6 Passengers Rangiroa. Refresher dive with Jimmy in the lagoon by the Aquarium about 9:00 am. Nothing special, but liked Jimmy’s communication/instruction style. I had a refresher pool session a few weeks ago, but it had been over a year since my friends dove. We all benefitted from the refresher, and I learned a lot about buoyancy control as did my friends. Second dive was outside the Tiputa Pass about 2 pm. Nice relaxing dive down to ~ 61’ with visibility above 100’. Hung above the wall while dolphins played with us—a total blast!
Top Dive Rangiroa. Two tank dive. First dive was outside Tiputa Pass at a max depth of 81’. Another dolphin encounter, but this time only one and it interacted with the DM, but not the rest of us. Lots of barracuda. The deep blue is aptly named—like I imagine space would feel. Second dive was shooting Tiputa Pass. Max depth 112’, which was 20’ deeper than briefed, but we all stuck with the DM in the column. Hammerheads and other big sharks were on the bottom about 100’ below us. Visibility again was >100’. Headed into the pass at about 90’ deep and sunk below the first canyon wall to find a ~12’ grey‘s shark and a tremendous variety of fish. I let the DM know I was at 1/2 tank so we rose and got back into the current the shoot the pass. Once through at about 35’ depth I let the DM know that I was at 900 psi reserve—he seemed unconcerned. A few min later he checked with me again and seemed surprised and somewhat panicked that I was at 600 psi. We headed to a 12’ safety stop where I spent 8 min even though my computer said decompression had cleared. I surfaced with 250 psi next to the boat. A bit closer call than I would have liked. Also in retrospect, I’m not crazy about the dive profile—max 81’ for 50 min, 70 min surface interval, followed by 112’ max seems a bit reckless.
