Posted: 4/27/2025 6:08:46 PM EDT
| Strange creatures, aliens, space people, ghosts? |
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Quoted: There is shit down there that will make you a ghost.  The ones I have spoke to say groupers are assholes. |
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Quoted: Everybody heard that one story about a friend that dives dams and went face to face with catfish the size of a Volkswagen. Maybe even that the whisker was the diameter of his arm. *Cool story bro. Not sure about the catfish, but alligator gar exist and they're a "protected species" in Tn. 
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I need to find the video again, but the gist of it was an interview with a commercial diver who was doing saturation diving super deep and they were in these diving bells on the sea floor. There were multiple bells close to each other and each bell had a pool in it that went directly into the ocean. So if you wanted to go to another bell you would throw a mask and fins on with no tank and just free swim 50 feet or whatever to the next bell and surface in their pool. But keep in mind you're several hundred feet deep. He goes to swim at night to another bell and the bells have small lights on them but not near enough to illuminate between them. As he's swimming over in complete blackness towards the LEDs of the other bell they disappear. Well they disappeared because something huge swam between him and the lights blotting them out  Then something huge bumps into him and he about shit himself. Hard pass
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Quoted: I was diving in some low visibility (- 10' stuff) in an area known to be frequented by hammer heads, when I noticed a large shadow slowly emerging out of the murk. I was deciding whether I should flee or see what it was when a large Grouper appeared face to face with me, checked me out for a few and then disappeared back into the murk. Groupers can get to be yuuuuge. Also, dolphins can be really curious. |
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Twilight dive. Saw a flashing dive strobe light in the distance. Away from shore from us. So, deeper than we were. Way deeper. Like 200' deep. Never figured out what or who was down there. Night dive.... looking at random stuff with our flashlight. My buddy was about 10' to my right. Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement. Holy shit! A 5' long Tarpon was following us, and using our light to find sleeping fish. He sucked up a little fish hiding behind a coral head using our light. Scared the crap out of me, and hilarious, too. |
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We know more about space than the deep. Yeah, shit down there would be nightmare fuel for me. Imagine what's lurking at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. I remember every time we passed over it because the depth sounder would be reading a stupid depth number (in fathoms). |
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I did a drift dive in Coz off one of those cattle boats, we had a bull shark follow us the entire time. Off to our left, I don’t know the distance, but closer than I like. Keep in mind, the boat leaves you after dumping you in the water and motors to a pick up point, in Mexico. Never again will I do a cattle boat in Mexico. Doing my advanced open water, we did our deep dive, wreck dive, and night dive all in one because it was winter (which is cold AF in NW FL) and weather had been bad. I’m still really new, it’s pitch black dark, I’m scared shitless, and all I can hear going down are these weird sounds that I think are dolphins. I hit the wreck and I’m gone, fuck you, bye, back up the line. The sound wasn’t dolphins, it turns out shrimp actually make noise. Then, we had this fat out of shape guy and I thought he was going to have a heart attack swimming to the dive platform. The boat capt is an asshole and yelling at the poor guy. All of my diving after is Caymans, because the crews are solid, the water is warm, the water is clear, and there isn’t any weird shit, plus you can do night dives off the beach. Diving with the sting ray is pretty nice, they are friendly fellas. |
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Quoted: There is shit down there that will make you a ghost. The ones I have spoke to say groupers are assholes. I had a huge black grouper with silver spots follow me for an entire dive once. Probably because I was wearing a black and silver diveskin and made little fin motions with my hands to my face. I swear, 30 minutes that thing followed me. Then for lunch all the local dive shops set up grills, tables, etc. on a nearby island and served us...grouper. |
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Did a vertical drop into the rise of the Aucilla River. In salt water, Barracuda generally stay a respectful, wary distance from divers. Gars do not give a single fuck. and are utterly indifferent to your presence, and that is fucking creepy. One one dive at "The Elbow" in Belize, I saw a 30-35 foot whale shark and an 8-12 foot sunfish in one dive. The Sunfish appeared and stayed at the edge of visibility and went on it's way. The whale shark appeared at the edge of visibility and kept getting bigger and bigger. There was an entire conversation between the my ancient lizard hindbrain and my frontal lobes as that shape kept getting bigger at 60 feet below. SHARK, RUN!! I'm underwater. ITS GETTING BIGGER! RUN!! Cant run at 60 feet. Hey look... are those lateral lines? It might be a whale shark. Yeah, look at the mouth. YEAH, LOOK AT THE BIG FUCKING MOUTH RUN! It eats plankton. IT'S GOT A BRAIN THE SIZE OF A WALNUT!! HOW DOES IT KNOW YOU FROM PLANKTON! RUN!!! I must have burned 500 psi of air during this internal dialog. LOL I stayed and watched it go on by. Amazing dive! |
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Quoted: Tank valve not open all the way? Quoted: Quoted: At about 110 feet I saw a gauge that told me I had 2/3 of a tank. However, every time I tried to inhale, nothing happened. That sucked. No, it was open. Busted regulator (rented). |
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Quoted: Buddy of mine worked on a oil rig as a underwater welder. He did it for a year. He quit because he said he was to freaked out by things he saw down there. He said he always had a feeling something was watching him. Dove a few times by rigs out in the Gulf of America… spear fishing one time and yeah, there’s weird fucking species out there, and when they’re close to my size or bigger, fuck it, they can have my catch, I’ll just go to McDonald’s and get a fish sandwich! Was snorkeling around on a beach north of Camp Pendleton, trying to decide if I wanted to dive, and saw something come at me the size of a Volkswagen, got the fuck out of there, later buddy told me that area is known for Orcas There’s a weird story behind that…driving north from the base and found a public beach turn in. Wife gets out and sets up chairs and I stay to get my gear and tank out of the truck….a surfer dude walks by and he like bra, can’t shore dive here, they’ll give you a ticket and take your gear. I make it to beach and my wife is like, I thought you’re going to do some diving, I told her about the surfer dude with the beard and long hair and what he told me. She said, I didn’t see anyone but you up there. Ok, but when I nearly get eaten by an Orca, I realize that was no ordinary dude, it was Surfer Jesus, telling me to stay out of the water! |
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Quoted: What did you end up doing? Alternate reg? Share with a buddy? Was this your gear or a rental? Quoted: Quoted: At about 110 feet I saw a gauge that told me I had 2/3 of a tank. However, every time I tried to inhale, nothing happened. That sucked. What did you end up doing? Alternate reg? Share with a buddy? Was this your gear or a rental? Emergency ascent. (“Ooooooo….”) Straight up. Luckily under the boat. Tackled the tank hanging off the boat at 35 feet. Hung out for 20 minutes or so. Rental. |
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Quoted: Buddy of mine worked on a oil rig as a underwater welder. He did it for a year. He quit because he said he was to freaked out by things he saw down there. He said he always had a feeling something was watching him. Knew a rig welder in the early 90's in Houston. He'd weld for a while and surf for a while. Came in the shop one day and said he was done. When we quizzed him he just said something swallowed his legs then spit him out. |
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Quoted: I need to find the video again, but the gist of it was an interview with a commercial diver who was doing saturation diving super deep and they were in these diving bells on the sea floor. There were multiple bells close to each other and each bell had a pool in it that went directly into the ocean. So if you wanted to go to another bell you would throw a mask and fins on with no tank and just free swim 50 feet or whatever to the next bell and surface in their pool. But keep in mind you're several hundred feet deep. He goes to swim at night to another bell and the bells have small lights on them but not near enough to illuminate between them. As he's swimming over in complete blackness towards the LEDs of the other bell they disappear. Well they disappeared because something huge swam between him and the lights blotting them out Then something huge bumps into him and he about shit himself. Hard pass I always thought the human body cannot tolerate the pressure past 70 feet or so. |
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Dennis is the man. |
| Night dive on the Big Island of Hawaii I was solo in about 40 feet depth looking at some frogfish and a Conger eel swims into my view and catches some kind of angel fish. Funky looking thing, reminded my of the handrail snake thing in Beetlejuice. I had no idea of what it was till I got back to the boat to ask. He decided to use my dive light to hunt with for the rest of my dive, very cool. |
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An invertebrate, my brother and I named it the Sea Vagina: that really does describe it but I don't know the real name. We were not brave enough... This was in the early 70s. I was trying to type out a description and googled sea vagina:Sea Vagina (I said it described it) We were in Bimini around 1973 and watched a shark feeding frenzy just off of the beach: it was like a scene from a movie with many sharks thrashing the water as they fed. A half hour later, all was quiet so we went snorkeling. I took a spear with an Hawaiian sling as I was nervous. I saw a flash and fast movement out of the corner of my eye and shot: perfect kill on a toilet set lid, it was waving in the surge caused by the surf. (Also got stuck in the behind with a sea urchin). I really wish that I had kept it as a trophy, it would go well above the fireplace. |
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Quoted: Dove a few times by rigs out in the Gulf of America… spear fishing one time and yeah, there’s weird fucking species out there, and when they’re close to my size or bigger, fuck it, they can have my catch, I’ll just go to McDonald’s and get a fish sandwich! Was snorkeling around on a beach north of Camp Pendleton, trying to decide if I wanted to dive, and saw something come at me the size of a Volkswagen, got the fuck out of there, later buddy told me that area is known for Orcas There’s a weird story behind that…driving north from the base and found a public beach turn in. Wife gets out and sets up chairs and I stay to get my gear and tank out of the truck….a surfer dude walks by and he like bra, can’t shore dive here, they’ll give you a ticket and take your gear. I make it to beach and my wife is like, I thought you’re going to do some diving, I told her about the surfer dude with the beard and long hair and what he told me. She said, I didn’t see anyone but you up there. Ok, but when I nearly get eaten by an Orca, I realize that was no ordinary dude, it was Surfer Jesus, telling me to stay out of the water! That area is also crawling with great white sharks. |
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My very first dive in Florida about 100/ft down a large shark swam within 20 feet or so. First thing I thought was why am I down here? I turned to look at the dive instructor and he was watching the shark. Shortly after that I was pulling myself up the anchor line and a large barracuda was there, but swam away as I approached. I did a few more dives after that and was over it. Just seemed to much effort and expense for a 20 to 30 minute dive and wasn't interested in decompression dives. |
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Deepsea Oddities on YT Lots of nightmare stuff. It’s a great channel.  7 Creepy Deep Sea Creatures That Will Give You Nightmares |
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Not diving, but snorkeling. About 1980, a friend was doing some graduate level oceanography classes at Catalina Island, CA. There is a little village at the Isthmus with a bar. It was a party place. I went to visit him for 3-4 days and help with his work, party with the locals, maybe get laid. There is a tiny island called Bird Rock in the Isthmus Harbor. Great snorkeling in the harbor - kelp beds, beautiful fish incl. Garibaldis. The water is 30 feet deep or so and super clear. On Day 2 we were rowing around the harbor doing the work and met a couple on a beautiful big sailboat, they asked us aboard for drinks. Turns out they were Ron and Valerie Taylor, stars of "Blue Water White Death", the documentary about Great White Sharks. It was a great time and they told some awesome stories. Next day we went snorkeling in the harbor and were having a fun time. My friend - may f*ck be upon him - suggested we swim around Bird Rock. OK. I'm a pretty good swimmer, so is he. Well, on the far side of the rock the water goes from 30 feet to god only knows how deep. The color goes from light blue, to dark blue, to black. I'm having mental seizures as I imagine a Great White charging up from the depths and eating me alive. I set a swimming record that day getting back to the harbor side of that rock. It still gives me the heebie jeebies. My firend still teases me about it. May f*ck be upon him!tldr; I did not die. But I could have. 
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Quoted: I always thought the human body cannot tolerate the pressure past 70 feet or so. Nah, I’ve been to 120, you aren’t staying long. iirc (been a while) the max depth for a rec dive is 130. But, some people can’t handle it, nitrogen narcosis is a thing. Around 90’, I start thinking everything is funny, I would laugh. The saturation divers are brought down to the depth they are working in (hundreds of feet). They hoist them up to a chamber where they sleep and eat, then lower them back down for work. There is often a pressurized life boat incase something happens to the ship. They get paid good money. I google, they do saturation dives down to 1k-2k feet. Fuck that. Funny thing about me and when I dive. I am fairly scared of heights. Looking straight up when underwater would give me the creeps. I also discovered I was fairly claustrophobic, my dive instructor had me switch to a mask with a clear skirt and it helped a good bit. I had to have a black mask because I wanted to be all tactical SEAL UDT and shit lol. |