Well, that sorts it then! Thanks for the clarification! I'm actually quite jealous really - I've only ever snorkelled, not got round to learning to dive. Snorkelling in nice places (Tioman islands Malaysia, Thailand, China, Egypt, Tanzania) but never encountred a whale shark. We did look for them in the Andamans, but sadly no luck...
Awesome, @Helmut Visor! Gotta love those turtles. I think the makers of "Finding Nemo" nailed it with the turtle's personality......Duuuuude! It's cool that you got that close to those dolphins. We had one dive like that in Hawaii--a dive I'll never forget. Along with the manta ray night dives off the coast of Hawaii. The Underwater world is a absolutely magical. Where do you like to dive??
If you ever get--or make--the opportunity to learn to dive, @Vulpes, I highly recommend it! I honestly don't really enjoy snorkeling what with having to hold one's breath and getting all that water in your mouth. I also find it less peaceful than diving since you typically have to deal with waves and chop at the surface when snorkeling. Diving is quite a different experience. But I would NOT recommend doing a simple, quick "resort course" or diving with some friend who just wants to take you out. The best and safest way to go is a proper scuba certification course by a NAUI, SSI, PADI, etc. certified scuba instructor. That all said, it sounds like you've been snorkeling in some truly amazing places! Interestingly, typically people see whale sharks snorkeling rather than scuba. And in many places people are only allowed to snorkel or free dive in areas with whale sharks. When we saw whale sharks off Cocos Island, they came to us. We didn't go looking for them and we had been well briefed early on in our trip how to behave should we encounter a whale shark. Here's an interesting article about seeing whale sharks up close and personal and about whale sharks in general. https://www.deeperblue.com/whale-sharks-diving/
The dolphins were in the Red Sea, manta rays and variable fire urchin were in Bali, and the rest were in Belize (sharks in Blue Hole). I've got many favourites for very different reasons @Sandi T Bali is definitely up there and what was great fun was what they called muck diving, which is really searching for smaller items in shallower depths (about 30 feet), hours of fun. Cozumel was really good for drift diving and finding mantas. The Red Sea has a wealth of marine life and coral but is a little over dived, but you are guaranteed a diverse range of dives from wrecks to large pelagics to everything really. Belize has always got something to see and the reef is enormous albeit somewhat smashed from numerous hurricanes, but for us is a lot about our friends out there (we lived there for over 2 years). The Mediterranean (Cyprus, Malta, Gozo) is quite barren but has a large amount of wrecks (mostly from the WW2) and the Zenobia (a ferry that sank on it's maiden voyage). Also we are getting into cooler water temperatures The Ascension Island was great as it is very remote so rarely dived and pristine. UK has an amazing amount of wrecks around its coast but the temperatures make it drysuit only
About to LOWER the tone. LADIES PLEASE DON'T READ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The only diving i've done is muff diving.
@Sandi T it has been a long time since my last dive Cozumel is fantastic I did dive around Isla Isabel on the Pacific coast, near San Blas, including a night dive, this was In the 90s, absolutely magical. More recently I snorkeled in the same area and it was sad, coral was gray and much less fish swimming around. On the last snorkeling I strugled with my ears not popping and was unable to balance the pressure I have an open water certification, that would need a refresher course
This is Gen Sir Mike Jackson who commanded 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment and ultimately became Chief of the General Staff and is an overall jolly good chap. What what. I've done quite a few bits and bobs to support veteran bodies including the US Veteran's Association, The Army Benevolent Fund, SSAFA and others. It was particularly nice to see this, one of my paintings that was donated, being studied by Sir Mike. If I knew he was going to be there I would have had my hair cut. Longest way up shortest way down. Stand by your beds.....Over...
Mother City, taken recently by a BIL. This used to more or less be the view from my apt, maybe a km further back.
I'm with you, @Helmut Visor. I have my favorite dives and locations for a variety of reasons. As you said, Cozumel is great for drift diving and I'd add for terrific visibility. I've never been to Bali but would love to dive Indonesia one day--and mostly for that muck diving with its treasure hunting for the small, unusual life to be found. I've dove a few wrecks here and there but haven't found that to really be my thing for some reason. And I really enjoyed the Blue Hole in Belize, especially seeing it from the surface which is quite something. In addition to Cozumel, here are some my favorite places. Cocos Island for the wildness and remoteness of it and for the hammerheads and other sharks (including whale sharks) and rays. We also saw one of the oddest looking fish I've ever seen there--the rosy-lipped batfish. The Solomon Islands for the pristine coral reefs and amazing variety of sea creatures, particularly tiny ones like pygmy seahorses and scads of nudibranchs. And here I swam into a veritable funnel cloud of barracuda that stretched from about 80' deep to 20' from the surface. For beautiful wall diving I love Little Cayman and for bommie diving Fiji was amazing. Manta ray night dives in Hawaii are stunning. And check out this weirdness--Pelagic Magic-- which I've done twice in Hawaii from the Kona Aggressor. Close to home, I love diving with the sea lions in the Sea of Cortez near San Carlos. San Carlos is where I did my open water dives when I was initially certified. I don't know that I'll ever be able to do these types of trips in the future--age, money, time, all of that. Plus when I was diving frequently I wasn't yet riding motorcycles so now bike trips compete with dive trips. But I am so glad to have been able to dive in this beautiful parts of the world and have these experiences. When I dive I always feel that it's a privilege to be able to be in the ocean experience its vastness and beauty and richness.
Yes, @Armando Morales, it seems that sadly there are many areas where the coral is dying and the sea life is less prolific. I love sharks and find it appalling that some shark species are nearly extinct due to shark finning and fishing practices like long-lining that catch kill them even though that's not what is being fished. I'm sorry to hear about your ears being problematic on your last snorkeling outing. I had a problem with one of my ears when I was getting certified so did mountains of research about ear clearing, ear health related to diving, and barotrauma. You may already know about it, but there's a great organization called DAN--Divers Alert Network--that provldes a ton of great information on topics like this. And the medical folks that work with DAN often team up with the U.S. Navy dive folks to do research on just such issues. I've been a DAN member since I was first certified. It's a great organization. I hope you get an opportunity to do a refresher and get back in the water as a diver one of these days, Armando!
"What are we, motorcyclists? Collectors of beautiful moments and experiences on our motorcycles." I loved this quote. Thanks for sharing this video, David.
Awesomeness is a relative term. I think this is very cool. What did we do before pocket calculators? Here's one option from 17th century China (Qing Dynasty).
