Best Dive Ever

[Thales]

I'll go first.
Short version:
An hour long dive around on of the Bida islands off Thailand. At the end, we ran into 2 whalesharks. As it was completely out of season, and since almost no one ever goes round the whole island, we had them all to ourselves.



Next!

 

[capescuba]

Galapagos, colder than hell, swell to kill for, current was out of this world, oh, but we did have ~ 2000 hammerhard sharks circling above us

 

[Thales]

Nice!

 

[Elite]

No video

 

[Thales]

That whale shark dive was the reason I got the underwater rig!

 

[GreshamH]

It was a cold over cast day in Santa Cruz. Winds starting to pick up. We all jumped into the 22" zodiac and headed out bout 1 off the point (steamers Lane). Jumped in, no tanks, just snorkle, and dove with the basking sharks for about 2 hours till good ol Shawn V (Shark researcher) tagged them and the disappearred into the depths. That was my best non tank dive. Best tank dive ever, was my first one

 

[bareefers]

Tie:
1- Off Koh Phi Phi Island in Thailand, it was off season only 2 of on the boat for the weekend, hour long dive, saw 5 large leapoard sharks, which at one time was common but not now due to the popularity and the close distance to the main island of Phuket.
2- Nassau, Bahamas dive with about 20 Carribbean Reef sharks of various sizes from 4ft to 8+ft.

 

[Thales]

NICE!
divewsharks, we saw on leopard shark being brought in for soup early one morning. sad.
When were you there?

 

[bareefers]

So far for me it's Belize. Of course there I enjoyed all 24 hours of the day!

Planning family trip to AUS and south pacific in the fall. That's should be fun.

Not really a dive but I'm really into swimming through all the rivers and lakes I fish. There's something about just sitting there in the middle of a freezing river surrounded by salmon.

Feels good just thinking about it!

 

[bareefers]

The Maldives 2006 - No comparison - a particular dive site there in the the norhtern atolls called express where we saw just about everything you could want to see save a whale shark in one beautiful 40 minute drift.

Belize coming up this fall

 

[stubbsz]

I gotta get a baby sitter next time we go on vacation. You guys are killing me with these stories.

 

[alve]

Diving in Bonaire. We had rented an apartment, pick up truck and unlimited tanks. All dives are beach dives so no waiting for dive boats, go whenever you feel like it. We usually left in the morning, filled the pick up truck with tanks, 2 people up front, the rest sitting on top of the tanks. About every half a mile there is a different dive site marked with a yellow painted rock. All we had to do was drive on the beach park close to the water, put on our gear and walk right into the water. Afterwards throw the used tanks in the truck, drive 10min to the next dive site, hang out a bit on the beach to extend the surface interval and we were ready for another dive. We usually did two dives before lunch, then back to the apartment for lunch, hang out a bit at the pool or pier and then go out again for another dive.
We had our own private pier so whenever we felt like doing a night dive we were in the water 15min later.
Having dived and worked in a lot of different places as a Divemaster I really enjoyed the relaxing athmosphere and going diving whenever you feel like it without being stuck to a dive boat schedule.

 

[seminolecpa]

Silfur (sp) in Iceland. Not much maine life but very much lived up to its reptutations of one of the top 10 dives in the world. Dry suit mandatory as the water was barely above freezing. Ask my wife about the ice that was forming in her regulator.

Crystal clear water as far as you could see. You could even look down from the top and see people 60 feet below with ease.
The European continental plate on one side the North American on the other side. You can reach out and touch both at the same time in some places.

Forgot the bad part you did have to hike a half a mile in full gear across the soft spongy Icelandic terrain to get to the dive site but well worth it.

 

[earthboy17]

Mine was in a freshwater spring in west Texas (if you're getting certified in west texas, you have to dive in f/w). I had brought a pack of hot dogs in to feed the guppies, catfish, and soft shell turtles.
Well, you know how you aren't supposed to feed wild animals because they become aggressive? Well, they evidently smelled the hot dogs in my vest b/c I was SWARMED. I couldn't see because of the cloud of fish in front of me.
Then the soft shell turtles started dive bombing us, nipping at people. As we struggled we kicked up silt off the bottom, so it quickly became like something just out of a cartoon: a whirling dervis (sp?) where you occasionally see an arm or head or leg. Occasionally a turtle would go whirling out of the fray only to steady itself and come back in for more. After a couple minutes the divemaster did the whole (through sign language) "Hey! You! Stop! SIT DOWN!" and I had to endure the turtles nipping at me.
...cocky turtles.

 

[bareefers]

Hers a couple cool videos I took in Kauai this fall, first is of sheraton caverns - excellent site to see hawkbill turtles up close and personal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epwkq8cGyw8

the next is of a devil finned scorpion fish at whalers cove - watch closely as he's verry camoflaged in the beginning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eikr0mbjaVA

The only video I have of the Maldives is on DVD - we paid the guy $100 to fil the dive at express but at one point in a heavy current we took 5 to sit beneath an pod of 5 manta rays swimming against the current - basically sitting still above us as they were flappinng along. It was nothing short of majestic.

 

[LeviT]

Well I'm not scuba certified yet but I did get to snorkel off Castaway Cay over in the Bahamas. For those that don't know that's Disney's Island. It's nothing like the descriptions here but it was cool for a first experience.

 

[stubbsz]

Wreck of the Rhone was probably my favorite dive. Giant Barracuda taking a fish about an inch from a guys head, an octopus getting chewed up by a big Red Mullet ( I think that's what it was ) some beautiful turtles and images of Jacqueline Bisset in my head. (if you've seen the Deep, you'll know what I mean, the "Goliath" is in fact The Rhone in real life.)

I got a wicked fire-coral burn on my leg but it was still a great dive.
10 years ago on my Honeymoon.