The student becomes the divemaster

                                                                 

After working for four and a half years in the Maldives, in August of 2014 I moved to Germany to carry on teaching physics and math at another international school. Although I have been lucky enough to meet a new batch of highly motivated students here in Europe, very often I remember the many talented and enthusiastic students who made my job both easy and exciting in a country with such underwater beauties that becoming a Master Scuba diver was the logical thing to do.

Some of the students previously mentioned are now continuing with their studies in the US, UK, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. It is very motivating as a teacher to hear about their achievements which will hopefully cause a positive impact in their future and that of others around them.

Precisely because of the reason mentioned above, I have decided to add one more post to this blog which was once used as a record of the Diving Club activities and to share them with anyone who might be interested in them.

It is with great pleasure that I would like to announce that on 16 November, 2015, Rai Hassan, who took his first dives with Billabong´s Diving Club (group numbers 1, 2, 3 and 10) became a certified Divemaster by completing the necessary courses through Dive Oceanus and Villa College with a 95% result in his theory evaluation.

Rai has already started educating tourists about the importance of protecting the reefs and been attentive to prevent new divers from damaging them. He has also shared some of the pictures taken during his courses which can be seen below. Congratulations Rai, and all the best with your future projects.

A whale shark and Rai

A beautiful manta

Some more mantas

A Maldivian dolphin

Great shot of a whale shark

Close up of a turtle

Rai visiting a wreck

The newly certified divemaster

Diving Group 13 – Ibu Jaleel and Ismail Rasheed                                           

Because throughout 2013, I had received some requests from parents asking if a diving trip could be organized for them, on January 26^th, Billabong´s Diving Club restarted its activities by taking two parents with a long Billabong High history: Mr. Ismail Rasheed and Mr. Ibu Jaleel.

At 8:00 am on Saturday morning, the three of us met at jetty number 5 where the regular diving briefing and safety instructions were given. After both of them knew the basic underwater sign language, the most important rule while diving (never hold your breath) and what to expect during the upcoming hours; we were picked up at 8:30 by Dive Club Maldives and headed towards Hulhumale´ for the equipment.

Our first dive of the day (and their first dive ever) took place at around 10:00 in Feydhoo Finolhu, an island which used to be run by the Ministry of Education but is now guarded by the Maldivian police forces. We were told by Dive Club´s divemaster that this is the only wall in the area as the rest of the locations have only regular reefs.

During the 33-minute dive at Feydhoo´s wall, both parents managed to do the Discover Scuba Diving exercises and enjoyed the good visibility while getting used to not using their hands, breathing through the mouth and keeping themselves in a horizontal position.

After a one-hour break which was used for snorkeling by some of the tourists on board, we went to Kurumba for the second and last dive of the day. At Kurumba, we managed to see eels and many more fishes than at Feydhoo. While the more experienced divers went deeper to see some sharks, we kept ourselves at around 10 meters but still enjoyed the good visibility and light current. During this dive, I noticed a big fish that looked like a parrotfish and which was changing colors depending on how close I got to it. Two of the pictures below were taken almost at the same moment and show this bicolor effect.

The first diving trip of 2014 concluded successfully at 2:30 in Male´ with the first two parents (of what we hope will be many more to come) who have followed the steps of their son and daughter by becoming Discover Scuba divers.

The parents are being instructed by the Divemaster.

First moments underwater.

Discovering Feydhoo.

And discovering the Maldivian underwater world.

Some Maldives´ anemone fish.

Front view.

Mr. Ismail and Mr. Ibu.

Closeup picture.

Underwater nature.

We were not the only divers in the area.

Big fish and coral: color number 1.

Same fish and coral : Color number 2.

Clark anemone fish.

Diving Group 12 – Zuhura, Shasha, Muzeyna and Izza                                           

In the morning of September 14^th, the bad weather cancelled a diving trip that would have seen some Billabong students successfully accomplish the Discover Scuba Diving course. Fortunately, that only increased their excitement in diving for the first time so that, one week later, Zuhura (Grade 8), Shasha (Grade 8), Muzeyna (Grade 8) and Izza (Grade 7) were ready and keen on taking the trip to Hulhumale´ and learn how to dive.

On September 21^st, the four students and I watched the introductory video along with three other tourists who were also about to experience diving for the very first time. Afterwards, we all checked the sizes of their BCDs and fins so that we could take the equipment and head for our usual shallow water exercise location: MaaGiri.

Once we arrived there and jumped into the water, the current forced us to swim for some minutes until we reached the spot where the shallow water exercises were conducted. The first one to finish was Zuhura who, because of a stubbornly foggy mask, became quite skilled in cleaning it and then removing the water. By the end of that dive all four students managed to equalize properly and reached a depth of 8 to 10 meters.

After seeing eels, clown fish and many other species which the girls easily identified from the movie Finding Nemo, the boat picked us up and we headed to Kurumba. While waiting for things to be ready, Shasha and I decided to snorkel along the reef and practice some free diving. One thing I have noticed is that when learning how to free dive, students tend to improve considerably after just a few tries… she was not the exception.

The students after watching the introductory video.

Ready to jump into the water.

A honeycomb eel.

Some Maldives clown fish.

Zuhura enjoying her first dive.

Izza waving at the camera.

Muzeyna receiving some instructions from the Divemaster.

Zuhura and Izza.

Zuhura´s cleaning her mask while Izza´s enjoying the view.

Having some snacks and on our way to Kurumba.

The dive at Kurumba took 45 minutes. This time we saw a much greater variety of fish which included Maldives anemone fish, Clark anemone fish, many Spade fish and also a considerable amount of Banner fish among others. Later on, we were told that a shark was spotted by one of the Divemasters although, unfortunately, none of us managed to see it.

This diving trip didn´t only represent a unique experience for these four students (all of which have requested to be taken on a second diving trip) but also the youngest group of students to take part in the Diving club activities.

Zuhura during the second dive and some Banner fish in the background.

Shasha right before her sneezing attack.

Muzeyna managed to avoid touching corals.

Zuhura´s happy.

From left to right: Zuhura, Muzeyna and Shasha.

A spade fish.

One of the last group of fish we saw during the second dive.

Some interesting links for Ramadan                 

As it is Ramadan in the Maldives and most of my students are fasting during daytime, the Diving Club activities have been put on hold until August. In the meantime, there are some very good links which I would like to share with those of you interested in diving and the underwater world:

1. This is a great advert from PADI promoting its Open Water course: PADI - Go Dive
2. The story of an underwater camera lost in Hawaii in 2007 that has now been found in Taiwan with its memory card still working: Five years, 9600 km later, tourist´s underwater camera found
3. The story of an underwater picture that went viral: National Geographic Live! - Diving with Whales
4. This article was published last year and is about divers in Bandos helping manta rays that were in trouble: Manta Ray Saved by a Divemaster from Bandos
5. Karin Sinniger has a very unique record, as of February 2013 she has dived in 115 different countries. She has more than one thousand logged dives and received her first certificate in 1992. This is her story: World Record: Scuba Diving in 100+ Countries
6. And finally, a list of the ten best scuba diving destinations in the world according to opentravel.com. This list includes Australia´s Great Barrier Reef, Belize´s Great Blue Hole, Indonesia, Mexico and of course Maldives: 10 Best Scuba Diving Destinations

Diving Group 11 – Ithaf, Jaish, Ayham and Maiz.        

On Saturday, July 6^th, Ithaf (Grade 11), Jaish (Grade 11), Ayham (Grade 10), Maiz (the first Grade 8 student to take part in one of our diving trips) and I met at Hulhumale´s terminal for what would become their first two dives and Discover Scuba Diving certification.

After going through the basics of diving and watching the introductory video, the students joined two European tourists on a trip to MaaGiri where the shallow water exercises were successfully conducted in around 10 to 15 minutes, after which we went to deeper water and saw a huge amount of fish banks, a lobster, many anemone fish and eels.

Watching the introductory video.

Listening to the instructions.

Maiz, Ayham and Jaish with their Divemasters.

Maiz´s first dive.

Ayham´s first dive.

Jaish´s first dive.

Ayham and Ithaf.

Ayham equalizing.

One of the many banks of fish we saw.

A hidden lobster.

A honeycomb eel.

Some Maldives anemone fish.

All four of them and their Divemasters.

After the first dive.

During that first trip along MaaGiri´s reef, I noticed two unusual events, the first one occurred during the first minutes of the dive and was Ayham´s talent for underwater sneezing; the second happened during the last ten minutes and was something I have never experienced before while diving: dolphins singing. Although I have heard rain while diving, the sound of dolphins around, even when we couldn´t see them, was a very nice experience which I hope will happen soon again. Later on I was told by the Divemasters that they were most likely swimming around Banana reef.

Our second dive took place along Kurumba´s reef. There, we saw two black-tip sharks, a lot of spade fish and bleaching coral which I decided to photograph along with some bubbles which tend to be a lot of fun to play with when someone´s experiencing his or her first dives.

Ithaf saying hi to the camera.

Jaish diving at Kurumba.

Two eels.

A spade fish.

Heart-shaped bleaching coral.

Clark anemone fish.

My reflection on the bubble.

Second bubble caption.

Last bubble caption.