Visit-Montenegro.com: An unforgettable adventure

Podgorica- The fascinating undersea world rich in colours and shapes cannot be faithfully depicted even by HDTV.
Once you dive in the infinite azure and notice reddish starfish, dark sea urchins or shoals of fish nibbling you out of curiosity, only then you realize that you cannot get to know submarine world from your comfortable armchair.

It is neither difficult nor dangerous to dive for the first time, accompanied by an instructor, of course, and witness a scene you won’t forget as long as you live. With a bit of good will and after few diving lessons, even 10 meters underwater you will feel almost as you were on land, though sea bed isn’t human natural habitat.

Reporter for “Vijesti” experienced this on Friday when he visited the diving club “Pro Dive Hydrotech” in the “Maestral” hotel in Budva.
While selecting equipment for the reporter without diving experience, the owner of the club, Radan Dragasevic claimed that scuba diving is not an extreme sport, as it is commonly believed.

- One doesn’t have to be in a top physical form or have previous diving experience. Ardent desire for fun and a bit of your spare time is enough. If you hold to certain rules, you will rise to the surface safe and sound – explains Dragasevic.

Indeed, the hardest part of the unforgettable adventure is to put on a wet suit and button up numerous belts and to walk on land carrying equipment which weighs more than 40 kilograms.

Training in the pool precedes scuba diving in the sea. The instructor is a calm and tactful diver from Bezdan in Vojvodina – Rudolf Ham, who has more than 22 years of diving experience. Naturally, the most important thing is to learn how to breathe properly, how to equalize ear pressure, which is often necessary during diving, as well as to learn how to move through the water without “flailing about”. The training lasts no longer than 40 minutes…

When Ham and Dragasevic assess that the training is completed successfully, you are ready to dive for 35 minutes at a depth of 12 meters.

Short after this, scuba diving equipment was packed and we finally sailed out. There were three experienced German divers in the boat, as well as Ham and Dragasevic.

We were sailing towards the Island “Sveti Nikola” and we intended to dive through two tunnels and a cave. The Germans would dive on their own; Ham would dive with me, while Dragasevic would stay in the boat.
We were in the water soon, and the adventure began.

- The water at last! – said Ham, for obvious reason to encourage me.
We dived in slowly, sunrays were fading. Ham was constantly next to my left shoulder. We were getting down gradually at a depth of 5 meters approximately. Ham often put index finger and thumb together which in diving term means “is everything ok”. I replied with the same sign.

The landscape seemed unreal and uneasiness felt at the beginning disappeared, and the ringing sound in my ears caused by pressure changes was less frequent. I wasn’t paying attention to any technique, I simply breathed. Ham was amazing. He pointed his finger at everything he found interesting, at incredibly motley fish, which I would probably miss. He suggested me to feel the rocks and sand on the bottom…

- He gave me a signal to move so as to face him; smiling and spreading his arms as if to say that there was noting to worry about. He “asked” me again if everything was all right and I replied with both hands that everything was ok. He kept smiling while lying on the bottom pretending to sleep. It seemed to me that he breathed faster than it was normal as if he wanted me to think that he was snoring.

- Nothing relaxes me more like diving – he said to me later on when we were heading for the shore.
We were passing one of the tunnels. Visibility was good, but it was much darker in there. We were followed by shoals of fish which reminded me for a while that I was breathing underwater. I was startled a bit, but then I saw several reddish starfish scattered around and stopped paying attention to breathing and danger of choking in case I inhaled the sea water.

Nearby I saw a lot of armature wires – which is no wonder since Budva is a symbol of construction boom. Still, it’s a shame to think of everyday life while diving.

We passed the tunnel and dived into a small sea cave. At its very bottom there was astonishingly white gravel while upwards everything was pitch dark since there was no sunlight coming through. On our way out of the cave, Ham told me to look overhead. Sunrays looked absolutely amazing.

As we were moving slowly towards the surface, the light was getting brighter. When we rose to the surface I removed the mask, took the snorkel out of my mouth – and almost choked.

By S.L.