After you’ve been diving for a few years and have visited a number of great dive spots, you’ll most likely develop a wish list of both new dive spots and animal encounters. For as long as I’ve been diving, a manta ray has always been on my personal wish list. I’ve of seen plenty of videos featuring manta rays, with amazing up-close and personal interactions where the animals swim with — and around — divers for quite some time. I’m not talking about a fly-by, but about genuine interaction with these gentle giants. I wanted that experience.
I planned trips to some of the most likely spots in the world to see mantas only to have weather, illness, or just plain bad luck intervene. For some people, it’s whale sharks, blue-ringed octopus or dolphins. It happens to everyone in some form or another. As for me, I had come to believe I had a manta curse. This short film is about the day that curse finally ended.
