Scuba diving

[jaleely]

Anyone else do it? Want to share stories? I'm going to put up a bunch of pics and vids to peek your interest, if you've never done it before....take a look, and you should try it!!

Hmm i can't figure out how to put text next to the photos. Anyway, here I am holding a giant sea cucumber.
Then a tiny slug (nudibranch)
Then a picture of a sleeping parrot fish. These fish secrete a sticky cocoon from beneath their scales to seal their scent from the moray eels, etc.

A nice harem of sleeping pipefish

Then a type of clown fish peeking out of an anemone

[jaleely]

Here I am swimming with a potato cod...or big spotted sea bass, depending on who you talk to. I also have a video of me petting him, he swims underneith me, and comes in for more scratching on the other side. He even tilts on his side so I can reach him better. It was so awesome!

My husband is seen here, next to a giant clam.

Another coral fish/clown fish.

An underwater photo of a minke whale...it was SO close! This is the only photo we got where you could tell what it is though.

lastly, yes, that is a white tipped shark, and it is a shark feed! They took a giant green trash can, filled it with tuna heads, and the feed began.

BTW all of this was from a live-aboard boat called the Taka II for five days, at the great barrier reef!

[jaleely]

Next up, a HUGE moray eel!

Then my husband's head next to the cod *lol*

A lion fish.

Then an amazing TWO foot long cuttlefish.I Loooved him! He changed colors right before my eyes.

[jaleely]

More cuttlefish.

[jaleely]

Some videos. My hubby takes all the videos, since my camera sucks with them, though I think i took the shark feed video.

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[jaleely]

Our recent trip to Puerto Vallarta.

A sea horse! it was way bigger than i thought they would be. As big as the palm and fingers of my hand!

An upside down eel. So cute lol

One of the divemasters holding a porcupine puffer...poor thing!! I did it later, too *lmao*

[bushsnake]

right on! awesome stuff

[jaleely]

me and a puffer...poor thing, i'm so mean!

Sting ray, red rock fish, and i think a box puffer.

Oh, and goofy eel face.

[jaleely]

Okay, the most amazing experience ever. I've wanted to see a seahorse, a cuttlefish, etc....but the sea turtle was the thing I wanted the most! This one was over a hundred years, at least, due to his size. It WAS a male, i got a good look *lol* and he was bigger than ME. He was sooo amazing. He was asleep, and we did wake him up...but he was fine. He just blinked and blinked and then turned slowly in a circle...then swam off.
While he was doing that though, i had sunk to the bottom, and crept close enough to touch his fins, as he turned. He felt like soft suede. His head was so big, and his eyes so beautiful! I LOVED him. It was an AMAZING experience. We actually saw three turtles on our trip, but each time my camera was messing up. This was the best I could do. But -I- know how amazing he was :)

Anyway, sea turtle, Red nudibranch (we usually see bright yellow of this sort in So. Cal) The rock in the middle of no-where we dove one day..the surge and current and waves were STRONG. We dove in one end and floated along (called drift diving) looking at the rock...bommie they call them in Australia (right shaun?) and I poked at the critters. The boat picked us up FAR from where we started.

Okay and the green horrible photo, is of my finger and a jawfish we found. He was SO CUTE. From my other vids you can see we have a greensided (red headed) jawfish in our tank. We had NO idea that some of them could get this big...he was adorable!!!

[jaleely]

Puerto videos. We REALLY need to invest in some better equipment. Diving itself is kind of expensive when you start buying your own gear though. Which we have...so now we're broke when it comes to upgrading *lol* Oh well, you get the idea!

BTW the eels there were mostly snowflake eels, kind of like the one we have in our fish tank...they were ridiculously tame and used to people feeding them, obviously *lol*

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OH i loved that jawfish. My husband saw him first, and like freaked out laughing underwater because he turned and there was just this giant silly face staring at him. He looked like a muppet! Like someone had a big sock-pupped with googly eyes poking it out of a hole. Squeeeee!!!

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[infernalis]

Jelous..... Great shots. Thanks for posting.

[jaleely]

Here are some I've taken here in southern California. This was right when I was starting to get the hang of underwater photography...and right before I had all these issues with my stupid camera.

Anyway, a red octopus, next to market squid eggs.
A purple spanish shawl nudibranch
blue spotted starfish
a red anemone (we get bright green ones on the beach)
and a pile of brittle stars

[jaleely]

Okay I'm done now *lol* I really love it. It's amazing to see all these things you've only ever seen on TV, you know? I hope i've piqued someone's interest. Sports Chalet does a free introductory scuba lesson in their pool!

[stephanbakir]

Stunning photos and video. I WISH I could scubadive, but I can't because of a surgery I had when I went deaf (Had a major ear infection that went bad on a trip) When the air bubbles pass my hear it sounds like an explosion and hurts really bad...

That being said, I'm a freediver and can reach about 25 feet comfortably without air :)
Best times ever were when I found a sleeping shark under a rock (bottomfeeder type shark, duno what kind) and it looked like a rock, so I told Miles that I saw lobster under the rock and needed him to lift it, he grabbed it and went for a half second ride almost 10 feet.

My cousin and I were diving and found a pod of dolphin, we were turning over large corals looking for crab, lobster and octopus and all of these starfish were walkin around under it, the sleeping fish also took off and got ravaged by the dolphin, did that all day and the pod never left us :) we played with em for an hour and went home.

[alessia55]

I am terrified of scuba diving. Literally. My whole family is certified. When I went in for my first lesson in scuba diving in a pool, I had a full blown panic attack and had to get out of the water. I just don't like the feeling of being completely submerged, or of being near or in deep water. I don't like the feeling :p So when my family goes scuba diving, I wait at the surface with my snorkel mask and all, and they grab the sting rays and whatnots and bring them to the surface for me lol!!

Those are some really fantastic animals you get to see though. I'm really jealous in that sense. You're really lucky. It's a whole different world down there, hm? Great pictures. Thanks for sharing!! :)

[jaleely]

Oh i completely understand about the ear thing. I was surprised I could dive at all, actually. I had so many bad ear infections when i was a kid, and i have terrible equalization issues. I throw up half the time we go out on boats, from sea sickness, and i have thrown up multiple times under the water. That is a fun trick *lmao*

SO, we spend all this money, have been waiting ten years to go to Australia, and when we finally do...hubby gets sick...THEN he's better and I get sick...and i'm sick for the boat trip to the reef.
There were 14 dives on the trip and on the 12th dive, i get a reverse block 10 feet from the surface. I was down for 11 minutes trying to equalize...it was SO PAINFUL. I forced it once on Catalina Island and broke a blood vessel in my sinuses, bled and bled for a day, off and on, and then saw blood for the next two weeks if i blew my nose. It was horrible.

Okay so yeah, got a reverse block. The guides on the trip FLIPPED out, and granted, it made me pretty dizzy, and i was already sea sick. So they babied me, and i went to bed that night (it was a night dive). So the next day i pretend to be all better because i didn't want to miss out on our last two dives *lol* they flipped out and made me sign a paper that they had warned me i could blow out my eardrum, etc. all freaked out. I thought they would force me to stay on the boat, actually. I was all prepared to cry at them and give them waterworks *lol* I mean, it's the freakin great barrier reef!!! It's not like i'm there all the time! Once in a lifetime thing!

So I went on the morning dive anyway, and just stayed at 20 feet, no up and down. I did just fine. Actually would have missed out on seeing a juvenile dragon wrasse if i hadn't gone. He was soo cute!

So, the last dive, I finally admit that I'll stay out and just snorkel. Within 2 minutes they had undone my gear FOR me and took it all apart so I couldn't' dive *lol*
The snorkeling couldn't have been better though. I actually hate snorkeling because I always get water in my snorkel cuz i look around so much. IT was worth it though. Everything was so close to the surface! It was low tide, and the reef was in the daylight so everything was bright. Got right up next to a reef shark, and a bunch of other amazing fish. SO i hate being left out...my hubby has one more dive logged than me =P

[jaleely]

Oh alessa, i'm sorry! lol hubby was sick one day, and only stayed like 20 feet, and i went down to the bottom and brought him back shrimp, slugs, a swell shark, and various things *lol*

I do understand the feeling though. The very first time i went in the ocean it was cloudy, murky (we could only see about 5 feet in front of us..or less actually. it's that way down here very frequently) and for like a whole second as i started to go under the water for the first time i was like "OH MY GOD i'm in the OCEAN WHAT AM I DOIN.....Oh there's the bottom" and then i was fine *LOL*

We just recently did wreck dives in San Diego...now THAT was freaky. 90 feet down and in a big, black, dark boat?? Uhm no thanks. I peeked, with my light. And part of our certification was to go inside and tie a line...I told our instructor i was a little scared though, so when we went in i was right with him, and i was concentrating on the line...and he didn't shine the light anywhere but where i needed to look, so i didn't have a moment to realize how scared i should be. *lol* i'm usually pretty brave...but i don't think i'm a wreck diver!!

[youngster]

I love freshwater snorkeling.
No scuba diving for me though, I wish!
Too expensive :p

[stephanbakir]

I've never had issues throwing up, the only time I threw up after swimming was last summer, my cousin fell off the pier in Varadero Cuba where the river dumps out into the ocean, hes 16 but he can't swim. I dove in after him, normally I can swim out of current like that but supporting his weight the best I could do is keep our heads out of the water.

No1 knew we were there and we drifted for about 2 hours before we were spotted, there were no boats available so the life guard (giant superman style lifeguard(I'm 6'3 and he was MASSIVE)) swam out to us, 45 mins later he got to us and we had to swim back with his help, 3/4 the way back a boat picked us up and by the time we got to shore almost 5 hours had passed, I was fine but he took in a bunch of salt water and needed spend the night in the hospital. (it wasn't a total loss, we drifted over some spectacular schools of fish)

[Gungirl]

Thank you for sharing all of this. I really hope someday me and the family can take a trip and do something like this. I don't know if the hubby would agree but hell for that stuff he can sit on the boat if he doesn't like it.. lol

[stephanbakir]

Great attitude to have. If you want prank ideas, find a big sea snail and bring it to the surface, the second it breaks water it sucks itself into the shell shooting water out, toss it to him :P

[Gungirl]

LAMO thats cute!!!

[stephanbakir]

LAMO thats cute!!!
Find him an octopus thats too small to bite him, and get him to hold it, then REALLY annoy it for a second, it will ink all over him. Same with squid and cuttlefish :P

[millertime89]

Find him an octopus thats too small to bite him, and get him to hold it, then REALLY annoy it for a second, it will ink all over him. Same with squid and cuttlefish :P

LOL!
you shouldn't have told me that...

I'm getting scuba trained next (spring) semester for credit at my university, both regular and rescue certified. Can't wait to do it. The closest I've been was snuba and it was a blast, I would post pictures but our water-proof camera got lost somewhere between Hawaii and Nebraska.

[stephanbakir]

Get a GoPro Hero 2.

[millertime89]

water around here is too murky, all you'll see is brown. I've got a go-pro, just needs a new case (fell off the car during a drag race, whoops)

[stephanbakir]

Ahh nice. No idea whats wrong with mine, I just got it and for some reason, you turn it on and it takes photos every other second till you turn it off.

[millertime89]

huh... no clue

[jarich]

Youve got the time lapse function on Stephan. I can send you a PM about turning it off if you need help with it. Theyre a little tricky sometimes.

I love scuba diving! Used to go all the time when I lived in Spain, even though there really isnt much left in the Mediterranean except sea urchins (nasty little vermin). I got to go once in Thailand and it was a whole different experience. Although having said that, I did have a huge school of barracuda swim by in the Med once. They were only about 2 feet long each, but talk about intimidating!

And as for your octopus trick, how the heck do you hold on to a pissed off octopus!? I found one and every time I thought I had it, it would just sneak through my hands. It was literally like trying to keep water from slipping through your fingers! So beautiful but so sneaky!

[stephanbakir]

Anticipate their direction and have the other hand ready :P

[jarich]

Ha! Ya, I dont think I was quick enough, thats for sure. They are such cool animals though

[Pareeeee]

Lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky....

Appreciate how lucky you are!!!!

I LOVE snorkeling, can imagine how AMAZING scuba diving would be. I got to snorkel on my Honeymoon to Dominican Republic. It was amazing. I could do that every single day!! Literally, I would...

but alas, I live in Ontario...our freshwater lakes aren't that exciting to dive. They also aren't as clear as the ocean, and all you see are some bass, crayfish or gobies now and then...not so fun after you've gone diving in the Caribbean...

[RandyRhoads]

I Love it. I've dove the Hawaiian islands and southern Cali. What a difference. So cold and such limited visibility in California. The giant kelp forests were cool. Can't wait until I have extra money to buy my own gear, renting is just too much to do all the time. Getting my rescue diver cert as soon as I find a class that doesn't interfere with my paramedic program days, just missed a local one they only do once a year because it was on a school day .:(

[jaleely]

Boo! I'm tellin ya...sports chalet for classes! lol
Well i guess you can't if there's not one in the area. hehe
I'd like to go fresh water diving...once or twice. We thought about taking our gear up to the snake river and going while my dad fished in his old guy boat above us *lol*
we could just drift dive down the river! Point out where the bass are! i'd like to see the catfish.

California gets old, real fast...especially since it is SO so SO cold. The kelp forests are neat...but actually kind of scary for some reason. Don't know why, but i hate it when the kelp is all around. The sea lions are awesome though.
I'd gladly go into the kelp to see a sea otter though! I love love love them!

[RandyRhoads]

Actually is a sports chalet near, I was surprised to see they did it. Are they cheap/ decent instructors?

[millertime89]

I had to drop my scuba diving class here this semester to pick up another class so I could graduate. :( So I'll be looking for a class come May once I graduate.