Top Ten Dive Sites

I was recently asked to write an article entitled Top Ten Dive Sites. I wanted to change it to Ten Top Dive Sites because I know even Jacques Cousteau had about 50 in his Top Ten!

What are your top ten?

I really like Ras Mohammed in the Red Sea. And the Thistlegorm.

It would have to be Wrasybury or Vobster Quay. The rest are not worth listing......!

It would have to be Wrasybury or Vobster Quay. The rest are not worth listing......!

I really like Ducomi Pier in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, Philippines.

Unfortunatelly it is closed now.

Come on you experienced travellers. I want your top Ten not just an odd one!

Daedalus

Deep rebreather dive on never-before-dived wreck in Palau

Snorkle with 50 Whale Sharks, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Diving with Crocs, Elephants and Hippos, Okavango Delta, Botswana

Ice dive, McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Tachai Pinnacle, Similan Islands, Thailand

Diving with Sperm Whales, Ogasawara Islands, Japan

Connecting the Sac Actun and Nohoch Nah Chich Cave systems, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Wherever Eric took that big Aluminum reef shot in Indonesia

Bait Ball w/ Gannets, Dolphins, Sharks and Brydes Whales, Port St. Johns, South Africa

HMHS Britannic, Greece

Not in any particular order:

Saratoga, Bikini

Darwin Island, Galapagos

Roca Partida, Revillagigedos

Blue Corner, Palau

Brothers Islands, Red Sea

Lembeh Strait, Indonesia

Witu Islands, PNG

Tiputu Pass, Tahiti

Poor Knights, New Zealand

Jardines de la Reina, Cuba

Horsea island before the military closed access.......Swanage Pier.......Gildenburgh.....

The Boiler, San Benedicto Island

Cocos Island

Richarsons Rock, northern channel islands CA

Hedo ?? point , Okinawa

Big Sur coast, CA, Schmeider?? bank

Tobamory, Lake Ontario, Canada

Socorro Islands, Roca Partida

Dirty Rock, Komodo

Fiji, Lau group

San Miguel Island, Northern Channel islands, CA, Wycoff ?? ledge

In no particular order ...

Blue corner... Palau

Fujikawa maru... Chuuk

Anywhere around Gozo... Maltese Archipelago

The marine reserve... El Hierro ... Canary islands

Pembrokeshire ... West Wales

Stoney Cove ...

Dive safe

DeanB

babylon - Grand Cayman

fredericksted pier - st croix

wreck of the rhone - salt island, bvi

los dos ojos cenote - yucatan

in no particular order...

Roca Partida in the Revillagigedos Archipelago (Socorro)

Colombia Deep in Cozumel

Darwin Island in Galapagos

Vatu-i-Ra pass in Fiji

Linden Haven Jetty in PNG

Blue Holes in Palau

Oil rigs in California

Shinkoku Maru in Truk

Gunung Api (Snake Island) in the Banda Sea

Most of Raja Ampat

Havent traveled that much so heres my top 2(3)

No doubt in my mind that Saltstraumen in norway is my number one dive.

Ras Muhammed

And then Denmark

Single most exhilarating dive of my life:

Alcyone, Cocos Island.

darwin's arch

dirty rock, Cocos

Yongala, Australia

Roca Partida, Revillagigedos/Socorro

There we go, I could surely had ten more :

Pescador island - Moalboal Philippines

Sahaung - Bangka straits N/sulawesi

Nudi retreat - Lembeh straits

Liberty Wreck - Bali

Barracuda Point - Sipadan - M'sian Borneo

Paradise II - Mabul - M'sian Borneo

Nacala Bay - northern Mozambique

G6 / Vatu I ra - Fiji islands

SS Pres.Coolidge - Santo - Vanuatu

Hin Muang/Hin Daeng - Southern Thailand

This is a really good question. Helped pass considerable time on planes, trains and automobiles today.

Here is my list. Changing by the minute - so better type it quick. Limited by where I have dived - there are a number of excellent suggestions above I have yet to try.

1 Ras Mohammed, Egypt.

2 Fiabacet, Misool, Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

3 Browning Wall, Browning Pass, Canada.

4 TK, Lembeh, Indonesia.

5 Thistlegorm Wreck, Egypt.

6 Baracuda Point, Sipadan.

7 Frankenwald Wreck, Norway.

8 Tiger Beach, Bahamas.

9 Washington Rock, Sardinia, Italy.

10 Wool Bay Jetty, South Australia.

(11 East of Eden, Similans, Thailand)

(12 Snapper Hole, Grand Cayman)

Alex

p.s. That said, this week I have been diving in a mucky lagoon in France (1-4m viz) and have been loving it. You gotta love diving, really. Where ever you go it is excellent.

Interesting question. There are soooo many great dive sites to choose from but here goes...

1 Seven Tree Island, Browining Pass, British Columbia, Canada.

2 Nakwakto Rapids, Seymour Inlet, BC, Canada.

3 Browning Wall, Browning Pass, BC, Canada.

4 The Coral, Agamemnon Channel, BC Canada.

5 Wooden Island, Alaska, USA

6 E-6, Bligh Water, Fiji

7 Tongoa Wall, Vanuatu.

8 Tiger Beach, Bahamas.

9 Blue Corner, Palau

10 Cenotes, Yucatan, Mexico.

The only problem I have with the "top ten dive sites" thing is that it's not really the dive site that makes it great. Three of my favorite dives in my 30 years of diving were at totally pedestrian dive sites:

- Parrot's Landing night dive Grand Cayman - Bristle Worms were spawning. Most amazing thing I've seen on a shore dive, there was a bristle worm on every single coral head spewing white stuff into the water. Looked like they were doing "pushups" at the same time. Every coral head looked like a party was goin on It was also a full moon and I could turn off my dive light and watch the scene almost as clear as day. I've never seen spawning on that scale again.

- Bedroom Bay, Statia - On another night dive, I was with one other diver in a fairly unremarkable shallow dive with small coral heads in the sand. Looked up, and the entire surface about 30' above me seemed to be moving like a river. I rose up to the surface and realized it was schooling squid - literally *thousands* of them. I grabbed one and lifted it up out of the water to examine for a few moments; it was still expelling air trying to get away from me. Then I saw it: a 4 foot great barracuda near the bottom. He gathered himself up, sort of like a cat getting ready to pounce, and THRUSTED into the middle of the squid in just fractions of a second! I went to bottom and exhausted my tank of air watching the barracuda feed on the highway of squid above.

- Garden Eel Cove - Kona - Pretty common dive. I'm sure a lot of you have probably done it. The Manta night dive. When we did it, there were possibly 200 divers there. That might sound terrible, but in actuality, it added to the experience. All the divers gather into a large circle around a crate with halogens pointed to the surface like it was a campfire. All the snorkelers on the surface looked like airplanes circling an airport. Then they came. We counted 11 Mantas that night and they came flying in like bombers on a strafing run. It looked seriously JUST LIKE the scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Devil's Tower. Just incredible!

Sure, I could list the names of some "signature" dives I've done. Blue Hole, The Rhone, Pinnacle, Stingray City, the Pier at Bonaire, T&C, Bahamas, Cenotes, etc.. From reading this thread, it's obvious a lot of you have been more exotic places than I have, but really, it's not the dive site, it's what "Was There".

JP