If the recent Maldives diving tragedy has taught us anything, it's that the ocean can be a dangerous and unpredictable place. Five highly trained divers lost their lives in May, after an underwater expedition went horribly wrong. Their bodies were eventually recovered from a cave, days after they failed to resurface. But not before a sixth person - a navy diver tasked with finding them - suffered the same fate.
The world watched in horror as the drama unfolded... It was a stark reminder that even the most skilled divers aren't immune to unexpected disasters. People have been sharing their own diving nightmares in a series of online threads. Bored Panda has put together a list of the scariest ones. From underwater explosions, earthquakes, running out of oxygen, and encountering giant sea creatures, many of these tales might leave you with Thalassophobia - a fear of deep water.
#41
Singaporean DM guest who swam up to me signalling low on air, then, on my occy, managed to drag me to the surface out of the Deco stop in an area with a lot of boat traffic. He surfaced fins first with me yelling through my reg "who the hell qualified you"??
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7points
#42
I once got separated from the group because of crowd, I guess we got confused. I tried to find and waited 1 minutes instead of 2 minutes because the instructor said during briefing to wait only 1 minute because there's more current in the water.
After I surfaced and waited for 5 minutes I didn't see anyone surfacing and now I can't recognize the dive boat because there were at least 15-20 dive boats in the area. And I deduced I must have been pretty far from the boat.
After surface swimming for about 15-20 minutes I finally find the boat. I get in and got out of the gear. I still don't see the sight of the group, but after another 30 minutes they come in and they seem to not even have noticed I was one of them, the buddy that was assigned apparently didn't understand I was their buddy and just kept swimming and forgot completely that he has a dive buddy.
Since I'm still less than 40 dives, this was very terrifying. But the next dive was better.
After I surfaced and waited for 5 minutes I didn't see anyone surfacing and now I can't recognize the dive boat because there were at least 15-20 dive boats in the area. And I deduced I must have been pretty far from the boat.
After surface swimming for about 15-20 minutes I finally find the boat. I get in and got out of the gear. I still don't see the sight of the group, but after another 30 minutes they come in and they seem to not even have noticed I was one of them, the buddy that was assigned apparently didn't understand I was their buddy and just kept swimming and forgot completely that he has a dive buddy.
Since I'm still less than 40 dives, this was very terrifying. But the next dive was better.
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7points
#45
Besides a lifeless bloated purple diver being medevaced in Cozumel, acres of bleached coral and rubble where a thriving ecosystem used to be.
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7points
#46
Getting separated on the surface from our liveaboard at the Brothers Islands in the Red Sea. Honestly thought that was it.
Plan was jump from the dive deck and look for thresher sharks above the plateau of Big Brother. Didn’t see any threshers, made a normal ascent up to the boat’s mooring line. When I reached for it at 6m we were swept down by a strong down current and in seconds were at 20m. I could also see that we were no longer over the plateau so had been swept away from the island too.
I put my DSMB up & we ascended again. Made it to the surface, by which time the islands were already disappearing in to the distance. We tried swimming again the current as hard as we could but it made no difference. We were 35 miles offshore and heading for land. Even if we’d got there it was all desert.
I had a HP whistle in my BCD direct feed so blew that constantly, and waved the DSMB. Unfortunately we knew that the dive team had given two dive options - go from the platform or take the zodiac to the far end of the island and drift back - so we knew the zodiacs would be otherwise engaged at the other end of the island.
Pretty soon we couldn’t see the islands or the boat. The sea was pretty rough and the sun was strong. I thought that was it and could see the story in the UK dive mags saying two divers were lost at the Brothers. But I kept reassuring my buddy that eventually they’d realise we were missing, send the zodiacs and find us. Didn’t believe it myself obviously. I kept wishing we were diving off the UK where a helicopter would be out looking in no time.
After a couple of hours a zodiac appeared over a massive wave and nearly landed on us. The zodiac driver shouted at us like it was our fault. There were around six liveaboards at the Brothers at the time and apparently they all sent their zodiacs in a line to look for us.
Another guest on the boat was an RNLI volunteer in the UK. He said he saw the zodiac that found us appear over the horizon, and he was on the top deck of the boat looking through binoculars. He said we’d had a lucky escape and in his experience reckoned we had a one in ten chance of being found.
What did I learn? The dive team shouldn’t have offered two options. There was clearly no one on lookout when I set up my DSMB. I made a packing error, not taking my collapsible flag with me. Never get in the water without it now. And not to go with that boat again.
Plan was jump from the dive deck and look for thresher sharks above the plateau of Big Brother. Didn’t see any threshers, made a normal ascent up to the boat’s mooring line. When I reached for it at 6m we were swept down by a strong down current and in seconds were at 20m. I could also see that we were no longer over the plateau so had been swept away from the island too.
I put my DSMB up & we ascended again. Made it to the surface, by which time the islands were already disappearing in to the distance. We tried swimming again the current as hard as we could but it made no difference. We were 35 miles offshore and heading for land. Even if we’d got there it was all desert.
I had a HP whistle in my BCD direct feed so blew that constantly, and waved the DSMB. Unfortunately we knew that the dive team had given two dive options - go from the platform or take the zodiac to the far end of the island and drift back - so we knew the zodiacs would be otherwise engaged at the other end of the island.
Pretty soon we couldn’t see the islands or the boat. The sea was pretty rough and the sun was strong. I thought that was it and could see the story in the UK dive mags saying two divers were lost at the Brothers. But I kept reassuring my buddy that eventually they’d realise we were missing, send the zodiacs and find us. Didn’t believe it myself obviously. I kept wishing we were diving off the UK where a helicopter would be out looking in no time.
After a couple of hours a zodiac appeared over a massive wave and nearly landed on us. The zodiac driver shouted at us like it was our fault. There were around six liveaboards at the Brothers at the time and apparently they all sent their zodiacs in a line to look for us.
Another guest on the boat was an RNLI volunteer in the UK. He said he saw the zodiac that found us appear over the horizon, and he was on the top deck of the boat looking through binoculars. He said we’d had a lucky escape and in his experience reckoned we had a one in ten chance of being found.
What did I learn? The dive team shouldn’t have offered two options. There was clearly no one on lookout when I set up my DSMB. I made a packing error, not taking my collapsible flag with me. Never get in the water without it now. And not to go with that boat again.
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7points
#47
I was diving in Malapascua, in the Philippines and a boat went by us dragging its anchor. We were super close to it but miraculously no one was hit. We also heard dynamite blasts during some of those dives. 😑.
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6points
#48
Sharks, on a quick trip from Tinan to Leyte.
Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know you can tell by lookin from the dorsal to the tail. More sharks arrived, so we formed ourselves into tight little groups, squares, like the battle of Waterloo.
Hollered at them to leave us be, the sharks didn't care.
Sometimes that shark he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, in spite of all the pounding and the hollerin they all come in and… they rip you to pieces.
Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know you can tell by lookin from the dorsal to the tail. More sharks arrived, so we formed ourselves into tight little groups, squares, like the battle of Waterloo.
Hollered at them to leave us be, the sharks didn't care.
Sometimes that shark he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, in spite of all the pounding and the hollerin they all come in and… they rip you to pieces.
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6points
#49
>But as we got to 20ft it switched to an UP current and we had to hold ourselves down on the line while whipping around on the safety stop.
Just a reminder, when you are diving within NDLs, you safety stop is *optional*. If getting out of the water is a safer option than doing a safety stop, get out.
Just a reminder, when you are diving within NDLs, you safety stop is *optional*. If getting out of the water is a safer option than doing a safety stop, get out.
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5points