The ultimate diving and snorkeling thread!

[saltyhog]

Those nudis are awesome. I'm terrible at finding them.....although I'm really good at finding fire coral!!!

Have a great time @chefjpaul !

 

[CindyKz]

I currently live in Hawaii (Oahu), and also a certified diver. I've got a whole hard drive full of pictures! Used the GI Bill to fund my diving certs, which included the gear so I didn't have to pay a penny towards it!

We just got back from Oahu. It was the only time I've gone diving in the Pacific. It was amazing.

And to think I used my GI Bill for a degree in nursing....pfffft!

 

[lbiminiblue]

Some goodies from yesterday in Bimini, Bahamas

This was such a pleasant surprise. I have never noticed Royal Grammas in the Bahamas before. I thought they were entirely Caribbean but here they were, and in 10 feet of water no less. There’s two on the roof of this cave, doing their classic parallel-to-the-closest-surface hovering.

Big turtle. Don’t know what it was doing. Just had it’s head jammed in this hole in this ledge. I thought maybe it was a cleaning station but i didn’t notice any fish or shrimp in there.

Playing hide and seek with the taxman. We were headed back to the boat after getting some lobster when these two showed up. I took up the back of the 3-man dive team as we swam back to the boat, mostly because I had the big spear. This smaller reef shark would come in close until I’d take notice and spook him off. While he had my attention the big bruiser who was hanging out just at the edge of visibility would start closing in. Was a fun little game of trying to keep each one at distance while going back to the boat.

 

[chefjpaul]

Anyone know what this is?
Going through pics from San Diego dives.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Tunicate?

 

[chefjpaul]

Tunicate?

Found it.
Sea squirt / chordata

 

[saltyhog]

Some goodies from yesterday in Bimini, Bahamas

This was such a pleasant surprise. I have never noticed Royal Grammas in the Bahamas before. I thought they were entirely Caribbean but here they were, and in 10 feet of water no less. There’s two on the roof of this cave, doing their classic parallel-to-the-closest-surface hovering.

Big turtle. Don’t know what it was doing. Just had it’s head jammed in this hole in this ledge. I thought maybe it was a cleaning station but i didn’t notice any fish or shrimp in there.

Playing hide and seek with the taxman. We were headed back to the boat after getting some lobster when these two showed up. I took up the back of the 3-man dive team as we swam back to the boat, mostly because I had the big spear. This smaller reef shark would come in close until I’d take notice and spook him off. While he had my attention the big bruiser who was hanging out just at the edge of visibility would start closing in. Was a fun little game of trying to keep each one at distance while going back to the boat.

I've seen Royal Gramma everywhere I've dived in the western Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf. Curacao, Cayman and St. Croix had lots of them.

That is a big ole turtle with a big ole remora on him! Great pictures!

 

[chefjpaul]

Few more from SD & some night dives. Lots of Octopus there.

 

[lbiminiblue]

A quick little edit I made of our most recent trip to Bimini. in love with some of the locations in this video, particularly Orange key, a desolate spit of rock with just the foundations of an old light to mark that it was even noticed by humans. About 35 miles south of Bimini, sitting in 30 feet of water with only smaller outcroppings of rock in the distance. Truly an isolated place.

Another set of rocks just north of here actually had elevation on it, maybe 20-30 foot rise, which is odd for the non-volcanic Bahamas. From a distance, I could (and wanted to) pretend it was a distant Polynesian island rising several hundred feet above the horizon. But we can't always get what we want, right?

 

[saltyhog]

Found some video of a shark dive we did a few years ago in Roatan. Just some snipits from it.

 

[stanleo]

I have never dived in any of the places it asked cause I have never been but I do go to the keys most summers. The pics people are posting are awesome. I'm a little embarrassed now of these pics but it goes lol

 

[stanleo]

I haven't had a chance to edit these. I'm actually not scuba certified, just haven't gotten around to it but I did this thing called snuba where you are attached to hose that leads to the surface. I was able to go down about 20 feet for around 20 minutes. it was awesome.

 

[stanleo]

 

[GWHouston]

No reason to be down on your pics. They look great to me. We use GoPro’s with a small directional light but usually set it on video. Then you can capture a single frame for the picture.

Diving can get very expensive. The lessons aren’t too bad esp the early lessons but the gear is outrageous. Just watch for some used gear. They take a tremendous drop in value as people unload a hobby that becomes difficult to keep up.

 

[saltyhog]

Great pictures @stanleo ! I bet you won't regret it if you get certified. Wish I had discovered diving a couple of decades ago!

 

[Jeto2004]

In 2009 we had the privilege to go on a 4-day 14 dive live on board dive safari to the Thai Andaman Islands. It was an amazing trip. We had a professional underwater photographer with us. Just wanted to share few of my favorite once she took.

 

[chefjpaul]

Back from another Belize trip.

Blue hole etc...
Had to cut trip in half, as we had a boat incident and I ended up with a fractured spine and many herniated disks.

Some pics, have many more, just haven't been through them all.

 

[chefjpaul]

Belize

 

[dbraun15]

Oh no...fractured spine and disk issues??? What happened? Prayers for peace, comfort and a quick recovery! I’ve snorkeled Belize a few times and used Amigos Del Mar each time and they did not disappoint!

 

[MBX5]

Tell us more about the incident. did the blue hole from ambergris with Amigos a few years back. Great trip but 15-20’ waves on the way out. No injuries but lots of sick people