Unexpected training buddy

[trux]

Funny thing happened to me two days ago. I went to my habitual 2km fartlek DNF swim (a periodic mix of short hypercapnic apnea length with normal swimming) along the beach and shortly after I begun, I noticed a small red fish just below me. I do not know what species it was - it was too small (about 4cm long), and I had just swimming goggles so did not see the details sharp enough. Besides it, I do not really know many fish species by name. However, I do not see fish of such color (light red or pink) here in the Med too often. It looked more like a freshwater aquarium fish, than something I see frequently here.

Well, never mind, I did not pay too much attention. It was funny and so close (just few centimeters from my breast), but I was trying to focus on catching my rhythm so did not really have time to care. Though, after a while, around the half way of my trip (it is the moment I usually already catch the right rhythm, and usually begin to bore and look forward to the end), to my big surprise I noticed that the minuscule fish is still following me. I saw she struggled (yes, it had to be female!) quite a bit to catch up with me: when I did a full-force DNF stroke, she fell far behind, and had to accelerate frenetically with her tail to catch up with me during the glide phase, but she continued doing so in each cycle, always coming back under my face or breast.

I was watching her since that time permanently and was quite amazed. I wondered when she's going to give it up. It was such a fun. I could practically touch her when she came between my hands during me pulling my hands after the stroke back above my head. Then again, after the stroke, she disappeared at my feet, just to come back hurrying again. The second km of my fartlek swim never passed so easily and quickly. Watching the fish, I forgot how long and boring the second half was, did even longer apnea periods in the fartlek than normally (just because I tried keeping my face under water watching the fish), and with no habitual feeling of exhaustion, and arrived to the end of the beach surprisingly soon.

I did not even want that it is already the end of the trip. At the end I slowed down to make it longer. I wanted to continue, I did not want to lose my small red fish, but I knew there was nothing else to do than to get out of the water to the beach. I took my time and went really slow out, still enjoying the small companion, watching it underwater dancing around me until there was no more than some 15-20 cm of water. She still kept with me even there, just 2m from the beach, struggling with the waves. Well, it was breaking my heart to let the small creature, who apparently enjoyed my company, suddenly totally alone in the big sea, but I hope she found her way back to her real mamma (or papa) that she apparently mistook me for.

Next day, I went swimming again, and could not resist looking for her all the time. You sure can imagine - she was not there. Sad, but such is the life.

(and no, if you ask, it was not a pilot fish, or a cleaner, who just attempted to get a ride)

[laminar]

Gifts from the sea, eh? What a great story! Thanks for sharing it.

[salibandy]

Hey Trux, the same thing happened to me once too! Except that it wasn't a red fish, it was a baby Golden Trevally. Beautiful golden body with deep black stripes. Couldn't have been more that 4cm too.

It was my first open water CW training, and we were quite near the world famous Sipadan (which isn't all that great anymore). Swimming out, I noticed a tiny fish struggling to keep up with my coach, Jade. I was adorable, and kept following her till we were where the deep spot was. As she dove down, it followed her down too! However on the way up, it switched to me, who was acting as safety. This would happen as each of us went down.

Sometime into the training, the one other diver who was with us, Ad, could not bear the pain her monofin was putting her through, so she swam back to shore to find the boat. It took her a good half hour to reach the shore, even though it was only like a hundred meters away. But anyway, during that time, Jade and I just floated on our backs.

All of a sudden, she shrieked! I bolted upright in the water and looked over at where she was. She looked over at me too, giving me a weird look. Suddenly she screamed again and popped her head into the water. As I frantically swam over, her face came out of the water and screamed, ' CRAB!' I was like, 'What? Are you sure?'. The moment I said it, I saw the crab, which had now found it's way to her shoulder. I flipped, went nuts and yelled 'It's on your shoulder!', which of course invoked a great reaction from her too. She gave me her snorkel, along with instructions to whack it!

From shore it would have looked like we were fending off a shark attack. I took the snorkel and mercilessly smacked her shoulder, with no regard whatsoever about her safety. After a bit of smacking, I stopped and looked. The crab was off her shoulder. But before I could let loose a sigh of relief, there it was, swimming it's tiny ass back towards her! I screamed, she screamed, and we both swam away from the crab.

After we were in the clear, we looked at each other and burst out laughing. It was just too funny. She later told me she felt her feet being bitten, and thought it was me messing with her. But when she looked up and saw me a distance away, she freaked out and let out that second scream. And all that time the tiny little GT was swimming with us. That cute fish. My heart broke too when we had to leave it behind in the water.

All in all, my first CW outing was eventful and memorable. I will never forget it.

[Bill]

It must have something to do with global warming, or cooling.
Seriously, a few weeks ago we had an Ono (Wahoo) join us at the line. When the diver and safety came up, he lit up his stripes, raised his dorsel and looked excited.
Some of my sweetest memories are of inter-species interaction. Always a rare treat. Thanks for the story.

[Tony Babowicz]

great story Trux. It reminds me of why I freedive in the first place.

[billieball]

Trux, I really enjoyed your story! We've had remorahs follow us at the Jetties down here in Florida...but nothing as cool as what you experienced. It must have been magnificent to play follow-the-leader with that little fish!

[BatRay]

What a great couple of stories. It was so heart-warming to read them. I needed a bit of cheering up, too. Thanks for sharing