diving in the maldives

why, hello there! apologies for being so slow to post recently. this particular post was hard because i really wanted to get some video edited for it - but i still haven't quite gotten the hang of it! the other thing is that i took all of these underwater diving photos with a go pro, which obviously offers much less control over settings than i'm used to on my camera, so... yea, even editing these was tough for me. but enough excuses!

as i mentioned in my previous post, we stayed at LUX* in the south ari atoll, and one of the reasons we picked them was because of the great eurodivers dive centre on site! we brought our own mask/snorkel and computers, but they had everything we could have needed. both the dive staff and boat staff were very friendly and helpful - all our gear was prepped for us by the time we got on the boat! tea, water, fresh fruit and towels were always available too. 

this was our first time diving in warm water - and it was a total game-changer. since we've done all our certifcations in california, we're always wearing full 7mm wetsuits, hood, gloves, thermal socks, boots, etc. and we got certfied in the first place so we could dive silfra in iceland last year- which is really about as cold as it gets! drift diving in warm water is so "easy" by comparison. love it. definitely need to do more of it.

so. many. fish.

shark!

we did five dives over two days. on our first day, we spent three dives looking for manta rays and whale sharks! we only saw one manta ray, but we still saw so much sea life it was a ridiculously great experience.

another shark.

james.

we got to hang out with this manta ray for quite awhile because it stopped at a "cleaning station" and waited on other fish to do their thing. manta rays are SO BIG and move so elegantly in the water. it was definitely a reminder of how clunky and unnatural we are underwater.

some snorkelers above the manta ray.

can you see the cleaner fish on the manta?

moray eel going into hiding.

white tip reef shark.

clownfish hiding in sea anemone.

giant lobster!

on day two, we dove a wreck and a thila (an underwater mountain). i only have pictures from the wreck, but hopefully i'll be able to get the video from the thila edited one of these days to share. regardless, this was the best dive day we've ever had and really firmly cemented my love of diving in a way it hasn't really before (and yea, the warm water definitely helped). our guide also introduced us to "negative" dive entries. normally, when you get in the water, you wait at the surface until everyone is ready to descend together. because of currents, sometimes you have to descend immediately so you don't get swept away and separated, and you meet underwater. 

this wreck had a big, easy swimthrough of the hull. once inside, it was too dark for any pictures to come out, but there was a giant school of tiny glass fish and it was definitely one of the coolest things we saw on this trip. 

entering the hull for a swim-through.

exiting the swim-through.

our guide pointing out a camouflaged stone fish. 

i just want to give one more shout-out to eurodivers and their staff. our guide for this dive was awesome about methodically showing us the wreck, starting with a nurse shark that was resting under the hull, to the swim-through and playing with the school of glass fish, to pointing different creatures that were camouflaged and we wouldn't have seen otherwise. 

safety stop and SMB deployment.