whats been your best dive
By havachat
@havachat (105)
Australia
February 13, 2007 9:48am CST
i just came back from a trip on the barrier reef, we were hiding on the weather face on the ribbon reefs from a cyclone, the wind was up to 40kts+, swell was 4.5 metres, not to waste a trip, we done some wall dives there, they are awesome, 12mtrs on the ledge, then droping to 60 to 80mtrs, then off to 500mtrs, the fish and coral life is excellent, i was down at 40mtrs when 2 silver tip sharks came in, split and swam around me and my buddy, cooool, found a species of mushroom coral that i have never seen before at 56mtrs, it was about 3cms and glowed irridesent orange, the clams are huge, vis was good 40mtrs+, then when we got out of the water, we watched the swell break on the reef, and the wind was blowing it backwards, got some great photo's too, the best is of a pygmy seahorse from the cod hole.
2 people like this
4 responses
@makaira (1158)
• Philippines
8 Mar 07
ive never dive outside my country, Philippines. and so far, the best dive that ive been to is in Culion, Palawan. the site was not a "dive site" as it is right in front of residential houses that are constructed near the beach but the diversity of marine life is just awesome. it was very diverse as compared to some of the "dive sites" that i've been to. and to think it's not even a protected area.
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@havachat (105)
• Australia
8 Mar 07
i know what you mean, i used to work for a dive shop in mackay,( nth queensland ), and i was the skipper for their boat, we used to got to the islands around mackay, no more than 1 hour away, and the diving was glorious, even the tourists liked it, they were all hell bent on going out to the reef and couldn't beleive that some thing so good was so close, even the locals couldn't beleive what they saw there, we had caves, swim throughs, coral reef, sharks, heaps of fish and humpback whales in season, you never know what is around until you have a look, one island had a bay that's about 600mtrs long, and is covered in anenomies with 5 species of clown fish plus 2 wrecks, all within 5 to 20 mtrs deep, so keep looking at those places, and i agree, they should protect places like that, too many are getting wiped out by construction and land run off from too many people
1 person likes this
@zewnogy (9)
• United States
25 Feb 07
My best dive, by far, was my first cave dive at Peacock Springs in Florida. It had been a dream of mine to cave dive ever since I started diving (which wasn't that long ago) but still I had accomplished that relatively quickly. Knowing I was diving among the elite was exhilirating.
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@havachat (105)
• Australia
26 Feb 07
yep it's cool diving caves, i have found a lot on the reef, some are deep, some not much to see, i would like to dive the caves on the nulabour, there are some long deep caves there, picanini cave has been explored for about 5kms so far, but there are a lot more there
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@rjbass (1422)
• United States
13 Feb 07
Though I love warm water dives and would love to dive the Great Barrier Reef, I've done most of my dives in California which are all cold water.
I have to say that the best dive site that I have been to is Point Lobos which is a marine sanctuary near Monterey, CA in the Pacific Ocean. Visibility is typically around 50 feet on a good day (I apologize for not calculating into metric lengths) and is beautiful. There are underwater forests of 75 foot kelp with sea otters and sea lions diving about, you see multiple cold water fish species and coral beds. There is one thing I have yet to see there though and that would be a Great White. Very rare to see, but there nonetheless.
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@havachat (105)
• Australia
14 Feb 07
hi how are you, i have done some cold water diving in south australia, dived with seal, that was cool, saw some big sharks, a couple of white pointers, not too close though, have done a few shark feed dives at osprey reef in the coral sea, that is really cool, it's not fun when silver tips turn up, they have allways got a bad attitude, i done a night dive not so ong ago, i went to the bottom off the back of the boat, into 33mtrs, straight into a pack of grey reef whalers, they were agro for some reason, one about 2mtrs long, came at me, i saw his teeth up close as i was going to punch it, but it turned at the last second, totally freaked my buddy out, we had a tiger shark swim close to our hostess the other day, it was stalking a big turtle, and nearly mistook her for it in the murky water
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@chuckt9881 (469)
• Canada
7 Mar 07
I do most of my diving in Nova Scotia, Canada. Even in the height of summer, the water temp at 80 ft is no more than 5`C. The only time I don't wear a full 7mm wetsuit is for my dive club's beach day. For half an hour I can live with wearing just a shorty in 30 ft of water.
My best dive has to be the live-aboard tour of the Great Barrier Reef out of Cairns. That was almost 10 years ago now!
My best dive locally was a wreck dive just outside the mouth of Halifax Harbour. It was an old cargo vessel that sunk in 80 ft of water sometime before 1900 carrying a load of bricks. Every remaining bit of steel structure is covered with anemones and the bricks are scattered all over the sandy ocean floor. It is a popular dive site and divers traditionally make designs in the sand with the bricks (I made a no-smoking sign :D )
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@havachat (105)
• Australia
8 Mar 07
man that water is cold, when i used to dive in south australia, winter was freezing, nearly what you got in summer, i used to have a 10mm shorty under neath a 10mm long full suit, with booties and hood, now i am in north queenslan, my summer suit is a t,shirt and shorts, and for winter it's a 3mm full suit, wreck diving is good, i love diving them especially when you have found it and is one of the first to explore it
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