Buoyancy and Coral: Keep Your Fins Off the Reef
Havelock coral is living tissue. How we hover, kick, and weight people so a photo stop does not take out a colony.
Why we care so much
Coral here grows slowly. A knee, a camera housing, or a downward fin kick can break years of it. On our boats, buoyancy is part of the brief, not a nice extra.
How we want you to look
Head slightly up, fins up, hands still. Move with a small frog kick or a quiet flutter. Look with your eyes; do not swim into the thing you want to see.
If you start to sink, add a little air to the BCD or take a fuller breath. If you start to rise, dump a bit or exhale. Jabbing the inflator makes people bounce.
Things we stop on fun dives: kneeling next to live coral for a photo, grabbing rock in current, fins hanging low so every kick stirs silt, and chasing turtles until they work harder than they need to.
Weight
Too much lead and you sink, then overfill the jacket. Too little and you cannot get down. We check weight in the shallows. Say if a rental wetsuit feels different from last year.
SSI Perfect Buoyancy is the course for this. A rusty certified diver can also book a fun dive and ask for a quiet brief.
Leave the reef as you found it. That is the whole point of coming here.