Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hammer-time

Yesterday, as i was checking the line for Boo, i saw the fish behaving a bit oddly, and as i checked the reef, i saw a large creature moving along it. Turns out that was a Hammerhead. So i let go of the line, swim a bit closer to make sure i wasn't BSing myself, and got back up to point others to it. Funny things happen with freedivers: tell normal people there's a shark in the water and they get the hell out. Tell freedivers and they dive under to go and check it out.

It was a magnificent beast, probably around 2 meters long. Sad thing was that it was very stressed, trying to find a way out of the Hole with all those scuba divers around. It kept scanning for the exit. If it had been more relaxed, i would have gotten a bit closer to see if i could touch it, but now i didn't want to add to its stress and kept some distance as it circled the Hole. When it finally found the saddle and swam over and down into the great deep, i was left i awe.

Even though diving is going very very shit, this one made the whole stay worthwile. It's the sort of encounter that i'll look back upon again and again for years and years. Very lucky.





Photo's thanks to Aleksej Patapenko

4 comments:

Sanne Buurma said...

Wow, Daan this is very cool. How blessed are you guys to have seen this. Funny fact indeed, normal people would flee the waters ;)

How's your stay? Competing in the comp's ? Any records to crush?

Good luck and say hi to all freedivers voer there. Also say hi to David Tranfield, ask him if he's using the same cab-driver as last year ;)

Kars said...

Cool encounter Daan,

I'm ill at home the moment, but blogs like yours give me a nice escape from the weird dreams I have at the moment.

Focussing on the things that are improving, one at the time, I'm sure you'll have better dives from now on.

Or maybe you're just one of the strange people that like to cold green Nordic waters?

Did you already test dive the nose clip only discipline?

All the best,

Kars

martin_gk said...

I am so jealous... and it has nothing to do with Elisabeth...

You lucky bastard!

What's next? Dolphins?

Forget about the competition. It is an excuse to go down there anyways...

Spend your time searching for sharks!

And take lots of pictures...

Danny Martherus said...

Wow Daan, what a beautifull encounter!! Enjoy the see and (the)see you,

Danny