Diving Group 10 – Rai, Mashee and Shafra.                       

As many people in this country know, 2012 was a year of huge academic achievements for Billabong High because of the excellent results in the November 2012 IGCSE examinations. The school´s pass rate is considerably higher than the country´s average and I am very proud of my students´ efforts in Physics which resulted in 10 out of 21 achieving the highest possible grade of A*.

Some weeks ago, right after a broadcasted ceremony organized by the government with the purpose of rewarding those students who reached the National Top Ten (thirteen from Billabong High), I received a text message from our partners at Into Scuba who, very kindly and as a way of congratulating our students, offered them a dive with no charges whatsoever. Yesterday, two of those top achievers made use of what they earned through many hours of studying.

Rai (Grade 11), Shafra (Grade 11), Mashee (Grade 10), Ms. Eda and I met at 8 in the morning at Hulhumale´s terminal to begin what would be an unusual and special diving trip. Since all three students already had diving experience, we briefly went through some important rules and basic signs before arriving to Hulhumale´. Once at the diving center, we were told of our diving destination for the day: Feydhoo Wall. This would be the first time for any of us going to that famous diving spot.

Before jumping into the water, we saw some dolphins swimming between Kurumba and Hulhumale, a turtle sticking its head out of the water for some air and, unfortunately, quite a few plastic containers floating as we were closer than usual to the garbage island of Thilafushi. Later on, I read an article about some recent garbage spills in the area and hoped for Feydhoo Finolhu never to look as badly as Thilafushi or some other islands which are just a few kilometers away. http://sun.mv/english/13870

Although the whole dive went great (the students were very surprised when they realized we dived for 47 minutes as they felt it didn´t last that long), the first fifteen minutes were so interesting that it was difficult to decide where to look at. We saw several rays swimming together, some others swimming alone, a turtle, huge tunas, many Clark anemone fish and an eel among many other fish.

Because of the very nice dive, we all decided to snorkel and practice some free-diving in Hulhumale´ so, once we were back, we headed to the swimming track area where Rai showed some promising Rescue Diver skills by finding two snorkels that were lost in an area with terrible visibility. As a teacher, it is a great experience to see this kind of smart and top achiever Billabong students excelling in more than just their studies.

Rai, Shafra and Mashee

On our way to Feydoo

Looking at Male´

Happy to be underwater.

A Clark anemone fish.

A turtle that seemed a bit disturbed by us.

Three students and a Billabong teacher.

Rai and his Divemaster buddy keeping an eye on him.

Mashee says she wasn´t posing but holding her hair.

Rai

Hulhumale´s swimming track.

The last part of an exciting day.