Scuba diving

jaleely · 11-20-11, 08:09 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 08:17 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 08:19 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 08:20 PM

More cuttlefish.

jaleely · 11-20-11, 08:24 PM

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

jaleely · 11-20-11, 08:27 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 08:28 PM

right on! awesome stuff

infernalis · 11-20-11, 08:45 PM

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

jaleely · 11-20-11, 08:53 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 08:56 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 09:05 PM

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

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 · 11-20-11, 09:10 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 09:15 PM

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 · 11-20-11, 09:27 PM

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

stephanbakir · 11-20-11, 09:40 PM

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)