Dive hobbies? (photography, wreck diving, etc)

[Autumnmoon]

Hi!
I'm curious to hear about other people's dive hobbies. By dive hobby, I mean a hobby you do while diving, like underwater photography, cave diving, treasure hunting, etc. I'm curious how people got into these hobbies and what draws people to them.

Me? I'm a fish counter. Fish counting involves conducting surveys where I ID the fish I see and keep a general count of them (1, 2-10, 11-100, or more than 100) on a slate. The data is then uploaded to a database that scientists, environmentalists, and anyone else who's interested can access freely.

So how did I get into this? Did I read Dr. Suess' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish too many times as a child? No, I ran into a diver conducting a survey on a trip. We struck up a conversation and I thought it was really cool that he knew all the fish names. And I thought that it was cool that he was doing something that eventually would help science, the environment, and all that. So I got a couple of fish ID books and when I couldn't figure it out on my own, I went on a survey trip offered by REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation). And I've been fish counting ever since.

So what do you do while you dive? How'd you get into it, and what keeps you doing it?

[rz1891]

Mostly when I dive I am working, which is a great way to not have to pay for diving! On my days off I like to dive with my camera and I am always buying new accessories for it. I am not great with it yet, but I am getting better. I wanted to get into underwater photography when I first started diving, but decided to go pro as it was more profitable and would give me more opportunity to develop my skills as a diver.

[rz1891]

[Frank Andersson]

Nice picture. You took it? Awesome. A picture of Awesomeness.

I've always liked diving, I started diving with snorkel when I was 10 years old or something. When I became 17 I did the exams for CMAS 1star SCUBA certificate. And this spring, I made the 2star CMAS certificate. We went to Norway and looked at too wrecks, that was pretty awesome.:) I just love the feeling of being weightless under water, looking at the amazing world down there!^^

[Sarah]

If you liked the wrecks, there are definitely a lot of great dives to check out. :) I haven't looked that closely into wreck diving, but there are some really great dives on wrecks that don't require any certification past recreational. We were at the Red Sea (gorgeous diving!), and there were a bunch of different wrecks we dove, particularly the Thislegorm -- it has tanks and motorcycles and everything still in place and fairly well preserved... a very neat dive.

[Autumnmoon]

That's beautiful!

[rz1891]

Where I am now there a few wrecks and they are easily accessible by open water divers. I work in the British Virgin Islands at a company called Sail Caribbean Divers. The most famous wreck we have is the RMS Rhone which was a Royal Mail Steamer that sank in 1867. It is split in 2 (it was 310' long) so it takes 2 dives and is amazing! thanks for the comments on th picture. I took it last week. It's a bit big though sory about that...

[Autumnmoon]

I don't mind big. How else would we see the detail? That texture on the tentacles(?) is really interesting. :)

[Kristin]

Got my Open Water Divers Licence in january this year (FYI, it was the coldest snowyest winter we'we had in years, 1 degree celius in the water and my drysuit was leaking so that I came back up with around 5 litres of water in each leg) and I love it. havent been out as much as I would want to yet, but the summer is coming up now ;) I was pretty quick on buying a camera :P I have a little JVC videocamera (wich is just stupid outside of the water, but works perfectly fine otherwise) with an ikelite case, and it works great. of course it's not the best, but i'm an amateur, so whatever ;) If you want, you can check out my youtube channel, where I have posted/will be posting more underwater footage: http://www.youtube.com/user/KristinDotCom