The earth shook underwater!

Getting up at 6.00 to do a dive is already bad enough. Being sleepy underwater and wondering why a pile of rocks would crumble underwater and fish darting everywhere. Even the mimic octopus dived back into the hole.

I was thinking "hmmm, could this be an earthquake?" Looking around I see my buddy hightailing it shouting SSNNAAMEEE under water. SSSNNAAMMEEE? What's that? Oh earthquake... TSUNAMI!!

Wait! ( And really, I know to dump the dive gear but do you really leave behind the camera and my brand new DIY snoot to make a mad dash for the hills?!?) Can I even stay put when the current comes? I looked around and found the concrete barrels designed to snare fishing nets and thought I could hang on to that. But the now more than unsettled buddy is not having any of that. Signaling her intent, she superfinned the 300m back to shore while I followed at a slower pace, anticipating the big tidal draw and following the line from the concrete block back to shore just in case the tide did withdraw and I could head for it. (Again I was wondering... do I dump the camera?) Walking back up to shore, I noticed the dogs were still barking and the ducks were flapping. The locals were not flustered and the baby even had to be nursed while the mom came to us saying "Ada gempa" in a oh so matter of factly way. The dive buddy was in the car in her soaking! wetsuit asking me to hurry up so we could drive up the hills.

All this while I was thinking of ways to minimize loss by dumping the strobes and arms but not the housing. No! The big flash are pretty expensive... And how would I run with the 10 kg bulky housing most efficiently? My Kalahari barefoot running training didn't really prepare me for a housing with 3 strobes... in soft black sand no less... the mind does ponder many weird things when it has time.

That's my experience of the 5.8 Bali earthquake this morning.

PS. Safely back on my hilltop poolside restaurant, I found out the resort has wifi!

It snapped me outta bed thats fer sure.....

What!!!! Leave the camera behind!!!! Are you serious???!!!! Leave the dive buddy, maybe, but not the camera!!!!!

Leave the camera?... I was thinking anchor to the block with a jon line, wait for the massive brown out of water heading your way and snap photos just before it hits.... of course I'm not too bright either.

Aftershock! And the dogs go wild 5 minutes before... mild one though. How boring!

Glad it turned out to be nothing to worry about.

 

Glad it turned out to be nothing to worry about.

You should have thrown the camera in the car first then followed ... Tut, Tut ... Thinking of your own well being Drew ... Couldn't you have flipped it into video mode and filmed the rumbles underwater (thinking footage/£) ...

Glad everyones safe

Dive safe

DeanB

am i the only one in this country who sleeps through all the earthquakes?

Yours was a 5.4... I'd sleep through that. 5.8 with epicenter 100km away... I doubt it. Then again I hear you sleep through the conjugals too