Freediving with scuba-divers & flying with rays

After a rainy saturday, came a sunday full of light.

I arrived early in the morning, arround 10:30. The sun was cutting in and the ocean was a bliss to see.

Surprisingly, garajau beach was still quiet, only with a few people, probably because half the beach was still in shadow.

As i was preparing to enter the water, a boat full of scuba-divers arrived near the yellow buoy. I found this an excellent opportunity to try to dive with them and see if i could get closer to the Mero (Epinephelus marginatus).

Without second thoughts i went straight to the yellow buoy, warming-up calmly in backstroke. Unfortunately, as i arrived there i looked down, there wasn't any signs of bubbles, so i couldn't know where the scuba-divers were. But no problem, sooner or later they will appear in the bottom since the boat was moored to the buoy.

So i decided to make some progressive dives to the bottom. First dive at 9m, second dive at 15m and a third dive at 18m on the top of bottom rock.

I was now ready to go to the bottom sand. The water was relatively clear and from above i could see perfectly the top of the bottom rock, so i relaxed for a while before diving.

After some breathing preparation i dive down, trying to be align with the iron chain for orientation. As i was getting closer to the bottom rock i slided a bit away towards the sand and let myself go to the depths. Arriving at the bottom i felt relaxed, so i sat down on the sand and closed my eyes for just a moment... As i opened my eyes, scuba-divers were passing by some 15m away and i started to ascend. (max. depth: 23m; total dive time: 1m35s)

Well, after this dive i was done, but i couldn't loose the opportunity to follow the scuba-divers from above and hoped they could spot something. That was what just happen.

As they were turning back at the bottom, some guy pointed is finger to west, trying to show the others that something was there. I couldn't saw it from above, so i prepared myself for a big dive. I descend some metters and look down, but still i couldn't see anything, even thus the guy was still pointing somewhere out there. So i went down a little bit more and looked to the bottom and spot 2 rays flying in the bottom, one of them was bigger than the other so i decided to follow her. I was already in "rocket diving mode" when i passed the scuba-divers and kept my "flight" along with the rays. This experience is one that makes the difference between freediving and scuba-diving, you can really follow them underwater, but of course not for long, i went up.

After this i rested at the yellow buoy and waited for the scuba-divers to come to surface.

As i was starting to heading back to land through a series of small dives, i spot a group of fishes that catch my attention, they were about fifteen sargos-veado (Diplodus cervinus), it seems like i was inside a big aquarium for a moment or two.