What's your favorite Dive Story?

[christinaliu]

Spin your favorite yarns here!  Relate your favorite dive experience!  Share your stories!  We would love to hear them!

[10yearsapart816]

It's not one of my favorites as far as a good time, but definitely educational.  Me and my buddy was in Jupiter, FL, about to do a drift dive, waves a little rough.  I went to do my giant stride off the back platform. Well, about the time I did that, a swell came up and caught the tip of my fin, causing me not to be able to clear the platform.  The bottom of my tank hit the platform, causing the tank to push up and hit me in the back of the head.  I went face first into the water and knocked unconscious for a very brief moment.  They came and got me and laid me down for that dive (thankfully it was the 2nd dive).  I had a HUGE bump on my head!
We went back the next summer, I walked in and told the girl my name and she says, "So YOU'RE the one!  Since your accident they don't allow giant strides anymore, only back roll entry!!!!"   LOL

[christinaliu]

My very first open water dive was in Key Largo.  Now mind you, I'd never done any dives outside a pool before this point.  So we're on a big "cattle boat" and the water's pretty rough; 6 - 8 foot swells.  Well, I survive my first dive pretty well, and reach for the ladder to climb back on the boat.  At the moment that I grabbed the ladder with my hand (but had not yet braced myself with my feet), a big swell hit the boat, and my forehead slammed into the metal ladder with a resounding "CLANG!"  Believe it or not, I was OK and didn't even lose my grip on the ladder and was able to climb back onto the boat.  Later on, my dive instructors told me that after hearing my head make contact with the ladder, the dive instructor on the boat was ready to strip off his gear and dive into the water to retrieve my limp unconscious body!  The other dive instructor was behind me, and he said he was also ready to catch me if I fell backward unconscious.  Amazingly enough, I was OK and did manage to complete a second dive that day!  (The swells were causing a lot of seasick divers--and I realized that it was going to be better to get back in the water, rather than wait on the boat for everyone to finish their dives!)

[aqua_mom]

Ouch ladies! You are indeed troopers!

Here's my newbie story:

I was diving with a new dive buddy who I considered to be an excellent diver, however I was to find out he wasn't that good of a buddy ;)

It was a great day in Monterey, the visibility was about 20ft with little swell and it was just enjoyable. We were swimming back through kelp with my dive buddy about 15 ft ahead of me as he was the lead navigator. I was swimming through a thick kelp forest and all of the sudden I felt a tug and realized I was kicking but not moving. I look back and kelp had wrapped itself on my tank and I couldn't reach it. I tried to get his attention but he didn't look back. Luckily, I managed not to panic and thought about what I would do. If I got low on air, I would ditch my bc and tank and do a controlled ascent to the surface. Luckily, I was snagged at about 18 ft and did my safety stop while trying to figure out my situation. I decided to just stay motionless and relax and hoped the natural sway would release the kelp from my tank. Just as I'd finished my safety stop, I looked back and only one little strand was wrapped around my tank. I moved forward slowly and it released. Yay I was free. Luckily, I was able to navigate to our entry point and when my buddy asked what happened to me I told him he should look behind him once in a while ;)

Everything turned out fine thankfully but it couldn't been a very different scenario.