Attn CORAL DIVERS...we wanna hear stories from you!

[ZoWhat]

Man.... here I sit in the cornfields of Ohio and my life is just passing me by. I get excited watching my 6in Hippo play in my flow in my 6ft 180g. That's pathetic, seriously

You guys are out there LIVING IT.... good for you guys!!!! I wish life had a one time RESET button.


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[clown and friends]

Man.... here I sit in the cornfields of Ohio and my life is just passing me by. I get excited watching my 6in Hippo play in my flow in my 6ft 180g.

You guys are out there LIVING IT.... good for you guys. I wish life had a one time RESET button.


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Also hello fellow cincinnatian!

 

[ZoWhat]

Also hello fellow cincinnatian!

Hello from the suburbs of Cincy...in Milford.....

 

[clown and friends]

Hello from the suburbs of Cincy...in Milford.....

Go bengals...sigh...if only they were better...

 

[Driftdiver]

Worst experience- while wading in on a shore dive in Eilat, Israel, I cut the bottom of my foot on something squishy with a sharp spine. The other divers saw a large stonefish darting away from exactly where I was stabbed, but I never saw what actually stabbed me. [Prior to dives we were warned about presence of a species of stonefish which had an extremely toxic venom resulting in a high mortality rate.]. Since we did not know whether I was envenomated, I had to do the hot water treatments and antibiotics while monitoring for any sign I needed further medical treatment. Ended up with minor infection. Worst part was no more diving the Red Sea and I haven’t been able to get back.

unexpected dive - I was in the middle of obtaining my AOC when Hurricane Andrew interrupted our training. As soon as the blue water returned and there was some visibility we were the first people to dive on the Noulla Express which was a nice intact upright wreck that had a small submarine sunk next to it in approximately 85 feet of water. We get down to where the wreck had been and find that the wreck has split into at least 2 parts one falling on its side on top of the sub (squashing it), another section was missing, and the wreck had shifted deeper. It was surreal to see the damage the storm inflicted even 85 feet underwater.

Favorite dives - Red Sea was gorgeous with amazing biodiversity. British Virgin Islands had pass throughs and range of animals. Drift diving the reefs off southern Palm Beach county/Northern Broward county are top notch.

 

[Tyrone]

The picture in the middle was taken in Okinawa. The other two were taken at West Izu prefecture Japan.

 

[ScottR]

I grew up by the beach in Honolulu. So I was always in the water. My friends and I went to Hanauma Bay every weekend with just a mask and fins. Some really cool stuff there. But I was swimming and felt something touch my feet, I turned around and it was a giant turtle. I can’t even explain how big it was. It was very curious and let me touch it (although it’s illegal). And I swam around with it for a good 10 minutes. It was like the neighborhood homeless dog that won’t leave you alone if you give it a bit of attention.

 

[Tyrone]

My last dive was at West Izu prefectures in mainland Japan. There were lots of anthias and lots of sun corals.

 

[Tyrone]

I haven’t dived since I got out of naval service but here some pics from my time in Japan.

The bottom picture was when I was getting my open water certification at Maeda Point in Okinawa, Japan. My instructor took this picture of a remora swimming next to me

 

[ScottR]

My last dive was at West Izu prefectures in mainland Japan. There were lots of anthias and lots of sun corals.

I like when I see pictures not just of fish but the sea floor and corals and all the other million things dwelling down there. Thanks for sharing

 

[crusso1993]

@Ron Reefman has a ton of experience and is a treasure trove of info for areas in and around the Florida Keys. Below is a link to a thread he started and regularly maintains for anyone interested.

Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

Hello and welcome to what I hope will be an interesting and useful forum for talking about snorkeling and collecting of wild marine animals. I live in Florida and I’m able to go snorkeling in the Florida Keys several times a year. But I by no means want to limit this to just my snorkeling here...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jay Z]

Man.... here I sit in the cornfields of Ohio and my life is just passing me by. I get excited watching my 6in Hippo play in my flow in my 6ft 180g. That's pathetic, seriously

You guys are out there LIVING IT.... good for you guys!!!! I wish life had a one time RESET button.

You can dive anywhere and see neat stuff.

Don’t feel like your life is passing you by with out diving. It’s a lot of prep, time, and hard work. You could spend over a half of day prepping equipment and heading out to the dive location for a 35 minute dive that you have no idea how it’s going to go and what your going to see.

I personally like to spend a lot of time under water. Not unusual for me to take 5 tanks and the compressor out on the boat for my day trips. I’ll stay in 15’ or shallower, will dive for 6-8 hours. Very relaxing while under the water, but man, you’re tired the next day.

I’ll spend most my diving trips in the Michigan area. Mostly lake saint Clair. No corals or rainbow colored fish, but always neat things to see and find. We do have giant sturgeon and musky. Love doing small inland lakes and private ponds too.

You can always learn to dive. It’s not hard. Once your certified you can pretty much go on any of the vacation dive spots. They do all the work for you.




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[vetteguy53081]

For those who dived, how many like myself have seen Lg coral pieces And schools of fish And viewed them in $$ (eg: there’s a $400 angel or $300 monti) ?

 

[ZoWhat]

Go bengals...sigh...if only they were better...

GO BENGALS! GO TO TORONTO..... when Mike Brown and daughter Katie Blackburn MOVE the team when the Hamilton County stadium deal dries up....

 

[Daniel@R2R]

So many great stories and beautiful pics/vids!

 

[Kengar]

 

[Kengar]

Feeding sharks was Nassau.

Had experience in Cayman where dolphin literally played with us under water for 20 minutes.

In Palau, had ginormous Napoleon wrasse chomp on my hand. Dive master thought it was because it thought my gloves, with white palms, were eggs, which divers would feed to them.

Hanging out doing deco stop in mid-ocean column and see a swordfish go swimming by.

Site in Komodo marine park called the rodeo. Shine your light on the bottom at night and lionfish follow it around. When you come across the glass sweepers get caught up in the beam and not know what to do, the lion fish would go WHOOMP and eat them up.

Diving in Cozumel, was too buoyant, so decided to strip off jumpsuit. I take off tank and hand it to dive master while underwater, giving him the okay sign to let him know I’m not crazy. I unzip and peel off jumpsuit down along my legs, only to realize I can’t get it off over my fins. (Weights integrated into bc.). So now I get inverted as wetsuit starts floating up pulling me up by me feet, while clenching my teeth around regulator mouthpiece trying not to get pulled away from my tank........ meanwhile, I see surface getting closer and closer and closer. Having been at 120 feet for a good ten minutes, I KNEW I’d be getting bent if I hit surface. Dive master finally sees what’s happening and pulls out knife and cuts the wetsuit legs so the wetsuit can float free..... I get right side up and we do safety stop, but that was very close.


And in Papua New Guinea, chasing a shark down to 206??? NOT a good idea. Get back on boat (liveaboard) and go to breakfast; dive buddy comes in and tells me the dive crew is all gathered around looking at my gages. Captain comes ina nd tells me my next dive would be tomorrow.....

 

[saltyhog]

Black Durgeon triggers on the edge.

Nicest long tentacled anemones I've seen in the Caribbean.

 

[SMB]

Ok here are four photos that I have taken. The first is a Nassau grouper at Cayman Brac. They can be quite friendly. The divemasters carry Spears to kill invasive lionfish. The Nassau grouper will follow them to pick up a snack. Some grouper will even lead the divemaster to a lionfish and point like a bird dog.

The next photo is a slender file fish on a sponge. Great looking fish and often only an inch and a half long. They woukd probably work well in reef Aquaria.

The third fish is a Goliath grouper on the wall at the Brac. It was young and about 5’ long and under 200 lbs. But it was a beautiful one with nice markings.

The last fish is a yellow hamlet.

Ok here are four photos that I have taken. The first is a Nassau grouper at Cayman Brac. They can be quite friendly. The divemasters carry Spears to kill invasive lionfish. The Nassau grouper will follow them to pick up a snack. Some grouper will even lead the divemaster to a lionfish and point like a bird dog.

The next photo is a slender file fish on a sponge. Great looking fish and often only an inch and a half long. They woukd probably work well in reef Aquaria.

The third fish is a Goliath grouper on the wall at the Brac. It was young and about 5’ long and under 200 lbs. But it was a beautiful one with nice markings.

The last fish is a yellow hamlet.

Nice shots

 

[Charles Raabe]

Wow, where do I even begin? I retired to the Philippines in 2004 and lived on Mactan Island within minutes of some unbelievable reefs and walls that surround our island as well as the many smaller, outlying islands. I of course had a reef aquarium at home and did my best to mimic what I saw and understood of the natural systems.
Most of my dives were solo as I normally end up spending an entire dive within a square meter or two and a dive buddy simply gets mad at me. A lot of my time was spent studying and collecting specimens with a special interest in the Caridean shrimp. I will throw the link to that up but will first offer some eye candy in the form of an interactive page.

A Philippine Reef Tour

Take a virtual tour of the various Reef habitats

chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net

Article Index of Chuck's Addiction

A Variety of Articles I have written for the Reef Aquarium Hobby

chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net