Diving Group 7 – Yoosuf, Hijan and Edhan.                                                

After a few weeks of taking students who had some kind of diving experience, today was the turn of a new batch of students to log their first dive and experience not only the Discover Scuba Diving course, but even a second dive in a beautiful and well preserved location called Banana reef.

Hijan (Grade 11), Yoosuf (Grade 11), Edhan (Grade 9) and I met early this morning to take the speedboat to Hulhumale. Once we arrived to Into Scuba, things were ready for the Billabong students to join a group of Chinese tourists in watching the introductory video that explains, among other things, why it is very important never to hold your breath while diving.

Once the students had filled all the necessary forms and tried their fins on, we took the boat to MaaGiri, where they managed to complete the shallow water exercises surprisingly fast. This allowed us to spend a little more than half an hour in deeper waters.

To carry on with the surprises, not only the three of them didn´t struggle while equalizing, but Edhan turned out to be a very good eel-finder. During both of our dives, we saw around seven eels and more than half were found by him.

Once our first dive was over, all of us went to Banana reef and, since we had to wait for some more minutes before starting our second dive, we had the opportunity to snorkel in the area. While snorkeling, we had a brief glimpse of a turtle; however, just like one week ago, the best was reserved for the end. During our second dive we saw a huge amount of fish such as clown (anemone) fish, blue stripe snappers, lion fish, tiny shrimps and more eels.

For the last minutes of our dive, Divemaster Yassen, who did a great job in guiding us and finding many different kinds of fish, allowed us to go and dive above the table corals while we could see and hear a heavy rain falling on the water above us.

The Chinese tourists that came on the same boat as us might have had enough after just one dive as they looked exhausted, however on our way back to Hulhumale it was clear that for Yoosuf, Edhan and Hijan, this was just the first of many more diving trips to come.

On our way to MaaGiri

Yoosuf jumping into the water.

Hijan jumping in.

Most of Edhan was already in the water when I took the pic.

All three of them during the shallow water exercises.

Hijan

Going deeper.

Some fish.

Looks like they´re flying.

A honeycomb eel.

A powder-blue surgeonfish

Hijan waving at the camera.

Close up on Edhan.

Yoosuf diving in Banana reef.

Clark´s anemone fish.

Two Maldives anemone fish.

Another anemone fish.

Yassen surrounded by a bank of blue stripe snappers.

Edhan looking at the fish.

Hijan and a lot of colorful fish.

Table corals.

Diving Group 6 - Maish, Rafhaan, Izman and Dhafeena                                

In what was the second diving trip intended for students who had at least one recorded dive, Saturday April 20^th turned out to be a day full of surprises. After meeting at the usual location, Maish, Rafhaan, Izman, Ms. Eda and I took the speedboat to Hulhumale where Dhafeena joined us around half an hour later.

Once at the diving school, we were informed that there were two trips planned for that morning, first to MaaGiri and then to Kurumba, which represented an opportunity to do some snorkeling on the first reef and diving on the second or (even better), to dive twice on that day. The boys decided to go for the two dives while the girls went for the one-and-one option.

While Ms. Eda and Dhafeena went snorkeling, the four of us jumped into the water and were almost instantly rewarded with the sight of a honeycomb eel that was just swimming along the reef, but decided to go back to its pit once we got closer. That would be the first of many eels that posed for the camera on that day.

The first dive went very well and I was surprised to see how, although it was just their second dive, all three of them took no time in equalizing and managed to swim horizontally for most of the time. At the end of the dive, Maish even managed to successfully remove his mask and put it back on while underwater. During our time in the water we saw many eels, a lobster, different types of anemone fish and also a very white lion fish.

At the speedboat

Maish on diving gear

Izman and Rafhaan are ready too

Some fish

A honeycomb eel

A Maldives anemone fish

A Clark´s anemone fish

Maish

Rafhaan

Maish again

All three of them

Before going to Kurumba´s reef, we managed to spend some time snorkeling and jumping off the boat. At that time we even saw a turtle resting on sand several meters under us, which made us regret not having our tanks on to go and hang out with it for a while.

Once we arrived to Kurumba, all six of us went diving along its well preserved and vertical reef. There we saw many more eels, different kinds of fish and the highlight of our dive: two blacktip sharks fighting for some food from a rather large group of fish.

Last Saturday´s dives will most likely be among the candidates to the “best dive of the club” award. Our final sight of the day, a Scottish history teacher of Billabong High diving along Kurumba´s reef, will probably become the key factor in convincing the judges to vote for it.

Maish and Izman on the boat´s roof

Jumping into the water.

Walking on water.

A hidden eel

A not so hidden eel

Based on Dhafy´s sign, I´m guessing they´re all watching some eels.

Rafhaan and Dhafy

One of the two blacktip sharks we saw that day.

The shark with some food in its mouth.

Dhafy and the star fish.

Diving Group 5 – Zaain, Shafra and Zuha.                   

On April 5^th, at 7:30 am, a group of three Billabong students and two Billabong teachers met in Hulhumale´s terminal to take the speed boat and then taxi that would leave us, 45 minutes later, at Into Scuba Diving Centre. Since early in the morning the calm currents and good weather promised a good diving trip which was indeed far from disappointing.

After spending some minutes at the diving school and getting all the necessary equipment for the trip, there was an unexpected delay at the terminal as the boat was around 30 minutes late so, following Zuha´s impulse to remove the visible garbage on the water, the three students and I jumped into the water where Zaain also swam for the first time and Zuha did her first free-dive ever.

On the speedboat towards Hulhumale.

Ready to go to Bandos.

Zuha jumping into the water. She removed one full plastic bag of garbage.

All four of us going back to the boat.

Because all three students had diving experience, this time we decided to try a different area and headed towards Bandos. For Zuha (Grade 10), this represented her fourth dive while for Shafra and Zaain (Grade 11) their second.

Going to Bandos was a good idea, the visibility was really good and during the first minutes we all saw a black tip shark, then a lobster and later on (for the second time in a row) a school of blue stripe snappers that allowed us to swim very closely next to them. At the end of our 54-minute dive, Zuha managed to remove her mask and put it back on while still underwater; this is a very useful skill which I´m glad to see Billabong students master quickly.

On our way to Bandos.

Getting ready to jump into the water.

Also getting ready to jump into the water.

Zaain diving for the second time.

Shafra diving for the second time.

A lobster in Bandos.

Zaain in Bandos.

Blue stripe snappers (again).

A closer look at the snappers.

Looking at the snappers.

Shafra in Bandos.

When it seemed that the activities were over, the Divemaster in charge of the trip agreed on taking a detour to Kuda Bandos where we did some snorkeling and free-diving. After several minutes of trying and practicing, all three students managed to free-dive, enjoyed some more underwater viewing and saw a shy octopus.

Not only was this an excellent day to spend in the water, but it turned out to be one that Zaain, Shafra and Zuha used to greatly improve their swimming, free-diving and diving skills.

On our way to Kuda Bandos... notice the helicopter on top of it.

Zaain free-diving.

Zuha free-diving.

Shafra free-diving.

Part of a reef in front of Kuda Bandos.

Part of a reef in front of Kuda Bandos.

On our way back to Hulhumale.