The ultimate diving and snorkeling thread!

[davocean]

Lot of warm water divers it seems - I'm jealous. You all need to head out West and dive the cold waters of Monterey. I do enjoy warm water and most everything is than what I dive most of the time. Having said that I'm still hard pressed to find better diving than what we have here. Its different and of course subjective but cold waters offer different animals than what we see in other places. That and the kelp forests can be surreal. Great thread though and good to see I have been to a couple places listed here.

I've dove Monteray a number of times, it is about as good as it gets on our coast, that and Channel islands, and I do love the kelp forrests swarming w/ garibaldi.

I've dove kelp forests where the roots were so huge they formed long swim through tunnels where they were anchored to boulders the size of VW's

It is beautiful, and I love pacific lobster and done many night dives for those buggers, but these warm water pics are pretty darn inviting!

 

[Why-Me]

WOW amazing photos and videos! Can't wait to see more, keep them coming.

 

[zeroc0o0l]

 

[zeroc0o0l]

 

[zeroc0o0l]

 

[zeroc0o0l]

Saltyhog - that clam picture was taken in Moorea Tahiti, not 100% on type but it was huge!

 

[saltyhog]

zero, how the heck did you get that close to a Pearly Jawfish? Everytime I try to film them they duck in to their burrow if I get closer than 6 feet!

 

[Bebow]

Fantastic pictures and videos! Thank you all!
I got certified 9 years ago. Did my open water certs in St Luca. Bonaire was a blast! With unlimited tanks I was doing up to 5 dives a day.
I’ll be diving in the Bahamas this weekend.
These are from Bonaire

 

[tupes]

Here is a video I made of my wife and I first time diving in cozumel.. it's a little long but the end with the one of the sea turtles is a good shot. Please don't judge my videos skills to much lol.

Watch "Diving in Cozumel, April, 18, 2016" on YouTube

 

[tupes]

Also my video doesn't compare to any of these awesome photos in this thread. Please keep posting more.

 

[P-Dub]

Ahhhh, diving! There is nothing like it, nothing. I tell people it is the closest to being an astronaut, visiting an alien world, that anyone will ever experience. I used to freedive and spearfish in southern California when I was growing up. Always wanted to learn to dive but life was always getting in the way. I moved to Maui for a 3-month windsurfing sabbatical before graduate school. Never made it to graduate school but did have 5 awesome years on Maui. While there, a buddy who I was working with said that I needed to learn to dive. Naturally, I said, "you are right". I sold all my spearfishing gear and bought SCUBA gear. That is where I really started to get into keeping saltwater tanks. I ended up diving 7-10 dives a week and all the vacations were to The Big Island for diving. I stopped logging dives after just over 3600 dives. We were at the point that our dive logs were simply the dive fill logs as we were purchasing fill cards with 100 fills at a time. That was over 30 years ago. Never really stopped diving, just changed locations. Back to San Diego and cold water diving and ended up doing film and TV work underwater. What a racket that industry is. Finally moved to a place where warm water diving is literally just down the road and some world class diving destinations in the general area. I've only done some freediving off the keys. The Western Pacific, Philippine Sea, Celebes Sea, Java Sea and Andaman Sea are now my playground. It has been so long since I have had the opportunity to start a reef tank again I can hardly wait but wait I have to. Work and life slow things down. But, I still get to dip in the sea now and again to get my fish and coral fix. People have a hard time understanding how I can sit and take 20-30 photos of a fish or coral. Everyone here understands. Kindred spirits. Well here is my tank build. Reboot Standard 125. Nothing special here. & some photos for fun.

 

[saltyhog]

Here is a video I made of my wife and I first time diving in cozumel.. it's a little long but the end with the one of the sea turtles is a good shot. Please don't judge my videos skills to much lol.

Watch "Diving in Cozumel, April, 18, 2016" on YouTube

This brings back some great memories! My wife and I went to Cozumel for our very first ocean dives right after getting certified. Our friends thought we were nuts because of the drift diving and the depth of some of the dives there (our 2nd dive of the trip was 90+ feet on one of the wall dives). We also dove with Paradise Divers and we loved it! We went back in August of 2016 and stayed and dove with Aldora Divers. Steel 100 tanks and 75-80 minute bottom times. Got to watch your computer with those puppies!

Was that pier at Cozumel Palace or down by Hotel Cozumel?

We will have to call you the fish whisperer, I thought that scrawled cowfish and several other fish were going to kiss the camera. I think you did well for your first trip!

 

[saltyhog]

Here's a few pictures from that first trip. I cringe when I look at them but I didn't know anything about filters or white balance or much of anything else. Just pointed and shot. LOL
This was at 80 feet, note the shadow! Vis was incredible the whole trip.


Dive masters with too much time on their hands.....Columbia Shallow


Prettiest fish in the Caribbean




Huge grouper that followed us for a whole dive (dive masters were feeding them lionfish)


Grey angels cleaning up on sponges the turtle was eating.


Can you spot the lion fish?

 

[tupes]

This brings back some great memories! My wife and I went to Cozumel for our very first ocean dives right after getting certified. Our friends thought we were nuts because of the drift diving and the depth of some of the dives there (our 2nd dive of the trip was 90+ feet on one of the wall dives). We also dove with Paradise Divers and we loved it! We went back in August of 2016 and stayed and dove with Aldora Divers. Steel 100 tanks and 75-80 minute bottom times. Got to watch your computer with those puppies!

Was that pier at Cozumel Palace or down by Hotel Cozumel?

We will have to call you the fish whisperer, I thought that scrawled cowfish and several other fish were going to kiss the camera. I think you did well for your first trip!

Yes this too was our first dive after getting certified. One of my good friends is very close with the owner and they set it up for us to have a private dive master which was an extra 50. I would have paid 100. We tipped him well. Going down with the group we wouldn't have seen half of what we did hidden in the rocks. There is plenty more footage because both of us had cameras. So I had a hard time picking the right footage. Our 1st dive was 68'. We went to the wall first butvthe currant was to strong so they opted for the other place. Id have to look in my dive book for the name of the location. So overal l I highly reccomend them for a diving location. Not sure the name of the pier unless I'm missing it. But here is a screenshot of it. It was where the 2 ships are.

 

[saltyhog]

I was talking about the pier you guys were walking down at the beginning of the video. It looked kind of like the pier/dock at Hotel Cozumel which is next door to one of the Paradise Dive shops.

The reef nearest the cruise ship dock I think is either Chankanaab, Paradise or Palmas. We did a night dive there a couple of times. Weird surfacing to rock music and lights after the serenity under water!

 

[tupes]

Sorry yes. Hotel cozumel.

 

[tupes]

We didnt have time to walk around much because our dive ran late. But hotel cozumel looked really nice.

 

[tupes]

Also i forgot tonlist my other dive location in my first post.. The other location i have is St. Thomas being thats the only 2 places weve been besides florida for our check put dive.

 

[zeroc0o0l]

zero, how the heck did you get that close to a Pearly Jawfish? Everytime I try to film them they duck in to their burrow if I get closer than 6 feet!

That was the good picture out of a few hundred Bonaire is almost all shore diving, so most dive you walk right in from the road. Lots of shallow area with rubble and plenty of hiding spaces. Love to get up early and spend 2 + hours messing around in shallow water. Lots of slow movement and really concentrate on breathing ( those silly fish can feel every vibration) with jawfish and flashers it’s really a waiting game. Since it’s macro you need to be pretty close, video is useful as well. I have seen people setup a tripod with a GoPro and leave it for an hour, some awesome video. Still looking for one with eggs in the mouth!

 

[zeroc0o0l]