Scuba Divers Describe Their Most Terrifying Underwater Experiences


Scuba Divers Describe Their Most Terrifying Underwater Experiences
When people voluntarily venture below the waves as scuba divers, or scuba divers in training for leisure activities, in places like Jubayl KSA, or Mactan Island Philippines, recanted stories told around the pizza at a pizza party of successful graduates of PADI courses... stories, about terrifying underwater experiences aren't only limited to drowning. Scary scuba stories can be even more horrifying since they take place underwater, an environment in which humans are unable to breathe on their own, have slowed movement, and sometimes limited vision. In addition to equipment malfunction and running out of air, there are other creepy experiences waiting to be had at the bottom of Earth's oceans, lakes, and rivers.

In these stories cataloged in from REaDDyedIT (REDDIT), people describe the scariest thing they've experienced underwater. While many detail their freaky experiences with faulty equipment or shady dive leaders, others encountered creepy creatures crawlies of the deep or objects made more spooky when found underwater. Unfortunately, one can't just run away from scary encounters when they're underwater because of decompression issues. Divers must surface slowly in order to prevent physical issues that include death, another element of fear that appears in these tales. No one may be able to hear you scream in space, but according to these diving stories, it's pretty difficult underwater as well.

'These are the stories of real people'.....

Terrible Things Can Happen If You Panic Underwater
REaDDyedITor corneliuspildershifdt had a scarring experience in a sunken German U-boat:
"I was doing a deep dive to around 200' on the coast of New York. We were diving on German U-boat that had tons of corrugated and rusty metal hanging down. I was diving solo, but there were two others on the dive, a father and son. After spending about 10 minutes down there, I decided to go up to minimize decompression. After 50 minutes they had still not ascended, so the captain sent me down to check and make sure everything was okay. When I got down there, the son was stuck under a piece of metal and his father was desperately trying to get him out.

After I helped lift the metal off of the son, I could immediately tell that they were in panic mode. Having a dangerously high amount of nitrogen in their body, the worst thing they could do would be to bolt up to the surface. If they did that, I knew they would be as good as dead, because of the bends. We went to the mooring line and I began to start buddy breathing with the son and his father at the same time cause they were extremely low on air. After the father had a long breath the son lost all control and bolted to the surface. His father tried to follow him which I tried stopping by holding on to his BCD while my feet were hooked to the mooring. Unfortunately, he escaped my grip and launched after his son. Up at the surface everyone knew that things were seriously wrong.

The swells were upwards of 10 feet, and it was extremely difficult to get back on board. By the time the father and son were on the boat, the father was basically dead, after his entire body went numb he loss consciousness. The Coast Guard came via helicopter, but the father was already dead. The captain demanded that they should just take the son and immediately take him to the chamber. They refused and wasted the precious time on putting the dead father in the chopper too, which was extremely difficult cause of his weight and the swaying. By the time they brought the son to the chamber, he had already died too."

This Diver Learned Tragically That 'Dead Men Tell No Tales'
Yeahnotquiteyet reported:
"A 16-year-old kid at 50 feet, face down, dead. He breathed down his tank looking for his 17-year-old buddy after they got separated. Other kid died, too. Bad day on that beach, Coast Guard and a dive boat pulled them both out in front of about 30 families and kids enjoying the nice weather."

There Was Something Scary Caught In The Net
"Two of my coworkers were diving in a wreck off Rhode Island. The experienced diver went one way, the novice another. The new guy spotted a fishing net snagged on the wreck in murky waters. He also found a fisherman in the net who had been missing for months. He rushed back to the experienced guy and explained his find using facial expressions and hand signals. Finally, they tied a line to the body, before returning to their dive boat to contact (and wait for) the Coast Guard."

An All-Out Brawl With An Angry Fish
"...My dad took me spearfishing (family tradition for me). I was about 75 feet down...when I shot the biggest amberjack of my life. I was stupid and wrapped the line from my spear around my wrist so I could pull the fish to me on the bottom. assh*le was bigger than me and started flying up to the surface. So I'm going up and down, then up and down again...Finally, he swam back down towards the wreck and I managed to snag my gun on a beam from the rusting hull. I took a second to breathe and realized how close to blacking out I was. My head was pounding. My ears felt like they were going to explode and implode at the same time from all the pressure changes. My mask was filling with blood since I burst a blood vessel in my nose in the fight. I should've died.

The moment I touched him, the fish went ballistic. It was like our fight was starting all over, this time in close quarters. I just wrapped my legs around him like a rodeo star and tried to find a sweet spot for my knife. I had my knees locked around the spear with the fish like a kabob in the middle. I took one jab and it deflected of his skull. Those b*stards have a tough head. I took one more and somehow it stuck, he went from a bucking bronco to dead in zero time. Just done."

This Diver Sufaced With An Uninvited Dive Buddy
User apricotprincessa recalled a frightening experience with an uninvited dive partner:
"Coming up from a dive in Indonesia, didn't realize a sea snake was coming up for air at the same time until I surfaced. Everyone on the boat just started yelling 'Snake!' I kept my distance and it went back down, but it freaked me out how close it was. If they hadn't have warned me I might have run into it. Did a second dive and saw the bugger again, he kept following me for a bit and that freaked me out."

A Scary Encounter With A Rogue Speedboat
"Carl is a commercial diver, young (19), who works with his dad and one other guy on a gooey duck boat. This was his first season actually diving and extracting the gooey ducks and while he was down there, someone came up to his boat in a speed boat. The driver of the speed boat paid no attention to Carl's air lines and what not going down to his suit, so he was about 50 feet down when the boat engine sucked his lines, pulling Carl from 50 feet to about 8 feet in two seconds. He was scared to say the least. Survived, didn't get the bends. Going out to do it again come September."

Abandoned On The Monster Waves
"One of my first dives was in sh*t show conditions. There was a strong current and so much sand/debris everywhere that visibility was at about 12 inches. For some reason, the dive master was like, "It'll be fine once we get below 40 feet." We started descending on a guide wire and after getting to about 55 feet, my brother and I (who were dive partners) could not see anyone else in the group. We waited at the bottom of the wire for 10 minutes and after no one showed up we started to think that the rest of the group would be waiting on the surface. We came up and one guy from our group was at the buoy looking confused and the boat was gone. Turns out there were so many problems that the boat drove away so that the waves wouldn't throw it on top of us, but there were such large swells that the boat couldn't relocate us. We floated for about an hour before finally getting the boat's attention and being picked up. By far the worst motion sickness/ dehydration I've ever experienced."

'Jambalaya' -- Crayfish And Tiger Sharks And Underwater Caves, Oh My!
"Know a guy who was out diving for crayfish (lobster), in the ocean - they hide under the rocks. As he was diving, a tiger shark emerged from a cave and rammed him, and broke his arm and ribs. He managed to climb up onto the rocks before it was possible for anything else to happen. He said the shark was just testing him out."

Out Of Air Right In The Middle Of An Incoming Freighter
"I had a dive buddy go OOA (out of air) on me on a wreck in the St. Lawrence...but the part that made it particularly challenging was that the wreck was right in the middle of the shipping lane (where really large freighters travel), with really high current, so we couldn't just make an easy ascent to the surface. We had to navigate along a series of lines (pretty thick rope tied off on some good anchor points) that had been laid out to give divers something to hang on to so they could pull themselves against the current on the path to the wreck, and stabilize themselves during the swim back to the anchor line.

We were making our exit and everything was going fine, he was on my long 7' hose out in front, and I had a hand on his knee so we were keeping in good contact. Then for one moment I let go of his knee to deal with some gear and in that split second he came off the line and got caught in the current, ripping my regulator out of his mouth in the process.

I saw him manage to grab hold of another of the lines downstream and he was hanging on for dear life, completely inverted, in a shipping lane, with no regulator in his mouth and no gas in his tank, flapping in the current like a flag in the wind. I bolted towards him as quickly as I good while still maintaining my own safety, and gathered up the 7' of abandoned hose and regulator along the way. I caught up to him and manage to get the regulator back into his mouth, but since he was inverted, it went in upside down and as a result didn't breathe like it should. He fixed that himself, but slipped off the line he was holding onto in the process. I managed to get a hold of him, but not without having to let go of the line myself, so I ended up hooking both of my feet around the line to keep us both in place. Somehow I managed to pull us both back down to where we could grab hold of the line.

It was at this point that another diver in our group saw what was going on and assisted and from there we were able to get back to the boat without any further incident."

Kelp Can Be A Killer
"After a day of boat diving in Monterey Bay on the California coast, we had a night dive planned. I was there with two friends celebrating my birthday, and we were part of a larger group of divers on a chartered boat.

My friends were too tired for the night dive, and I really was too, but was invited to buddy with another diver whose friends also decided to stay on the boat. Being tired and night diving in a kelp forest with an unfamiliar diving buddy is not a combination I would recommend.

So, I'm following my new buddy through the kelp when some of it catches on my tank. I tried to pull clear, but managed to get tangled even more, to the point that I was unable to move. I kept shining my light around, looking for my buddy, but he was nowhere to be seen. After what seemed like an hour, but was probably just a few minutes, I felt some of the kelp loosen up and then saw that my buddy was cutting it off with his knife. I was so exhausted after struggling that when we got to the surface, he had to tow me back to the boat."

Well That's One Way To Lose Weight Fast
"It was my first dive. Just after a storm so the water is choppy, gray, and murky. We're off the coast of North Carolina diving at a liberty ship that was turned into an artificial [site]...We bumble our way down to the wreck and start the dive. Not really much going on, couple of fish, star fish, a rusty hole in the very flat side of the ship. We're all following each other, keeping tabs on dive partners when all of a sudden I'm getting dragged to the surface, plucked from the water like God's bath toy. I am screaming my head off thinking of my impending doom by whatever has grabbed me when I bob to the surface like a cork. I see the boat and they wave me over. I felt around to make sure all my parts are there when I notice something missing, my weight belt. The depth must've compressed my abdomen and I slipped out of it."

The Case Of The Curious Manatee: Mistaken Mermaid
"I had a manatee decide he was gonna come take a peek inside my helmet while I was working in about six inches of visibility. I thought I was going to be eaten alive."

This Diver Never Knew Majestic Sea Turtles Are Actually Terrifyingly Fast-Moving Attackers
REaDDyITor diveboydive never knew turtles could be so scary:
"At about 20 meters down we came across a huge sea turtle asleep on the seabed. We kept a respectful distance but the light from the flashlights woke it up. It swam away quite majestically and was lost in the darkness. About 20 minutes later something shot across our beam of light. My arse was chewing the wetsuit as I thought it was the shark. It turned out to be the turtle who had come back to investigate us. I was about 10 meters behind the group and it circled around us so that I was between it and the rest of them.

I remember thinking how huge it was and how huge the head and beak were when the f*cker darted straight for me with its mouth open. It moved incredibly fast and almost bit me in the family jewels region before I pushed him away. It seemed to happen in slow motion and I remember thinking that it weighed a ton and that I wasn't expecting that."

This Diver Never Knew Majestic Sea Turtles Are Actually Terrifyingly Fast-Moving Attackers
REaDDyITor diveboydive never knew turtles could be so scary:
"At about 20 meters down we came across a huge sea turtle asleep on the seabed. We kept a respectful distance but the light from the flashlights woke it up. It swam away quite majestically and was lost in the darkness. About 20 minutes later something shot across our beam of light. My arse was chewing the wetsuit as I thought it was the shark. It turned out to be the turtle who had come back to investigate us. I was about 10 meters behind the group and it circled around us so that I was between it and the rest of them.

I remember thinking how huge it was and how huge the head and beak were when the f*cker darted straight for me with its mouth open. It moved incredibly fast and almost bit me in the family jewels region before I pushed him away. It seemed to happen in slow motion and I remember thinking that it weighed a ton and that I wasn't expecting that."

Probably The Most Frightening Experience You Could Have With A Shark And Not Get Eaten Or Drowned
"I did one of those shark diving experiences in the Bahamas where you sit on the bottom of the open ocean with a group of other divers in a semi circle and a man in a chain metal suit feeds sharks dead fish and stuff. No cage. Well you're instructed not to move and to keep your hands close to your body so a shark doesn't mistake it for food. For some reason my air line from my tank on my back to my regulator was exceptionally long and stuck way above my head in a big loop. One of the sharks somehow managed to get stuck in it or something because I felt my line being pulled hard and felt this large animal struggling on my back. I bit down on my regulator as hard as I could with the fear of it being ripped out of my mouth and not being able to retrieve it. Luckily after 10 terrifying seconds the shark got unstuck. I thought for sure I was about either have my head bit open or have my line ripped out of my mouth. Easily the most terrifying experience of my life.

Maybe It Was Just Installation Art
"...My buddy and I crested over this mound of rock and there were about 20 baby dolls with cinder blocks tied to their feet just floating there eerily in the water. A couple of them were those creepy things that have eyes that blink."

Keep Your Barracudas Off My BC!
"Diving Joe's Tug near Key West and while moving around, a barracuda came out of nowhere and bit a hole in my BC [buoyancy compensator] and supply line to my regulator. I panicked because I started sinking and it wasn't until I got about 50 feet down that I remembered to drop my weight belt. I was able to swim up with my gear and thank God I popped up near the boat because I felt I had swam the English Channel. Got on the boat and felt a stinging on my chest. I had an inch long gash that required stitches when I got back to land. My dive knife had some of the plating rubbed of its handle so the bright chrome was shiny and (probably) provoked the attack. My dumb*ss almost caused me to drown."

The Last Place You Want To Find A Jellyfish
From Powhatan_:
"...A moon jelly got stuck in my swim trunks. Its stingers were in contact with my upper thigh for nearly a minute. Probably less than that, it just felt like a long time.
It was terrifying, coming up from an excellent night dive, only to feel a certain something float up into my swim trunks and continuously sting my leg. Seeing all the OTHER moon jellies hovering in the water after the thing was no fun either. Nor was getting back to the boat when I could barely move my leg. I had really bad marks for almost a week and even walking was difficult.

Thankfully though, moon jellies are pretty harmless. Usually you brush up against them, it feels like a bee sting, and you go on your way. This just felt like a really bad bee sting for an extended period of times that was dangerously close to my family jewels."

An Underwater Fisherman Almost Gets Eaten
From HungLow11:
"Was spear fishing and had a stringer of fish. On one of my dives, I felt a hard tug and turned just in time to see a Goliath grouper inhaling my entire stringer which was tied to my belt. This experience was only made worse by the fact that I was free diving and about 40 feet down."

Turns Out The Underwater Schoolbus Isn't The Magic One
JayOHaire was totally freaked out by this encounter:
"I was 14 and had just gotten certified with my dad. We dove down about 30 feet into this lake where the visibility was about 10 feet. For some reason there was a submerged school bus down there, and my dad motioned to go into it. We swim in the entry door and it was super creepy. All the seats had been removed, and the roof wasn't letting any sun come in so you couldn't see very far. We get to about the middle of the bus, and suddenly I see this pale woman hanging by a rope from where the back door would be. She had long black hair just floating all around her head, and I screamed and bolted. I didn't take any time going straight to the surface, and my dad was right alongside me. Except he was laughing. Turns out scuba divers like to sink mannequins and statues for some reason, so lesson learned. We did finish out the dive, but I refused to go back in the bus.

Marine biologist Nan Hauser has spent a large portion of her life researching and monitoring ocean life, focusing mainly on whales and dolphins. For 28 years, she has pursued risky aquatic expeditions and taken part in countless dives in the Cook Islands and the Bahamas. During the past almost three decades, she has directed her focus mainly on helping turn the territorial waters of the South Pacific into a safe haven for whales. A recent dive, however, introduced an alarming encounter, unlike anything Hauser experienced before.
 ...The volume of a large whale's ejaculate is around 400 gallons....


A whale of an encounter!

This remarkable close up, along with other photos, has gone viral on social media. Photos 17100651 This remarkable close up, along with other photos, has gone viral on social media. 17100651


Free Willy

Whale researcher Nan Hauser wrote this personal account of her exciting encounter with a 50-tonne humpback last week.

The dramatic photos were shot on Hauser’s birthday – and as it turned out, the whale may have been trying to protect her from a tiger shark seen nearby. Hauser takes up the story….

I entered the water to film two whales off the coast of Rarotonga that were very “chilled out” and I needed skin samples and tail fluke IDs.

I have spent countless hours over the past 28 years underwater with whales and with a GoPro camera in my hand I carefully slid over the side of the boat.

Because I had brain surgery a year and a half ago, I am not allowed to dive anymore. I have severe epilepsy and ended up with an aneurism needing surgical intervention.

That’s OK though ... they fixed the brain bleed, but if they had totally removed the aneurism, I would be paralysed on half my body because of the aneurism’s location in the left frontal lobe of my brain.

That was not an option for me, so I take medication four times a day and continue my adventures!

I was at the surface of the water when one of the whales approached me from quite a distance and kept coming towards me.

I was hugely surprised that he just kept coming right at me and it was quite frightening. I put my hand out and he pushed me through the water until I ended up on his head!

He spent a good 10 minutes trying everything possible to get me under his pectoral fin as I calmly and carefully pushed my body away from him. Had he succeeded, I would have drowned. I wasn’t sure why he was doing this until I saw a huge, fat 15-foot tiger shark (10 other people have seen this shark since and they say that it’s 18 to 20 feet!).

The second whale was working to keep the shark away from me and her behaviour displayed a lot of persistent tail slapping. I understand now that he was just trying to save my life!

The way that he was looking at me with his huge wise eye, I should have known. I stayed as calm as I could because I knew that he would pick up on my fear. I truly thought that it would be a certain death for me as he threw me gently around his body for what seemed like an eternity (10 minutes can be forever).

At one point he even lifted me out of the water on his pectoral fin. I was literally kneeling on his fin to stop from getting caught under it.

The video footage is unreal. I look at it and I can’t believe that

it is actually me sliding all over this 50-tonne adult whale. It will be part of the film that we are making with Nature Conservation Films. I will also piece together a Vimeo or YouTube video.

I am afraid that some people will mistakenly accuse me of harassing a whale when he clearly approached me and he harassed me!

No complaints though ... I may have a few bumps, bruises and barnacle scratches, but he was just trying to save my life. And I guess he did.

But there’s more to the story! Four days later the second whale that had been there for during my crazy encounter, approached my boat. She recognised me and lured me into the water by “spy hopping” many times next to the boat.

I slid off the back of the boat. She disappeared after swimming past me and then surprised me by swimming slowly up directly under me from the deep, deep blue.

She kept coming straight towards me and surrounded me with her huge pectoral fins as she spy-hopped a few times. She hugged me and it was my birthday!

I have certainly never been hugged by a whale in the 28 years that I have studied them. This is a basic outline of the story... there is so much more I could write about this encounter. I am truly deeply blessed and it has changed my life in so many ways. I always said that I would spend my life being a voice for whales, dolphins and the ocean and now that commitment has become even stronger!

I am forever grateful for the fishermen, the locals and the whales in my 20 years here in the Cook Islands.

In the Cook Islands and most places in the world, it is against the rules and regulations of the country to enter the water with a whale. I have a research permit to do so and have always been very respectful by only dropping into the water when I am looking for a small piece of sloughed skin or need a photograph of the tail fluke or lateral pigmentation. Much of my research is done with GoPro cameras off the side of the boat

My Facebook post has brought joy and love from many thousands of people around the world. Humpback whales are altruistic … they will protect themselves and other species such as seals and dolphins from the danger of killer whales and large sharks.

This is the first account of a humpback altruistically protecting a human and trying to hide me under his huge pectoral fin!

Please read an article called The Power of Compassion at https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/power-compassion.

It is about humpback whales and their desire to protect. I am astonished at the love and support from thousands of people in the Cook Islands and around the world in the past week. With my deepest gratitude, meitaki maata!
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