Manta Diving At Its Best

12/1/08

We dropped in on Manta reef hoping for a good day. But it was more than good, it was special. We saw the first Manta after about 5 mins, I just caught a glimpse of the wing tip as it cruised along the top if the reef. As we made our way along the reef another manta came past us, another monster at just under 4m, but white underneath with “go fatser” stripes on top. They disappeared, then minutes later they both came back into view with another smaller black one behind. 3 mantas flying in formation. That’s what I’m talking about!

As we got to the end of the reef and turned around, two of them came directly towards us and, as we watched them turn back the other way, the third came from behind and no-one knew where to look. We headed back and I remember thinking, “that was a bit special”. But that was just the beginning.

After a few minutes we bumped into Joe’s group and he signalled that one was barrel rolling, so we went to check it out. We were met with the 4m black manta barrel-rolling about 3m away from us. He moved along a bit and suddenly the dive went crazy. Joe was pointing up at a 4th small white manta barrel rolling above us and the other 3 big ones were putting on the most amazing arial display I’ve ever seen.

The RAF Red Arrows haven’t got shit on these guys. We were surrounded by 3 enormous mantas rolling over and over and a smaller one going crazy above our heads. Diving does not get any better!