Easily bored with warm water diving?

[Mountain Dog]

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 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.

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

[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.

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.

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.

[seasnake]

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 ... 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.

[scuba smurf]

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.

[PinayDiver]

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.

[The Publisher]

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.

[jafo]

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.

[Chantelle]

Soo.. er.. the water gets warmer in Canada, in the summer....

[seasnake]

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!

[littleleemur]

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!