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Experienced and aspiring divers gathered at the Marassi Diving Festival to explore the waters near Diyar Al Muharraq, raise the profile of the event on the island and plunge into fun-filled activities.
The two-day affair, which featured free scuba-diving lessons, joyriding jet skis, wakeboarding and other seaside activities, attracted more than 500 people from across the region.
Khalid Al Saeed, one of the primary organisers of the festival on behalf of the Bahrain Volunteer Divers Team, said: “We set up this event so that more people can get active and overcome any fear of the water. All the activities here are free so that more and more people in Bahrain get involved with diving and help make Bahrain a global diving destination.”
Divers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and United Arab Emirates joined in on the festivities along with several volunteer beach clean-up and health and safety organisations.
Day one of the event also saw the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, come by for a dip and diving lesson with his daughter.
Mohammed Abdulla Al Balooshi, the lead diving instructor at Delma Marine, said: “This is one of my dreams. Not only is teaching diving my job, to see so many people come and try it out is a dream come true.”
The Saudi Hi-Divers ladies diving team lead by Captain Maryam Al Moalem dove in to show women and children the ropes of scuba diving and entice them to further explore the seas around us.
Maryam added: “It was a fantastic day. We had a lot of people show up. Most were very excited. Some didn’t even want to leave the water once they learned how to scuba dive.”
Set against the scenic backdrop of a traditional dhow, children were also treated to an air castle type obstacle show on the water while their parents lounged back or took a diving lesson, comfortable in knowing that there were lifeguards on hand to ensure everyone was playing safely.
To escape the record levels of heat Bahrain has been experiencing this summer, this dry ink slinger and his tried-and-true photographer decided to dive in to the scuba diving lessons and get the full gill experience.
First we went through a four-minute walkthrough of the equipment. Our guide, Mohammed introduced us to the holder of our underwater air, the oxygen tank which was strapped into a buoyancy control device (BCD). The BCD itself had multiple parts.
We first learned to control the air within the BCD itself, which would either help us float higher or lower. Then we proceeded to meet the many other arms attached to the BCD. The pressure gauge which would let us see how much oxygen was left in the tank, the regulator which converts the high-pressure air from the tank into breathable oxygen and finally, the octopus, an extra regulator in case your diving buddy has finished their own share of breath-taking moments.
After our introduction, we put on the weight belts and I felt my long-forgotten aquaphobia resurface a bit. The primal part of my brain wondered why I was willingly putting on a device that would literally drag me down in water, while the journalist part of my brain rationalised, “Well, at least it’d be a story.”
With our BCDs on our backs, our diving masks on and our regulators in our mouths, we ventured underwater. It was a bit unusual not being able to use our noses to breathe instead relying completely on our mouths to inhale and exhale, especially since I have spent my entire life trying not to be a “mouth-breather.”
However, I quickly got used to it. The tougher part surprisingly was staying submerged. The waters were so salty that we kept buoying to the surface even after removing all the air from our BCDs.
Finally we figured it out and it’s truly a sensational experience defying human evolution and breathing normally underwater. The last time my breath was so aware yet relaxed was at the last silent retreat at which I spent 10 days simply focusing on it. And here, within 10 seconds, I felt just as Zen but a bit morose when we were asked to come back to shore.
With an amazing couple of days done, when asked about what their main takeaway from the festival was, Maryam said: “We saw that everyone who tried diving loved it and couldn’t get enough and more and more people, especially ladies should try it out. It was liberating seeing other women also join me in the water for a lot of fun and a few thrills.”
Mohammed echoed a similar sentiment, adding: “For all of us, this is a passion and being able to share it with the people of Bahrain was an incredible experience. Everyone should dive in and make the ocean their comfort zone.”
With almost 47 per cent of the children on the island unable to swim and a growing obese demographic, events like this help promote swimming and active living as integral parts of living on an island.
