Blowfishes Best Dives

Author: Tom "The Blowfish" Hird

I’ve been diving since I was 13, and growing up in the UK our dive training was always very taxing. Cold water, low visibility, quarries, currents, wrecks, our standard training dives would be harder than most tropical divers would ever encounter. This has given me a great skill set, and while I am certainly not the best diver in the world, I am currently still alive! And that’s got to be worth something.

In my career, I have been lucky enough to dive all over the world! In fact, I think the only place I haven’t really managed to reach yet is Antarctica, and don’t worry, that’s on my to do list! But anyway, here is just a quick breakdown of my top 3 dives EVER!

Starting with the bronze medal position, the 3rd best dive I have ever been on was in the waters of Komodo. These islands in Indonesia may be most famous for the dragons which roam over the land, but they also fall within an ecological sweet spot for ocean life. The reefs around Komodo are incredibly rich, and remain for the most part, fairly well protected, and while I do love diving on a coral reef, this particular dive was all about the rays! Komodo has a large resident population of reef manta rays which can be seen all year round, and we decided it would be rude not to pop along and say hello. Most of the dive was a slow drift over the tops of the reef. Here, the reef isn’t one solid piece like you’d get elsewhere, but large coral bommies and outcrops, with expanses of fine sand in-between, along with the occasional psychedelically coloured giant clam. At the end of the dive, which at best was only 18ft deep, we came to a sand bank at around 9ft. Here we could dig into the sand and watch as the mantas danced around us. At one point there must have been 15 or 20 adult reef manta rays directly within my field of view; all socializing, feeding and coming in for cleaning. We stayed as long as our air would last, which was a long time at 9ft, but just wasn’t long enough for me.

At Number 2, I think it must be the Galapagos. Every dive we took here was a mind blower, so much so, experienced divers all around me were surfacing with stupid big grins, and babbling chatter that you would normally expect from novice divers seeing their first hermit crab. The thing about the dives in Galapagos was that they required a full suite of diving skills. The currents were constant and strong, the reef below was large, jagged boulders that would cut you up if you clattered into them. The water temp constantly fluctuated hot to cold and back again, like having a shower and someone flushing the toilet! Surfacing required open water safety stops, with no shot lines or markers to eyeball. All in all, a fantastic obstacle course for any trained diver that just added to the level of engagement when you were in the water. And of course, I should mention the sharks… wow…. The sharks! Every dive was just a mosh pit of hammerheads and Galapagos sharks, with the occasional tiger and passing pod of orca thrown in! Drifting over the reef at what felt like 3+ knots, these shivers of sharks would swim opposing the current and effortlessly bypass us on their daily circuits of the various islands. Everywhere you looked there was life, and a lot of it! No surprise then that burly, salty, old-school divers were surfacing squealing like school children at Christmas!

And at the top, the BEST dive I think I have ever done was at a site called Strýtan in Iceland. This place was unique in a way no other dive I have ever been on can match. The site is located within an Icelandic fjord where the maximum depth is around 230ft and the water temperature only a few degrees above freezing. What makes this place so mind-blowingly special is that there is a geothermal chimney, which rises from the bottom to just below the waters surface. This incredible tower has formed over 11,000 years due to a process where freshwater is heated to incredible temperatures deep underground, absorbing metals and minerals while it's there. Eventually, this super-heated mineral rich water makes a break for the surface, and when it hits the ice-cold salt water of the fjord, it hardens and forms the most stunning limestone formations, a huge white crystalised chimney 180ft tall. Diving on this structure is like nothing else, as the warm water continues to blast through the vents and cracks in the tower, and where it escapes, you get the most incredible “mirage” effect as the water shimmers due to the temperature and salinity change. It’s also packed with life thanks to all that heat and the rich minerals promoting the growth of a whole army of invertebrates and algae. The dive starts by entering on a single small buoy at the surface, then dropping right down to 70ft, before starting the encircling climb up this alien structure looming up from the inky black water. Truly spectacular.