Poll: Scuba Diving / Snorkeling

[mndivergirl]

Yes My husband and I own a dive shop almost 18 years now.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have three times. This past summer, did Montego Bay reefs. Pics below were 78 feet down hence the darkness and and 44 feet a little more light.

 

[Mark Gray]

I have been scuba diving in Thailand and the Philippines. I gave smirked in Fiji and the Bahamas

 

[4FordFamily]

I wish I could do more of it — some day!

 

[saltyhog]

This^^^

We just dove Belize last Month, we dive at least every 6 months, next is Curacao then to Cozumel in Aug.

Where are you staying in Curacao? We stayed in Westpunt and the house reef was awesome (Alice In Wonderland). Who are you diving with in Cozumel?

 

[DocTock993]

Currently still diving and no reef/ aquarium.

I do underwater photography for a hobby and maintain a web-photo sharing site:
www.rkburtonphotography.com

My last trip was Nov 2017 - 5 days at the sea lion rookery in La Paz, Mexico in the Sea of Cortez
(website not yet updated with those images)

 

[Epicreefster]

I'm on a dive trip in Palau right now, y'all enjoy that money pit in your living room.

 

[jkopfishman]

I'm from Wisconsin and snorkel the florida keys about 5 times a year for the past 20 years. I'm finally SCUBA certified and have dove lake Michigan and am going to the keys next month for my first reef diving experience. Can't wait. All the snorkeling iv done down there always wishing I could stay under longer. Now's my time. Sombrero reef here I come.

 

[jkopfishman]

Oh yeah and let's not forget Blue Springs State Park in Florida. One of the coolest places I've ever been

 

[Sea MunnKey]

I get to see the end products of scuba divers though ... for delicious mantis "prawns"

 

[chefjpaul]

Where are you staying in Curacao? We stayed in Westpunt and the house reef was awesome (Alice In Wonderland). Who are you diving with in Cozumel?

We are going to Cozumel mainly to snorkel with whale sharks, - (Cozumel h20) and only spending a couple days diving, then off to Curacao. We were just in Belize, so short trip on that side of Caribbean.

Im not sure of the hotel, my wife does all the booking. I just show up with the money and gear. I do know she hasn't book a dive boat for Curacao yet.

 

[drernesto]

Scuba and free diving Instructor and tech diver since 2001.
I’m teaching occasionally but dive regularly.

 

[Hammer100]

Bonaire my favorite for ease of diving and great diversity. loved belize, bahamas was blah
BVI was nice.
I really want to go to Saba.

 

[rkpetersen]

Couple of shots of me and some bus-sized fish in the Galapagos.

(In the second photo, some may think I'm holding it's fin, but that is an illusion; I was a good 5 feet away, just holding my arm out at that moment.)

 

[MBX5]

Make sure you guys check out https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-ultimate-diving-and-snorkeling-thread.362605/ and post some photos

 

[Ron Reefman]

I get to go snorkeling 3 to 5 long weekends (and now that we are retired, weekdays) every year. The Keys are a 3 to 5 hour drive from our house... it depends on how far down into the Keys you want to go!

I've started a new thread for people who want to discuss snorkeling.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/snorkeling-collecting-discussion-group.412414/
It's for those who do it now, or those who want to try it. And since I snorkel close to home, I get to do some legal, licensed, recreational marine animal collecting. So we can discuss that as well!

I hope many of you will join in the conversation. Thanks.

P6190116 R1 octopus 16 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

 

[vetteguy53081]

I'm from Wisconsin and snorkel the florida keys about 5 times a year for the past 20 years. I'm finally SCUBA certified and have dove lake Michigan and am going to the keys next month for my first reef diving experience. Can't wait. All the snorkeling iv done down there always wishing I could stay under longer. Now's my time. Sombrero reef here I come.

Wisconsinite (Sheboygan) here. I too do the scuba - Jamaica and Florida (Miami beach and pompano area). In fact we are going in two weeks to do it again.

 

[Billdogg]

I got my Open Water in 1990 at age 30. Went to Roatan - Anthony's Key. On the first day we got on the boat, it went about 5 minutes outside the resort and anchored all of 100' from shore. I looked over the side and saw some little rocks and I thought to myself - "all this way and all this money for this?????" Then I jumped in and put my mask down in the water. And got the biggest @#* eating grin on my face ever. I was officially in PARADISE! The little rocks were actually huge mounds of coral teeming with fish. Since then I've been as far west as Hawaii - the dive on the outside of Molokini was my favorite. I've dove many of the islands of the Carribean, with Bonaire being the best IMO. At least 15 trips to the keys in the 90's. Tobermory Canada and 5 fathoms marine park for some very well preserved freshwater wrecks. Bon Terre for something different.

My favorite dive, hands down, was the sealion rookery off the coast of La Paz Mexico in the Sea of Cortez. I have no idea how many tanks I burned up or how many rolls of film I shot there.

Cavern certified in 1999, was going for Cave when the future wife suggested that she wasn't too comfortable with that idea. Got her certified in 2000 with her first dives on a week trip to Pennecamp.

Still dive every chance I get, which isn't enough, but well, life gets in the way, and after well over 1000 dives in the quarries of northern Ohio, local diving just doesn't hold the attraction it once did. Great excuse to go someplace warm on vacation!

 

[Paul B]

I did my first real dive was on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I was on R&R from Nam and I met this girl there, Christine. I can't tell you about that but her dad had this huge Yacht and she took me diving off a tiny atoll. We had a bunch of tanks and spent much of the day diving. Then at night she took me to a restaurant and they gave you all the equipment and threw you in the water. Whatever you caught they cooked.

She had 4 or 5 bloody red fish which I didn't recognize and I caught an anemic lobster that was probably ready to go into a nursing home.
We were kicking back to the restaurant on the surface and I heard this machine gun. I knew very well the sound of a machine gun but I didn't have my helmet with me so I asked her "What was that". She said "Don't worry, they are shooting the sharks". I said (extremely loud I am sure) What did you say? She said they have this huge net to keep the sharks off the beach and sometimes a big one gets stuck in it and they have to shoot it.

That's when I learned how to fly.

Since then I have no fear of sharks and I have always had a boat. My friend and I would dive a few times a week in New York for Maine Lobsters (which are "real" lobsters that fight back and can take your hand off if they are in a bad mood) While we were looking for lobsters we would spear flounders with a CB antenna. Then we would grill them on the boat.

The first few years we dove we would bring down rubber chickens or signs that read "Sorry Charlie". We would put that on the hooks of the fisherman who were fishing above us.

Here in New York near the City where I did most of my dives the visibility is measured in inches and can range from 1/4" past your mask to about 3 or 4 feet. If you want to see your watch, you have to put it in your mask.
(I used to have a sea urchin business where I would collect urchins for reef tanks, Urchin Searchin Enterprize)

People wonder why you would want to dive like that? There is a good answer. In the tropics where you can see everything, you will not find anything interesting because 8,749 divers already went over that spot. But here in NY there are very few divers and we have had a long history so we have over 2,000 wrecks around Long Island which are still there and many of them were never dived on. Everything on them is still there and they are loaded with lobsters.
WE find dishes, anchors, cups, MP3 players, Millie Vanilli tapes, bottles of booze from prohibition and a 45 caliper pistol with a silencer on it. No bodies yet.

I have dove in many places around the world as I am old.
I still dive and recently dove the outer Hawaiian Islands, Bora Bora and Mystique off St Lucia.
I rarely dive New York any more as no one wants to go but I miss it.

My main squeeze/best friend/ and wife of 44 years used to dive with me.
The lower picture is an Island off Bora Bora. Best diving I have ever seen and I am totally done with the Caribbean.



Those "Rocks" in the water are giant clams

 

[divetoday]

One of my favorite places in the world is Bonaire. If you haven’t been and you are a diver, put it on your bucket list. I remember one trip with my (now ex) husband where we had hired a naturalist to help us find frog fish. My ex asked the naturalist if we could keep one in “our” aquarium. The guy said he didn’t know. When my ex pressed the point, the naturalist pointed out to sea and said”this is my aquarium, and they do just fine here.” Ultimate smartalec response.