>Always wanted to scuba dive a coral reef>Most are bleached now>Within a few years they'll all be completely deadIve always been too much of a poor wagie to afford scuba gear, get certified, and travel. Now that my prospects are picking up, it's too late. Fuck this world, it's not fair..
>>4779287Your only chance now is to start a reef aquarium.
>>4779287You probably wouldn't see those vibrant reef colors with your own eyes anyway since corals grow at 30m / 100 ft from the surface and at that depth reds and yellows look darker.
>>4779287I've dived places like that. I don't talk about them because I don't want them ruined. But they still exist. Once you meet a few reef divers you'll start to learn where they are.
>>4779287Also a poor wagie. I've snorkeled around Mexico and yeah theres coral and tropical fish still out there. Saw them 4 months ago.
>>4779379This. You learn to keep quiet once you know the kind of damage that can be done to them if people start swarming there. They’re already fragile enough as is.
>>4779287Don't worry anon, everything in a coral reef is toxic or venomous or stings you or has sharp edges. You don't want to go there.
>>4779316Corals in aquaria mostly have completely different pigments to those in the wild because of how we light them. Most look meh and/or brown.
>>4779287scuba thread? scuba threadI wanna get into this, with no experience (as of now). I'll probably go do my first dive around march next yearIf I finish my training, can I just go solo dive wherever whenever I want or is the "buddy system" mandatory? granted I have the equipment
>>4779287Go to JamaicaGo snorkeling at one of the shallow reefsGet scared as shit because everything looks sharp and there's lot of small sharks everywhereRealize you're not the diving type
>>4779591>Go to JamaicaOr don’t. Tons of better places with better reefs that also don’t have crazy high murder rates
>>4779589There's nothing stopping you from buying the equipment and going out solo right now. Its just much more likely that you injure or kill yourself. And you wont find a dive shop that would fill up your tanks.The certification is so other people/dive shops can verify your training and make sure that all divers they take out are qualified for the dives.
Does anyone scuba dive in ponds and lakes?
>>4780050I mean, I don’t see why you couldn’t, iirc that’s how golf balls are collected, it’d just be pretty boring presumably
>>4780050It’s what the other guy said. There’s plenty of people who do it, mainly for training or some practical use, but the lakes that are worth diving into are rather rare and spread apart. Some of them are pretty high level spots too.
>>4779589you can go solo diving if you're dead set on committing suicide, otherwise I would suggest always diving with at least one other person.
>>4779287It’s not that impressive. You don’t get those colors in most conditions. Water effects light refraction.
>>4779396Just to reiterate this anons point>>4780044Like driving a car, you learn to look out for pedestrian body language, gaps in traffic opening up that another motorist might move into (to save a whole zero seconds faggot), with diving there are a few lessons you want drilled into you so you're cognizant of your surroundings. Imagine diving in a clear lake, kicking up fine sediment that disorients you and you get caught up in discarded ropes, fishing line, anything.https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7511874/Lake-pitch-black-when-divers-diedNot trying to put anyone off, just basic shit to understand before going into gas mixes or even drysuits. Inner-ear orientation doesn't work too well underwater and we can't breathe water either.All that said, absolutely do approach some diving school programs/lessons because the earth is 70% covered in water and out of 100 people on the street 99 will say they've never been snorkeling. It's amazing.
>>4780044>>4780401I see thanks, I'm gonna do the training for sure, I was just more wondering about going solo vs with someone.>(to save a whole zero seconds faggot)lol I feel you, traffic is made so much more dangerous because of people who don't deserve to own a vehicle. lucky underwater there aren't a lot of tards (I assume(>>4780380>you can go solo diving if you're dead set on committing suicidethat seems a bit excessive, I've read stuff about how 'experienced' divers can go solo after enough dives. I'll be nowhere near experienced when I go but if I'm careful ya knowI also don't plan on doing anything crazy, maybe 5-10 meters deep in clear water with my family nearby keeping watch. problem is that I'll be the only one that's wants to dive. they can swim so if anything bad happens they can help
>>4779589There's a reason certifications mandate a buddy system (even if you can still screw the system rent a ship and go by yourself). Nevertheless as an inexperienced diver theres a lot to gain from going in groups and/or with a guide. First a guide can help you on general stuff that you think you already have under control but dont (buoyancy, air, depth) and also guides have done hundreds of immerssions in the same places so they know where to find frens (octopi, cool fish, rays, etc).
>>4779968Interested, what other tropical places are there with shallow reefs?
>>4780473Someone keeping watch on shore isn't really all that helpful. If there's a problem, they probably won't be able to see and react in time. Dothe training and figure out how it all works and what the risks are. Chances are, you'll find a dive buddy doing it. That said, theres more dangerous hobbies than solo diving shallow depth. I go out free diving solo all the time and that is kinda sketchy with possible shallow water black out.>>4780479There's the second largest barrier reef in front of the east coast of the yucatan peninsula. Mexico and Belize. Theres spots where the reef is like 200m from the beach and directly under the surface. You can just swim out and snorkel. Cheap plane tickets from the US too.
>>4780479Costa Rica has some of the best reefs ever imo, particularly in the Osa Peninsula, has both shallow and deep reefs iirc
>>4780479Other than what's been said above, there are tons of shallow reefs where you don't even need scuba gear (snorkeling is fine), like Maldives and the Philippines. It all depends on what your budget is and what your tolerance for travel is. Last time I went to the Philippines, it was 22 hours from my home to the main island, two hours to trudge through traffic from the international airport to the local airport, another two hours from for a charter flight to a small island, then another two hours to get from that island to my (even smaller) destination island by boat (El Nido, Palawan, if you're curious), and that's not including waiting for shit. Maldives was similar travel time but with far, far worse customer service lmao. My water bungalow was better there though. Literally had stairs that went directly into the ocean.When you get really far away from people, the fish are a lot friendlier. Like in El Nido, there were fish that literally swam up to my ankles as the waves came in and out. Although, if I went far enough away from shore, the floor dropped precipitously, the water got a lot colder real fast, and the fish went from colorful and playful to enormous and ready to fuck my shit up.As for the color of coral, it's true, you're often not going to see the color like in OP's pic, although there is definitely some color in the good places. However that too is becoming more rare. A lot of the places I went to a decade or more ago that had more colorful stuff are comparatively dull now (in the past few years).
>>478047310 meters doesn't sound like a lot but if you're that deep under the water with a problem, it could be quite bad. Some advanced divers might dive solo and have a totally independent secondary air supply. That's not common though, most people will be with someone else which is the safest thing. If you get into the training and learn some more about it you'll learn about the different risks and how to deal with them. Humans don't really belong down in the ocean and it's important to keep that in mind but. That being said, it is incredible and well worth getting into.
>>4780477>>4780633thanks guys, I'm gonna do the training and find a guide that can show me around. I underestimated it but I'd rather not take risks
>>4780850We belong wherever we put our minds and determination to…
>>4779287I certified scuba when stationed in hawaii but found that most of what I wanted to see (eg sea life, coral) was accessible by snorkeling with a lot less hassle & expense. If you want to dive wrecks it's a different story.
>>4779316>>4779583>watch video of someone diving a reef>corals aren’t too fancy, but there is good coral cover>most of the corals are varying shades of tan to brown.>aquarist in the comments claiming that the reef is bleached>cites corals in their tank as an example of how they know what they’re talking about when told it’s not a bleached reef
>>4779287I’ve tried to get certified twice but ultimately couldn’t either time because my ears don’t equalize ;_;
>>4780050Florida and Mexico springs are really nice to dive. >>4779287Indonesia still has some practically untouched reefs
>>4783295It’s your ear tubes get them checked. You usually get surgery to fix it
>>4780050There is a lot of freshwater diving in the world, but thermocline is real, and lakes tend to have a lot of sediment at the bottom.
>>4779287>>Most are bleached nowyou don't actually believe this, do you?
>>4783295>>4783304Uhh what? QRD?
>>4783362You know how your eardrums hurt at high elevations because you aren’t used to the atmospheric pressure? The same is true in the opposite direction underwater, but the pressure difference is much more substantial. If you can’t continually do a few procedures to “clear your ears” and neutralize the pressure behind your eardrums with the water as you change your depth, they’ll implode. No bueno, obviously, and it can happen in shallower water than you might think.>>4783304I’ve heard a little bit about surgery as a fix, but my divemaster never suggested it himself and I didn’t think it was a common thing that I could get done without major risk. I haven’t looked into it- is it really an option?
