Taking a Gap Year: Coral Spot

When I arrive in Mexico on the GVI conservation project, I was allocated to learn 50 odd species of coral. I had the coral book and a good memory, I mean, how hard could it be? Hard. It took me 4 tries and hours of study to finally pass the coral test, and once that was complete I still had to be able to identify them in the water. Gulp.

Try identifying 50 species coral while in the water!

My first coral spot dive was magical. My instructor was Martin, a sarcastic, smart snowboarding/diving legend from Manchester. He lead us through the buddy checks.

Check you’re BCD guys (buoyancy control device). Check the inflator, and the releases.

Ok, weights. Black, right and tight (referring to his weight belt, its black, its got a right hand release and its tight so he won’t drop his weight accidentally and ascending uncontrolled).

Check your air- smell it, taste it. Look at your gauges while doing this. (at this point we all take our regulators- the mouth piece which you breath from- and put it to our noses, smell for bad air, and in our mouths once satisfied and inhale while looking at the pressure gauge which would indicate leaks or other problems). This is my favourite check. When I lead buddy checks I always say: “test your air, smell it, taste it, love it” because at the end of the day we are breathing underwater… Crazy eh?

Final ok- I’ve got my mask, slate, pencil, watch, fins, and compass.

We follow each of these instructions in turn, following Martin’s lead. And soon we’re weaving across the water in the boats to the site. Today we’re going to BBC, a site a grew to love. Once we arrive we get briefed by the captain, while kitting up. Soon we’re in the water and I’ve got that butterfly feeling in my stomach.

Weaving across the water to get to the dive site

OK, Martin signals. Ok, we signal back. Let’s go down. And we release the air from our BCDs and enter the underwater world. As soon as my head passes under I leave all worries at the surface. It feels like flying, but better.

We descend 15 metres, floating-falling to the reef. I see fish dodging invisible prey. I see coral standing big, small, healthy, dead.

Do you know what coral this is?

We are all wide eyed, but Martin dives right in (no pun intended). What is that? Pointing to Montastrea faveolata. We scribble on our slates and clumsily paddle to show him. Yes, no, almost, look more closely he scribbles back.

Before we know it its 40 minutes and we have to ascend. As we do we leave behind the colourful fish and the magical coral. Till next dive…