we all live in a yellow submarine...
28 april
my days have been all about diving.
yesterday we did the first actual open water dives at a thila (a deep coral wall) about 15 minutes away from the resort in the rasdhoo lagoon and then at another location about half a km into the open ocean basically right outside my bungalow (i could see my bungalow from where we dropped anchor) my god it was amazing.
the first dive we went down about 12 meters (40 feet) practiced some basic emergency and equipment recovery skills and then swam around. these waters are teeming with life. massive schools of triggerfish of different kinds, moorish idols, unicorn fish, snappers, fish that i have no idea what they are (must get better at identifying what i see). it all reminds me of - don't laugh - "the yellow submarine" just without having to be on psychedelics. all of the weird, colorful, alien-looking creatures. fantastic.
on the second dive - the one right outside my back door - we went down about 18 meters (60 feet). we dropped anchor, jumped in, did some of the same exercises and then started swimming around and immediately started seeing more, though widely different, creatures. we saw a manta ray hiding in a cave, a sea turtle that took off as soon as it had realized we had discovered where it was hanging out, a couple of lion fish, a spiney lobster, a couple of moray eels, and a huge grouper hiding in a crevass that was surrounded by hundreds of tiny, almost translucent fish that i assume were its brood. it's difficult to take pictures of all of this stuff a) because my underwater photography skills suck worse than my dry-land photography skills and b) i get so enthralled with this weird and foreign environment - it's so unique and new - that i completely forget to pull out the camera and fire away.
the course work for my certification is boring as all hell. it consists of reading a book or watching a video and taking a little test after each of the 5 chapters and then a final exam (multiple choice, no biggie). my days have been made up of getting up and going for a swim before the tide goes too far out, breakfast, diving, studying/wandering/lunch, diving, studying/blogging/napping, dinner and then collapsing at around 9pm. i'm almost finished with the book (and the quizzes) so once that's done i'll hopefully have some time to hit the spa or take an excursion to one of the neighboring islands. though, dana told me that in order to dive hammerhead point i need to be certified for deep water diving which i think certifies me to 30 meters (100 feet). so after i finish my general open water training (certification to 20 meters) i'm definitely going to do that. more course work. bittersweet.
i kinda feel like i'm going a little crazy with spending money while i'm here. and it's a bit dangerous because everything just gets charged to the room. which is nice since you all you literally need to carry with you is your room key. so the only way you can keep track of your spending is to go to the front desk every so often to check the damage - something i should do but i'm afraid of the total that i'm going to see. whatever. it's only money, right? and besides, i didn't travel half way around the world to deny myself key maldivian/vacation experiences.
29 april
it amazes me, that in this age of awareness of the effects of the sun's radiation on human skin that people are still so careless about sun exposure. i looked around recently at the other guests and a large majority of them - all of them fair-skinned europeans - were sporting pretty bad sunburns. come on people, you're closer to the equator than you've probably ever been. use some frikkin common sense and perhaps a little sunblock. so far i've managed to avoid getting burned. mindfulness and a healthy dose of 50 spf will do that. i've also managed (knock on wood) to collect only minor 3 mosquito bites. anyone who knows me and my history with the mosquitos of the world can attest that this is pretty damn good. by now i'm usually covered in bites if i'm not careful but so far so good and i haven't really been using bug repellant at all. with a little luck i'll return home looking more like a filipino and less like a bumpy version of one of the lobster people currently inhabiting this island with me.
had my last required open water certification dive this morning at rasdhoo thila (a thila is a big submerged coral block). another 18m dive. we saw a huge napoleon wrasse - must've been at least 5 ft long and 2 feet high... huge. there were 3-6 white-tipped sharks trolling the bottom of the thila. amazing. pulled off a few more shots and tried shooting some video as well. i must say, as difficult as it is to take photos and video underwater (steadying myself is almost impossible) i'm pretty pleased with the underwater housing for the camera.
i did another dive today at a place called madhivaru (a small island with an accomapnying thila) at 1:30 - this one wasn't required. i'm just completely hooked and couldn't think of seeing an afternoon go by without spending some of it underwater. actually i almost gave myself a break and flaked on this dive. i'm so thankful i didn't. this was easily the most intense dive i've done so far. strong currents that would either suck you into gaps between the thilas or carry you along the coral wall effortlessly depending on where you were. i saw 4 or 5 white tipped sharks, a pair of spotted eagle rays (1 of which came within 3 meters or so of me), a huge puffer (or boxfish) that must've been the size of a football, overwhelming masses of triggerfish everywhere, a big silver, shimmering cloud of scad (or minnow) that a group of tuna were herding and feeding on, a group of maybe 12 barracuda... astounding. the dive was so completely breathtaking that i was only able to remember to take 3 shots. gotta do better next time. the hammerhead point dive is in roughly the same location so i have one more chance. funny thing is that i've spent so much time on a boat ior in the water over the last couple of days that i've partially lost my land legs. back and forth... back and forth...
at 6:30 i take the last of my certification quizzes and then immediately afterwards take my final exam. barring anything retarded (like me being me and forgetting everything), i'll be a certified open water diver by nightfall!!! then tomorrow morning i take my deep water training course which will certify me for dives to depths of up to 30m and then..... drumroll.... swimming with hammerheads bright and early (5:30am!!!) on sunday.
i'm never coming back to l.a., in case any of you were wondering.
my days have been all about diving.
yesterday we did the first actual open water dives at a thila (a deep coral wall) about 15 minutes away from the resort in the rasdhoo lagoon and then at another location about half a km into the open ocean basically right outside my bungalow (i could see my bungalow from where we dropped anchor) my god it was amazing.
the first dive we went down about 12 meters (40 feet) practiced some basic emergency and equipment recovery skills and then swam around. these waters are teeming with life. massive schools of triggerfish of different kinds, moorish idols, unicorn fish, snappers, fish that i have no idea what they are (must get better at identifying what i see). it all reminds me of - don't laugh - "the yellow submarine" just without having to be on psychedelics. all of the weird, colorful, alien-looking creatures. fantastic.
on the second dive - the one right outside my back door - we went down about 18 meters (60 feet). we dropped anchor, jumped in, did some of the same exercises and then started swimming around and immediately started seeing more, though widely different, creatures. we saw a manta ray hiding in a cave, a sea turtle that took off as soon as it had realized we had discovered where it was hanging out, a couple of lion fish, a spiney lobster, a couple of moray eels, and a huge grouper hiding in a crevass that was surrounded by hundreds of tiny, almost translucent fish that i assume were its brood. it's difficult to take pictures of all of this stuff a) because my underwater photography skills suck worse than my dry-land photography skills and b) i get so enthralled with this weird and foreign environment - it's so unique and new - that i completely forget to pull out the camera and fire away.
the course work for my certification is boring as all hell. it consists of reading a book or watching a video and taking a little test after each of the 5 chapters and then a final exam (multiple choice, no biggie). my days have been made up of getting up and going for a swim before the tide goes too far out, breakfast, diving, studying/wandering/lunch, diving, studying/blogging/napping, dinner and then collapsing at around 9pm. i'm almost finished with the book (and the quizzes) so once that's done i'll hopefully have some time to hit the spa or take an excursion to one of the neighboring islands. though, dana told me that in order to dive hammerhead point i need to be certified for deep water diving which i think certifies me to 30 meters (100 feet). so after i finish my general open water training (certification to 20 meters) i'm definitely going to do that. more course work. bittersweet.
i kinda feel like i'm going a little crazy with spending money while i'm here. and it's a bit dangerous because everything just gets charged to the room. which is nice since you all you literally need to carry with you is your room key. so the only way you can keep track of your spending is to go to the front desk every so often to check the damage - something i should do but i'm afraid of the total that i'm going to see. whatever. it's only money, right? and besides, i didn't travel half way around the world to deny myself key maldivian/vacation experiences.
29 april
it amazes me, that in this age of awareness of the effects of the sun's radiation on human skin that people are still so careless about sun exposure. i looked around recently at the other guests and a large majority of them - all of them fair-skinned europeans - were sporting pretty bad sunburns. come on people, you're closer to the equator than you've probably ever been. use some frikkin common sense and perhaps a little sunblock. so far i've managed to avoid getting burned. mindfulness and a healthy dose of 50 spf will do that. i've also managed (knock on wood) to collect only minor 3 mosquito bites. anyone who knows me and my history with the mosquitos of the world can attest that this is pretty damn good. by now i'm usually covered in bites if i'm not careful but so far so good and i haven't really been using bug repellant at all. with a little luck i'll return home looking more like a filipino and less like a bumpy version of one of the lobster people currently inhabiting this island with me.
had my last required open water certification dive this morning at rasdhoo thila (a thila is a big submerged coral block). another 18m dive. we saw a huge napoleon wrasse - must've been at least 5 ft long and 2 feet high... huge. there were 3-6 white-tipped sharks trolling the bottom of the thila. amazing. pulled off a few more shots and tried shooting some video as well. i must say, as difficult as it is to take photos and video underwater (steadying myself is almost impossible) i'm pretty pleased with the underwater housing for the camera.
i did another dive today at a place called madhivaru (a small island with an accomapnying thila) at 1:30 - this one wasn't required. i'm just completely hooked and couldn't think of seeing an afternoon go by without spending some of it underwater. actually i almost gave myself a break and flaked on this dive. i'm so thankful i didn't. this was easily the most intense dive i've done so far. strong currents that would either suck you into gaps between the thilas or carry you along the coral wall effortlessly depending on where you were. i saw 4 or 5 white tipped sharks, a pair of spotted eagle rays (1 of which came within 3 meters or so of me), a huge puffer (or boxfish) that must've been the size of a football, overwhelming masses of triggerfish everywhere, a big silver, shimmering cloud of scad (or minnow) that a group of tuna were herding and feeding on, a group of maybe 12 barracuda... astounding. the dive was so completely breathtaking that i was only able to remember to take 3 shots. gotta do better next time. the hammerhead point dive is in roughly the same location so i have one more chance. funny thing is that i've spent so much time on a boat ior in the water over the last couple of days that i've partially lost my land legs. back and forth... back and forth...
at 6:30 i take the last of my certification quizzes and then immediately afterwards take my final exam. barring anything retarded (like me being me and forgetting everything), i'll be a certified open water diver by nightfall!!! then tomorrow morning i take my deep water training course which will certify me for dives to depths of up to 30m and then..... drumroll.... swimming with hammerheads bright and early (5:30am!!!) on sunday.
i'm never coming back to l.a., in case any of you were wondering.