Zihua Diving

As I prepared for my first dive it reminded me of a great quote that is attributed to Confucius in 550 BC.“We have two lives; the second begins when we realise we only have one.”

I planned this trip to Zihua around diving. What I should have done was a bit more reading about the conditions in the area. I was excited to get back into the water. I also love when we are about to jump or fall backwards off the boat and someone yells "let's go diving." The Dive Zihua shop was a bit small and there were two dogs out front and child asleep on the floor, a true family operation. It turns out that Simeon and Maude were excellent Dive Masters and the focus on safety was paramount. I purchased the 10 dive package which cost me 8900 pesos, about $615 dollars. It was all inclusive with all gear, 2 dives per day and a small snack in between dives. Bananas and cookies, the divers dream snack. 

The first three days we fine. The water clarity was not the best and the currents were strong in places, but all very manageable. If you can not dive with current, you should not be diving anyways. Dives varies from 20 to 50 feet as there were some new divers but that was fine. It was great to acclimatize and get that spectacular feeling of being under the sea. There were a few sea turtles, various rays and eels and schools of fish which I like to try and immerse myself in, have the swim around me. As I said, visibility was not the greatest so there we no colorful "explosion."

This is also the season for whale migration, humpbacks and whale sharks doing their thing. On the second day, in between dives we were fortunate enough to have a mother and her calf give us a show, about 50 metres from our boat. Then one of my best diving experience happened on my next dive. We were in a cove with the Pacific to our backs and as we descended and started our dive we I could hear the distinct sounds of the whales singing and communication with each other. It started out faint but grew stronger as Simeon signal us to be buoyant and listen. Honestly, it was quite a magical moment and I was happy to experience it a few times during my week.

Day Four brought some challenges. My first dives started at 9:00 AM with calm waters, but this day we were leaving at 2:30 PM and the sea was a bit rough. I guessed the rollers to be about 2 feet, which may not seem like much, but trust me, when you are floating in them, it is noticeable. Nothing to panic about but you needed to focus a bit more that usual.  There were two other divers plus myself and Simeon so the dives were were going to be a bit more challenging with stronger currents as well. "Lets go diving." There are excellent days to sharpen one's skills.

La Piedra Solitária 

The first dive was at La Piedra Solitária or Solitary rock. As you can see from the photo above, the current is strong. We dropped in well off the whitewater for the safety of the boat and descended and swam towards it, about 20 metres. It was a nice dive as you just learned to go with the current and in this case the back and forth to the rock. We were moving about 3 or 4 feet right and left as we descended. It was a nice technical dive and as I mentioned, it really helped you focus on your breathing, buoyancy and remaining calm. We went to about 80 feet as we swam around the rock, emerging where we started about 45 minutes later. It was the next dive that I had a small issue.

El Faro runs along the coast just outside the bay where Zihua is and directly across from La Piedra Solitária, about 15 minutes by boat. Simeon gave us the instructions that this was an advanced site as we would get diving between various rock formations and then descending down to 100 feet. There was a good chance to see spotted rays along the way which added to the excitement. It was along the coast so much like La Piedra Solitária, Jesus would pull the boat close enough without getting into trouble as the waves were large and again, that damn current. "Let's do diving."

I go over and we are gather together and descent, and my mask starts filling with water. No big deal, it is an easy fix and clearing a flooded mask is one of the first things you learn when you dive. Head back, big blast of air through my nose and voila, down we go. Except, my  mask starts to fill again. I repeat the process. Now the thing I wanted to point out is the current is pushing the three others ahead of me and the water is murky so if I am not careful, I could lose sight of them. I clear my mask again just in time to see the three of my fellow divers drop over the ledge of a rock face and start their free fall, and my mask starts to fill up again. As all of this is going on, I can feel that the band of the right side of my mask had slipped and was loose but I could not get it tight while I kept clearing it. My dive team had now vanished and my mask would just not give me break. FUCK. Now in a situation like this, and I was only about 20 feet down, I waited for about a minute as is the rule, hoping for my team to return to find me. My mask was useless so I ascended to the top, inflated by BCD and waited. 

I fixed and tested my masked and then bobbed in the ocean as shark bait. I gave an emergency wave to Jesus (not the Christian God but the boat captain) who was about 100 metres away but he did not see me because of the swells so it was a good thing I was not having a real issue. It was only a few minutes before I saw the tell tale bubbles rise around me. Simeon was surfacing, as you do when you can not find someone from your dive party. The process worked successfully. The three of them bobbed up around me, each with a look of concern. 
"Everything alright?" Simeon asked to which I replied, "mask kept flooding because of my strap and I lost you guys." "You good to go?" was his reply.  "Let's go diving"! was all I needed to say, and we descended.