Scuba Diving Stories, Questions, Pictures etc.

Let's use this as a forum to discuss diving. If you have any stories you want to relate, questions you want to ask this is the place to do it.

Diving is in my blood. My father started diving in 1968 and became an instructor in 1974. Even though it's been a huge part of his life he never forced it upon me I came into it on my own. When I was 11 I did an intro to scuba in the Florida Keys and I was HOOKED! After that I had to learn. My father had one of his friends to teach me and in the summer of 1996 I started scuba lessons. From there I did a few specialities (Advanced, Rescue, Photography) and when I turned 15 (adult diver) I began helping with scuba classes at my local dive center. When I turned 18 I became a Divemaster/DiveCon (NAUI/SSI) and shortly after that an Instructor. I have about 400 dives all of them in ever imaginable condition. From the Ohio River (had to,) to rock quarries, to freshwater springs to the carribean. It's a major part of who I am.

Anyone else here dive or have any stories they want to share?

And now some pics (if it's one of me I obviously did not take it lol)

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E23234734%3B9%3A3%3Aot1lsi
My very first dive

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E23234734%3B9%3A44ot1lsi
Angelfish on the USS Strength in Panama City, FL

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp46%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E23234734%3B9%3A47ot1lsi
A picture of me...taking pictures

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp46%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E23234734%3B9%3A49ot1lsi
I'm on the right

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp46%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E23234734%3B9%3A56ot1lsi
Ooooo purty

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp46%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E2323473534889ot1lsi
A fantail Koi

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp47%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E2323458945582ot1lsi
Self portrait

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp47%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E232345894557%3Bot1lsi
Cop car in the local diving hole

http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp47%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E2323458945579ot1lsi
Eeeeerie fish ass


http://images.snapfish.com/338%3C5%3B2323232%7Ffp47%3Dot%3E2328%3D8%3B5%3D38%3A%3DXROQDF%3E2323458945578ot1lsi
The Blessed Virgin

meeting room. I started diving in 1979, dive almost every year (live in Kansas so it takes a bit to get to the ocean, not crazy about lake diving). I have probably 200 dives, maybe not quite as many, we didn't used to have to keep a log book. Almost a master diver but have not been for about 2 1/2 years. It is killing me to get back! My underwater photography is pretty bad but I was learning. I love nothing more than diving. When I get back I will look at your photos.

....but do find it fascinating and would love to learn and to swim with dolphins is a life dream of mine also....my Dad learned how when he was in the Marines stationed in Japan...I've seen the pix of a few of his dives....the only time in my life I ever saw him dive was on vacation in Arkansas one summer on Lake Ouachita (wa-shitaw) he wanted to spear fish so he geared up and got after it...never did catch any fish that day...but I had a snorkel and was trippin' on all the cool rocks around shore and found a pristine tiny solid white quartz arrowhead....that was one of the best times my parents and I ever had on that trip.


Cool pictures!

I've been diving about 5 years now and I love it. I've dived mostly in Monterey Bay, CA, but I've also been to Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Mexico, Cozumel and the Great Barrier Reef.

I don't do underwater photography, but I've seen some beautiful things.

At Lands End in Cabo, we swam through a GIGANTIC school of swirling silvers. It was unearthly, being in the midst of a tightly-packed school of bait fish.

I've seen Cormorants "fly" by me at 60 feet. I've had baby seals nibble on my fins as I swam. I've had sea lions charge me at full speed, blow bubbles in my face, and turn at the very last second.

I've done a nightdive in Cozumel during a full moon when all the sponges were "sperming" creating a huge cloud in the water. I've swam alongside sea turtles and barracuda.

I've seen the most beautiful nudibranchs, and I've laid on the ocean floor at 100 feet watching the dappled sun filter down through a kelp forest.


yeah, I like diving.

I have been all over the Caribbean, as far south as the lower Grenadines, did not make it to Grenada (we were preparing to bomb them), 2 of the ABC's, Honduras many times to dive with the Explorers on a Grouper spawning event (really cool but past the reef and very rough, we had to pull ourselves along the bottom and came up spread out over miles and had to wait for pick up). My favorite places are Tortola because the don't fish the channel and it is loaded with big fish and Hawaii off of Kona. Funniest story was when I was attacked by Remora, 2 of them thought I was a shark I guess, they would not quit and scraped my hands really badly before I was able to kick them away. My sons though that was quite a sight! Deepest, the Black Hole off of Belize, 130 feet. Most favorite kind of dive has to be the shallow, 40 feet or above, just hanging out above the coral watching the fish interact. I LOVE to dive, try to get in 3 to 4 a day when I get there. Gorilla diver here!

:grumble grumble grumble:

all in the Caribbean. Provodenciales, Bonaire, Cozumel, Akumal, The Caymans, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Johns. Our twins were certified when they turned 16. It's wonderful. I particularly like night diving. Both my son and daughter plan to someday have their weddings in the Caribbean so we can all go diving. I'd like to go to Belize and Roi-Tan.

in the Caymans? Was Bloody Bay Wall not the most amazing? Nothing like sailing out off the reef with nothing but 6000 feet of blackness below you. Always makes me feel like Superman (girl?). BlackBird Key, Belize is wonderful. They tell you you can dive and snorkel off the beach but there are croks out there. We went to snorkel one afternoon and saw eyes looking at us about 15 feet off the beach. Yikes, they never warned us! They have a nice eco tourism thing going there, trips to the bird sanctuaries with stops to dive. Nice place.

Such a beautiful world underwater, but it's dying off. I believe any serious diver is also a serious environmentalist. Did you all know that Bill Shatner (Captain Kirk, USS Enterprise), is a serious diver, who is active in support of saving coral reefs?
My diving bio is that I started diving three years ago and just a week ago was enjoying a beautiful week and 14 dives in Grand Cayman with Divetech diveshop. Got my specialty certification in underwater propulsion ("scooters") there and on one dive we were going through a canyon at about 60 ft. depth when we came to a large cavern to one side with about 20 tarpon (5 feet or longer) and swam with them for awhile - just inches away - quite exciting. That was Turtle Reef. At Cemetary Reef there is an underwater placque dedicated to Jim Sand, a NYC firefighter/diver who died at the WTC on 9/11, with his motto: "Live to dive; dive to live."
I now have 84 dives logged - all but six of them are open ocean dives. It's my passion. I've dived (in order) San Pedro, Belize; Orcas Island, in San Juan Islands of Washington (42 degrees - too cold!); Cozumel; Stuart Cove's, New Providence Island, Bahamas; Cozumel for second time; the Aquacat liveaboard in Exuma Cays, Bahamas; the sunken WW Two Japanese wrecks in Truk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia (Aggressor); Honolulu, Hawaii; Bonaire; Grand Cayman. I have earned other specialties in wreck, night, drift, boat, underwater naturalist and Nitrox diving. Next spring I'll work on the Rescue Diver course and then I'll get my Master Diver c card.

any serious diver MUST be an environmentalist.

But I'm sorry to say it's not just the coral reefs. Of course, they ARE dying. The Great Barrier Reef is under enormous stress right now.

But a newly-discovered coral reef in DEEP water off Alaska is being trashed by bottom fishing.

The percentage of large fish in the ocean has been depleted by >90%

The Great Banks of the northern Atlantic have been fished nearly to extinction.

I don't think people realize how important the oceans are to life on earth. We are destroying the oceans in the course of a couple generations.

I'm sorry to say that I'm rather pessimistic about the fate of (human) life on earth. And part of me says it's not a bad thing if we all go. Life will always thrive on this planet, but I suspect humans may be a short-lived blip in the history thereof.

Re when our species basically destoys itself.

Which is why I don't understand why many divers I know are conservative