( sorry ..) .
Lots of things have changed since, I moved in with Gerald in a nice house at the seaside , at Flic en Flac and work for Sun divers now .
Last May we participated at the World CMAS Championship of Underwater Photography in Jeju , South Korea .
It was a great experience, Jeju island is beautiful, diving is cold .. 15 degrees , we were not ready and equiped for this .
Our first backroll in the water made us an instand ice cube . Gerald had an old 7 mill dive suit and I had a 5 mill suit. It felt so cold my regulator and my face seemed one piece . To fin I would do the minimum effort not to get too much exchange of water running through my dive suit . To pose in the picture, for sure I d "freeze ", no problem .. anytime ..
Of course the first training dives were short, even if the underwater life was stunning , kelp , soft coral , plenty of nudibranches and rich in color, we could not find the courage to stay long ..
But we progressed and our longest dive lasted 1 hour ..
The competition was well organised , we had a good time ...
A few days ago Gerald took of to the Komodo Islands to give a 10 day photograph course on a live a board . If you are curious look at his website : www.geraldrambert.com
This will be his 2nd time , good for you Gerald , enjoy ..
I joined him last year, diving is heaven on earth over there.
Mad current , schools of fish of all kind, big to small ... coulorful corals and ( my first) Manta Rays . I ve filmed underwater , the fish and the photographers . One of my favorite bits is all photographers sitting in a line on their knees, cameras down contemplating the beauty of the undersea life , unable to choose what picture to take first .
I ve seen one Manta at the Flic en Flac Aquarium a few months ago , this is quit unique here .
It was one of the days you do not really expect something big during the dive , so you stick your nose in the rocks to look for nudibraches, little murays and all kind of small things to show and share. As I turned around to show something I found, there it was , hanging above us .... a Manta .
It did not feel real for an instand , because Manta s are so rare here , it was followed by some eagle rays that stayed as a wallpaper in the background.
We silently admired this moment , all of us , as if we wanted the time to stop , push the pause button to enjoy some more ... then slowly it swam or even better danced away . I think we all stopped breathing for a while. At least I did.
Today I dived on my own at the aquarium, I wanted some alone time to take pictures. It was really special, relaxing , groups of fish all around , as I observed two eagle rays playing with the current I realized ... I have the best job in the world !! Lucky me ...
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