Suwarrow Wall Dive
24 September 2012 | Suwarrow
Mark
Yesterday, friends on Dancing Walrus offered to take me along on a scuba dive outside the reef. Having brought along my regulator, I've been hoping for just such an invite since we were unable to afford or stow our own dive compressor. Luckily Ken and Joni have not only a dive compressor, but spare BC, backpack and tank. Lolo opted instead to take advantage of another mad scrabble game with Karin aboard Moonwalker, while Russell offered to be skiff operator and follow our bubbles. We would head to the pass and dive on the outside wall that drops off into oblivion - not exactly a "refresher" dive, but I was game. Though I've had lots of dive experience over the years, I hadn't been recently or actually for over 10-years. As we headed out, Ken ran me through a quick refresher of do's and don'ts, showed me the buoyancy controls on the borrowed BC said that he'd be checking my air periodically. As I donned my gear and readied my GoPro camera, I glanced over toward the "Shark Feeding" spot and noted we were not far from it. We would be sharing this dive with grey reef sharks, I was sure. On the count of three, Ken, Joni and I rolled off the inflatable into the wild. Joni immediately began descending and I, after finding my buoyancy, followed her down. Getting my bearings, I noted we were smack dab on the edge of a garden wall of living flourishing coral that dropped nearly straight down into the blue depths. At about 50 feet, I realized my "good" regulator was not operating quite like it should and so switched over to my secondary. If I was going to keep up with these two seasoned divers, I'd have to conserve air as much as possible. Soon we were joined by pairs of curious blue trevali and schools of rainbow runners (both the types we'd caught for dinner several days prior.) Keeping close to my dive partners, I periodically scanned the deep blue around and below us and it didn't take long to spot the first grey reek shark. They are generally bigger and more muscular than the black tips and seem to swim faster and with more purpose. This one was coming to check us out. Ken and Joni quickly deployed their 16" stainless shark deterring pokers and we pulled a little closer together. The 5-foot shark came as close as about 10-feet before veering to the left and then proceeded to circle us about 3 times - eyeing us as it swam. Eventually losing interest, he swam off and we proceeded along the coral outcroppings at about 60 feet. The number and variety of big fish continued to increase the further along we swam. I looked up and spotted a school of either barracuda or wahoo near the surface and watched them disappear in the distance. There were numerous large blue and green parrot fish and even one very rare red and orange parrot fish that Joni stopped to photograph. Behind us was a growing number of curious dark brown and rust colored fish that looked something like Alaskan rockfish. Ahead and in front of Joni was a turtle and directly above us, another grey reef shark. I snapped a photo of him silhouetted by the light from the surface. Gazing around, I was awed by the variety, number and size of game fish that swam unconcerned between and around the 3 of us. As Ken checked my air, he noted I was down to 1200psi. Ken was down to 900psi, so I guess I was doing fine. Looming in the distance came another 5-foot grey. But this one seemed less timid and swam directly at us, coming even closer before veering to one side. Even though the odds of an unprovoked attack are quite low, there is something primal about the experience of seeing a decent sized shark swim decidedly and directly at you and it's an eerie feeling seeing the eye track you as he swims around. The shark continued to circle us - maybe 5 times staying quite near. Joni signaled it was now time for our ascent and safety stop. I followed her keeping one eye on our friend. Breaking the surface, I unleashed my backpack. "Fantastic!" I exclaimed to the now sun fried Russell - as he pulled my tank aboard. It was an awesome dive, though I was a bit relieved to get all my fingers and toes into the boat with the curious grey still lingering below. We made arrangements to go out again so Russell could get a dive in. I'll probably follow the bubbles in the skiff this time. In talking with Harry last night at the cruisers potluck, I recounted how the previous Suwarow caretaker, Papa Ionne had showed us the large crescent scar on his left leg in Manihiki. He'd had a run in with a large Tiger shark, and but I never got the location of where it had happened. "Right here in the pass" said Harry. Uh - like 100 yards from where we dove today�.... This is a wild and remote place. If I see a tiger shark while diving, you can be sure I'll be walking on water!