"FOTOSUB EL HIERRO": FIRST DAY
(21/10/09) Our underwater photography team tells how the first day of Photodive El Hierro 2009 has gone. A chronicle “from inside of the news” since Carmelo and Yolanda participate in the contest.
One year again, photodive in El Hierro begins with excellent divers: the world champion (Espen Rekdal), the third one in the world (Eok Soo Kim), the champion of Spain (Esteban Toré) and divers nationally acclaimed.
Following the system of last years, this photodive seems to renovate in each of its editions. The surprise in this XIII open has been the relocation in one of the round, starting the championship in the North, in the port of La Estaca. This has made that many of the lucky that have been able to participate this photodive enjoy dive sites never visited before. I think it is a very good idea, since this way we van vary dives. It is gratifying that, despite the crisis, an event like this is still of high level and renovating itself year after year, and more if we have into account that it has received a strong private support.
This first round has been full of surprises for everybody. We have seen how acclaimed photographers have been left behind the top positions, giving place to new talent and old acquaintances.
A great part of the collections of two pictures have been about black coral, abundant in these dive sites.
La Caleta
This place is accessible directly from land, although in competition we go by zodiac. Deeps are from 5 meters to 50. The coast starts in a cliff and ends in an arenal. Currents are usually quite strong, although, luckily, when I was diving there weren’t. From the 18 to the 40 meters we can find walls covered with black coral. Life is abundant and we can find trumpet fish together with island groupers, and any big fish. Parrot fish and ornate wrasse accompany us during the whole dive. Also, we can see barracudas, Pimelometopon maculatus or eagle rays.
El BajÓn del Puerto
We find a slope that starts in 12 meters and is divided into two tongues of lava that go to open sea perpendicularly to the coastline. Their surface is covered with Lobophora as it is common in dives in El Hierro. One of the most interesting sites is a cave that has an entrance and an exit and that is about 18 meters deep, very close to the anchoring. Inside of it there are backlights and black coral that offer a lot of possibilities to photographers. Furthermore, there is a wide variety of fish: moray eels, murion fish, Pimelometopon maculates, groupers, island groupers and triggerfish, all of them in short of time.
Classification of the day
Photographer |
Model |
Position |
Points |
|
Shanay Rekdal |
1 |
20 |
|
Amparo García |
2 |
18 |
|
Eva Villagrasa |
3 |
16 |
|
Mercedes Cabrera |
4 |
14 |
|
Raquel Castelló |
5 |
12 |
|
Buceador de seguridad |
6 |
11 |
|
Luisa Quintanilla |
7 |
10 |
|
Montse Grillo |
8 |
9 |
|
María José Rodríguez |
9 |
8 |
|
Yolanda García |
10 |
7 |
|
Marta Romero |
11 |
6 |
|
Eva María Guardiola |
12 |
5 |
|
Young Sam Kim |
13 |
4 |
|
Daniel Ramírez |
14 |
3 |
|
Esther Torrent |
15 |
2 |
|
Anna Mª Moccia |
16 |
1 |
|
|
17 |
1 |
|
|
18 |
1 |
Tuesday is day for relaxing and to go to La Restinga, and competition starts again on Wednesday. This year the competition is very open and offers a lot of possibilities. Nothing is decided.
Text: Carmelo Andrades
Team Fotosub BV
