Fascinated by shipwrecks and the deep seas from an early age, Sashaa Fernando, taking after his parents Felician Fernando and Renu Fernando, first dived deep into the Indian Ocean’s mysteries when as young as ten. He saw his father explore the wreck of HMS Hermes, a massive WWII aircraft carrier now a glowing spectre on [...]
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Fascinated by shipwrecks and the deep seas from an early age, Sashaa Fernando, taking after his parents Felician Fernando and Renu Fernando, first dived deep into the Indian Ocean’s mysteries when as young as ten. He saw his father explore the wreck of HMS Hermes, a massive WWII aircraft carrier now a glowing spectre on the seabed – a phosphorescent emerald and rust-red ghost around which whorl banks of exotic fish while corals encrust its once-proud girth…
With such a track record, it may not seem a surprise that Sashaa, now 32, has become Sri Lanka’s first PADI Course Director – the “highest and most respected professional rating in recreational scuba diving”.
Running in the family: Sashaa Fernando first dived deep into the Indian Ocean’s mysteries when he was ten
Now fresh from Malaysia, where at Kota Kinabalu he went through a gruelling seven-day course to qualify, we meet Sashaa and proud father Feli, to talk about their long romance with the sea.
Feli, a German and English language tourist guide, always had a passion for diving, and established his company, Sri Lanka Diving Tours which today has branches in Negombo, Mirissa, Dikwella, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.
Sashaa was thus introduced to water when an infant, says Feli, and by eight had completed the Bubble Maker (an introduction to scuba diving by PADI for children over eight) and at ten was a Junior Open Water Diver.
It all runs in the family as not only is Feli a Tec Trimix instructor and Renu the only female PADI IDC Staff Instructor in Sri Lanka, but Sashaa’s sister Vishara is a Dive Master and his wife Rashi a rescue diver. PADI, the world’s largest diver training organization, offers a range of qualifications.
Each year two Course Director courses are conducted by PADI, and this year’s was at Kota Kinabalu while the next will be at the Dominican Republic.
A Dive Master by 18, Sashaa would travel during vacations to their Trincomalee branch to help his father, and he still retains a love for the Eastern Coast with its desolate beaches and turquoise sea, especially Navy Island with its coral reefs, turtles and reef fish.
Sashaa recalls weathering a cyclone once while diving which was a close brush with death, and with this experience, in a country that hitherto had to depend on entirely on foreign PADI Course Directors, with some divers travelling abroad to avail of the services of a such a director, he is likely to be much sought after.
Feli himself is ardent about shipwrecks, and one of his adventures was to locate the HMS Hermes in 2001. Though he was not the first to find it, it was quite a feat to locate what is considered Sri Lanka’s ‘star shipwreck’. It took him time, listening to echoes through a paddle of his boat, to finally locate the looming hulk in the bottom of the sea- anti-aircraft gun sticking out like a canon.
Another favourite “watery grave” Feli loves diving into is the ‘cemetery of bullet-proof luxury cars’ used by former heads of state. These sedans, including a BMW used by Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and a Jaguar used by J. R. Jayewardene, were kept at Mumtaz Mahal, Kollupitiya (the former Speaker’s Residence) and to avoid the automobiles “getting into the wrong hands” they were sunk along with a ship with engine failure. Today these serve as an artificial breeding ground for fish and an attraction for divers.
Despite his own laurels, Feli is overjoyed at his son’s achievement as he points out that less than 1% of the global diving community achieve the Course Director rating. Experience counts when being selected for the course and “only 40 get selected out of some 400 applicants,” smiles Feli.
Meanwhile Sashaa has a pledge to help more and more Sri Lankan divers achieve their dreams in the magical realms of Poseidon.
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Print Edition – The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka
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