MY SCUBA DIVING EXPERIENCE

“ Where creatures from two worlds met. Where silence gave a different vibe altogether. Where there was nothing but being in the moment. “ 

These are the exact words that could describe my scuba experience.at the Maldives. I went in for a total of three dives, and every time seemed new; every time seemed surreal.

My first 2 dives were about half an hour’s boat ride from Hulhumale. The first one was only 4 metres deep whereas the second one was 12 metres deep. Raghu and I signed up for our first scuba experience at the Beach Club Maldives, and were taken on a Dhoni to the dive spot along with our instructors. After reaching the dive spot, we had some assistance with wearing our BCD(Buoyancy Control Device), cylinder and mouthpiece, fins, and masks.

We were then given basic scuba lessons, after which we were asked to lower ourselves down into the water by descending down the hanging ladder of the Dhoni. Raghu descended first. Watching him descend, I was wondering why he was so shaky and nervous. “You just have to get in the water, bro”, I said. Only when I did lower myself did I realize how he would have felt. Firstly, placing my finned foot on the ladder was hard. Secondly, the empty vastness around us gave me a foreboding sense of fear. I lowered myself anyways, and started floating in the water. I am not a person who is scared of water or of swimming, but I was completely nervous to my bobbing in water then. I held on to the ladder swinging down, unsure of what I was doing there. And putting on the mouthpiece totally freaked me out. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and the noise it made while breathing scared me! Also, for the first few seconds I forgot to breathe, probably that made me even more panicky. My instructor, Ajay, then asked me to relax, to breathe through the mouthpiece, and slowly look down. I did just that, and oh, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw there! It was like I was looking into somebody’s roof, through a glass ceiling  seeing beautiful corals and schools of fishes swimming busily in the crystal clear water.

Ajay then told me to relax, to keep breathing and to lower myself into the water by deflating my BCD. Not even 5 seconds later, I frantically reached for the inflate button and rose up to the surface( yeah, I hadn’t gone in much further!). Meanwhile, Raghu who had gone in came up to me telling me how amazing it was. With more coaxing from Ajay, I started deflating the BCD and started sinking deeper. 

Once I was underwater, moving my fins seemed to be a natural thing. I kept swimming, following my instructor, mesmerized by the beauty I was seeing around me. We spotted a lot of colorful fishes, the most beautiful ones in the first dive being the trigger fishes. My instructor let me take my time in the first dive to get used to the water, to the  movements, and to the breathing. 

We then rose up to the surface, got on the dhoni, and reached the second dive spot. This was near some old rubble, which had its base sunken deep into the ocean, giving me the feeling of being near a giant fortress. Reefs had formed all over it and so it resembled a mountain of reefs built up on top of each other on one end and dark depths on the other end. The only source of light we were getting was one beam of sunlight flashing in directly on the ocean floor. If the first dive was captivating, this was MINDBLOWING! Just as we were descending, a large curtain of school of bannerfishes swam by us. We spotted a single Surgeon fish, a type of fish very specific to the Maldives. While I was gaping looking at these, my instructor signalled to me and pointed down- 3 stingrays in all their glory. Oh, they glided back and forth on the ocean floor ever so gracefully! My instructor then signalled me to deflate deeper, which I did just a bit. When he asked me to deflate more so we could observe them even closer, I  shook a firm no(which I regret now though, sigh!)! I was already intimidated by these creatures and getting any more closer would have definitely scared me! My instructor then pointed towards my right and I swerved left just on time to let a fish pass on my right. This was a little above half my size, and moved gently across me. Pout mouth, lump on the head, big but not terrifying, only later did I get to know that it was a Napoleon fish. Colorful fishes swam by us as we explored the reef,going around spotting various Mooray eels and other fishes.

After a while, my instructor indicated that my cylinder was running out of Oxygen and so we swam back to the surface. We swam towards our dhoni and climbed on top of it. When Raghu asked me how my experience was, I was speechless; no words can describe the beautiful world beneath. No words could ever do justice to describing the feeling of being in a totally different world, a surreal one, with all its calmness and the gentle lull nor ever convey the hypnotising rhythmic sound of breathing underwater. It has been a long time since I went diving but I get transported to the underwater world every time I close my eyes and think of it. Scuba diving is not just an adventure activity, rather, it’s soul therapy.

P.S. Diving can be a little intimidating in the beginning. I do have a few jitters even after having dived. So here a few points which come in handy for first time divers:

SCUBA LESSONS TO KEEP IN MIND

1. BREATHE. Sometimes, being in a totally different world can be overwhelming, and the best way to handle it is to keep breathing. Your mouthpiece lets you do all the breathing; all you have to remember is to breathe through your mouth!
2. EQUALISE. As you go deeper underwater, the pressure starts increasing and you need to equalise your body’s pressure accordingly. Doing so creates pressure inside your ear canal to balance the pressure outside and this is very simple- just pinch your nose and blow out through your ears!
3. LOOK, BUT DON’T TOUCH. Aquatic life is beautiful and mesmerising to watch. However tempting it might be to reach out and try to touch the fishes or the corals, do not do it! Aquatic animals would get defensive and hurt you whereas touching the corals could destroy years of growth.

Happy diving!

Cheers,

Aishu