First Act

The sun is still not showing up when we head to Kimud Shoal. It will greet us along the way as the trip will take an hour or so.

As soon as the sun rises, it marks as my second day of my Divemaster Training, or we call it DMT. I thought this was just going to be an easy dive – Ruvi taking the lead, the divers behind him & I’m taking the rear to observe how to conduct a dive lead. Like any skills or craft, a novice should take it slowly.

Kimud shoal was in the middle of nowhere. If you look around, there’s no sign that marks the shoal. Captains find it through GPS and when we’re near at the site, then the boat crew will have to look around for bouys that mark the mooring lines. There are several lines that we can secure the boat depending on which area on the shoal we want to dive. If the sea is crystal, you can clearly see the top of the shoal.

Unknowingly, the moment we arrive was also the moment I took the first order from Ruvi: in this group of divers, I have to take two of them back to the boat early. As it turns out, those two divers would be the first to run out of air. To not bring back the entire group together, and to make the better air consumers enjoy more dive time, my task was to bring the air hogs back to the surface first.

This is the first and unexpected time that I get to lead a dive. An actual dive that divers would look at me and follow me like a mother duck. These unsuspecting divers depend on me to bring them back to surface breathing and in one piece. This is the first moment that divers are following me.

We started our descent on the line from where we’re tied on. We follow it down to the bottom of the shoal and started swimming in the direction called “cleaning station”.

Kimud shoal is famous for its thresher sharks. This is the only place on Earth where you get to see higher chances of seeing (if not regularly) these beautiful sharks. Every morning, these sharks will come up from the deepest part of the shoal to have themselves cleaned by small fishes, hence the reason it’s called the cleaning station. At this time of the day, is our only chance to get sightings of the threshers.

In the middle of the dive, the first of the two gave the sign of both hands cross together, forming the “T“, like when basketball players call for a time-out. This signal that shows that he already consumes half of the air he has. Ruvi waited for a few minutes to enjoy the dive. He then do the hand signal at me- two pointing fingers of both hands stick together, meaning it’s time to buddy up with these guys. Next, with his five fingers, open palm, pointed to the direction he wanted me to go- back to the line from where we jumped.

Luckily, it was easy to navigate back. I found the line & signal to my divers to hold it and follow the line going up to 5 meters for the safety stop.

But there was one problem- the line was now on loose end. Our boat was not there anymore.

Suddenly, a roaring engine from a big blue boat was approaching the line, ready to secure.

With two inexperienced, fast air-consuming divers along with a DMT on its second day, the scene was a perfect, horrific example for a bad ascent.

My heart was racing as I see the propellers of the approaching boat. The two divers were staring at me as if asking what are we were going to do next. I was hoping I can also look someone intently as they did and ask what are we were going to do. But I was left there to decide.

I signaled my divers to swim away from the line towards me, taking out my SMB at the same time. For those who don’t know what an SMB is, it’s a surface marker bouy. It acts like a balloon that when you inflate under water, shoots up to the surface to mark the position of divers.

But no inflation has occurred. I see them slowly going up. Not only they consume an unacceptable amount of air in a short period, they are also having troubles with their buoyancy. I try to catch up with them. My SMB was floating lifeless, and I don’t even remember if we completed the safety stop. The boat nearby was still securing in progress on the line.

Once we’re on the surface, I look around to find our boat and lead the two divers back to it. At the very least, they’re back on the boat alive. What surprises me is that they are not aware of the danger close we’re in. They were more concerned about not seeing the sharks. If they could have stayed longer, they would have.

It turns out, boaters’ courtesy in the shoal is that whoever owns the mooring line should have the priority to secure the boat in that line.

Our boat moved out as the owner of the line that we tied up earlier arrived just in time that we were about to surface.

One lesson I can learn from that incident is to be on top of my head. Awareness of the different situations around is of tantamount importance. And if I only knew that boater’s conduct on securing boats, I would not have been confused and ignorant on my second day as a DMT. That harrowing experience, 5 meters below the blue waters of Kimud Shoal, was my baptism by fire. I may not have like how I learned that lesson, but it made me better- or so I hope.