what is the best dive destination in the world

Everyone has their favorite places...for large pelagics I'll go with the Cocos Islands, Costa Rica anytime...been there many times and can't wait to go again. For macro, I never shot so much as I did at KBR tho I am looking forward to going to Bali next July.

Steve B)

sharks?

 

colour?

 

Corals?

 

whales?

 

give us a hint of what you looking for...  and i am sure we can help

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you forgot:

wrecks: penetrate

wrecks: non penetrate

cold water

cave diving

dolphins

you get the picture,

for me I will dive anywhere/anytime...it is all about the experience. the first things divers talk about when they get together is, "have you been to BLANK place for diving?" my goal is to answer YES to all of them.

Yep scubadoobydru it is the mad Abbott here! Bali is at long last moving forward -- I now have a broadband connection in my home now. And at long last I have a little time on ym hands as well to be able to get online and try my hand at adding some posts.

 

So are you gonna join us in this new place? Maybe join me with "The Ladies" once more... this with Gerry Allen and Mark Erdmann as well!

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Hehe ohmeknees! Unfortunately my dance card is full this year. The grandma brigade will have to do without their adopted son. Did you email Iris about the run? She had an AWful trip (or was it AWsome)? She didnt look like she was having fun... even with Jorge around.

Aurora Reservoir!!!!

The viz can be an incredible 20ft on a good day and the annual crayfish migration is not to be missed. Its a balmy 59 degrees and the water is a wonderful, muddy slime green color. Its enough to make a limey homesick.

Gary

Hey, I have just been to Palau. Nah, not the new one. But the town of Palau in Sardinia, Italy!

 

North Red Sea is a great wide angle photo destination. Guarenteed sun. Decent viz. Colourful reefs, clouds of anthias and photogenic ship wrecks. Not the most exotic. But very productive:

 

http://www.amustard.com/?page=rs06gal&subpage=photo

 

Alex

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The redsea south not as many divers and big fish. A livaboard like the grand sea serpent!!

Aurora Reservoir!!!!

 

The viz can be an incredible 20ft on a good day and the annual crayfish migration is not to be missed. Its a balmy 59 degrees and the water is a wonderful, muddy slime green color. Its enough to make a limey homesick.     

 

Gary

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Come on now Gary, your holding back. You didn't mention the wreck (twin Engine Cessna) or the bass, wipers and the treasures dropped by newbie divers in training.

Hey CRC,

Okay you're right ... but who'd believe what a delight the place is if I mention things like the sunken canoe (our version of the Spiegal Grove) or the spent vulcan rounds from the strafing that occurred during the 1950's.

Too funny....to think I'm actually looking forward to my next adventure there...haha.

I guess I'll add......What about PNG with a liveaboard? I've been to the Red Sea, and I think that the coral formations in the Fathers and Witu's as well as the fish life far out weighed any place I've been. There was pristine areas of corals, even some large sharks, schools of jacks and barracuda

I really wanted stay out of this one, hoping this thread would just die away, but like the maggoty-fleshed corpse of the undead in some film by George Romero on late night cable, it keeps crawling out of its crypt and dragging its slimy tail across the floor. Those of you who know me already know I find even the idea of photographic competitions repellent, ethically and aesthetically. This too.

The question" "What is the best dive destination in the world" is either insane, or meaningless, but probably both.

It may be fair to ask who has run the fastest mile, written the longest book, or who eaten the most hot dogs in a one-hour sitting, though personally I cannot imagine why anyone would find such questions interesting or important.

But asking "What is the best symphony ever written?" or "what is the greatest painting?" is to utter nonsense. What is the best novel ever written? Who is the most beautiful woman in the world? Who was the world's best pianist? Is there one kind of flower in the world prettier than all others?

What kind of person asks questions like this? Or would try to answer them? (I mean, of course, who other than Donald Trump, Britney Spears, their staffs or pathetic wannabes.)

Tell me that you loved a sunset you once saw from a cliff above the California coast at the end of a magical day, a view you once had of wildflowers growing on a hillside in spring, or the memory of the sight of a whale breaching in the morning sun. Tell me there is a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins that sends chills down your spine, or a painting by Caravagio that tears your heart, or a certain violin concerto that, for you, is a kind of rapture.

I'd be happy to hear about any experience underwater that you consider, as an experience, to be among the best dives in your life (so far). If you happen to be a person who has dived many places in the world, and whose judgment and experience I've come to respect, then I will pay a lot of attention to what you say.

But as to making ranked lists, or to even try to discuss the "best " dive destination (or the best anything) in the world - please spare me.

Frogfish

Ha, ha Love it Robert....

Now tell me..

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE...........................

Come on, you can tell us......

O.k be like that.

Dive safe

DeanB

To give this maggot-infused George Romero corpse a soupçon of respectability, it does seem to me that most posters are colo(u)ring their replies in terms of "their personal favourite" site, the place that they feel is the best in the world, without trying to present themselves as an authority on the subject of what is the best location in the world.

Or they're being sardonic (DeanB, I'm looking at you )

So I'm going to join without a couple of others, and say that Cocos Island, and particularly Alcyone, are my current favourite location and site, respectively, having just edged out the Galapagos and Darwin's Arch. That plus $1.75 are about to buy me a "Grande Americano" (ick, what a word) from the cafe.

I'll put in a plug for the one in Micronesia because I tend to use the 'Blue Corner' as a yardstick for comparison. Yes, have found a few other sites that I rate close to the BC. One was in the Coral Sea off OZ, another is the backside of Molokini. Belau also has other sites!

<- Looks more like an SB800 than a Guiness!!

Tom

Hey, I have just been to Palau. Nah, not the new one. But the town of Palau in Sardinia, Italy!

 

North Red Sea is a great wide angle photo destination. Guarenteed sun. Decent viz. Colourful reefs, clouds of anthias and photogenic ship wrecks. Not the most exotic. But very productive:

 

http://www.amustard.com/?page=rs06gal&subpage=photo

 

Alex

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<-  Looks more like an SB800 than a Guiness!!

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Yeah, that's what I thought it was when I first saw it too.

I've been to Yap, and I've been to Puerto Galera......Yap was great, but it was Puerto Galera that I returned to for the 2nd time.

There was just no comparison as far as quanity, variety and density of marine life in Puerto Galera. Yap had nice visbility and tons of hard corals.....But P.G. had it all with visibility in the 30-60 foot range.

Alex-What outfit do you use in the Red Sea? Is mid-October a decent time to dive there?

Chris

Robert,

Hilarious, loved your view on all this... But come on, we all love diving for our own different reasons. We all have somewhere that may be our favourite place at a certain time for a certain reason. For sure we all love each place for something different. Lets put it this way -- we must all have one place that if we had to say "right I have one last place that I have got to go again and it would be?"... For me, I love the adventure of diving, I love the fact that we can still search and find fantastic new dive sites, though after diving southern Irian with Mark Erdmann and Gerry Allen I am now really hanging out to get back there! Right now, this is my top place in the world. Next it may be Halmahera, we'll see how that one goes!

Actually... no hold on a moment, for this moment in time my favourite place is Flores-Alor, I'm on my way there in a week or so. Fine critter diving, unique upwelling reef scenery and the friendliest, loveliest people on the planet surrounding you after dives on land. Oh once upon a time I used to be decisive now just I can't make my mind up anymore, I suppose my favourite place is where I am going next!

But seriously -- I would say right now the number one spot that I am mad keen to get back to is southern Irian Jaya and a crazy place called Fakfak...

Of course we need to get back to Larry who wrote this thread in the place to ask him what he likes on his dive trips... I've gotta say I haven't really done tons of big fish diving, of course I'm keen to get to Galapogas one day. Though I have to say that early on when I started diving, seeing sharks after sharks and big schools of fish got all a bit so so for me, of course I loved it but I wanted to see more, wanted to learn a little about what else was down there. This is when I found a great buddy from Canada and we started to get away from the guide and do our thing, go slow, stick ours head in the reef and look for the little colourful critters, the cryptic creatures and from time to time get a little ways off the reef to fully see take in the scenery around us.

So Larry... I guess what everyone here needs to know is what kind of dive experiences have you had before and what have been the highlights of your dive trips up to now?

Or maybe even funnier... did Larry add this thread title as a wind up?

Everone knows the best dive destination. The sea is always calm and the water is gin-clear. There are no currents but the reefs are teeming with life. Large predators swim round with whalesharks and mantas in shallow water. It's cheap and easy to get to, and they love having me there. The dive guides are all stunningly beautiful girls who just can't resist me. Where is it? Well, I don't know, but if you do please e-mail at home!

it's a place called galapmicrofijicocosolomlemberajasipadcaliforpngthai-land

The Eddystone off Plymouth.

Scenic, good (ish) vis, walls of jewel anemones, not too far away.

Not sure if it is the 'best' but i have always liked it

I also like the sound of galapmicrofijicocosolomlemberajasipadcaliforpngthai-land anyone know if they fly there from the UK .

Everyone is wrong. The best destination in the world is...

... the next one!

Tim

B)

(Any old rubbish for my 100th posting!)