Tehei’s First Dives (2/3)

“After, when my father went during the daytime to the quai to fish for octopus, I always went with him. And sometimes I was afraid. But my dad sensed this, he could sense it. If a shark was near both of us it could sense my fear too. And my dad said this: ‘You must never have fear. If you are afraid the shark will not leave.’ I was crying then and said, ‘Ah, no, I don’t want this, no!’ Little by little, sometimes after I practiced and practiced and practiced I began to get good at diving. Sometimes I went all by myself. If I told my dad this, he would say, “No, no, no, you must never go alone, it isn’t good.’ But I didn’t listen to him. I would watch my father and if he wasn’t paying me any attention this is what I did: I took the mask and the speargun with the flippers and everything and I went. And when he saw that I wasn’t there he went to look at the fishing materials. When he would see the materials missing he would say, ‘Ah, no, Tehei went diving again!’ I did this all the time.” – Tehei of Vaitahu, Age 31