The most common fear that my first -time divers have, is that they will be attacked by sharks underwater. It’s absolutely no surprise that this fear stems from Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster “Jaws”! On the 35th anniversary of the film, the award winning film maker apologized to viewers for misrepresenting the intent of sharks, as beach-goers round the world are still paranoid about being attacked!
Gianrico Mureddu, Course Director at the Andaman Diving Academy clarified that sharks are quite peaceful and only attack when provoked, which is why they never attack peaceful divers.
Most divers explore the ocean in the hope of getting a glimpse of these beautiful creatures!
SIPADAN
This “untouched piece of art”, as it was named by the late Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is amongst the top 3 dive destinations in the world.
Sipadan is most famous for diving, thanks to the abundance of marine life in the area. Normally, rare diving scenes are frequently seen in the waters around Sipadan: schools of green and hawksbill turtles nesting and mating, schools of barracuda and big-eye trevally in tornado-like formations, pelagic species such as manta rays, eagle rays, scalloped hammerhead sharks and whale sharks.
With nearby islands of Mabul and Kapalai Islands there are hundreds of dive sites to choose from. Nothing beats scuba diving in Sipadan. If you can name it, then there’s a dive site in the area that has it; from macro life to pelagic, wrecks to wall dives, coral gardens teeming with a rich diversity of corals and fish, underwater caves where sleepy sharks go to chill out, and caverns where turtles go for eternal rest… Sipadan diving has it all and then some.
Sipadan is also famous for macro. If your eyes are good enough, you are likely to spot some of the most beautiful nudibranchs and shrimps on every single dive. But it is not the only incredible world; you will also see turtles, barracudas, stingrays, cuttlefish, reef sharks, bump head parrot fish, moray eels, jack fish, napoleon wrasses and lion fishes, just to mention a few.
Besides all that there is to explore in the parallel world underwater, the island itself seems like the kind of place Shakespeare was at when he wrote The Tempest. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to be stranded there!
We urge you to join us as we explore this magical island in July.
Planet Scuba India promises you the experience of a lifetime!
Check the gallery ….let the pictures give you an idea of what we’re talking about.
NETHRANI
The first time i heard about this place was a year ago, stating that it had one of the coolest beaches and was one of the best dive sites in India. So when i heard that the folks from Planet Scuba awere organizing a dive trip to Murudeshwar I was eager to go for I had wanted to visit this place since I first heard about it.
So we ( Saj, the instructor and I, his wife) headed toward the office of Planet Scuba by 5PM. There we saw all of the crew busy with packing, filling forms which contained emergency contact nos and other details of the team headed toward Murudeshwar. After duly filling out our forms each, we handed it to Rashmi and went along with the others to board our mini van.
There were 8 students- Siddharth, Manoj, Prithvi, Nischith, Ravi, Sreenivas, Nanda & Rithesh with two instructors- Saj and Madhu & a fun diver Kamal. We left the place at about 5:45 and started our journey and stopped at about 9 for dinner in the outskirts of Bangalore. After that, it was time for everyone to sleep.
We reached Murudeshwar at 7am the next day-thats where the adventures started!!! As soon as we reached there, the driver parked our mini van right onto the beach where its wheels got stuck in the sand. It took a lot of team effort and dried coconut leaves and sticks to finally haul it out of the sand. That took almost half an hour. All of us then rushed into our hotel. It was called the RNS Residency and one of the best in Murudeshwar.
But the best thing in Murudeshwar apart from diving is the Shiva statue & some other similar ones which can be seen from very far away that contain the puranic stories of Raavana acquiring the Shiva linga. We could get a clear view of it from our hotel room too. After freshening up the guys all headed toward the beach for their dive sessions while i decided to stay back. Some of them took more time than required, to get ready. Also they had to go to the local Police station to acquire permission for diving, for security reasons due to terrorism& other security reasons. Anyway they finally took off toward the sea only after 11.
The boat ride toward the dive spot was a little more than one hour from the shore. The instructors, Madhu and Saj each took four students under their supervision and off they went underwater for the first day of two open water dives. They enjoyed a lot and spent 3 days boasting about the fishes that they saw. The lobster that was over a metre long, the giant giant grouper which had a face the size of a football, the moray eel that kept poking its head out of the rocks, and the trigger fish, the fusiliers and the snappers that always kept them company.
The course was completed in two days time. But the best part of their dives was on the third day when they went out for their fun dives.. Also by the third day all of us were better acquainted and began to really enjoy the trip.They had planned before itself to take a can & bottle of Pepsi, some eggs in order to check some things they had seen in some dive videos. So after diving in they opened the Pepsi and as seen in the video some pressure kept the Pepsi from coming out of the bottle. They in turn took out a straw and had a sip each from the bottle which delighted everyone especially the youngest member of our dive group, Rithesh. They also wanted to break the egg under water which would keep the white and yellow of the egg seperate due to pressure. But the egg which was tied to the BCD of one of the students’s turned loose and went underwater before anyone realised it.
After that we quickly packed again and was on our Mini van back to Bangalore.On the way back after watching a movie in the bus we had a long dinner. We took off from there only after 10. We finally reached back at 9 am on Monday morning thus ending a very joyous and memorable underwater experience.
Submitted by Preethy Warrier
Loving what you do vs. getting paid big bucks
“There are three ingredients in the Good Life-Learning, Earning and Yearning”, said Christopher Morley.
A brief interactive session with the graduates of the second IDC batch at Planet Scuba India’s Andaman Diving Academy got me thinking What is more important? whether I like what I do or how much I get paid?
A very wise young woman I know who prefers being anonymous said, “The MONEY-That way even if you hate work at least you can afford the plastic surgery to put a smile on your face!”
Our new instructors had no such questions in their heads though. As Madhu says, “Diving is not work for me, it’s my PASSION!” Bring up the financial aspect and he just smiles and says, “When you do what you love the money comes!”
Other interesting instructors I have met include a former member of the Queen’s Army, and a software engineer from Bangalore who started off as instructor by teaching part time.
So, I have surrendered myself to the idea of doing what you love-excelling at it and making the big bucks as opposed to having to love what I do and affording the plastic surgery for that smile that wont reach my eyes!
The Dive Instructor Potential in India
It was thanks to Madhava Reddy’s initiative of opening India’s first instructor development centre, The Andaman Diving Academy, that a whole new career option has emerged for the driven and adventorous youth of our country who want to spend their time as one with the environment as opposed to being hunched over a desk from 9-5 and watching their bellies grow.
Moreover,the 5-star training facility is right here at Port Blair in the Andamans and you don’t have to travel abroad to learn how to be an instructor!
I had the opportunity of meeting with Mr. Gianrico Mureddu , Course Director(India’s first) at Planet Scuba India’s Andaman Diving Academy.
His observations of the Indian diving industry were very intriguing and are as follows. He sees great potential in the Indian market for instructors.
“The large population helps in the increase of numbers if the course is promoted well. Currently, the majority of instructors in India are foreigners. The only cause of concern is that only about 5% of the total population of India will be able to afford the IDC (Instructor Development Course)”
Our latest graduating batch from ADA has a mix of enthusiastic youngsters looking for an exciting and satisfying job as well as marine biologists and those looking for a change in profession.
Mr. Mureddu even added that instructors trained here will easily be employed even by foreign dive centres as ” Indians have a better command over the English language compared to other nationales. Good communication skills is always a plus-in any job!” He cocluded that, “I do anticipate that by the first quarter of next year(2011)we should be able to double if not triple the number of Indian instructors in the Indian dive industry.”