One great thing about scuba diving is that no two dives are alike. Last week-end I had a good reminder that scuba diving can also be an extreme sport.
The scuba diving clubs that are based on “Petite Terre” or around Mamoudzou make most of their dives in “La Passe En S”, it is indeed a great place to dive but one needs a change of scenery from time to time. The north and the south of “Grande Terre” offer a great choice of dive spots which are really different from “La Passe En S”. We headed to Boueni on Friday evening to avoid driving for an hour on Saturday morning to the diving school and we spent the night at “Le Soleil Couchant” in bungalows. I really recommend this place as it is quite cheap and has a great restaurant, you can't go to this place without trying the “Cari Crabe” where you will have the challenge of eating a very large crab. Even if you can't eat all the crab you won't regret it.
On Saturday morning we went to the diving center and were on our way to the diving spot as soon as our gear was ready. The instructors didn't want to waste too much time because they wanted to avoid the tide. It took us almost an hour to get there, we were around 12 on the boat and to avoid confusion when it would be time to go in the water each team would dive at a different spot. We were the last 5 to go so we had plenty of time to get prepared. As soon as the boat driver found the right spot with not to much current we jumped in the water and as it was an open water dive we went underwater facing each other: that is when trouble started.
As I was going down I could feel the strength of the current increasing, the floor was around 5 meters deep and I had to grab it to be able to move in the direction of the instructor. In those case grabbing the floor allows you to go forward without getting tired from trying to palm against the current. The more I would want to go down, the more difficult it would get for me to do so. At the same time as I was fighting to move forward, my mask would fill itself with water in a mater of minutes. When you dive with a moustache the mask will not be able to stick properly to your skin in the area located just below your nose, thus it is common to have to empty the water in the mask two or three times during a dive. But in this case it was like my mask was filling with water as fast as I would empty it. Behind the coral reef, the current would throw us back on the reef, it would be very difficult to find balance and on top of that I had the impression my mask was filling even faster. In normal conditions I have no problems emptying my mask and putting it back so that water doesn't come back in too quickly. I was using one hand to try and steady myself but you need both of them to empty your mask properly or can use one hand if you are in good diving conditions, I tried to empty the water repeatedly with one hand but no success.
I was feeling panic starting to take over so I showed the instructor the sign for “I'm not feeling so good”. He took me to a place where I would be able to sit and was a little bit protected by the current. I then took my mask with both hands, emptied the water, put the mask back on, looked left, looked right, looked at the instructor, made the sign “I'm OK” and we went on with the dive. If I would not have been able to solve that water in the mask thing I am sure I would have asked to go back to the surface. The four of us each have used a lot of air during the beginning of the dive as it was quite an experience but as soon as the current strength lessened we managed to start breathing properly again and ended up staying underwater for almost 50 minutes (I usually dive for a minimum of 60 minutes). The instructor congratulated us because he expected the dive to be finished after only 30 minutes.
It was a tough dive but I believe we have learned a little bit about ourselves during those 50 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment