I Thought You Went Diving?

So we are heading out to a dive site, Jo is driving and myself, Jeanie and Richard are getting our gear ready.

All of a sudden a yellowfin leaps from the water in a dramatic slow motion arch, and I find myself watching in awe, then another and another. And within split seconds the small dive boat has spun around and Jo is frantically unwinding a handline at the rear of the boat while Richard is giving direction towards the silver jumpers.

And in all this time all I have managed to do is keep breathing. Adrenaline rush!

'Whats going on' I tell myself  'Im pretty sure I don't even like fishing!'. But it was to late to reason with myself, I was already standing on the seat in the middle of the boat screaming with excitement that Jo had hooked the Yellowfin Tuna... On a hand line!

So as the experienced fisherman play the game they know so well, I watch like a spectator at a game where I still havn't decided who I want to win.

All this time I keep saying to  myself 'I didn't even know fishing was fun!'

Soon the game ends and indeed Jo has one this round, with his fingers bleeding from the line and the fact there was no gaf on the dive boat (naturally) meant him and richard had to use there brute strength to pull the beautiful fish from the water... and we still have the dive to go!

Lucy, the resort cat, suprised to see the dive boat return with fish.

Kate the Kiwi Diving Instructor at Mad Fish Dive Centre

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!

Richard and Joe

Richard and Joe
Originally uploaded by Aggibail.

Me an Joe hard at work and all fuzzy!
MOVIN!