Day 52 Scuba diving

... and talking on Skype
In front of the hotel is one of three dive shops near our anchorage. I stopped into the Blue Dolphin to inquire about available dives. The guide book raves about the world famous pass dive where divers enter the water on the ocean side of the pass as the tide is going in and float through the pass with the current. While this sounded great, I had mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation. The last time I dove was almost 15 years ago in St. Martin and it was not a successful dive. As I tried to submerge, I could not clear my right ear and it gave me such a feeling of panic I had to abort the dive.
I explained this to the dive master and she said not to worry, they would give me a check-out dive on a reef inside the lagoon called the aquarium. It is relatively shallow and full of fish. This sounded good to me so she took me through the preliminaries of fitting me for a wet suit and weight belt and showing me how to attach the tank, regulator and BC (bouncy compensation vest that holds the other parts). She was thorough and I began to feel more comfortable so I went off to retrieve my mask, fins and snorkel.
When I returned, the manager approached me and asked if I was a good swimmer. I “told it like it is” (I am OK but not great) and she asked if I would consider going to the reef outside the lagoon instead of the original plan. The dive is a bit deeper (60 feet average) with lots of fish and the chance to see larger fish.
Then she asked me if I would mind if the dive was filmed for French Channel 5 television. It seems that the station is doing a one-hour travel special on 5 of the archipelagos in French Polynesia and one part of it (and I am sure a very small part) is diving in Rangiroa. The crew had just arrived and wanted to use this dive as their subject. A local photographer Peter Schneider (originally from Berlin) was going to do the underwater part with his high definition Sony camera. After meeting Alain and Christoph the French crew, I agreed and off we went in two Zodiacs - Katy the dive master, Peter, and Alain and I in one and Christoph with his camera in the other.
The drop off point was about a mile East of the pass. We got all our gear on, Peter went in first to get a shot of us entering the water and the rest of us went over the side. Just like before, I was fine until I tried to descend. My right ear would not clear and I had to resurface. In some ways I would have gladly returned to the boat and let them continue but Katy grabbed my BC and talked me down. It was an amazing experience. Her technique was to tell me in advance to look only at her and to breath deeply. By focusing on my breathing and her calm demeanor, I had no trouble equalizing and soon we were swimming along the reef in 40 to 70 feet of water.
There were corals everywhere - big ones, small ones, blue ones, yellow ones. Several green turtles showed up to eat the sponges and did cartwheels to try to stay in one place against the current. A LARGE barracuda came over to check us out and we swam past hundreds of smaller fish of every shape and size. At 50 bar on the pressure gauge we headed toward the surface and after a decompression stop we came up near the waiting boat.
Diving is always exhilarating but this one was special. As Ian says, “You’ve got to get back on the horse”, and that is what this dive was for me. Thanks Katy for helping me through my anxiety and for treating me to a great dive.
If Francois and Malou are watching Channel 5 some Saturday in June, they may see a smiling diver with white hair who looks familiar.