Divers

[Thedelldays]

anyone into this..?

any of you had any DCIs or know anyone who has..?

 

where was the best place you have dived etc

[sussexsaint]

Was really looking into doing this as I love the idea. Nuts about wildlife and photography. Been snorkelling a few times and loved it.

 

Sadly last week a close friend and colleague was lost at sea and she was an experienced diver. I know it's not a common occurrence but it's made me think

[Thedelldays]

Was really looking into doing this as I love the idea. Nuts about wildlife and photography. Been snorkelling a few times and loved it.

 

Sadly last week a close friend and colleague was lost at sea and she was an experienced diver. I know it's not a common occurrence but it's made me think

one of those things that even the most experienced can get caught out.

[Jonnyboy]

I was in Thailand for 2 years as a PADI instructor. Love it. Miss it.

[dubai_phil]

Got dragged into it when first came here in '93

 

Simples. Do it.

 

Have dived Sharm, Aqaba (meh rubbish)

A zillion times around here - The Musandam OMG yes awesome, swam with a 4 metre long Black Tip Shark & a Pod of 8 Dolphins (that experience changed my life)

 

Barrier Reef - one of the 1,000 things to do before you die

 

Ningaloo Reef, Phuket etc.

 

BUT

 

Of all the places I have been lucky enough to have dived the TWO I regret not doing were Truck Lagoon in Micronesia (yeah right)

 

And

 

Scapa Flow

 

Bunch of lads from here went back to do that. They were truly freaked/humbled/life changed etc

 

So yeah take it up and dive Blighty

 

Oh teck stuff for TDD

 

Ran out of air due to faulty kit at the prop shaft of the MV Dara (biggest loos of life since the Titanic at the time (Google) we only JUST made it out again

And best mate got Narked in Sharm and the instructor found him at 50m on a 200m wall dive - mate was heading south and fast

 

My dive instructor had cancer, she went into remission for 6 months and taught my (ex wife) & daughter to dive. She said the ex was the hardest student she had ever had. She sadly passed away 3 months later.

I only paid for the course in the hope of meeting that 4m shark again....

 

Would have saved me a fortune in the divorce

Edited 18 July, 2012 by dubai_phil

[Thedelldays]

I have dived all over the world but not an avid fan

seen so many get DCIs over the years through work/diving

The one thing I do want to do is diving with great whites in south africa.

 

 

just wondered if any SWFers were into it

[Jonnyboy]

I have dived all over the world but not an avid fan

seen so many get DCIs over the years through work/diving

The one thing I do want to do is diving with great whites in south africa.

 

 

just wondered if any SWFers were into it

 

Id love to do the great whites too.

[Verbal]

Id love to do the great whites too.

 

Something to keep in mind if you do:

 

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/shark-attacks-in-australia-timeline.htm

[um pahars]

just wondered if any SWFers were into it

 

Only recently got rid of all my gear (impending fatherhood!!!).

 

Certified with Andark (in those torpedo ponds at HMS Excellence) then went further with Manta Diving?? In Eilat and The Down Under Divers?? in Cairns.

 

Apart from Eilat a couple of times all my diving was secondary to the holidays/travels themselves.

 

Managed to dive most of the Caribbean (Jamaica, Cuba, St Lucia, Barbados) with the base of the Pitons in St Lucia being a highlight.

 

South East Asia was hit and miss. Phuket way, Phi-Phi and Andaman islands pretty good, not overly impressed by Samui, Koh Tao. Highlights there included the sunken catamaran ferry and regular sharks. Cambodia and Vietnam rubbish and overfished and reefs wrecked.

 

Red Sea was very good for abundance of marine life and managed to run in to a pod of dolphins.

 

Barrier Reef was up there with the best. Stayed on a live aboard clipper for a fortnight cruising the reef. At one time a shoal of huge Bumpheads swam right through our party and it was just like watching cows meander across roads in the New Forest!!!

 

New Zealand was very good (but cold!!), with the highlight of all my diving being spending time diving the Rainbow Warrior which was re sunk in the bay of islands.

 

Great memories.

[dubai_phil]

I have dived all over the world but not an avid fan

seen so many get DCIs over the years through work/diving

The one thing I do want to do is diving with great whites in south africa.

 

 

just wondered if any SWFers were into it

 

Sod Great Whites & Cages, No freaking way. The 4m Black Tip came up to us in Open Water - we were at about 20m with the bottom at about 25. We confirmed it's size with another group who had a video.

 

It approached head on and swam round us twice, close enough to touch. 1st thought? Why did I buy such a small Dive Knife, 2nd? How do I get the brown stain out of a wet suit? 3rd? I am supposed to do something now? Oh yes, breather. 4th? OMG what an amazing creature, I was fine after that until I had to lift my head out the water to get back up onto the dive boat......

 

Since then I have regularly taken the kids & UK visitors snorkelling with Sharks (biggest while Snorkelling was about 2.5m) but no way I would get in a cage or swim with an Oceanic.

 

DCI's here? no, up in the Musandam we can dive some sunken Oil Tankers where the Bridge is at about 50m but never had a problem. On one dove (Dara again) we had one who got separated from his buddy & ran out of air at about 5m and shot to the surface like a cork out of a bottle. We were worried about him but the BSAC Instructor with us just threw him off the boat with a spare tank and a medic as a buddy to come back up slowly.

 

Saw someone get DCI on a flight back from the Maldives though - idiot

 

BUT getting in a cage? You are having a larf

[CB Saint]

Do training courses at andark and dive for fun in the warm.

 

Did a liveaboard in the red sea last year which was cool. Mexico was excellent, especially the cavern dives in the cenotes (huge inland sink holes). Also been to the barrier reef, bali, and Maldives.

 

Would love to dive in Iceland. You can between two tectonic plates which will be cool (actually bloody freezing)

[Thedelldays]

When coming back to the surface, the last 20 and more so, 10 meters are the dangerous

[colehillsaint]

I decided I wanted to dive for work about 15 years ago. I'm a chartered civil engineer. I was working as a site manager on marine projects at the time, and after a try dive at Andark, I managed to persuade my then employer to pay for an HSE pt 3 course at Bovisand in Plymouth. It was 5 weeks of more fun than you could shake a stick at. The funniest thing that happened was to an Egyptian lad that p1ssed everyone off. He would take over every team task underwater, and then completely **** it up. We were using air lifts to uncover old shell cases off the breakwater fort, and he was wearing a membrane suit with a KM18 surface demand helmet. He didn't take care, got inverted and his hat started to fill with water. Squeals came from the comms room, and everyone rushed out to watch as his feet hit the surface, from a 20m ascent. Somehow he got righted, but with a hat full of water. You are supposed to blow the water down with a valve you use to clean your screen in the hat, but obviously he was in a panic and didn't think of that. He took the only other option and drank the contents of the hat. Respect.

 

I got my wife to learn to dive. Without trying to sound soft, it is actually a really romantic thing to share together. My oldest has been diving since he was 12. We took him to Taba for a week several years ago, which I though was great.

 

I've also dived in the UK, Cyprus, Majorca and the Canaries, which I thought was actually quite good. I have always taken perverse pleasure in the dark and cold of UK diving.

 

I haven't dived for a while. I don't really do depth, after getting quite narked at 40m once, years ago. After diving with surface demand, it occurred to me the precarious nature of scuba diving at serious depth. Also, I think you need to dive a lot to keep your hand in, if you are going to take on serious diving.