Divers are sharing the scariest things they’ve seen under water – 11 terrifying tales

John Plunkett. Updated October 31st, 2019

We have to confess we’ve never been diving and rarely even venture into the deep end of our local swimming pool.

And this thread on Reddit has done nothing to change our mind after divers were asked to share the scariest things they’ve seen under water.

Don’t have nightmares.

1. Scary freezer

‘I’ve done a number of dives, and the strangest thing I ever saw was a large deep freezer with a heavy industrial chain wrapped around multiple times with about 5 cinder blocks attached. It was very very rusted and the deep freezer itself had to have been about 30+ years old, probably more. This was about 90 feet deep just off Vancouver Island, Canada.

‘The situation gave myself and the other divers the newbie jeebies. Logged the gps and depth coordinates and notified the police. We were able to find out what was inside, since one of the divers had friends with local police. 10 porcelain dolls…’ count_dynamo

2. Scary shark

‘When living off the coast some buddies and I would take regular fishing trips out to the oil rigs. We would always have some lines out and a few would dive down and try to spear some mangrove snapper or cobia. Once while I and two others were diving down checking out the structure we decided we needed to move due to lack of life around the rig.. we all get back in the boat and as one of my buddies is reeling in a line we had a red snapper baited on.. an easily 8-10ft tiger shark starts chewing on it right behind the prop, so close I could have poked his eye out.

‘The idea that massive animal was in the water so close to me and two of my friends but no one saw it is terrifying. I bet he was watching us the whole time.’ liquidtacomeat

3. Scary skeleton

‘I had a dive master that told me once he was diving somewhere and found a full skeleton wearing diving gear with the air on the tank turned off pretty deep down. If I remember correctly they said they reported it to the police and it was found out the man’s wife turned off his air while they were on a dive to murder him.’ camberto5

4. Scary as hell

“I dropped my goggles and was trying to reach down in the river and grab it but I pulled out a sheep skull by its sockets. Wasn’t as creepy in hindsight but 10 year old me was scared.” FuckSirah

5. Scary orca

‘I was working in Orkney, North of Scotland, on the fish farms. One time I swam down one of the bigger nets off Rousay and it was very dark, very overgrown, and I could see some weird shapes lying in the dead man’s sock as I descended. There were a few more dead fish than usual, maybe a hundred or so, but underneath them were lying three dead seals. Big ones.

‘It was hard to make out because they were covered in fish but one of the seals had a big fucking chunk of it missing. And that’s when I looked up and saw a four foot tear in the side of the net. Fuck that.

‘Turns out the seals had been killed by Orca and somehow got through the net in a panic. Orca are quite common up in Orkney and are the only animal we were told you HAD to get out the water for if seen.

‘Not supernatural or anything but I remember a significant shiver running down my spine that day.’ ThePowerfulHorse

6. Scary moray

‘An old WW2 ammunition ship off the south coast of England was full of brass topped shells. Most had been taken by divers over the years and it was now very rare to see them, apart from a pile in one corner of the ship.”

‘This pile of shiny brass metals was miraculous untouched and remarkably clean after spending years underwater and you only found out why if you swam near them.”

‘Out of the murky darkness the largest moray I have every seen snakes forward, without exaggeration this thing had a head the same size as a horse’s head full of jagged teeth. I could not see the body as it looped into the dark and deeper into the ship. No one got near those shells.

‘Turns out for years this thing had been guarding the shiny brass shells, slithering over them making them shine. We found out at the bar later that he was famous in the area and many people went to the wreck just to see him. No idea why this giant creature was guarding them like a dragon and its horde, but some said morays are like magpies and shiny things.’ RCMW181

7. Scary shark (again)

‘I once went diving in Port Elizabeth, South Africa where it is quite popular to see sharks. We begin diving and we are quite ar from the shore, there’s a cool looking structure under us, we swim towards it to get a closer look and I just start getting this cold cold cold cold feeling running through my body, and that’s when a shark appeared and I shat my body in fear.’ chaantayx

8. Scary spy

‘When I was a kid swimming in the lake at summer camp, I dove underwater and I swear I saw someone in SCUBA gear hiding underneath the dock watching us. I told the lifeguard but he wasn’t able to find anyone.’ username_redacted

9. Scary urns

‘I do not dive often but I had gone to a lake with a couple of friends and we were all diving in different parts of the lake to look for others lost belongings. I was bringing up an ammo box I had found I looked over to a group of my friends at the dock and one was holding what looked like a small cloth bag so I didn’t really bother walking over to check it out. Turns out it was a bag full of small urns with the same name on it.

‘It really spooked us so we figured whoever put it there wants it there so we put them back and left almost immediately afterwards.’ K1ngNightmare47

10. Scary eels

‘I got told a story once by a Maori Language teacher of mine during my time at High School. We didn’t learn much Maori, just listened to stories. A dam in the Waikato, New Zealand had begun to have visible cracks in the concrete on the outside part of the dam and some drivers were organised to dive down and check the inside submerged part of the dam for damage on that side.

‘While they were down there, there was the usual debris you would find behind a man made wall which prevents the water from flowing as it would normally do if there wasn’t a dam there.

‘Turns out what they thought were large logs were in fact huge eels which had gotten to the size of logs due to being prevented from migrating to the sea, where they breed and die. So from being prevented from doing their natural life duties they just get larger and larger. That would be creepy seeing eels deep down in the water just floating around…’ HandsomeKiwiBoy

11. Scary cemetries

‘You can dive in man made lakes and check out what’s left of old flooded homes and communities. It’s pretty dark and spooky down there no matter what, especially when you think of all the big fish swimming around that are barely silhouettes until they’re close.

‘My buddy likes to dive in lakes. He said the creepiest thing, by far, is finding cemeteries 100 ft + beneath the water in the dark, eerie quiet.

‘4 day edit: I asked him about big fish. He said there’s definitely shit down there bigger than he expected – 4 or 5 feet. They’re attracted to the lights and noise but watch from a distance – which is nonetheless discincerting, just dark, 2d shapes drifting nearby. None of the monsters other folks are bringing up though.’ UrethraFrankIin

Source Reddit H/T Indy100 Someecards Image Pixabay