Diving-Club@Billabong

Diving Group 3 – Maish, Yoosuf, Rai and Izman (Former students)

It was on the morning of February 9^th when a group of four former students from Billabong High met in Male´ and then went to Hulhumale with Ms. Eda and me. This trip represented Rai´s third dive, Izman´s second, the very first dive in Yoosuf´s and Maish´s life and the first time four former students were taken at once.

We arrived some minutes after 8 am at Hulhumale and went through the usual process of watching the introductory video, filling the forms and choosing the suitable diving equipment for each one of them. This time, however, there was an unexpected delay as the boat that would take us to MaaGiri didn´t bring a ladder for us to get back onto it after diving, so a different one had to be requested.

Maish Maseeh, Yoosuf Zimaam, Rai Hassan and Izman Suhail

Into Scuba follows national and international regulations

Watching the introductory video

Checking the fins, BCDs, oxygen tanks, etc.

Waiting for the pickup truck

Into Scuba Diving Centre

Some more explanations

All four of them looking like Ghostbusters

Once we arrived to MaaGiri, Rai, Izman and I compared how the place looked at that time without any wind to the previous trip when it was windy. The difference in the swelling of the water was remarkable.

It didn´t take long before we were all in the water and it seemed that this time we would also start with the shallow water exercises straight away, however Izman and Yoosuf were taking a while longer to reach the bottom. After a few tries and trips to the surface, I found out that Izman was getting a bad toothache whenever he would try to go down and also that Yoosuf was having a rough time equalizing. The divemasters tried to help them while I stayed with Rai and Maish but after a while we realized that it was not the best moment for them to go diving.

Before it was decided that Yoosuf and Izman would be snorkeling instead of diving, I went through some exercises with Maish and Rai. On our previous trip, I had shown Rai how to remove his mask, put it back on and remove the water from it while being underwater. The moment he saw me doing that, he signaled to me asking if he could give it a try. Considering that back then it was just his second dive I said not this time, but later on I promised that he would have the chance to do that on his third dive so, now it was his turn to go through it. Rai indeed took off his mask, opened his eyes underwater and managed to stay like that for a while, after which he also managed to put his mask on and remove the water from it. It is important to note that doing this requires a certain amount of practice since people sometimes pull a bit of water through the nose which causes a very uncomfortable feeling.

After Rai´s success, Maish also practiced adding some water into his mask and removing it by blowing air through his nose while looking up. We then went to the deeper part for the dive.

For the rest of the dive (all of which lasted 54 minutes), Izman and Yoosuf were following our bubbles while we were 12 meters below and, although this time we saw more of MaaGiri´s reef, there weren´t as many attractions as the previous weekend. We still managed to see an eel, a lion fish, an anemone with some clownfish around it and many other fishes. The great thing about this country is that a normal dive in the Maldives equals to an amazing dive in most other countries in the world.