I am simultaneously fascinated and terrified by the ocean.
Fascinated because it is so full of wonder and beauty, but terrified because it seems like we understand so little about it and all the dangerous things that lurk below the ocean’s surface…
Also, I’ve seen the movie Jaws way too many times.
But some pretty scary stuff really does happen down there.
Let’s dive into some creepy stories from people on AskReddit.
1. Hunted.
“I was on a night dive looking for a resident sixgill shark when a large grey animal darted past me, just barely illuminated by my light.
It was way faster than I was told this shark would be and I couldn’t quite make out the size. Then it happened again on the other side. Both times it was in my peripheral vision, barely illuminated by my forward aimed spot light, and very fast.
For some reason when I got to the bottom, I decided just to sit on my knees and aim the light in one direction until something happened. As it turned out, the beast was a harbor seal using the light to find fish to eat. He/she hung out with us for a while which was a pretty cool experience.
We never found the shark but I did think I was being hunted for a bit.”
2. Okinawa.
“About 9 months ago, I was swimming through a little coral canyon off of Okinawa with my brother-in-law about 65 feet underwater.
The next thing I knew we were on the surface with him dragging me towards the shore. We’re still not sure what triggered it (probably a panic attack but I had honestly felt fine the whole dive up to this point and have done 20+ times with no other incidents), but I had blacked out and overinflated my BCD and rocketed to the surface in about 6 seconds.
I had a reverse sinus squeeze, popped eardrums, and type 2 DCS. Spent 5 hours in the deco chamber. Thank god I have a US Marine rescue diver for a brother-in-law.”
3. The bends.
“I got bent.
The DCI lead to two strokes on top of the normal DCI stuff. This was back in 2014, and I am still dealing with the complications. All because I did my math wrong and have a PFO I didn’t know about.
Because of my time in the chamber I have really bad PTSD, so I have a service animal, and I don’t sleep.
I just am claustrophobic all of the time.”
4. Scary.
“Had a 7 hour dive cleaning a coast guard cutter.
Tender had thrown a majority of my umbilical in the water because who wants to tend you swimming up and down a hull for that long. I finished my dive I swam over to the ladder and when I was 3 rungs from breaking the surface I felt my umbilical get tight.
I couldn’t get out of the water.. had to pull myself down to where my umbilical had gotten wrapped up in some rigging underneath the pier where the ship was moored.
Cutting that sh*t free in the dark after a 7 hour dive pretty much ruined all the happy fun time. I had nightmares about that for a while.”
5. On the job.
“I do underwater construction for a living and my scariest moment was when I was trying to rig up a concrete slab that was a couple thousand pounds to get picked out of the water by a crane.
It started to tip over while I was working on it an I had to jump out of the way quickly to avoid it falling on me. When it fell It landed right on my dive hose that supplies me air from the surface. Luckily the force of it hitting the ground broke the slab and I was able to shimmy my dive hose between the pieces with a lot of effort.
This all happened about 70 ft from surface.”
6. Terrifying.
“I had a panic attack in strong current while at 100ft. I was diving the Corsair wreck in Hawaii.
All my mind wanted to do was spit out my regulator and swim to the surface. I held my regulator in my and kept telling myself, “if you go up right now, you will die. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, what do we do we swim, swim, swim””
7. OH MY GOD.
“I was diving with a mom, her husband, and their son on a night dive.
Idk how many dives they’ve been on but the mom for some reason decided to just go up without signaling anyone why. She did a thumbs up signal which means she needs to go up and when the dive instructor signaled back asking why she just went up.
So the guide is trying to get her to come down when a boat comes across and runs her right over. I forget the exact size of the boat but it was big duel motor. Blood was everywhere and we had to rush out because there were a lot of sharks in the area. She died instantly I assume.
I didn’t see much once we surfaced as I was busy vomiting from everything.”
8. Caught.
“Got caught in a down current on a wall dive.
Went from 12m to 41m very, very quickly. Fully inflated BCDS weren’t enough to combat the current. Clinging to a wall, much deeper than the dive was planned for, trying to inch sideways to get out of the current was the scariest moment of my life so far.
It was a group of instructors diving so the training paid off and a burst eardrum was the worst injury of the day. But, sheer terror. The wall we were diving was over 200m deep, had we not found a hold on it we would have most likely lost our lives.”
9. Hell no.
“Got ripped away from my group by a rip current, ended up about 50m away from my group with a burst blood vessel in my nose. Screeching sinus headache.
Luckily no nitrogen issues or sharks this time. But was pretty scary to be with my group and the next minute be all alone in the middle of the ocean.”
10. Shipwreck.
“I was diving a shipwreck surrounded by sharks.
They would swim straight at you and turn when they got within a foot of your face because they thought you had food but that wasn’t the scary part. This ship was ripped in two with parts scattered along the sea floor. There was a section of the boat that was still intact but pitch black inside.
I stuck my head in with a flash light and was surrounded by a lion fish. They are very poisonous and you don’t f*ck with them so I got out real quick.”
11. Ugh!
“Blood worms on my first night dive.
I was not aware that they were a thing and that I would have the feeling of tons of tiny creatures wriggling over my face.”
12. Wrong turn.
“Not mine but my uncles my uncle got lost from a group and was beginning to start surfacing when 5 or 6 guys grab him and drag him to a small boat…turns out he strayed into a very small military installation nearby and didn’t realize it.
He got grabbed up by some navy divers…kinda crazy.”
13. Seizure.
“Saved someone from drowning while SCUBA Diving.
Person had an epileptic seizure at 85 feet of water in a pitch black cavern that I was diving also. I was hovering above just watching the flashlights move about when I noticed one flashlight not moving, I swam down and was met with the other diver with no regulator in their mouth, eyes open and just on their knees.
The divers buddy was next to them and in complete shock to what was going on and was not assisting whatsoever. 15 years of diving and instructor training came over me like it was second nature. I thought her regulator just came out so I popped mine out and offered it to her, that when I noticed she had done mentally checked out.
I popped my #2 regulator in my mouth and attempted to put my #1 regulator in her mouth but her teeth were completely clenched… I then press the purged button to get air into her mouth and noticed her cheeks moving so I know air was getting in there. That was good enough for me, I then grabbed her under her arm and get the regulator flowing in her mouth and swan to the opening of the cavern and then up over 60 feet to get her to the surface.
One on the surface did everything I was trained to do, inflate bc, dumped her weights, got her on her back and started towing to land. As I’m towing her in she is regurgitating all the water she swallowed and inhaled, it seemed like gallons of water.
Got her to land where other divers assisted me in getting all her gear off. She was breathing fine and alive but in shock for a while and slowly came around like nothing happened. We were very lucky that we were only 10 minutes into the dive or for sure we would have both been bent and spending time in a hyperbaric chamber.
The crazy thing is she didn’t tell anyone she had epilepsy and when we later reviewed her consent form she checked off “no” to epilepsy. I put myself at risk shooting up to the surface like that but if I came across that situation again I would not hesitate to save someone’s life.”
Now it’s your turn!
Have you ever had an eerie experience under the water?
If so, please tell us all about it in the comments!
