What Was the Deepest You Ever Been(scuba) Diving?

In My Humble Opinion
21

My deepest descent was to about 120 feet for about 30 seconds. I dropped my damn dive knife over a ledge and had to go get it. It was my first dive of the day, and I had to skip the second dive because I had limited out on my depth and there wasn’t enough SIT time before the second dive.

I don’t particularly care for deep dives. I’d rather spend time chasing fishies around at 50 feet for a while than going down to 100+ feet, looking around for a few minutes, and then having to surface right away.

22

OK, that’s it. I’m getting certified! Problem is, I live in Wisconsin. Right now, you need an auger to get in a lake.

This thread reminded me of an article I had read a while back about 2 guys going to insane depths (800+ feet). Unfortunately, one of them didn’t make it back. Lo and behold, a search turned up the article. The link is here

Spritle, Divemaster, maybe you guys can fill in the blanks on what’s happened since this. Sounds like the surviving guy was going to try again.

23

I don’t know about being the god of the this thread, but thanks for the designation all the same :wink:

I’m on my way out of town for the weekend, but I’ll re-post a couple of experiences I shared this summer in another thread.

–I saw a moray eel strike out from a crevice and nail a grunt. Boy, you should have seen the sand fly! I don’t know who was more surprised, me or the grunt.

–I’ve had reef sharks and barracuda around me, but that’s no big deal for anyone who frequents reef areas. I once had a spotted eagle ray come right up to me at eye level; usually one only gets to see rays from above. I’ve actually fed stingrays.

–My encounters with angelfish are legion. They were intent on eating my sponge specimens right through the mesh of my ditty bag. Tenacious buggers.

–One summer, I was on the RV Seward Johnson (the same vessel featured in the current Smithsonian feature “Galapagos 3-D”) in the Bahamas. A colleague and friend of mine (Brian) and I took one of the Zodiacs out to a reef about 1/2 mile off the shore of a small, uninhabited island. The reef was shallow enough that we just had snorkel gear.

Anyway, we anchored out by the reef, we made our collections, and then I decided to snorkel over to the island while Brian continued exploring the reef.

Well, about halfway to the island, I came across the largest barracuda I’ve ever seen. Now, I’ve been around barracuda and never felt threatened. They are usually not aggressive (unless they want your spearfishing catch). However, this one probably had not seen too many humans, if any. It was obviously used to being “king of the grassbed” where I encountered him.

This huge fish (which is basically a tube with teeth–lots of teeth) decided it wanted me out of the area. It rushed at me with mouth open, peeled off at the last second, circled, and continued to repeat this pattern.

“Okay, don’t panic; don’t panic; don’t panic; just make it to shore, you can do it; don’t panic. Okay fish, I don’t want to be here–I get your point. Oh God, please don’t let me die like this out here. Okay, they say barracuda are attracted to shiny objects; okay, fish, I’m swimming with my arm (with shiny gold bracelet) out of the water–nothing to see here, nothing to see here…”

I was terrified, no other way to put it. I could see everything very well through the mask, and I honestly thought I was going to die. This big guy kept rushing me with mouth open. I had visions of a medivac situation with chopper, legs missing, or me bleeding to death before even getting back to the ship. (To top it off, I was “skinny-snorkling”–bare-assed naked except for the snorkel gear. I also had horrible thoughts of what the newspaper account would say.) I was about 1/4 mile from shore and 1/4 mile from the Zodiac.

I eventually got the attention of Brian when he popped up for a breath. I was yelling at him to “get your ass over here, now!!!” He brought the boat around, and I swear I don’t even remember getting from the water into the boat, it was that quick.

But don’t let that put anyone off diving. :wink:

Oh, and thanks for the link jk1245. I skimmed it, and will pay it closer attention when I get back. Looks very interesting.

24

Divemaster’s story reminds me of my check out dive in Pennekamp State Park. We rolled off into about 30 feet and started meandering along. My instructor had me take off my mask, put it back on, and clear it. When I cleared it, I saw a good sized 'cuda eyeballing me. Hm. We continued on until we came to a little drop off. The 'cuda followed. We go over the ledge, Mr. Toothy gets closer. I nudge my instructor. She gives me the “don’t worry about it” look. 'Cuda comes closer. Now, he’s about 6 feet away. I’m concerned. Then I rememer I’m wearing a gold necklace with a shiny, gold pendant. I cover up the pendant with my hand, and it almost seemed if the barracuda just shrugged and said, “Ok. It’s gone,” and swam off.

PS- There’s a monstrously huge 'cuda that lives in the reef right in front of Chef Tell’s restaurant on Grand Cayman. He’s been there for years. Divers have gotten to know him. He appears out of nowhere, freaks out the divers/snorkelers, then dashes off. Prick of a fish has a mean sense of humor.

PPS- I’ve fed stingrays, too. Gotta watch 'em or they’ll give you a hickey. Really.

PPPS- I was alone on deck of the catamaran dive boat one morning when a huge manta breached. SPLASH! It sounded like someone dropped a piano out of an airplane.

PPPPS- My second check out dive was in Round Lake in Minnesota in November. It was snowing. We poured warm water down the neck of our west suits before going in. Now, that’s a weird feeling when it reaches your, um, groin. (I was certified through NAUI the first time, but I hadn’t dived in 10 years, so I recertified–through PADI.)

Scuba diving is surpassingly cool.

25

My deepest dive was 105 ft off the coast of Oahu. There’s a really cool WWII era military Corsair plane that was ditched in 1946 (IIRC).

The first dive there I was affected by narcosis. There was a moment when I could swear that someone was shrieking “la-la-la-la-la-la” into my ear. Then there were the times I’d catch myself thinking “I wonder if I could still breath without the regulator.”

The next year, we dived the site again and I was bettered prepared for the narcosis, but still it took a minute or so to recognize the “surface” hand signal from the divemaster.

26

Well I have only been diving for a few months, the deepest has been about 90ft. Would have gone deeper but ran into the bottom. I like staying around 60ft lots more to see and do. All of my dives have been in the Gulf of Oman. I have played tag with a turtle and several rays. Almost fed my right arm to an eel. I will be going on a three day trip next weekend, that should bring me up to around 30 dives

hijack

I am returning to the states in late Jan. The wife and I are thinking about going to Cozumel. Any advise on places to stay and dive operators to use or to stay away from? What sites are a must dive there?

end hi jack
thanks

27

43m diving on the WWI fleet in Scapa Flow (the Orkneys, just North of Scotland). (Fairly) cold, dark & great fun.

Re narcosis, never, but I did get vertigo under water once when my ears wouldn’t clear… (yes, I did go back up at the correct rate, but we were dropping down a shotline above other people in a dark green scummy quarry, & my blocked ears & the bubbles going up didn’t do much for my sense of balance…).

Re insurance, I used to dive in a quarry that was about 100m deep in Wales - very cold, had about 2 thermoclines (medium cold at about 3m, then very cold at 20m)Parts of it were about 25m deep, but you could go to the edge of a cliff & hang in space looking down and down & down…it was oligotrophic, so it was nice & clear - like tropical but c.c.c.c-older!

One of my friends had calculated depth for oxygen toxicity & wanted to dive to about a meter under that depth. We all refused to do shore cover for him, so he didn’t do it. Idiot! If his calculations were wrong, or a high pressure weather zone had moved in, it could have pushed it over the limit - not to mention the fact taht no one else was willing to dive to about 80m on air or on our level of experience, so any problems & he would have been stuffed!

28

fierra, If you’re friend is suicidal, he can take a mini-tank of pure O2 down to 35 ft. and suck on it for a while. That way you or others could monitor it.

[interruption]
MY GOD, SPRITLE, ARE YOU ENCOURAGING HIM? No! I’m just saying that there are 8 million ways to die and this is definately one of them.
[/interruption]

The problem with oxy-tox is that it’s soooo different from Nitrogen tox. Y’see, nitro-tox gives the 'ole narcosis gig - it would be more fun without the inherent danger (read beakerxf above). Oxygen toxicity is a problem 'cuz above 1.3 ATM of pressure oxygen is highly poisonous!!! (Jeeves, could you kindly check the stats on oxygen toxicity?) Oxy-tox usually causes convulsions and siezures. Divers usually jerk the regulator out of their mouths and inhale gobs of water. Then they proceed to drown.

Tell your friend to go to Amsterdam and buy some pot.

BTW, is the Orkneys where the fleet of ships were scuttled to block the channel? This is, I believe, at the northern most tip of the big island you call home. I got the impression that the water there was butt-cold not “(Fairly) cold” unless i’m thinking about some other place…

29

I’ve never been deeper than about 30 feet.
Where I tried it once that was the depth to the staghorn coral beds. Lots of pretty fish, but I was so claustrophobic I never went back. I did it, but was it fun? Not really.

30

Depth: 85 feet off of Bora Bora, on a rather elaborate hooka…bliss!

Memory 1: Ninety three minutes on a re-breather in a pool in La Jolla, California, many moons ago. Record at the time. Can almost relive the headaches still.

Memory 2: Still having possesion of an 8 millimeter showing the 28 pound lobster off the Channel Islands in California. That bugger deserved to live, and did.

Memory 3: Oahu, Hawaii. Four lads, a skiff, gear stowed that would only make sense if one truly believed that one can never be too prepared. While looking at the water with the sun in our eyes, the surface began to bulge here and there, on occasion, outside the norm. When the activity appeared on the other side of the boat, the biggest manta rays imaginable were flying all around. A rather large treble hook was tied to a line, and after persistance, one of those beauties was snagged. Considerable manipulation later and I was on the back of an estimated 16 foot wingspan beast. Several minutes later I was so tired from trying to keep my head above water that pressure on the line was eased and we parted company. Please try to understand, these were different times, I would not do this again, but have strong reason to believe that that magnifcent leviathan flew many more years after my rude intrusion on it`s gentle life.

It takes many skills to be a waterman, scuba and snorkling are part of the path.

31

I know, I can do the partial pressure calculations. I don’t think he was suicidal, just young and extremely, well, shall we say “foolhardy”? He wasn’t interested in a euphoric narcosis feeling, just watned to go as deep as he “safely” could on air to say that he had done it. We all disagreed with his definition of safe & refused to do shore cover, as he wasn’t quite dumb enough to do it without cover.

It gets warmed by the last remnants of the gulf stream, and besides, it is the sea. Thanks to those two factors (mainly ocean currents though), it never gets colder than about 5 degrees Centigrade, and so it is a damn site warmer than inland lakes/quarries. The second thermocline at Dorothea (freshwater, very clear, very deep quarry that I mentioned earlier) and even the first are so much colder than that. You feel your face go numb as you cross it. I always dive in a neoprene dry suit btw.

Some off my friends did carry their kit about 2 miles up a mountain one winter to go ice diving…their hair froze as soon as they came back out & and they had to trudge back to the car… (we need a freezing, horrified, shaking smiley!)

I do know someone who had only dived in the tropics and kept saying what a shit-hot diver he was and how he was going to become a professional diver when he was older, who only owned a semi-dry suit & he went diving in a 20m quarry & sat on the bottom hugging himself & had to be dragged out by his partner (we’d paired him with someone sensible, as everyone but him knew that was going to happen, but he wouldn’t listen…). She dived in a three with me that afternoon (couldn’t rob her of a whole day’s decent diving for his sake…).

32

Sit down, everyone, Uncle Spritle is gonna tell you a story. Way back in '91, I got certified. It was the December 7th weekend. It had gone below freezing in Pennsylvania that year around Thanksgiving, and never went back up. We did the camping and diving thing in temperatures that were not above 35 F (that’s something like 2 C [275 K - for the science geeks]). The quarry didn’t freeze because the surface was circulating. At one point underwater, I looked at my thermometer - 27 F! We removed our wetsuits and hung them by the BF Bonfire we kept constantly roaring. If they didn’t dry completely, they froze overnight. Both mornings (Sat. & Sun.) the ankle and wrist cuffs were frozen and I had to break the ice to don the suit.

We slept with the regulators in our sleeping bags so they wouldn’t freeze. It was cold. (where’s that shivering smiley? :shiver ) A seasoned diver told me, Sat. night while around the bonfire and draining the keg, that I should avoid using the “facilities” (the tree) in the morning and “save it for the wet suit.” My response was something like, “Uh, no thanks.” Secretly, however… I figured that I was in a rented suit, and the water was damn cold. Who’d know?

So, the following morning, with bladder completly straining to withold it’s charge (recall the beer the night before?) I waddled to the water’s edge. An eternity later, it was my turn to jump into the water. I didn’t plan to have blessed release until I was in the water, lest I leak (as it were) out of the ankles of my suit. Forward to me in the water. I’m psyching up to open the flood gates as the water seeps (ever so slowly) into the suit from all openings. When the water hits Sir Charles and the fellas, the absolute last thing I could do was a bit of “immersion dialysis”. Talk about shrinkage!! Lemme just say that the two lumps in my throat were NOT my tonsils!

I still dive in quarries, just not in the winter! Now that I own my own wetsuit (one that fits) I’m able to warm the water with body heat and no longer have to consider other means.

Ok, kiddies, back to work; story time is over.

33

Oh yeah, I know the feeling. When I was on the saturation mission I talked about above, the two medicines we used each day were ear drops to prevent an infection, and diaper rash cream. Guess what? My ears still ended up hurting a little (mostly from the pressure and equalization process, but also from a low-grade infection), and we all got pretty killer cases of diaper rash, especially right at the waistline. The urine tended to get trapped under the weight belt more than some other areas. A small price to pay for the experience.

I’ve never done “cold water” diving. In the Caribbean, I used a wetsuit mostly for protection from the coral, rock, and fire coral, rather than for warmth. If I wasn’t working right on the reef I often went with only a t-shirt, or even bare skin under my BC. But only on our spring/summer trips–the wetsuit was in good use in the winter.

I guess the coldest water I’ve been in was a couple of dives on the reefs off North Carolina. I did some freshwater deep springs in Florida which were a little chilly, but nothing a 1/4" suit couldn’t handle.

After the first couple of days of the Aquarius mission, we all got pretty chilled. It wasn’t that the water was cold (it wasn’t), just that our bodies became more susceptible to chilling down after spending so much time in the water.