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So we go down south for some warm water diving. It's sunny, it's warm, the beer's on ice & we go diving. Day 1, Day 2, Day3, Day 4....
The dive's over an hour long and you've already taken pics of critters for the first few days. Nothing new has materialized, the coral gardens don't seem to end. Your brain feels oddly unused during the dive...in fact it's getting numb from disuse....
Are there others who get easily bored with warm water diving?
I get VERY bored on warm water reef diving. I always perfer a wreck dive. I don't mind warm or cold water.
Now the times on a reef when I run into a large or rare creature, now that is good, but I still rather be on a wreck.
Wrecks are great but hunting is even better. Looking everywhere for your next meal will keep you busy.:) That's why I don't normally dive nearly as much in the summer compared to the winter because lobster season is closed:mad:
Most, okay...all, of my dives are warm water dives. I've taken a camera out a couple of times and I wouldn't say I get bored (simple things, simple minds and all that).
If I'm in a big group, I let everyone else get closer to the reef than me (seeing as they are here for a limited time, whereas I have this stuff on my doorstep all the time), I also practice my buoyancy and breathing control and getting more experience in the water. Plus, it always amazes me whenever I see a turtle (only seen 3!!!!)
Turtles are cool.
I prefer to go to tropical destinations where there are other things to do other than diving.
Of course, when I am diving, I am on a mission to find specific animals.....but if I am at a location where there re other things to do, I can be fine with 3 dives a day instead of 4.
To me, warm waters are the best.
I grew up diving in Southern California, including hundreds of deep dives off of Catalina.
I then dove the Hawaiian islands for the next 6 years, logging around 7,000 dives there.
From the great vis, the many critters to play with, to the ease of gear prep, to the fun of just swimming without a big wetsuit or drysuit, (and weights) warm water is much more relaxing...and allows for much higher performance when needed, too.
7,000 dives in six years that a TON of dives doing the math that 3-4 dives every single day. What were you doing that you dove that much obviously diving was your job? I just don't see how that's even possible to do.
Try owning a dive charter business and teaching.Quote:
Originally Posted by hbh2oguard
I wouldn't even shower on days off, just so not to get wet...
very funny but true:)
I can spend an entire dive exploring a ten square foot section of reef and never get bored. There is such an incredible proliferation of life large and small on a reef that there is always something new to watch and learn. For example, in Bonaire Ladydog and I watched a cleaning station for most of one dive. To see the fish line up and wait their turn like they were going to a car wash was fascinating. Watching the little banded shrimp crawling in and out the gills and mouths of the fish was one of the most interesting sights of the trip.Quote:
Originally Posted by littleleemur
Of course most of the divers on our boat never even saw the cleaning station. They were too busy finning away to cover as much reef as possible on their dive. Odds are, in their haste none of them came across anything interesting.
On one of our night dives we had an octopus allow us to tag along with him for nearly half an hour while he went about the busines of scaring up some dinner. Watching him change colors and shape as he hunted was incredible. And when in time he became comfortable with us, and he actually let us pet him between the eyes, we were in awe of the encounter.
Pick up any of the scores of great books about marine biology and learn about what you're witnessing down there. Engage your brain in the activity, rather than shutting it off. Not only will it make diving a lot more interesting but if you're not careful, you just might learn something.
As for Tigerbeaches problem, I can understand that running a dive charter would take some of the fun out of it. Anytime something becomes a job, it loses luster. I will never run a charter, or become an instructor, or even become a divemaster (although my LDS is always after me to do so).
I am a sport diver. I do this for the fun, the excitement, the chance to experience a part of this world that most humans know nothing about and will never even see. There's a whole other world to explore under the waves. There is nothing boring about that.
Mountain Dog
When diving in the tropics we either get the DM guided dives or the swim-by-yourself dives: You can get the DM who knows where everything is, but he'll just as soon whisk you off to see something else, so half the time I find that I am playing follow-the-leader. On the self-guided ones, you have the luxury of time, but you really don't know where the stuff is and it all depends on your luck and observation skills; you either see it or you don't. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Mountain Dog
Unfortunately, they don't divide the dive groups/boats into macro-maniacs & pelaegic-pursuers which would make the most out of the dives for everyone.
I haven't done warm water reef diving enough to get bored with it, I guess. It seems every time I splash I see 10 new-to-me critters I never saw before and don't know the name of. And I found taking pics can get really absorbing, especially if you are trying to get artistic ... :rolleyes: Before you know it, the dive is over!
But I can also plunk in 20' off the beach here at home in 10' of water, a spot most people would consider barren, and spend an hour looking at all the little stuff. I just love the sensation of being underwater and hovering.
I can't say I've done enough warm water to get bored either. I've only been to Florida once and what they considered winter water, was my idea of heaven. I only wish we had that problem here. My favorite dives are ones where the water is over my head hehe.
I've only done warm-water diving since being certified in 2001. I still can't get enough. I want to go back to the Visayas, particularly to Malapascua for the manta rays, thresher sharks, and seahorses. I want to go back on a liveaboard to Tubbataha for the spiraling towers of barracuda, dozing sharks, dozen marine turtles in a single night dive, sensation of "flying" along the drop-offs. I want to go back to Coron in Palawan for more of the wrecks. Having a virtually inexhaustible "destinations menu" (all within the country) and three sets of diving buddies of all levels naturally cultivate the "When and where are we diving next?" mindset. During relative "downtimes," a two-tank day-dive quick fix in Anilao or Galera keep us primed. We're easy.
I have been reviewing the HD footage I just shot diving at El Galleon Resort in Oriental (oriental=east, occidental = west) Mindoro and there was the wreck of the Alma Jane where a solitary slender ghost pipefish originally thought to be a robust ghost pipefish that had taken up residence off the stern and I spent 10 minutes videotaping that little guy. At one point in the footage he snaps at something and you can eventually see he has some sort of clear shrimp arms hanging out of his mouth.
I am always playing leapfrog catching up as I too can spend endless time with a magnfiying glass underwater in a 5 meter zone.
I'm so jealous! I've been diving for over four years now and have yet been able to dive warm water. I don't see that changing in the near future either unless I win the lottery or something. Just diving the cold murky waters here in the mid-west keeps me happy for now.
Soo.. er.. the water gets warmer in Canada, in the summer....:o
We do reach the "bare minimum" here in the summer. I think "cold" water is considered anything under 70F, right? End of August first of September we finally reach that. In fact, this year I think I saw 74F as the warmest. I dove in the Bahamas in March with similar water temps! :) The Canadian Caribbean!
70F end of August? Is that only the surface temp? So why is it mandatory to drysuit it over there? Otherwise, I'd be there already! :D
Hee Hee... well.. August and small parts of September are about the only months with 70ish temps. The rest of the year, it's "more chillier!"
If diving in the River (St. Lawrence), there is no thermocline. But if diving in Kingston or Tobermory, for example, there are thermoclines that are in the 40s quite often, so drysuit = goooooooood.
Was that dive in someone's hot tub? :p Everyone who has ever tried to lure me up that way has always told me to come in August, when the water finally warms up to around 50F. You guys definitely have my respect and admiration, but I am happy being bored with warmer waters ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by seasnake
I remembered that last Sunday, on our last afternoon dive, some buddies had their arms crossed underwater and did the universal "brrrr" shimmy. When I checked my Suunto later, it read 81F hehe, everything's relative indeed :D
Only a numb mind can get bored with this kind of warm water diving?!!!http://www.twotankedproductions.com/...on_Fiji_07.jpg
Quote:
Originally Posted by PinayDiver
Now that's just not fair!!! :p
Water temps. are 37 here, right now!:eek:
I had that happen to me as well. The first dive I did with my Mares comp. I felt cold - looked at the temp on it when I got back on the boat and it said 29C (about 88F)...Quote:
Originally Posted by PinayDiver
OMG you people! :eek: :rolleyes: lol
Nice pic Papa Bear! Whoa!
Bama, I guess it depends on where you are going. But we have steady temps in the 60's in the summer, maxing out in the (very low) 70's in August, like I said.
littleleemur, at our fav shore dive site, we were having those temps down to about 45', I'm going to say off the top of my head. Scuba Smurf can correct me on this. We do have thermoclines, and at that particular spot at that time it was probably 65F below 45'. Summer is fine here in a 6 or 7mm wetsuit. I love diving in my wetsuit and can't wait to get into it once the waters warm up. And there are lots of folks who dive their wetsuits well into the winter. My first few years of diving I dove a 7mm suit year round. I'm not saying it wasn't painful ... ;)
One lady diver here holds our local record for doing two dives one day in I think it was 42F in a 3mm! All the macho types here dive in 3mm in August. (Although I think they are nuts)
But yeh, a drysuit DEFINITELY makes the diving more enjoyable up here.
88 degrees Lottie, sounds like a hot tub.
We are going diving this Saturday moring, they are calling for snow with a high of 29F. I don't even want to know what the water temp. is. Now I have to decide on 7mm gloves or dry gloves. Some of my friends are going to be diving in wetsuits.....ha, they are nuts!
Right now, 29F seems a bit balmy to me... It's -26C with the wind chill, in Ottawa right now....:eek:
I still wonder why we still have interchanging methods of temperature gauging. The water is usually measured in Farenheit, while the air is usually measured in Celcius... :rolleyes:
Because we dive down south with Americans. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Chantelle
In the rest of the world, the water temp is also measured in Celcius & air is measured in bar. The downside to that is 200bar (the standard fill for AL80) is about 2800-2900psi, while we expect a good 3000psi if not a generous 3200psi.