Discovering Scuba Diving in Mauritius

We were born to scuba dive. Just Diving Mauritius has just opened up another world for we mere snorkelers.

Staying at the Paradise Cove Boutique Hotel for just short of two weeks, we had planned our honeymoon ‘wish list’, or more ‘my honeymoon demands’. Top of the list – underwater life.

After experiencing snorkeling in Thailand, Mexico and the Red Sea, Mauritius had a serious amount to compete with. By the time we got to ‘scuba diving day’, we were desperate to have that underwater dream we longed for.

Vipin, our laid back instructor, quickly put us at ease with his sense of humour and patience. We started with a verbal brief and walk through of gear before getting in the swimming pool for exercises to pass. Given our combined experience of one try dive between us we were prepared for the worst, but having had clear instructions, the confidence appeared from nowhere to just go for it. And every step Vipin gave us useful feedback. Fear? What fear?! Within ten minutes we were underwater ‘high five-ing’.

Having successfully passed the instructor’s confidence tests for controlling buoyancy, mask clearing, hand signals, regulator clearing and getting air from another diver, we were ready to get in the boat.

Slightly unable to contain our excitement at this point we were given advice on rolling out of the boat – an experience in itself! ‘Put your hand over mask and regulator then take a breath and roll back into the water’ we were confidently told, ‘a couple of waves of your flippers should take you away from the boat’. Should, unless like me you get totally disorientated, having not kept my eyes open, coming back up to a few giggles from the boys at the elegance at which I went in with.

Underwater. Amazing, literally within seconds we were underwater amongst the fish and beds of lavender coral. Above us people snorkeled. Vipin kindly took our camera, allowing us the freedom to really look and to concentrate on our new skills.

Paul had grown a holiday beard, which meant that his mask never got that perfect seal and so was quickly putting those mask clearing skills to the test. All good, everything else went smoothly under Vipin’s watchful eye.

We had 30 minutes underwater at 5m – every second we treasured. Vipin was never more than a look away but gave us the space to experience with guidance where required.

Back on the boat was a moment to reflect and think about what would we write about our experience? Without an instructor putting confidence in you to just do it, it could be very different. But this whole package was well organised, calming any panic and creating the feeling of wanting to do it again and again.

Thank you to Olivier and the team at Just Diving Mauritius, especially our instructor Vipin. Discovering scuba diving in Mauritius was one of our honeymoon highlights.