I was really excited to host this Diving meetup under the tag line “Underwater Meetup”. My country Sri Lanka is an island nation surrounded by the great Indian ocean. We are blessed with a beautiful marine world all around the country. I had this idea of hosting a Diving Meetup to capture this amazing marine world and add it to the maps so that others get to see them. I got together with fellow local guide @kasunaa and hosted a joint meetup for two days so we could cover a lot more ground in underwater
We started our meet up at Poseidon Diving Center at Hikkaduwa. Even though about 4 other fellow local guides have shown interest to participate they were not able to make it. @kasunaaa and I decided we could go on this adventure together. Missed you @IlankovanT @SupunW .
First, we met the diving instructor(Praveen) for the diving session briefings. We were joined by a few other people who came to the center who were interested in diving with us. We gave them a quick introduction to what local guide program and what we try to achieve with this meetup. They were really interested happy to join our diving session.
Then it’s time for the first training session. Dive Master helped to select fitting diving gear for us. We had a demonstration on how to use the gear. Then it was time to practice what we learned. We geared up with dive masks, BCD(Buoyancy control device), Breathing regulators an air tanks. Then we had our practice session at shallow waters. After an hour or so our instructor was confident that we are ready for the big thing.
We went back to the diving station. We had a small break and drank some tea. We got our camera gear ready. Then it was time for the big event for the day. Dive into the deep blue sea in Hikkaduwa. We planned for two diving locations “The Cave” and “Hikkaduwa Gala”. Both locations were about 0.5km to 1km away from the cost. So we reached there by boat.
Our first dive was at “The Cave”. We were excited and a bit scared at the same time. 
It is a 12m (40feet) dive. We decent along the anchor line and then started exploring around. Divemaster guided us through the underwater terrains. There was a beautiful underwater rock formation(probably how it got the name “The Cave”). It’s a little bit scary at first when you go down but soon you forget all that fear when you begin to witness the amazing world down there. Beautiful corrals and various color fish flocks made you feel like you are a mermaid.
We explored a while and then our divemaster took us to a sandy bottom in the middle of the rock formation. We kneel down there and rested while the divemaster checks on each of the team members. Something amazing happened there. A big Turtle came there and swam right through us just like checking on the new guys in his town. We gave the Turtle boss the respect he deserves and he gave us a nod of permission and swam away. J
After the little resting session, we explored a bit further while going back to the anchor line for our accent. When all reach the anchor line we started our ascent. Since we were down more than 9 meters can’t make a continuous accent due to the large pressure difference it could make. This is because each 10-meter depth adds one additional atmospheric pressure(1 bar) on your body. We have to make a safety stop at 5m depth for 3 minutes for the body to gradually equalize the pressure(if not you are at risk to suffer Decompression sickness due to sudden air expansion inside your lungs when you reach the surface).
We all made our accent successfully and began to float on the water by inflating our BCD(Buoyancy Control Device). Then we got into the boat and rested a while. We had been underwater for 35 minutes but for me, it felt like far less. The experience was amazing and it couldn’t be described in words.
After a 30mins rest, we geared up for the next dive.
We anchored at the “Hikkaduwa Gala” dive site. This time we were more excited as we are going to further depths in this dive. Eighteen meters, Yes you heard it right we are going 18m(60 feet) down. It was the same drill. We deflate our BCDs and decent along the anchor line. We explored the area following the divemaster. We saw a lot of different types of fish here. One big flock of fish swam around us. We spent around 40 mins down there and slowly accent to the surface(a couple of 3 min safety stops to equalize the pressure ). When we got back on the boat we were exhausted. We ride back to the dive center and cleaned our gear. Then we had some hot Ceylon hot tea. It was a day very well spent day. My self and @kasunaaa was really thrilled.
With today’s success, we were really excited and pumped up for tomorrow’s meetup hosted by @kasunaaa . We decided to celebrate today’s success with a chilling evening at the beach and a good night sleep.
Read the Day 2 RECAP here [Recap] Hikkaduwa Underwater Meetup Day 2 .
Meetup Shared Album
RECAP Video
#Let’sMapUnderWater #UnderWaterMeetup #MappingUnderwater #LocalGuidesSriLanka #ExtremeMeetup
I have seen that your country has very beautiful beaches and marine life. Have you done snorkeling or diving ?
Do you have underwater videos? I snorkel and have dived introductory course. But not fully diving by myself. I got a little claustrophobic with the mask, tank etc.