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<\/a>Personal development practitioners call it \"getting out of your comfort zone\". Me, the very big chiller, who only dived into warm seas during the vacations, reimmersed myself in the cool waters of the English Channel, at the beginning of June 2020, in the early days of deconfinement... \ud83e\udd76 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was at the Diving Activity Center of Trebeurden<\/a> (C\u00f4tes-d'Armor), during a professional training course to obtain the Hyperbaric aptitude certificate (CAH) Class 1 Mention B<\/a> (up to 30 meters). <\/p>\n\n\n\n A course that I had planned before the health crisis, to be able to do underwater photography in the future with my journalist's cap<\/a> in a safe and legal environment. And, incidentally, to learn how to use a dry suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mission accomplished: I'm now officially authorized to work under pressure, and I marvel at having been able to dive into 16\u00b0C water without freezing to death and keeping my buttocks dry. Well, almost. A trivial detail of an ill-fitting collar that lets water into the suit... \ud83d\ude02 <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would qualify the experience as enriching, even if it was not exactly a pleasure, in any case far from the relaxation that I usually look for in diving... <\/p>\n\n\n\n As this course focused on safety, in addition to the rules associated with professional diving we had to get used to Covid-19 procedures: wearing a protective mask is compulsory at all times, including on the boat, systematic virucide disinfection of the diving mask and regulator as soon as you get out of the water, complete disinfection and rinsing of the equipment on returning to the center... \ud83d\ude37 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, it is constraining, but you get used to it. No choice anyway. To dive, in this pandemic context, we must respect these precautions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On this subject, I refer you to the very complete documentation published by Alain Foret on the French site Plong\u00e9e Plaisir<\/em>with recently updated download sheets. See also the FFESSM and DAN websites, which summarize current Covid recommendations: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192 Plong\u00e9e Plaisir - Coronavirus and Diving Information<\/a> During the course, I was allowed to take with me my camera<\/a> once during one of our underwater \"workcamps\". Of course, it's not exactly the same atmosphere as in Indonesian<\/a> or Philippines waters<\/a>... \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it's also pretty, the green water - emerald, sorry... It creates a slightly mysterious atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I'm assured there's plenty of underwater photo fun to be had in Brittany's waters. I don't doubt it, and I'm even considering investing in a wet suit in my size. (I don't feel like diving wet in such a cold sea... \ud83e\udd76) And for a bit of \"exoticism\" compared to Brittany, there's still the Mediterranean Sea<\/a>. But a dry suit is a big investment, I still hesitate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I'm not sure I'll be using it much, given the limited seasonal weather windows in our latitudes... But if I travel less than I used to, I may get a taste for the pleasures of local diving again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more \u279c Diving and photography equipment: my gear<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more \u279c Diving without travelling (without flying)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I've been pretty spoiled so far. After all, I've been blowing bubbles for twenty years in places other than swimming pools or the English Channel... As a result, I've become addicted to distant seas, tropical waters full of fish, and the sites of the fabulous \"The Sea\". Coral Triangle<\/a>... \ud83d\ude0d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u279c See all diving trips<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, after spending a whole summer in France, dry and without any change of scenery for the very first time in years, I think that maybe it's the end of an era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We're not going to be moving again anytime soon, into the next world. Covid is still there. And it may still be a long time. For Asia in general and Indonesia in particular (my favorite dive destination of all<\/a>), it probably won't be this year, 2020. \ud83d\ude2d <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the beginning of September 2020, not all borders are closed to diving travellers from France, however. Several European and Mediterranean destinations are accessible, as well as French Polynesia<\/a>, Egypt<\/a> and Mexico<\/a> for instance, for more distant destinations. But you still have to prove that you have a clean bill of health, with a recent health survey or PCR test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What is problematic is the uncertainty of the trip itself: borders can suddenly close because of new clusters, air links can be cancelled overnight, quarantines can suddenly be introduced... <\/p>\n\n\n\n To follow the evolution of the conditions of entry and transit of travelers, country by country, you can consult the regularly updated IATA (International Air Transport Association) click map: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2192 IATA - Covid-19 Travel Regulations Map<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But I can't complain too much: I'm lucky enough to have been able to go diving in the Philippines<\/a> late February-early March 2020, when the coronavirus was not yet a barrier to travel. At that time, however, Chinese and Koreans were already unable to travel. This had a huge impact on the tourism sector in the Philippine archipelago, where they represented a large part of the clientele. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Left: flamboyant \"soft corals\" (alcyonaria) clinging to the drop-off of Pescador Island, off Moalboal. Right: a cloud of purple anthias along the Pescador drop-off (Cebu, Philippines, March 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having already traveled to Asia in the past during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)<\/a>I wasn't that worried about going diving. I wasn't shocked that they were checking my temperature or that people were wearing masks at the airport. The mask is a \"normal\" accessory in Asia, a habit acquired long ago. We like to wear one whenever we have a cold, so as not to contaminate others, or to protect ourselves from pollution in big cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My stay in itself went smoothly, the coronavirus didn't prevent me from diving, and then I returned to France without any worries... Just before the confinement <\/em>Manila on March 15, 2020, just before the confinement back home. \ud83d\ude05 Plenty of other holidaymakers weren't so lucky, and found themselves stranded abroad, waiting for a repatriation flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, this Covid pandemic makes me foresee a world where we will not be able to travel or go diving as freely as before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The almost total paralysis of air traffic and tourism, together with the global slowdown in human activities, has made it possible to delay the day on which the Earth's annual resources are exceeded from 31 July to 22 August<\/a>. But the impact on global warming is rather derisory: even with two years of containment, we would gain at best only -0.01\u00b0C in 2030<\/a>. However, it is urgent to use all the levers to limit as much as possible this ongoing disaster... <\/p>\n\n\n\n Will the post-confinement recovery plans succeed in changing things? In its plan, France plans to devote 30 billion euros out of 100<\/a> to ecology and energy transition. To be continued...<\/p>\n\n\n\n Update, March 2021.<\/mark><\/strong> On the subject of \"Is Covid-19 good for the climate?\", here is a link to this interesting video. broadcast by The World<\/em> March 29, 2021<\/a> which shows that the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions remains limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember well my amazement when we began to understand that this epidemic that appeared in China had become a pandemic. That the overwhelmed health systems, the travel restrictions, the confinements, the quarantines were affecting the entire planet! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Covid-19 is over, I imagine that many stringent precautions will still be maintained to prevent potential new outbreaks. In airports, in particular, hygiene measures and systematic sanitary controls will probably remain the norm...<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this forced immobility of almost six months due to the coronavirus, I am starting to miss diving trips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am nostalgic for those moments of absolute wonder when I immerse myself with my camera on a reef teeming with life. Of this exhilarating feeling of freedom when I am far from home, at the end of the world. And the inexhaustible pleasure of discovering new horizons, of confronting a culture different from my own... <\/p>\n\n\n\n This strange period gives me a foretaste of what could be a world where, for ecological reasons, we would no longer go to the other end of the planet for vacations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you travel to dive and photograph coral reefs, it means tropical, far away destinations. And we feel rather guilty about the huge greenhouse gas emissions associated with long plane journeys... Because of the CO2<\/sub> in excess in the atmosphere, the ocean is warming and acidifying, corals are bleaching and dying<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the subject of the environmental impact of tourism, I invite you to listen below to this interesting podcast entitled \"Can we be green and go on vacation? \u00bb<\/a>, by Lucas Scaltritti<\/a>. He is particularly interested in \"blue tourism\" (vacations by the sea), but winter sports are not left out... <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2192 FFESSM - Post-confinement recommendations related to the Covid-19 epidemic
<\/a>\u2192 DAN - Covid-19 and Diving Operations<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nGreen and cold waters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a>Travelling and diving after the Covid? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>Containment that's good for the planet? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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