Beautiful
Andamans
My story of falling in love with Diving.
Diving is a lot similar to our lives. There’s a thrill before every time you Dive, its the adrenaline rush that excites you about what’s to come. All you do is take a deep breath and dive right in. And suddenly everything becomes Calm…For the joy of unknown and to live in the moment, let’s dive…
I used to spends hours with Naveer, sitting by the beach watching the boats return to the shore in the evening. Every now and then we would contemplate how a day in their lives would like. The vastness of the ocean, being out there in the unknown, there’s a different world right there beneath you. I used to imagine what it would feel like.
Since Naveer had already dived earlier, he asked me to take his affair with the ocean forward and give a shot at diving. After much explorations, I decided to head out to Andamans with my eldest brother Amit and pursue the Open Water Diving Course with DiveIndia at Havelock.
And trust me, it has changed my life forever. By far, one of the very best experiences of my life.
We spent our early hours in Port Blair exploring places in and around on our arrival date. Post lunch, we took a ferry to Havelock where we were supposed to spend the next 10 days falling deeper in love with the oceans.
My first experience of Dive India was somewhat magical. Imagine this Dive resort, right next to the pristine blue beaches of Havelock, you see the dive boats loaded with oxygen cylinders, a beautiful small cafe to quench your thirst, beach volley and a dive shop filled with an enthusiastic bunch of people who are passionate about the ocean and madly in love with diving, what else would one need. After settling down and unpacking everything, we met our instructor Stephen, who face speaks of the vast experience that he has, over ten years of diving and countless dives, a warm and welcoming master, all that we could have asked for. We met another bunch of folks in the dive shops, mostly PADI Instructors and few other enthusiasts who were into their course of dive-masters. I have to tell you this I got hooked to this new amazing life that I was experiencing.
Later in the evening, we decided to take a stroll around the island. We marched on foot to discover eateries around the island and boy-o-boy we were in for some surprise. There were multiple cafes around the island serving cuisines from all around the world, and we knew were surely going to have a good time ahead of us.
The day used to start with Pre-Diving rituals. Watching the sunrise over the horizon as loaded the oxygen cylinders onto the boats. Then head back to the dive shop where were went through the exercise of examining the equipment, cleaning the regulators, the pressure gauges and BCD. The topic of discussion on the breakfast table would be around the dive site for the day. Stephen would go about what all we could see, why the sites were named so and his experiences from the past.
We were all filled with sheer excitement as we approached the dive site. The first day was included briefing and general to-dos followed by simulating the diving experience in shallow water. It helped us to get used to the new world, the world underwater. We acquired all the necessary skills and performed all the drills that prepped us to the actual diving for the next day.
We went back to diving the next day, this time in the middle of the ocean. We all looked to each other and signaled that on the count of five we are all going in. As we deflated our BCD and slowly started sinking in, we saw the light fading out, the first time you dive you look upwards as you are losing sight of what world meant to you and slowly start getting hang of the new world, the world underwater.
Diving is very similar to life, it’s simple, no matter what, just keep breathing. They say one can never forget their first breath underwater. I still clearly remember how it felt, you can listen to your breath, everything slows down as you breathe in and slowly exhale. We slowly adjusted to the new normal and the curiosity rose, to explore, to feel, the thrill of seeing the unknown, feel the new way of living, diving made us all felt so alive.
We started moving around, struggling to maintain neutral buoyancy. For the very first time, I got to know the importance of breathing, and how it impacts our body, the physics behind it. As I inhaled, the air filled the lungs and I used to become lighter and start rising up and as soon as I exhaled, the body again starts sinking in. This new feeling, new surroundings, everything made us so curious and excited about what lies ahead of us in the days to come.
With every dive, we got more familiar with this new world, the world underwater. We explored new dive sites, saw new marine life, this all-new feeling of being so aware of our presence is what I fell in love with. Everyday post diving we would sit back with Stephen and undergo de-briefing from our dive. He would point out areas that needed improvement and what we have become good at.
Post all this, Amit and me would read up and prepare for our Diving License exams in the evening sitting by the hammock, in the tranquility of serene beaches of Havelock. We had made friends with our other dive partners Abhishek and Abhinav who had also come down for their Open water Course. Somedays we would simply sit in our tents and smoke up and talk about staying back in Havelock forever. We were getting used to this laid back beach life.
By 10 dive logs, we started enjoying this whole diving experience. We started exploring the dive sites on our own, being carefree simply floating around, observing the new world with all the excitement. Our last dive, was at the site named The Wall, a 30m ridge in the ocean that seemed like a boundary wall. We were lucky and thrilled to see the bunch of stingrays pass right in front of us.
Post the final dive we received our Diving License and I walked towards the beach. As I reached the beach I was mesmerized to see the moon with a reddish tone, so big that it resembled the sun. It felt as if nature herself rewarded us with a display of such extra-ordinary scenes.
I sat by the beach for hours simply re-living all the memories promising myself I will be back soon for many more adventures. I knew I had fallen in love with this whole new world, the world underwater.