View Full Version : If You Had Only One Dive Left....Ever....
Alison Boler
02-12-2005, 10:25
Where would be your favourite place to dive........
:)
Steve Parry
02-12-2005, 20:29
Stoney Cove- I just luurve those bacon butties with brown sauce after a dive
Mike Halligan
02-12-2005, 20:41
Sugarloaf, Poor Knights, NZ.
The only definitively awesome dive I've ever known. It must have been provided, by an infinitely indulgent Creator, with the sole purpose of ensuring one thinks everyday and always of how one might remain, return, explain and recall.
Exit, stage left, dribbling and in tears.
Alison Boler
02-12-2005, 20:44
Now, see.... you've beaten me.... I was going to say Fort Bovisand! I have always just loved groping my way through all the discarded condoms( I do believe it when they tell me they are remnants from military/commercial diving courses :( ) and have fond memories of watching someone give a dive briefing underneath the outfall pipe from the apartments! I don't know which was more memorable: the horrid gurgling as brown stuff trickled out, or the look on the female instructor candidate's face as she realised it had filled her upturned mask piled very tidily on top of the rest of her gear.
;)
Now, seriously Mr Parry: where in the Far East would you REALLY choose!
Allie
Alan Ewart
02-12-2005, 21:25
No question for me, it would have to be schooling hammerheads, preferably in the galapagos
Paul Oliver
02-12-2005, 22:21
Prinz Eugen @ Bikini Atol
The ship and her history (http://www.kbismarck.com/peugen.html)
A dive report is here, sadly not written by me :(
John Liddiard Dive Report (http://www.liddiard.demon.co.uk/photoix/prinzeugen/index.htm)
Truk! Wanted to go since I first read an article in SKIN DIVER in 1973.
One day.....
Prinz Eugen @ Bikini Atol
The ship and her history (http://www.kbismarck.com/peugen.html)
A dive report is here, sadly not written by me :(
John Liddiard Dive Report (http://www.liddiard.demon.co.uk/photoix/prinzeugen/index.htm)
Paul
Hello here btw :)
I had no idea the Prinz Eugen was there, that's really something to aim for. Frankly Bikini is a little out of my comfort zone at the moment but someday maybe.....
Back to the topic.
As great as this sport is and as wonderful as many dive sites are if I only had one dive left I'd want to share it with my wife and daughter. After all the youngster fuss of recent months I confess my daughter is a PADI trained 12 y/o but bimbling around watching protectively over her and her mum in 20 metres in the Red Sea is currently my perfect dive.
But really what I'm saying is that for me perhaps it's not the where we dive but who we dive with that's important.
Andy Wade
03-12-2005, 07:57
Paul
Hello here btw :)
I had no idea the Prinz Eugen was there, that's really something to aim for. Frankly Bikini is a little out of my comfort zone at the moment but someday maybe.....
Back to the topic.
As great as this sport is and as wonderful as many dive sites are if I only had one dive left I'd want to share it with my wife and daughter. After all the youngster fuss of recent months I confess my daughter is a PADI trained 12 y/o but bimbling around watching protectively over her and her mum in 20 metres in the Red Sea is currently my perfect dive.
But really what I'm saying is that for me perhaps it's not the where we dive but who we dive with that's important.
You said it Tony.
Right now I'd give anything for another dive with Penny G. Enough said.
Without doubt
http://www.pictondiversworld.co.nz/lermontov.html
Alison Boler
03-12-2005, 11:39
Paul
Hello here btw :)
I had no idea the Prinz Eugen was there, that's really something to aim for. Frankly Bikini is a little out of my comfort zone at the moment but someday maybe.....
.
Looks great doesn't it? Actually, the Prinz Eugen is in Kwajalein Lagoon/Atoll which is nearby Bikini and all part of the Marshalls. I believe it is complex to get visiting permissions, but maybe that has eased - must look into that! Anyway, one interesting point about diving the wreck is that it's much shallower than the rest of the Bikini wrecks - 35m. We have a couple of good trip reports on Bikini, and some great photos. It's a long way tho, one day.....
Back to the topic.
As great as this sport is and as wonderful as many dive sites are if I only had one dive left I'd want to share it with my wife and daughter. After all the youngster fuss of recent months I confess my daughter is a PADI trained 12 y/o but bimbling around watching protectively over her and her mum in 20 metres in the Red Sea is currently my perfect dive.
But really what I'm saying is that for me perhaps it's not the where we dive but who we dive with that's important.
With you on that! One of the best diving holidays we have had in recent years was on Grand Cayman, not long after our two daughters qualified. We never got deeper than 25m (generally not more than 20m) and we never went out on the wall EVER!!! But it was brill.... Forgotten how much fun it can be to bimble about, looking into all the crannies, not to mention how long a dive you get! Great value out of a tank! :D ;) I must have lived in Yorkshire too long....
Great answer Tony, you have hit the nail on the head.
Allie
NickPheas
03-12-2005, 13:05
I had no idea the Prinz Eugen was there, that's really something to aim for. Frankly Bikini is a little out of my comfort zone at the moment but someday maybe.....
She's not in Bikini. Not according to either of the linked articles. She survived both A-bombs and was moved somewhere else (under her own power according to one report I read) before finally sinking.
However, Bkikini remains a damn fine dream 'last dive' location. USS Saratoga: The only diveable aircraft carrier.
Ah yes, on closer inspection the Pinz is well within my comfort zone but as Ali says it's a very long way, the general Bikini stuff is beyond me at the mo.
However the ultimate target last dive ignoring the 'with who' aspect for me has to be USS Saratoga, it must be truly awesome.
When your daughters are old enough eh Ali?
Alison Boler
03-12-2005, 20:47
Yeah, but it is going to be a fine balancing line between when they're old enough and when we're too old!!!! :)
Yours creakingly
Allie
Alison Boler
03-12-2005, 20:52
No, She's here - Kwajelein Atoll in the Marshall Islands - as is Bikini Atoll.
Look here to find out about Kwajelein - not an easy place to get to, but not impossible. Apparently many flights put down there on their way to Bikini. The trick is to get a permit to stay.
http://www.world66.com/australiaandpacific/marshallislands/kwajaleinatoll
The dive looks so great, I will do some more research and put a page up on the Where to Dive section. Who knows, if Tony or Paul get their wishes, I might even get a trip report one day.
This much I know about a ship that decided her own moment to sink between the waves.
The Eugen - a German cruiser - with the Bismarck was involved in sinking the HMS Hood during WWII. Unlike the Bismarch, she survived the war and was surrendered to allied forces in Copenhagen at the conclusion of hostilities. She was then sailed to America, refitted and refueled, and from thence towed to Bikini Atoll, where she survived two atomic bomb tests. After being towed to Kwajalein to be "decontaminated," she finally sank unexpectedly near a shallow beach. Nonetheless, she is so long that while the screws are high and dry, the bow is about 33m deep.
Allie
Here you go this is as close as I got to The Prinz Eugene.
http://www.mssystems.co.uk/eug1.jpg
This was during the best months diving I ever had in 2001.
I made Bikini Atoll a goal when I was a sport diver (96).Due to the distance I thought we might as well do Truk on the way - as a work up. It took 5 years of saving, training and diving before I was ready. I had dived most of the signature wrecks of the South coast and qualified as IANTD Technical Nitrox. I was working over 50 hours a week for the final 6 months leading up to the exped to pay for it.
To top it all I was persuaded to fill a cancelation on a Scapa trip. So I managed Scapa, Truk and Bikini in a month.
http://www.mssystems.co.uk/bik1.jpg
Originally the plan had been to dive the Euguene on the way home, which indeed lies off Kwajaliene atoll (sp). After pulling a lot of strings we got permission to dive but it all changed on 9/11. The event deseverdly dominated the trip and is best summed up with this image from the Arizona memorial at Pearl
http://www.mssystems.co.uk/Arizona1.jpg
The best of times, the worse of times.
The next goal is Jutland.
For the very last dive it would have to be the Bismark.
Farne Islands
Still some of the best diving in the Uk for the ordinary joe!
You have the lot, good wrecks, great life
the beer is not either!
However in a world of wishes the Galpagos is my aim at the moment
Purdy
Steve Parry
06-12-2005, 18:12
Ok, Allie- As you ask about the far east, my response would be muff diving in Bangkok -:) No seriously, I think diving the deep wrecks of the South China
Sea for heavy metal and diving wall to wall Mantas any time of the year in Yap for the photo potential
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