I honestly think this is the worst mechanism in the game. It's tedious and uncomfortable and frustrating and utterly useless.
I don't mean diving for PWPs (which is ultimately not really diving, but just sitting in water), but trying to complete to dive catalog is driving me crazy.
First, the button mashing. It is SO reliant on button mashing. You have to mash like crazy to move at a decent pace, you have to mash triple speed to catch up with the ridiculous little dark dots (which can disappear at ANY moment and go 3x faster than you can), you have to button mash to avoid jellyfish.
And it's so pointless. Yay, you can collect species that you can't find in the rivers. Good. But it's not as if they'd still be in the game if you couldn't dive. It's literally just busywork.
And you can't move! You can barely move. I am DYING at how slow my character is in the water. It makes me want to scream. You're just there, BARELY moving, hammering on that A button like it owes you money, and for what? Stupid underwater sea creatures that DON'T EVEN BRING IN ANY MORE MONEY THAN A POCKETFUL OF REGULAR FISH.
*screams*
I hope they abolish this ridiculous method altogether in the next game the end
Oh yeah I hate those really fast "dots" that always go behind the bars before you can catch up. And ya the 3ds ain't really made for smashing buttons either so you need to be insanely exact >>
I have it when the creature you're chasing goes out of bounds. Or if it looks like it's in bounds but it isn't. Also I hate that you have such a short time limit before you run out of air and have to return to the surface.
I don't even think it's about button mashing, it's like you have to go at it in a rhythm. Even when you button mash I thought it doesn't go any faster. I can't remember the last time I went diving though loool
I use to hate it like you do but I had to get over my hate because I really want my Diving Badge. It's pretty easy for me now but I still hate the button mashing.
The best strategy is to try to swim near the rope boundary so that the shadow is forced to move away from the boundary. Timing your dive correctly is a big part of it. If you can dive so that you land right on top of the shadow or near it, then you don't have to do much button mashing.
Diving for long periods of time makes my thumb stiff. I do enjoy it though, and finally catching those stubbornly quick and evasive dots can be satisfying.
If Animal Crossing keeps the diving mechanic, I hope they improve the controls and increase character swimming speed
I hope they put it in the next game! It would be extra cool if they added more undersea creatures. I have a feeling in the next game they will make an underwater option which lets you scuba dive and let you explore underwater. Just a thought! What would be even cooler would be able to visit those tiny little islands that we saw on Happy Home Designer and putting things like PWPs on them. Expanding the town sea would be nice and adding things like trenches or caves would be impressive.
I have my diving part of my encyclopedia at 81%, which is leaving me 2 creatures.
I actually enjoy diving, for me, it's really fun. The two creatures can't be caught at the moment, because they are found in the seas of your town in July
I do like diving and all but i hate on when the creature goes really fast and out of bounds, which requires an immense amount of button-mashing. Quite ironically, i got 95% of my Diving Catalog complete, all i need is 2 more and i have completed it. But Jellyfish is the thing i hate the most about it, no matter how bad the weather is, a Jellyfish will always try and find a way to get to you, especially when you are trying to get something.
So yeah, i like diving but there's some things that make me despise of it.
I love diving! I've found that rather than button-mashing, you can build up a good amount of speed by pressing, waiting a second, then pressing again. The only time button-mashing does any good is when you're underwater and about to run out of air. It seems like it gives you a last little burst of speed - I've caught so many octopi that way.
Also, as said above, it helps if you can dive when you're pretty much on top of your target.
I think I prefer diving than fishing 
Diving is frustrating.
