How to Make Your Scuba Dive an Adventure

After donning your wetsuit and stepping into your flippers, you strap on your O2 and adjust your mask. Then, with a sigh, you realize that you’re all dressed up with no place to go. Perhaps your “usual” diving spots have lost their appeal and no longer hold your interest or perhaps you’ve learned some new skills and are eager to test them out. Whatever the case, you realize the need to put some thrills back into your diving routine and are looking for a way to do just that. Fear not, the world is your playground.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• NAUI Diving Certification
• A fellow diver
• Diving gear
• Significant diving experience

1. Experience World War II’s destructive aftermath by heading to Israel and jumping into the sea near Haifa Harbor. There, you’ll find the sunken Italian submarine “Sire” in its final resting place. For an added thrill, sit in the cockpit of a wrecked airplane from 105 feet underwater at Corsair, Oahu.
2. Surround yourself with exotic fish that few have ever seen. The Poor Knights site in New Zealand is filled with stunning creatures that are ten times larger than the fish at most other tropical dive locations.
3. Take the plunge with a deep diving experience at the Great Blue Hole site in Belize. Reach the edge of a ring coral reef and plummet 148 meters into an underwater cavern. Once there, swim through a maze of stalactites and stalagmites and marvel at the beauty.
4. Dare to live the movie “Jaws” by entering “The Cave of the Sleeping Sharks,” 60 to 70 feet below Isla Mujeres. The cave contains fresh water bubbles, which attract a variety of sharks such as Bull, Black Tip, Gray Reef, and Nurse. Because the bubbles make the sharks groggy, adventurous divers can get a close-up view.
5. Experience the thrill of high-speed diving. At the Big Fish site off Atauro Island, East Timor, the strong current makes for a wild ride through large schools of pelagics and sharks. Consider also HP Reef in the Maldives, which waits within a narrow channel filled with strong currents during high water. As a result, it forms swirling eddies that induce negative buoyancy.
6. Venture into the darkness with a night dive by going to Kailua Kona, Hawaii, and joining other divers pointing their torches upward to form a circle of light. Attracted by the beams, plankton gather and are fed upon by magnificent manta rays amidst a cloud of shimmering silver baitfish.
7. Calm down after your adventurous tour by feasting on the beauty of Akumal-Talum Corridor in Cancun. There, you’ll find a famous glistening pool hidden within a limestone cave. For amazing coral, visit the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s east coast and hang out with over 1500 species of fish, dolphins, whales, and sea turtles.

Tips & Warnings

• These adventures are only for experienced divers with sufficient training to keep them safe. Common dangers include barotraumas (changes in pressure), dangerous marine life such as jellyfish, sharks and fire coral, abrasions, bumps and bruises, and, of course, drowning.