re: What's your best SCUBA diving stories, anyone have any close calls?

When I was stationed in North Carolina I worked part-time as a mate on a charter dive boat. We would regularly dive the U-352 (German U-boat sunk in WWII) which is 23 miles out of Beaufort Inlet.

Many of the wrecks are inundated with the Atlantic sandtiger shark. They look menacing but are very docile. Cuda usually on every dive hanging out at the 15' hang under the boat. Never any issues with either.

Funny story - There was a teenager who I noticed sticking his Iphone into the pocket of his BC just before a dive. I jokingly asked him if he was expecting a call while he was on his dive. I suggested that despite the Lifeproof case, he might want to leave it on the boat in that we were 27 miles from land and the wreck was under 110' of water - no chance of cell service. He looked at me stonefaced and said, "I know I can't talk underwater but I might get a text."

shite what mix are you running at 150+ feet and then going past 200 and then even 300?

Are you a tech diver?

Deepest I've been is 120 and the was plenty for me. I was escorted down to a coral head to get a cool photo of a big eel. I can't remember the last time I was passed 100 feet; I normally hang around 80 if the profile is even that deep.

I was cruising through my certification process when as I started descending for my final open water dive and had to immediately kick back to the surface because my regulator malfunctioned. I took my first breath and got a mouth full of water, no air whatsoever.

My dive partner came up too to see what was wrong. He motioned to the instructor that something was wrong. The instructor and I kept messing with the regulator with no luck. Finally I smacked the hell out of it with my fist and it started working again.

Needless to say I was less than confident at proceeding. We likely correctly assumed that a small rock or something probably had lodged inside the regulator, keeping the diaphragm stuck in one position and was clear now. But my confidence was blown. The instructor told me to suck it up and let's move on as the rest of the class was waiting 40 feet below.

I decided to follow on. The instructor kept an eye on me and everything went fine, but I did not enjoy the final dive at all. I sucked more air in that final dive than I had the previous three combined.

All's well that ended well, but I'm not so sure the instructor did the appropriate thing in that circumstance. I'm glad I completed my certification that day, but I was an anxious mess, and had something gone wrong with my partner on that last dive, I would have been hard pressed to perform well given my already panicked state of mind.

Kinda long, but all true I promise.

We were diving off Cozumel and my good friend and his wife were doing there check out dive. The first dive of the trip was the shore dive that takes you out to the sunken plane. All went well and they were both feeling confident.


The next day we dove Santa Rosa Wall. The boats were full, there were 4-5 groups all getting dropped in roughly the same spot. The idea was to drop us out before the wall, we would descend to the bottom (30' or so), then swim over to the wall and drop down the side of it to a 60'-70' depth, with a basic open water max depth allowed of 100'. My wife and I are in the first group and all goes great. I saw a TON of cool stuff and loved it. We get back on the dive boat after and my friend, who was in the last group to be dropped off, is sitting there, white as a ghost. His wife is up on the bow with just the dive master, and I can tell she's crying.

It turns out their group was the last to be dropped off and had drifted over the deep side of the wall. The currents can be really powerful in Cozumel and this was an exceptionally strong day. They started to descend and my friend notices that his depth gauge is reading that they are going deep fast. He can't see anything below him except his wife, who's about 4' below him. He gives her the "are you OK?" sign and she signals back "I'm OK". They keep dropping and he's thinking wow, my gauge is really fricked up, it's showing 80' but I was told the bottom is around 30'. But he can see a lot of bubbles coming up from below so he figures that's the rest of his group.

All of a sudden the dive master, shoots past him like a bullet, head down, fins up, pumping. He grabs the wife, pulls her up to my friend, and inflates both their BCs fully. The three of them go rocketing to the surface. My friend's thinking "great, someone fricked up and they're cancelling the dive. Dammit". They get to the top and the dive master explains that the current was so strong coming over the wall that it was pushing them straight down. They were at 178' and dropping when he grabbed them. They had already started to narc out and weren't thinking straight. The wife even had a nose bleed going.

That DM saved their lives.


He talked through what happened with them and calmed the wife down. The next day we went on a dive with a hard bottom of 30' feet. There was a dive master on each side of them and another experienced diver above them, following them everywhere they went. Before we went down the DM told them, don't worry, you're not going deeper than 30' without a shovel.


That group of couples went on a lot of vacations together and the guys would always buy the girls a charm for their charm bracelets that signified the trip. For that trip my friend bought his wife an anchor.

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Grabbed his fin at about 325'.

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Regular tank and just a regular certified diver.

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You pretty much run out of oxygen in a couple of minutes when that deep

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How long were you in deco?

I don't believe any of this.

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That DM deserves a medal .....unless he knew about that current and didn't warn them in the pre dive talk.

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That Dive Master was actually from a different group but was friends of ours and happened to be looking out for the couple since they were rookies. The DM for their group was a local and I think he was pretty green too. They really had too many people on that dive to safely keep up with everyone.

I have another one, more funny than scary.

The last dive of a weeks worth of diving and drinking heavily. The seas were rough and we were all hung-thefrick-over. The waves weren't a big deal on the ride out, but once we stopped and started gearing up the boat was bobbing in three directions at once. Our whole group was fumbling around with our gear, heads pounding from too many shots and chronic dehydration. My friend starts burping and one is more of a "vurp". We all basically CRAWL to the front of the boat for the pre-dive talk.

The Dive Master looks at all the sunken eyes, and green faces and says "y'all look like hell. We've been diving together all week. I trust y'all not to do something stupid. Get in the fricking water".

We are all flopping over the sides like a bunch of corpses. I am really questioning my decisions over the last 24 hours, especially the decision to wake up and even come out there. The waves are kicking my arse on the surface but I begin to descend anyway. Once below the surface it was like I had planeshifted to another world. I could see the monster waves above me, but below them it was calm. The clean, cold air coming through the regulator was like a sip of pure energy. My head stopped pounding, my stomach chilled out, and I felt great.

My friend next to me puked through his regulator (I'd heard you could do that but never experienced it. Yep, you can do that). A ton of fish show up to have his breakfast and he gives me the "I'm OK" sign.

We had a great dive from there.

Getting back on the boat was a challenge after. But our NAUI training had covered it so we just did as we had been taught and timed our move to the ladder with the rhythm of the waves, and we were up.

Yes, he's full of shite.

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I was at Merritt's Mill Pond near Marianna, FL.

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My backyard! :D

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I hadn't dived in years, so I was excited. We only planned on entering the caverns, and turn around at the Grimm Reaper sign.

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Bad idea #1 & 2 assuming you don't have overhead training. The caves are amazing but sh!t hits the fan real quick. Here's an example of that.

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How long were you in deco? I don't believe any of this.

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Don't remember exact times for deco, but stopped at 80', 40' and pretty much sucked my tank dry at 15'-20'.

It's like bounce diving. Like I said, people do this just to get off. I did it to help save someone. Not like I was hanging out at 325', I was down there for seconds. And, the navy dive tables weigh way on the safe side.

Don't really care if I'm believed or not.