contributor
My innocuos but memorable dive took place in a chilly shallow backwater bay at Sandy Hook in the Gateway National Park one brisk day in October. Sandy Hook is a long narrow peninsula of sand bordered on one side by Raritan Bay and the other by the Atlantic Ocean.
I had to drop my daughter off at a Girl Scout Marine Science Day Camp taking place in the Sea Grant learning center there. While the Scouts were learning about wildlife in the bay, I figured that I had some time to kill while waiting for my future dive buddy and high tide was approaching so I brought the gear along and dove in the bay along a rock jetty.
There was not much to see in the shallows except for sand and gravel so I slowed down some and noticed small jelly fish in the water column. Breaking out my Ebay Chinese dive light I illuminated these little harmless cousins of the stinging beasts with its lumens and happily observed the bioluminescence for a while. After irradiating them to the point that I feared that they might start sizzling, I moved closer in to the jetty. I was soon surrounded by several hundred silversides, a small three inch long minnow common to the area, and observed several different colored sea weeds growing on the rocks that didn't seem noticeable during low tide. After exhausting my seemingly endless supply of bottom gas I made my way out to find the troop wading with a seine net scooping up the very critters that I was previously swimming with. They did release them after studying them.
A very relaxing and memorable dive even if it was only 7 feet deep. It was Zen-like. Very serene. No boats. No other divers. I'd go back.
I had to drop my daughter off at a Girl Scout Marine Science Day Camp taking place in the Sea Grant learning center there. While the Scouts were learning about wildlife in the bay, I figured that I had some time to kill while waiting for my future dive buddy and high tide was approaching so I brought the gear along and dove in the bay along a rock jetty.
There was not much to see in the shallows except for sand and gravel so I slowed down some and noticed small jelly fish in the water column. Breaking out my Ebay Chinese dive light I illuminated these little harmless cousins of the stinging beasts with its lumens and happily observed the bioluminescence for a while. After irradiating them to the point that I feared that they might start sizzling, I moved closer in to the jetty. I was soon surrounded by several hundred silversides, a small three inch long minnow common to the area, and observed several different colored sea weeds growing on the rocks that didn't seem noticeable during low tide. After exhausting my seemingly endless supply of bottom gas I made my way out to find the troop wading with a seine net scooping up the very critters that I was previously swimming with. They did release them after studying them.
A very relaxing and memorable dive even if it was only 7 feet deep. It was Zen-like. Very serene. No boats. No other divers. I'd go back.
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