A dive into Barracuda Point

Though Sri Lanka is surrounded by sea Scuba diving is not considered as a popular sport by many Sri Lankans - for many its simply because of the fear of water, specially at sea.

It was the same for me. The interest of scuba diving was a child hood dream that I had, ever since I learnt to swim during my schooling days. I was just 11 years old then.

My luck came when Internationally Qualified Diving Instructor Delia Ylva Zimmler who is the owner of a diving school called Ypsylon at Beruwala invited me for a dive. Diving in the sea is not a sport that one can do instantly. It involves internationally stipulated rules and regulations every diving school has to adhere to.Accordingly any person who want to become a casual or a professional diver has to under go special training and instructions stipulated by the international scuba diving governing body called Professional Association of Diving Instructors.(PADI).

For that my first dive wearing a professional diving kit was carried out in a pool. My instructor was Rohitha who is a professional diver who had done over 600 dives at sea. In the pool my first instruction was to spit out saliva on to the mask and wash it. According to Rohitha the saliva helps to keep the mask crystal clear. In the pool I was given an introduction on all the features of the diving kit. I was also given training on how to breathe in and breathe out, removing the mask under water, flushing water out from the mask whilst under water and so on. The entire instruction lesson lasted nearly three hours. Upon finishing my diving lesson I was told I can go scuba diving the next morning.

Last Saturday morning we reached the Ypsylon around eight in the morning where Mrs Delia and her crew were waiting to take us to sea by boat. With the crew on board we set off from the Beruwala beach and headed towards deep sea.


After traveling nearly seven kilometers we reached a place called "Barracuda point", a place that is considered as one of the country's best diving spots in the western sea coast. According to Delia, Barracuda point is considered as the rain forest under sea. The barracuda point is a formation of huge rocks under water where the depth goes as deep as 40 meters.

This place provides a home for many sea creatures that you don't see normally. They include sea snails, corals, sea plants and different varieties of fish, Delia said.

As we reached the diving spot, Rohitha dived in to secure the anchor position of the boat. With assistance from Delia I managed to prepare myself for the dive. Before that Delia checked my dive gear and said that it is the duty of each and every diver to check each other's equipments before every dive.

It was my first turn to get in to water. I was instructed to hold the back of my neck by one hand and hold the mask from the other then flip in to the water. In a moment I was floating on the water holding the dive rope. Soon Delia reached my position and we were ready to dive.

It was a memorable event -holding the rope we were going down in to the deep waters of the Barracuda Point. As we descend holding the rope Delia by using her hand signalled me constantly, enquiring how I was doing for which I answered by showing her the 'ok' sign. As we reached the first five meters my ears started to feel the under water pressure and my body started to feel the waters of the deep sea. Frankly I was frightened and was thinking what I was doing there. But that was short lived after following the instructions that I learned at the pool, Delia's constant watch on me made me feel secure and ready for action. Soon we were in the clear under waters of the Barracuda Point. My first sighting under sea was three dimple fish swimming around us probably fascinated by what these two new creatures were doing in their neighbourhood. The under sea life is indeed like a rain forest . According to Delia at night Barcudda Point turns into a hunting groundwhere big fish like sharks begin their hunting.

Anyway after diving for nearly 24 minutes Delia signed me that it was time to go up. My oxygen tank gage had reached to 50 bar point. Then we started our ascend holding the dive rope. The process of coming on to the surface is done gradually and soon we were on the surface laughing and discussing the dive. What an experience that was!

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/02/06/life/01.asp)