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No matter how many dives you’ve done, there will always be some that you will remember forever, unforgettable experiences that make you glad you’re a diver. Two of our most often returning repeater guests, Gina and Laurie, have kindly shared with us their best underwater experiences:

Gina, 2400 dives and 43 times repeater
“It’s very hard to say what my best experience is – I am lucky to have had a lot! My birthday dive, last August, was incredible – we were diving at KFFK and I had about 60 big silver tips all around me and it was impossible to see anything but the sharks; I will never forget this dive. Another that I have great memories of is when I saw dolphins and they swam over and played with me twice.”

Laurie, 2200 dives and 48 times repeater
“After more than 2000 dives I have had many noteworthy experiences while diving. I’m not sure I can single out one particular experience as being the nicest/best/most incredible but here are some of the most memorable…

“On one occasion, we were diving Fushivaru Thila and I had positioned myself on a sandy patch well below the top of one particular coral block to watch as the mantas came in to be cleaned.  As, one by one, the mantas swam overhead they came closer and closer to me while I kept low and as still as possible, one came very close and slowed just above and to the side of me so that we were eye to eye with each other and less than a metre from each other. The manta remained there until another manta swam up behind and urged it to move on.

“Several sailfish were spotted as we crossed the lagoon on our way to a two-tank dive, we were given the chance of trying to snorkel with them…I saw the bill of the sailfish fast approaching me, the fish veered off and passed close in front of us.  I could see it was in hunting mode as its body was clearly striped, when relaxed the stripes cannot be seen. Seconds later it passed in front of us again with a fusilier in its mouth.

“I was diving Maa Giri using a Draeger Dolphin semi-closed circuit rebreather and I had a film SLR in a housing with a 60mm lens.  I was looking at a fairly large honeycomb moray and trying to get a close-up photo of its face but I looked up to see the tail of the fish disappearing under the camera. Then something caught my eye to my right – I turned my head to see the head of the moray and its mouth opening and closing as it breathed perched on my shoulder, where it remained for about 5 minutes!

“Another great dive was a channel crossing, Kanihura Kandu, this was back in the days before Prodivers had underwater scooters and just used fin power, good conditions and a spirit of adventure to get across! Close to the middle of the crossing, we encountered a big school of batfish and as we swam through them they dispersed but followed us. Then we encountered an even bigger school of big-eye jacks, we swam into the middle to this school of jacks and I stopped, I looked above, below and all around me and was amazed that all I could see was fish – no divers and no blue ocean.”

If you’d like dives like this in your logbook, come and dive with us! We have dive experiences suitable for everyone from complete beginners to seasoned pros, drop us a line with any questions you may have.