I'd like to know what everyones scariest diving experience is. Whether it's equipment failure or encountering underwater unpleasantries!

With only a dozen or so dives under my belt, as you expect (and I'm pleased to report), I haven't had anything \"scary\" happen (even though most things make you anxious when you first start).

The nearest thing I've had close to scary is when I was doing my advanced open water and I was having severe trouble equalising my ear space. Stupidly, I tried to keep pushing it and forcing an equalisation (d'oh!). When I really couldnt equalise and I decided to end the dive, I got a rather nasty dose of vertigo which left my head spinning as I was ascending.

While it's easy to think little things \"won't effect you\", I certainly had a good reminder of my limits. The thousands of bubbles streaming up from divers below, the light from the surface and the very weird feeling that my legs were falling away from me and I was trying to ascend slowly was all quite disconcerting.

So no mega stories from me, just a tale to share and a reminder to keep within your limits and the importance of not pushing yourself

Just the one that I posted about my fin breaking.
That has to be the worst. All of a sudden nothing helping you and slowly sinking.

julie

My scariest experince was during a shark dive last year. As we descended about 15 caribbean reef sharks were below waiting to be fed. Before they were fed we had the chance to swim around with them and although i knew they wouldn't attack me i still nearly wet myself when one swam straight at me!!

For those that don't know:



is what Caribbean Reef Sharks look like. I was really hoping to see one when when I was in Mexico.

I think they'd be my favorite type of shark to see, big, majestic and from what I gather - quite friendly

Sharks was one of those creatures that we were warned about at OBX. Seems they are coming in closer every season. and at The Huron and Oriental they seem to gather.

My Hubby was telling me that diving in the Gulf of Mexico there are more sharks per square mile than humans in the state of Florida!

julie

Sharks have got to be the #1 blown out of proportion threat when swimming, diving, snorkeling etc.

Yes, you hear about the odd case where someone gets bitten and is unfortunate enough to die - but when you really put it in perspective, even with potential underwater dangers, the threat is almost non-existant.

Yes, you put yourself at greater risk of a stray nibble, if for instance spear fishing - but give me a tiger shark swim by over a lionfish swim by anyday!

thetafferboy wrote:


I completely agree!!
Although i got a little spooked when the shark swam towards me i knew it wouldn't try and eat me! The sharks were fed while we were there and although they got a excited and fought over the fish i still wasn't too worried about being eaten.
Although we were told not to wave our hands around as the sharks might mistake our pale palms as pieces of fish......

There's plenty of videos of the shark dive i did on youtube if anyones interested, just search for roatan shark dive or cara a cara

Anyone else want to share a nervey dive experience with us?

My scariest dive experienced occurred when a leak caused me to lose a lot of oxygen in the tank at a very low depth. It was not an enjoyable experience to say the least.

My daughter was diving at Cherokee lake with her dad when her BC all of a sudden inflated by itself and she lost ability to deflate. It just kept getting fuller and she shot to the surface. When we got her back to the shore and got her BC off the inflator hose button top got jammed at an angle.
We had to take a flat head screwdriver and pop the button back into place. Then we could deflate the silly thing. It turned out that the o ring that sits on top of the spring had dry rotted and had to be replaced. So here's a hint, remember to check those O rings and seals too!

j

I'm sure she was worried at the time, but could she not have just detached the deflator hose and dumped air manually?

My scariest experience was being stuck in a cave 20 mts underwater whilst diving the Golden Canyons in Tasmania, Australia. The dive guide had insisted I swim through and didn't realise that I was far too big to squeeze through! I had flashes of newspaper headlines "Diver in Tassie drowns in cave!" But I realised I had plenty of air and quickly calmed myself and slowly pushed backwards out of the tunnel. I then "got back on the horse" and swam through a larger opening! The biggest lesson i learn't was to listen to your own judgements and never under estimate how quickly a situation can change! Cheers Malcolm

That is scary, too many sharks for me! You are so courageous, I admire such strength.

That would definately make me turn around and swim back to the boat! Wow.

My scariest dive experience was at Navy Pier in Exmouth, Westcoast Australia....Despite the fact that I am affraid of hights and had to jump into the water from about 6 or 7 meters (which caused my tank to mysteriously loose about 40 bar!!!! I cant immagine why....feeaar!!!!), well anyway....I started my dive after another 3 minutes recovering at the surface and it was great...I made my way through the pilons and was astunned by the great marine live as I suddenly spotted a black tip reef shark (thank goodness) about 4 meters beside me just casually swimming away from me.....I needed a moment to get my thoughts back together and pull my heart back up from my pants as I got the sight to the other side....and oh boy...there was a 2.5m grey nurse shark right beside me and by that we're talking about 1.5 meters beside me....bugger, my heart went right back into my pants....
But after all...I will never forget this experience....

Happy diving everyone
Susanne

My scariest dive experience was at San Pedro Nolasco in Gulf of California, Mexico coast Sonora....Last year was a lot of male sea lions and one of them was so close to us, I´ll see his teeths and the marine lion I bark to us very near woow was scariest, sorry about my english

thetafferboy wrote:


Well you are a new diver, I was working as a commercial diver and we had to dive under a sinking Yacht to shore up a leak and keep from losing the owners boat.

Not cool. We did it, but it was really - NOT COOL. I needed the $$... I wonder now, how badly I really needed it, but at the time - that was the motivation.

sacscubainstr wrote:


Wow, that's a cool story I hope you get paid some serious $$ for a job like that!

Couple of replies from Twitter:

@WanBRT: What's your scariest dive experience? Well hitting the water not 10' down my mask fills up with brown liquid - nose bleed

@BrownMermaid: the day i was 80" &i thought i was deflating my BCD but instead touched wrong button & inflated.I shot up to the surface.scary