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Air Tahiti Magazine 56
destination > provoquees par l affrontement entre le courant allant dans un sens et le vent allant dans le sens oppose. la faune a l image hostile mais a l allure tranquille, l eau turquoise et la force du courant,tous les elements sont au rendez-vous pour des sensations inedites. ce qui subsiste est l impression d avoir plonge pour la premiere fois, une sensation commune a tous les plongeurs fraichement debarques a rangiroa, parait-il raie manta club pionniers de la plongee a rangiroa p armi les nombreux clubs de plongee de l atoll, le raie manta club fait figure de pionnier. son fondateur, yves lefevre, alors deja plongeur, a decouvert les eaux de rangiroa en 1983. seduit par la richesse de la faune sousmarine et les conditions ideales d observation, il lance les premieres plongees pour les quelques rares touristes des 1985. le defi est cependant a la hauteur du potentiel du lagon. l atoll n est pas desservi par avion mais par bateau uniquement. il n y a ni eau courante, ni electricite. les premiers plongeurs sont accueillis sous des tentes a l ombre des cocotiers depuis, les choses ont totalement evoluees et rangiroa a conquis les plongeurs du monde entier. a l origine d une partie des images de production mondialement celebres, avec les films «le grand bleu» ou «atlantis», le club beneficie d une aura incontestable dans le coeur des plongeurs. le raie manta club s est repandu egalement dans toute la polynesie francaise puisqu il propose aussi des plongees a la rencontre des baleines a bosses a rurutu, dans l archipel des australes, pendant les mois de juillet et d aout. il propose aussi des plongees au coeur du lagon sur l atoll voisin de tikehau, dans l archipel des tuamotu. > so far away. how far down are we exactly? i have no idea. all i know is that the rolls forming at the surface make it near impossible for me to go up there at this moment. i rely completely on yann who has air it seems as his element. on each side of us huge manta rays float by. they open their large mouths to breath in water full of plankton and their nonchalance is reassuring. guided by the current we pass by one of them and its coloration is at once fairy-like yet grey and hostile - not unlike the entire atoll of rangiroa. before rising slowly to the surface, we see an eel that jealously guards its cave. its two big eyes confirm that we are the visitors down here. yann unfolds an inflatable buoy that he lets fly up a line to the surface. this helps the boat know where we are. little by little we rise. i have the impression that we have spent an eternity under the water. far from being ready to get back to the surface, i begin to understand how divers become so passionate about the sport; i have become hypnotized by this moment. our heads break the surface and it's an almost brutal reality. big waves come at us from every direction as the ocean current hits the waves of the lagoon. the fatigue from the dive doesn't help me much with regaining my balance, but we're quickly rescued. the club's zodiac collects us and we speed away. the fish and animals we saw underwater were gentle yet with a slightly hostile aura. with the turquoise waters and the strength of the current i can say that the dive was a singularly raw experience. in the end i feel like this was the first dive of my life, a feeling that is apparently common to many divers who delve beneath the ocean's surface in rangiroa. © p. bacchet
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