To know how to dive gives us access to the world’s most abundant beauty – the ocean! And it never fails us, always holding surprises and wonders. And the best part? It’s so HUGE that you can never fully know all it’s treasures, and therefore always have more to look out for. While most recreational divers have access to some of the most stunning parts of the sea, Technical divers have the ability to explore a bit further – deeper, and for much longer time. And that makes them hungry to explore more, where few others have gone before.
Some of us Technical divers from the Temple Adventures Team did an exploratory dive at the famous Aravind’s Wall earlier this week. The Wall has been dived several times over the years by divers from all over the world, but a Tec Exploration was inevitable and necessary for one simple reason – it has scarcely been explored in the past, due to it’s depth that limits bottom time, and of course, the perils of diving such depths without the proper training.
The Wall, we believe, is the end of the Indian continental plate. It is approximately 15 kilometres from the shore, and runs parallel to it. Discovered by one our instructors Aravind, we were happy to name our newfound dive site after him, several years ago. The Wall is approximately 6 kilometres long, and most dives there last not more than 10-15 minutes at the bottom due to the rapid absorption of nitrogen by our bodies at greater depths. However, we Technical Divers have no care for the problem of decompression (nitrogen absorption) for we have found ways to overcome it. Three tanks apiece to support our one and a half hour dive, all connected to top-of-the-line Scubapro regulators that give us the amount of air we need at higher pressures, a carefully filled and analysed Nitrox tank for each one, plenty of reels, torches and other essential dive accessories and 3 Technical diving courses later, the trio which comprised Julien (PADI Tec Deep Instructor), myself and Das (Tec Divers) made up the team for this adventure.
The dive began at Ravines, one of the sites at The Wall. The wind and visibility Gods supported the dive in every way that they could – although the surface was a bit wavy, the current was minimal and the visibility underwater was pretty stunning! Perhaps 30+ metres all the way to the bottom, we caught site of the convoluted, varying landscape of the Wall right from 20 metres above it during our descent.
Upon arriving there, after a few safety checks and S-Drills, the exploration commenced. Das had his camera that would help him capture many memories during the dive, Julien his yearning to find a cave or cavern somewhere around so that he might teach a cavern course there someday, and I concentrated on working on my trim and enjoying the feel of my brand new side mount harness, there was no doubt that though we all had our own agendas, our common interest was but one – to complete the mission of the dive, which was to find ‘the hole’ a few hundred metres South of the ravines, as GPS evidence suggested there was a such a structure that existed around there.
Many surprises were there waiting for us, and they had 30 whole minutes at the bottom to experience them. A few very friendly (or aggressive?) banded sea kraits, a couple of colourful nudibranchs, schools of tuna, giant groupers, snappers, vibrant lion-fish and and smaller angels, scorpion fish, gobies, impressive fan-corals, smaller whip corals and a lot of colour made up the majority of the life that was spotted during the dive. However, even if a single fish wasn’t to be seen, the beautiful landscape in itself was enough to win any keen diver over. Undulated, ever-changing and almost canyon-like, the wall provided the divers with a lot of underwater fun – a few swim-throughs (Julien, with his cave training flew through even the smallest crevasses), a variety of landscapes, the great visibility and probably a high dose of narcosis made the dive any Techie’s playground. There wasn’t a boring moment, and one could’ve stayed down there forever. 32 minutes since we descended, it was now time to go up and begin a series of decompression stops, so that the nitrogen could leave the body at a slow, healthy pace. The stops, almost until 15 metres, proved to be exciting, for the landscape below was still visible. Above that, in the subsequent stops, we took the opportunity to have some quiet time as we hung around, in perfect buoyancy, at the depth of our stop for the required time duration. Julien, the dive leader, would indicate when the next stop was to be made. Soon, we had made it safely and on schedule as per the pre-planned dive time to our last decompression stop at 3 metres for 17 minutes. Das took the opportunity to conduct a small photoshoot, taking photos of the team and getting some photos taken of himself too.
I fixed my trim a little more, which I realised was absolutely necessary after a small struggle during the NOTOX switch. Subsequently, the last stop was over, and it was time to reunite with the atmosphere. As we broke the surface, our reliable boat captain Ravi, one of Temple’s oldest team members, was waiting for us already. After helping us get back on the boat, we discussed the dive. Although the hole itself wasn’t to be found, the mission of the dive was not unaccomplished – the dive was planned, and the plan was dived to the last minute. No hitches, no problems and certainly no emergencies came our way, which every Tec diver is grateful for at the end of the day. The dive was one of the best we ever had at The Wall.
-If you would like to join us on our next big Tec adventure, learn how to get trained up as a certified PADI Tec Diver!
-If you would like to visit the famous Aravind Wall, learn more about the PADI Advanced Open Water Course and the PADI Deep Diver Course!
For more info on what we have to offer, visit templedivers.com and join us on our next great exploration!
The Week That Was – Tec Exploration To know how to dive gives us access to the world's most abundant beauty - the ocean!