Scuba diving in India was closed for the season, what with the rains pouring down here. So, it was an obvious choice that we, at Planet Scuba India, plan a diving holiday to the Maldives. A holiday that we will never forget.Scuba diving in the Maldives
Here there were whale sharks, manta rays, sting rays, octopus, cuttlefish, turtles, sharks, and also, as the locals call it, UMS or ‘usual Maldivian stuff’. A term that shouldn’t be shrugged off lightly, since it includes the entire range of sea creatures, from cute little clown fish to elusive moray eels and pouty Napoleon wrasses. Truly, scuba diving in the Maldives never ceases to fascinate! And it doesn’t matter how many times you have ‘giant-leaped’ into the crystal clear waters.
The fascinating underwater world
Planet Scuba India’s August 11 – 16, 2018 dive holiday on the Honors Legacy liveaboard was a breathtaking experience. Nineteen scuba divers from India headed to the tranquil waters of Ari Atoll. These included six divers completing their PADI Open Water Diver courses, and four completing their PADI Advanced Open Water Diver courses. Call it beginners’ luck, but dive after dive revealed magical surprises. The hungry whale shark happily feeding its way through the waters off Dhigurah in South Ari Atoll. Majestic manta rays sprucing up at cleaning stations. Cuttlefish getting all territorial about its mate. Turtles languidly swimming past. And then, there was the colorful and varied every day traffic of fish species that had cameras swiveling in every direction, in an underwater photography frenzy.
Night dive at Alimatha
Oh, and the night traffic of nurse sharks, by the dozens, at Alimatha resort house reef, Vaavu Atoll. We saw nurse sharks lazing around, scouring for food in the light of our torches, and scratching their bellies in the sand. While stingrays hovered around trying to grab the limelight. And a hermit crab quietly stole a mollusk shell and trotted away, hoping no one would notice. All the activity made this one of our most exciting night dives in the Maldives.
Scuba divers from India hoist the national flag
Finally, as it has been every year, on India’s Independence Day, Planet Scuba India hoisted the national flag underwater. The tricolour unfurled against the dramatic underwater landscape of colorful reefs and schools of fish, in the hands of fun scuba divers from India, enjoying their magical diving holiday in the Maldives.
Suzanne Michelle Coombs Appointed As IDC Staff Instructor
We are proud to announce that we have appointed Suzanne Michelle Coombs as the primary Staff Instructor for our dive centers in Bangalore and Andaman Islands. Suzy Coombs has the distinction of being one of the deepest woman divers in the world, when she dived to a depth of 500 feet (152.4 meters) off the coast of Sweden. This announcement comes as good news to all Indian dive enthusiasts, as they now have a chance to learn and train with one of the most accomplished divers in the world.
Suzy Coombs, the new staff instructor at Planet Scuba India
Planet Scuba India Pvt Ltd has been providing scuba diving training and dive holidays around the world for the past three years. We are India’s first inland dive center based in Bangalore and we have expended our operations to Andaman Islands with the Andaman Diving Academy based in Port Blair.
Suzy Coombs started her diving as a BSAC diver (British Sub Aqua Club) in England when she was 18 and quickly became an Instructor with her local club. Her passion for diving led her to decide, at the age of 20, that she would like to dive outside the UK. She got involved in a research project in Tanzania where she had her first warm water dive.
Since then, she has converted to a PADI IDC Staff Instructor and DSAT Tec Trimix Instructor which allows her to teach new instructors and undertake technical dives. She has worked with several different dive centers in several different countries, mainly Egypt. She has moved to India to spread awareness about scuba diving in India, a country whose coastlines have the richest marine life and has yet to be explored.