Esquimalt, BC –
Before the Royal Canadian Navy divers began their descent into the Pacific Ocean, Seaman 1st Class Valérie LeClair was already in the water, preparing to film it all.
“That’s pretty cool work,” smiles LeClair. “I can also dive and take underwater pictures.”
LeClair was documenting how a group of aspiring clearance divers struggled to master vital skills, like how to find and neutralize explosives underwater, when they challenged her to take their final photo of course with a touch.
“We’re all underwater,” Seaman 1st Class Tajoniel Forbes says, laughing at the concept.
Forbes, who was named top student at the end of the competitive scuba course, was one of 15 people who tried to pose for the photo at the bottom of a swimming pool.
“I smiled in the photo,” Forbes said. “Just to make it a little more difficult.”
As if that wasn’t hard enough.
The goal was to make it look like all the other class photos, except they were all underwater.
They set up a large flag and an antique diving helmet for decorations, then attempted to line up sailors in full uniform in two rows. The hope was that they could stick around long enough to get the perfect picture.
“They would float [to the surface]”, explains LeClair. “It was difficult for them to sit in the chairs.”
Although some of the photos taken show people holding their colleagues in an effort to restrain them, the participants eventually filled their pockets with eight pounds of weight.
“[They] helped sink us,” Forbes says. “And stay at the bottom.
While instructors had access to air when seated in the front row—they had oxygen tanks hidden under their chairs—students attempting to stand in the back did not. They had to jump in and out of the pool to breathe.
“By the time you’re in position, someone is already almost out of breath,” Forbes says. “So you have five to 10 seconds to take the picture before someone shoots [to the surface].”
After several failed attempts and more than a dozen photos where someone’s eyes were inevitably closed, LeClair finally pulled it off.
“It was good,” she said. “It was really fun.”
Then LeClair got to work on her computer, removing countless bubbles from the image.
“Editing wasn’t the most fun,” she laughs. “It took a long time!”
But it was worth it.
Because it’s one thing to show a video showing how physically and mentally challenging it is to train for this specialized role, but it’s another to capture – in a single image – how hard it is gratifying to finally earn a place on such a distinguished team.
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