Your Most Innocuous, Yet Memorable Dive

[Bubblesong]

I recall a dive in which I felt something pulling strands of my hair, only to see little Sargent major fish biting and tugging on my hair strands and on the tips of my fins. They didn't want to get too close while trying to drive me away from their territory.

 

[Dish]

Thanks to those that contributed to this thread... however silly it may have been. I had been reading through several threads and grew somewhat tired of all the bickering. I felt that it might be refreshing for folks to take a moment and reflect on dives they had done in a slightly different light and without controversy.

@shoredivr 's marauding beavers of doom story was awesome and @Dan_T 's scuba equivalent of the Keystone Cops being drug on a line to the dive site was pure comedy. Others were great, as well. @rx7diver 's First Solo dive reminded me that the stupid little dive referenced in the OP was also my first solo dive... and without redundant gas, I might add. What was I thinking?

I most appreciate @SeaHorse81 's zen dive story, as it reminded me of a couple of dives that I have done where I felt the same. Nothing really to see, nothing really to do except get wet, make bubbles, enjoy the sensation of floating in three dimensions and not wanting it to end.

I hope all of you have had that kind of dive moment at one time or another. It's magic.

Cheers,
Dish

 

[rx7diver]

I had been reading through several threads and grew somewhat tired of all the bickering. I felt that it might be refreshing for folks to take a moment and reflect on dives they had done in a slightly different light and without controversy... I hope all of you have had that kind of dive moment at one time or another. It's magic.

I agree: At times it seems that many of us here have forgot how much fun this activity is, and that there is not only one "right" way to do it. I am enjoying the thread. Thanks!

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[admikar]

My "best" dive so far was over a vertical wall starting at 7-8 meters, going down to 42 m flat sand bottom.
Top of the wall is also quite flat, so I stopped before the edge and with just one small kick went over "abyss". I remember looking straight down, just glimpsing the bottom, perfectly neutral (yeah, I'm shameless), perfectly horizontal. With just one long exhale descent started, picking up speed. Stopped at 40 m, still horizontal. What sticks with me are those few seconds of "weightlessness" and slow descent. Also, my first successful VTO equalization all the way down.
Really don't remember rest of that dive.

 

[Centrals]

A "bowmouth guitar fish" swimming up along a deep wall off Verde Island in Philippines(PG) many yrs ago.
It happened a day before a small earthquake hit the area.
I have seen this fish on couple occasions in various places in SE Asia but always at the bottom rather than free swimming up a wall.

 

[Resqdivemedic]

I was diving in a local quarry looking for a handgun that the police said was thrown in. I was down 55 feet on the bottom, pitch black with silt elbow deep. It was a touch and feel search. As I was probing in the muck I felt something that felt soft and when I picked it up it was heavy. Bingo, I thought I found the gun which was reportedly wrapped in a towel. I ascended a bit out of the silt and shined my light on 2 large white eyes staring back at me. Scared me silly. After regaining my composure, I found a stuffed Garfield with a rock tied to it that had been sacrificed to the quarry gods.

 

[fstbttms]

And it really increased my respect for search and recovery divers, underwater survey divers, and even the hookah-connected boat bottom scrubbers.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

Probably my first dive after being OW certified. It was in a lake, down to 65 ft. I was towing a dive flag and float, and got a little tangled in it. So I relaxed, settled down on the bottom (unfortunately, that was how I had been trained), fixed the tangle, and turned the dive. Still have the video I shot during it.

It was memorable to me because I could feel the nervousness setting in initially when I realized I was getting tangled, but was able to relax and address the issue calmly and directly. That gave me more confidence that I could both recognize when things weren't quite right, and that I could deal with them calmly.

 

[fstbttms]

I was diving boats at the Pier 39 Marina in San Francisco one day when the captain of one of the Red & White ferries approached me on the dock. He said he thought that they had run down a sea lion, sucked it into the intake of one of their water jet propulsion units and would I mind having a look? I reluctantly agreed, having visions of finding 200 pounds of bloody hamburger and guts inside a narrow, pitch black metal tube.

In complete darkness, I squeezed myself arm-first into the intake. Reaching in as far as I could, I suddenly touched something soft and obviously organic. In a panic, I backed out as fast as I could and swam to the back of the boat and pounded on the hull. The face of the captain appeared above, laughing hysterically. He said that he'd had the Chief Engineer reaching into the intake via an inspection port and when our hands touched, he practically hit his head on the ceiling, having jumped so high!

I don't clean boats at Pier 39 anymore.

 

[flybigjet]

October 2003. I was involuntarily recalled to Active Duty for Gulf War, Part II and my jet was hard, hard broke in U-Tapao, Thailand (inop radar, flat tire, broken leading edge slats). Parts had to come from the other end of the world, so I had a very rare few days off while I waited for them to be sourced and shipped. I found a local dive outfit in Pattya and we ended up diving the Hardeep (Suddhadib) wreck.

The wreck itself wasn't too challenging; lying fully on its right side, top at 16m/52' , bottom at 26m/85'. Length of the wreck, 70m/230', with an easy penetration, stern to bow.

What made it memorable was a few things-- the dive guide spoke very limited English (he was German) and the equipment was all in bar and meters, so I had to run conversions in my head as I wasn't all that familiar with bar/meters at the time. The *really* memorable part of the dive was the current-- strongest I've ever seen, flowing perpendicular to the wreck from bottom of the hull and over the side of the superstructure. You jumped off the skiff holding a leader line that was tied off on the shot line. As soon as you hit the water, you had your arms yanked over your head as you streamlined and had to pull yourself hand over hand to the shot line. Then, you had to pull yourself, upside down, hand over hand down the shot line to where it tied off at at the stern of the wreck. You released the shot line and kicked like hell to get parallel to the deck. As soon as you got into the lee, it was *completely* calm-- weirdest thing. One second, you're fighting hard, the next, you're floating in space, completely currentness.

We did a light-zone penetration and ended up at the bow. We were all (me, my crew chief who was a dive instructor in Guam and the German guide) staying below the edge of the hull due to the current-- it was so strong, you could literally look over the lip and it would rip your mask right off of your face-- kind of cool, actually. Once we all got to the bow, we released off of the wreck (as previously briefed) and did a drifting ascent in the current-- it was FAST.

And the final weird part? When we surfaced, the million year old Thai boat captain with his beat up old skiff was right there waiting for us. Talk about some serious navigational skills.

To this day, it's one of the most memorable dives I've ever done.

R.