Scuba Divers!!!

Freediving oil island

 

Old thread but I'll play along. Learned to dive in Monterey and have hundreds of dives there. Was a volunteer diver at the Monterey Bay Aquarium when I lived there. I've been throughout the Caribbean, Australia, Hawaii, Palau, Philippines. Haven't been diving in a few years unfortunately. Life gets in the way. A few pics I took;

 

Bro dive is life lol

 

Been a diver for 15 years. Mainly do ocean and spring dives. I'm with you on the backplate and wings, best setup I've ever used with a long hose/short hose config.

 

Scuba definatly has is time and depth advantages but I just enjoy freediving more plus look at how much less equipment needs to carried lol

 

BUMP anybody still out there?

 

Contemplating joining a friend later this year on a live aboard to the Socorro island(s). It's very expensive and the accommodations are tight. Sort of pelagic diving - think dolphins, mantas, sharks.

A few more random pics

Flamingo Tongue snail


Fire Worm. Don't touch

 

still freediving in the westcoast

 

do it!! before the kids showed up we did one in Belize, Seychelles, and Komodo/Rinca. Best times. Great images btw

 

last week lobster diving at night was around 57 degrees

 

We're taking the babies clam digging tonight right around the 47th parallel north latitude. It'll be awhile yet before we go diving again but hopeful....

get catch anything? Looks like "spiney lobster" have no pinchers either huh ?!

 

yea got a new lobster PR at 14.1#... no pinchers but i think they personally taste better a bit sweeter

post 6309# https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/show-off-your-fish.23077/page-316#post-28356172

 

we were still learning how to get better shots with a GoPro... still learning.

 

Snorkeling in Tahiti. Pictures are a few years old. Sting rays and sharks

 

Always wanted to learn scuba. I used to go to the local Sport Chalet & drool all over the equipment & watch them train in the indoor pool. But the cost was always out of reach, So I took up snorkeling instead.
Started out by renting gear at "Snorkel Bob's" in Hawaii - it's kind of comical - as my better half is getting fitted for a prescription mask, I'm over to the side proofreading the "How to snorkel" book, lol. "Got it, got it, got it," Say TWO!" got it...
I eventually bought my own mask/snorkel & a pair of Churchill swim fins (smaller/fit in luggage better). I've been to all of the major Hawaiian islands/ hot spots, was visited by a baby seal at Cristal cove in Laguna, Snorkeled kelp beds in Catalina (Cold!)

I got an underwater housing for my digital camera took it to Cancun. Lots of great sea life right off the beach at the hotel we stayed at. The one time I got in the water without the camera, I see a nurse shark. I'm like a little kid - I get out & run to tell my better half about it - she doesn't believe me (no pics), but all the people lying out on the beach around her eavesdropping on us, are suddenly freaked out, lol.
One day I got in & had over 100 feet visibility - awsome!
Another day, the water was full of thimble size green jelly fish... May have been dumb - I didn't care - I swam around em.
We did the "jungle tour" where you get your own little jet boat & follow a guide in his boat through the mangroves & then out to the open ocean to a reef for a drift dive. That was fun. I remember seeing an amusement park on the way out/back & always wondered about that.

We went back to Mexico & stayed near Playa Del Carmen. Swam with sea turtles; amazing how big & cumbersome they are, yet could effortlessly swim away from you...

Probably the pinnacle for me was snorkeling a cenote in Mexico. Another guided tour, by a lady who was in her 60's & 5 feet tall, on a good day.
She'd tell us, "ok, we're going to swim about 30 feet... There's not going to be any air because of the rock overhead. Just follow me, let's go." #£&% that little ol lady could swim!
"OK, the next stretch is about 45 feet - you don't have to do it - but it's worth it if you're up to it because we're going to a big cavern/room" (My better half sat this one out). Off this little old lady goes with me in tow & sure enough, we pop up in this huge underground room & there's one little skylight to the outside world, 25-30 feet up & the sunlight beaming in through this little hole is lightning up the cavern. Just amazing.
But all through this tour, deep down below us, we could see scuba divers; it's dark but their flashlights are lighting up the water in this incredible nuclear blue hue & the water was crystal clear.
I always thought that it was pretty cool to see/swim a geological remanent of what killed the dinosaurs.

All my pictures are on a DVD somewhere. I'm thinking I may have to go dig them out now...

 

those cenotes are pretty relaxing, i dove one out in tulum for the first time last year and viz was as clear as a pool... not the best pics but a couple gopro screen grabs

 

Snorkeling was revolutionary for a city kid in Miami - fast forward 30 years and the woman I was dating (now wife) made me take the SCUBA class. Again revolutionary Mr. Brian, I highly recommend! My cert. dive was in Devils Den in Florida which seemed more cave than cenote. Blue Hole was my deepest but it's not as clear as the inland (fresh water right?) sink holes.

 

yea freshwater, there were bunch of them out there with entrances in unexpected areas

 

www.scubaboard.com

 

"I'm not sure why you're here, my patients not on fire and your ice cream is melting".