Memories are made of this

[ponybottle]

Hi All

Our pass-time is a very solitary one - even when performing it in the company of a buddy we cannot share our thoughts with them unless we have intercom; even to let emotion show on your face risks a mouthful of water and/or a flooded mask !

An interesting study I once read was where one group of people were shown a film whilst a second group were shown the same film but were made to hold a pencil between their teeth ; the group with the pencils invariably were more positive about what they saw than those without. The researchers attributed this to the pencils having forced the viewer's mouths into an artificial smile, thereby igiving the whole experience an artificial 'feel good factor'

So with our regs and masks straight-jacketing our faces it's not surprising that although divers returning to the surface will express some enthusiasm about what they have just experienced, it is usually restricted to short sentences and rarely do the participants wax lyrical when on the boat - a disinterested observer would think it hardly worth the effort of travel, kitting-up,embarking, more travel, dive, more travel. disembarking, debriefing, more travel, gear cleaning and putaway - the only conclusion is that folk must be getting more out of it than first meets the eye.

For me, and I suspect many divers, those minutes underwater are as close to a religious experience as it gets. These feelings also are very difficult to articulate but there is definitely a spirit of connectedness, immediacy and a living-in-the-present which we seldom, if ever, feel topside.

Underwater you are rarely able to just sit back and take stock, there is just too much to see and the constant monitoring of equipment and trim to be attended to, so if I am a typical example, we don't get to experience much of the dive consciously in real-time: rather a large part of our enjoyment as divers comes from our memories of past dives and anticipation of future ones - I know I often catch myself frozen in the middle of some task, washing the dishes or something; an idiotic grin on my face, while my mind is somewhere away with the fishes.

Which, after a somewhat long and tedious prologue, comes my question - What has been your favourite underwater memory ? Give it a bit of thought and lets have at least a few paragraphs to give a flavour of what you felt ( I'll give my own memoir later )

If we are a bit muted in the boat maybe we can make up for it here ?

Over to you !

Chris

[russthedude]

I started diving a year ago, and virtually all of my diving I'd done until recently was training, getting used to some new equipment, breaking myself in to UK waters etc. It wasn't until over xmas that myself and some friends were able to just go for a dive, for fun, and for no other reason.

We were away on holiday, it was a scorching day topside so we were all eager to get in the water. This was my first dive that I would be leading as a DM. 2 of them were freshly qualified OW divers, so every dive they had done until this point had been to do skills on the course so they hadn't really had much of a look around any of the dive sites. 5 of us jumped in and made our way to the line. By the time we got to the line (about 1 minute!) we had picked another one up along the way, whose group had one problem or another, so his DM asked me to take him. Being the freshman DM, I decided to go through the pre-dive brief again to make sure the new guy knew what we were doing, and that we were all singing from the same book. with that out of the way we made our way down.

The viz over the previous few weeks had been poor for this area, but something magical had happened overnight and we were up to about 12-15 metres. once on the bottom I checked everyone was still there and still breathing, took a lok atthe compass and off we headed. we planned for 40 mins, max depth 16 metres. I had sketched a map of the site on the boat onto a slate and marked down where people had told me to look a few things (box fish, blue spotted ray, moray eel) to try and make the dive as interesting as possible for everyone. So I had to make sure I didn't deviate frmo my route and get lost. Everytime I turned around to check I was still be followed by everyone, there owuld be something going on. Someone would have a starfishon their head, a sea cucumber sticking out of their shorts or they'd be doing some sort of slow motion karate. They were keeping up with us, they had loads of air so I let them carry on and enjoy themselves, I'm not their dad, they're certified divers! We found box fish in two different places, a moray eel and 3 HUUUUGE Titan Trigger Fish, as well as resident true clown fish.

We all made it back to the line at the end of the dive, and then spent the next 3 minutes playing paper, scissors, rock on the line.

Even before we were all back on the boat they all wanted to have a look at the pictures and shout about what they had seen. My Vyper logged the dive as 40 minutes, max depth 15.9m. nobody got lost, injured or killed, and i got us around the interesting bits and back to the shot. They all had a cracking dive and so did I, but for different reasons.

It will be a long time before I forget that day, and the feeling I got when they all thanked me and said how much fun they'd had, including the "new" guy. An hour later and off we went again for more of the same.

[Luckyliz]

I dived with Scubee at FYNO at the weekend and it was my first time looking at a 'proper' wreck so to speak (the Stanegarth!). At the end of the dive I mentioned to Scubee that I wished there was a sign for 'this is brilliant' (I guess my best version would be both hands doing a vigorous OK signal!) and she replied that she could tell I was enjoying it anyway!


Oops! Didn't spot the bit at the end of the OP!

My best memory? Can't be done! Coz I'm a new diver every dive is full of new stuff and 'best memories' (grammatical pedants NOT required here!). I guess the reason I'm 'Luckyliz' still has to rate pretty high (I divulged the reason in a previous thread and a few times at the weekend and all I ever get back is 'I hate you! - tho' usually with a smile attached - so you'll have to find it out yourself!) although this weekend just gone is up there too for all sorts of reasons! (I think I must have violated my 'no fly' warning coz I've been on cloud nine since I got back on Sunday
Purely from a diving point of view just being under the water is SO good let alone seeing fish/wrecks etc.

[Blonde Jo]

For me has to best in Sharm last year. Had finished my OW course 2 days earlier, and it was day 2 on the boat getting experience. First dive of the day, 20+m vis on Jackson Reef. DM swimming in front, minding his own business; buddy behind taking photo's +++ of small fish. Was swimming along enjoying the sights, when a movement below me on the reef caught my eye.....

Slowly, a turtle starts swimming up between me and the DM, in wide circles and makes his way to the surface.

It definitely made my dive and my day, and I often think back to that!

Shows my soppy girlie side!

[MattS]

There are just too many of them.

Was it the time I jumped in on the Aeolian Sky and could just about make her out stern to stem from 9m on the shotline.

Was it the time the student from hell I was training suddenly started looking like a diver.

Perhaps the time I was sat on a deco stop after a stunning dive on the Holland 5. A grey shape appeared out the gloom and I was buzzed by a dolphin. Then on the way back we were saluted by the RAF flying back from the Eastbourne air show.

Maybe the time I surfaced after a really crap drift in Sandown bay, to see the sun setting behind the Isle of Wight.

Nah I am kidding you all. It has to be my last dive on the Saratoga. After an hour on the bottom, visiting the props, swimming through the barbers shop and out through the hanger deck. Spiralling up the island to the shot line. My buddy and I being the only two left on the 9m bar. I looked down and watched the reef sharks swarming back to take their rightful place over the flight deck with all the divers gone.


:Sigh

[thewisestfish]

Same, too many. So, top 4;

1) First time diving in UK water in sound of Mull. Blown away by the colours, the clarity of the water, amazement at discovering a whole new world I knew nothing about underneath the waves.

2) Introduction on same trip to the tasty morsels available - being taken by an experienced commie diver whose kit was tied together with bits of rope to hunt for squatties (screw looking at the wreck!) and ending up in minus vis from all the sediment - most exciting dive yet.

3) Weymouth - 15 minute conversation at 20 meters with a toaster sized cuttlefish.

4) 45 meters Croatia, finning on my back looking at the surface, crystal clear deep blue water, watching huge bubbles split into perfect circles over and over as they rose to the surface.

Every dive though is a privilege.

[Naomi S]

The first time I ever saw a wreck. When it just came into view. To say I was blown away would be a complete understatement. I almost forgot to breathe. It seemed to take ages to get down the shot and when we saw it, I dunno what I expected but it wasn't big loads of twisted metal absolutely covered in life and great vis (the best I have ever seen to this day) and shit loads of fish! Loads of different kinds too. There was one tiny little white one with a plastic ring off a milk bottle stuck around it's middle I could see that the other fish in the school (spl?) were bigger and remember thinking it will probably die when it grows a bit more. I tried to catch it to free it much to the amusement of my instructor. I had no chance obviously

Here is me when I came up after, I think the big smile says it all



I don't have the same experience of not talking much after a dive. We are usually all talking quite excitedly about the size of the conger we saw/ the lobster or crab we battled with/ which parts of the wreck we went on or how shit Terry's trim was or something . I do daydream about being underwater a fair amount though.

I regularly show emotion underwater too. Mostly laughing! I'm not to bothered about flooding my mask, I just clear it

[Ahmed Adly]

I dive because they pay me to...... I don't know why in hell all the other people dive

My favorite dive was this once when I profited about 2000 euros without even getting in the drink

[Ian@1904]

Octopus climbing up daughter's arm on a night dive in Gozo.
First time I was taken advantage of by a seal.
DaveS forgetting his weightbelt last summer. That's why we should do buddy checks.
Diving the Totnes Castle last summer, also with DaveS
Switching from nitrox to trimix at 35m for the very first time. A bit of an eye opener.
Diving off Mull. Three days, six dives, all great.

[LiamS]

not having done many dives (63) although everyone of them is an experience for me

my top two dives since i started has to be

2: my first dive outside of training, was with an AOW group, and the instructor told me and my buddy to wait at the surface while they were doing there free descents onto the container and when me and my buddy followed i ended up standing on the rig and looking for everyone when i eventually looked down i saw lots of flooded masks staring at me

1: my first dive in devils bridge, it was a night dive, and i loved every second of it, spent the whole time laughing and shouting at my buddy about "how fecking amaizing" it was through my reg, its a dive i would REALY like too do again some time the river was flowing fast and it was pitch black (around 7pm in early feb) i loved every minute of it =] including when i turned my torch off and snuck round the back of my buddy


we always have a good chinwag after the dive....