Beiruting News

The Lebanon Water Festival held the Underwater Photography Contest in Sarafand this weekend. The Contest ran over two intense days and three dives (20 meters, 12.5 meters, 10 meters over the phoenician ruins) in collaboration with the Municipality of Sarafand, the Head Contest Directors Ali Samir El Mokdad - Aliens International Diving Academy - and Antoine Abou Jaoude - Narcosis, the Competition Managers Antoine Dayekh - C-Club Scuba Diving Academy - and Larissa Ratl, the boat judges Wissam Sabeh Ayoun, and Ayman Jabr,Secretary of Aquamarina Sport Club Jordan. The jury for the photography was composed of Simon Khoury, Board member of CMAS, Mohamad el Sarji, Tina Zaccour, Film & TV Director,  and Sam Fakhoury, professional photographer. 


This is the first time images of Sarafand's underwater are brought to the public, as the Mayor of the Municipality of Sarafand, Ali Haidar Khal, said during the award ceremony: "we did not realise what beauties we had under our sea and we are delighted to have discovered with Lebanon Water Festival the riches of our shores, which we will in time use to promote the city as a leisure and sport destination".


The underwater photography discipline attracts an increasing number of international participants, equipped with professional gear. This sport require a great amount of technicality. One of the main challenges is managing the buoyancy to remain as stable as possible, as one ascends during inspiration and descends during expiration. In addition, holding you breath while scuba can be dangerous, consequently photographers must keep a slow and constant breathing. Light, being one of the main factors in photography, adds to the complexity of this discipline. Photographers rely on natural light or on artificial lightning in deeper dives. Thus, customized equipment and enginuity is common in this type of contest.


On day one, photographers had strong winds and underwater currents, especially towards the end of the afternoon during the second dive. Stability and visibility due to sand upliftings made the macro and wide angle dives quite difficult. However, at the end of the first dive, we could already distinguish a few strong competitors with impressive images of the rich biodiversity of Sarafand. On the second day the competitors benefited from calmer winds enabling them to dive for about 70 minutes as a shallow dive.


Bedri Sincar, Turkish diver, won by flying colours an impressive total of 5 trophies thanks to his unique and truly distinguishable pictures:  1st and 2nd place in wide angle and macro, as well as 3rd place in ruins. Omar Maidan, Jordanien photographer, disappointed by his first dive, bounced back at the top of the competition and won 1st in Ruins. Samer Halwany, Lebanese and Mohamad Qatawneh, from Aquamarina Club Jordan, won 3rd position respectively in macro and wide angle. "The biggest win was the bond built between divers, I wasn't expecting something so close to the heart with such a global group of divers", said Samer upon receiving his prize.


Other faune and flora found in Sarafand waters were: Stingray, army fish, Chinese puffer fish, crabs, shrimps, anemone with violette spikes, and many others. "I didn't know that Sarafand was that rich in terms of marine dive, ruins and culture" notes Mohamad Qatawneh a regular diver of the Red Sea.