In my quest to become a more self-reliant diver, I booked a dive with another dive centre. The centre, in a 5 star resort, offered excellent services. My dive guide, dived with severely mobility challenged divers before, so I felt at ease and excited to try a back-roll entry from a fixed hull boat compared to a rigid inflatable. The technique is slightly different. Because of my limitations someone would have to hold the weight of the tank while I moved my butt completely off the side of the hull.

I briefed my guide that I wanted to look at corals. He took me to a piece of reef that I have become attached to during my qualifying dives in December, Trou Moutou, in the Bay of Mahébourg. From coral garden to coral garden he showed me what was rare, what was damaged, what was sick and what was eaten by Drupella, sea snails with purple shells. They are over populated due to the over fishing of their predators, Triggerfish, Snappers and Wrasses amongst others. Where broken pieces of coral have been imbedded in rocks to start growing again, he showed me how much they have grown in three years.

It was my third dive on Trou Moutou, initially I was mesmerised by the submerged Hindu statues on this site. However after doing some coral studying recently, I almost only noticed the corals. One cannot be blind to the sea turtles and other marine life which is there to be seen, however my heart was touched and the images of the struggling corals forever imbedded in my minds eye.

I asked my guide, to keep an eye on my weaker leg as the dive progressed to see if it affected my trim in the water as it became tired as well as his opinion on my buoyancy. I once had terrible feedback all-round when I dived at a new centre shortly after qualifying. I found it devastating at the time. After some thought, I decided to make my weakness a strength and quite recently enrolled for a speciality course in Buoyancy (a story in its own right).

In life it often happens that the wrong person at the wrong time criticises something you have worked on very hard and it is often not the criticism as such, but the way it is presented to you that can either motivate you to improve or put you off something forever.

Diving conditions were perfect and I had a good dive. When we surfaced after almost an hour, the light wind that caused movement on the surface initially was gone and we could debrief in the glow of the late afternoon sun, while floating next to the boat! So it is a fact that in perfect conditions, I have great buoyancy and that I did not start bending my weaker leg when it tired. The thing is, that is just what I needed to hear at the time.

Sometimes we just need calm water and perfect conditions for a day.