Girls everywhere in the world are diving head-first into new adventures, and at the moment, we rejoice those descending into the silent world beneath the floor. July 20, 2024, marks the tenth anniversary of PADI Girls’s Dive Day, a vacation established by the Skilled Affiliation of Diving Instructors that celebrates feminine divers, free divers, ocean lovers, and business execs.
“This yr, Girls’s Dive Day invitations extra individuals to take their first breaths underwater and, by way of persevering with diver training, will assist nurture extra assured and succesful divers who can share their love of diving and be stewards for the ocean,” says Katie Thompson, Senior Director of Setting & Sustainability, PADI Worldwide. “PADI Dive Instructors, Dive Facilities and Resorts all world wide – like Sandals and their unbelievable group – have made this motion their very own, and there are extra ladies of all ages diving at the moment than ever earlier than.“
So be a part of us and the next 5 ocean-minded ladies and plunge previous the waves right into a world of colourful corals, glowing critters, inspiring wildlife, and otherworldly formations that yearn to be found and need to be protected.
Pier Nirandara: Creator, Journey Author, Movie Producer and Underwater Photographer
Pier’s love for the ocean started as a baby on the coast of Thailand. By age 15, she turned the nation’s first English-language creator, writing kids’s books that might encourage the subsequent era of ocean lovers. Now, she is a California-based underwater photographer, PADI Ambassadiver™, movie producer, and journey author who makes use of her pictures and phrases to evoke the sense of journey and curiosity mendacity inside every of us.
Pictured: Pier Nirandara prepares her digital camera earlier than a dive close to Sandals Royal Curaçao.
“The ocean and storytelling are the fixed threads all through my life. Rising up in Thailand gave me a profound respect for coastal communities and their relationship to the ocean. There is a huge human aspect in our relationship to the water—past fairly photos. If we’re to avoid wasting our seas, we should first encourage others to look after our oceans.”
Her expertise of story telling by way of her pictures earned her the 2023 Ocean Storytelling Pictures Grant from the Save Our Seas Basis. As an advocate for solo feminine journey, she has visited over 100 nations throughout seven continents together with a current go to to Sandals Royal Curaçao. Pier captured the wall-like construction of Curaçao’s distinctive underwater drop-offs that burst with an array of each comfortable and laborious coral species, skilled a sea turtle encounter, and was greeted by a pod of dolphins all simply moments away from the resort’s shore.
Shot by Pier Nirandara: Turtle encounter off the coast of Curaçao.
Tiffany Duong: Journalist, Storyteller, and Ocean Advocate
Tiffany is a journalist based mostly within the Florida Keys who, with nice braveness, left a profitable renewable power legislation profession to pursue her ardour for campaigning for our oceans and planet after a life-changing scuba dive.
Pictured: Tiffany Duong exploring a sunken aircraft in Jamaica.
“Now, as an explorer, storyteller, and speaker, I shield the environments, individuals, and wildlife most in danger in our fashionable world and lifestyle. I inform their tales to catalyze actions on their behalf. Finally, I possess a deep and pressing want to make our world higher.”
By her love for the ocean and writing, Tiffany has traveled the world, together with the colourful Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Grenada, the place she explored the Caribbean’s solely underwater sculpture park in Grenada, swam alongside a pod of untamed dolphins off of the coast of Negril, Jamaica, and helped the Sandals Foundation propagate coral fragments, all alongside Sandals Resorts and its PADI Licensed Dive Facilities.
Shot by Tiffany Duong: A pod of dolphins in Negril, Jamaica.
Angela Jones: Ph.D. Pupil, Marine Biologist, and PROTEUS Intern
Angela is a Ph.D. scholar learning starfish within the northeast area of the US. Her fascination with animals propelled her to a level in biology, and scuba diving has turn into a basic a part of her profession.
Pictured: Angela Jones moments earlier than diving close to Sandals Royal Curaçao.
The marine biologist can also be an intern for PROTEUS™ — the world’s most superior, multi-purpose underwater habitat. The analysis heart can be based mostly in Curaçao which explains why Angela traveled to the Dutch Caribbean island to go to the potential website alongside the Sandals Royal Curaçao dive group and the PROTEUS™ science group.
Pictured: Angela Jones exploring the depths of Curaçao’s coast.
“There are numerous methods to take pleasure in scuba diving. Nonetheless, in case you are all in favour of becoming a member of the science element, discover group or citizen science applications,” says Angela. For friends at Sandals Resorts, citizen science programs like coral restoration certifications and invasive lionfish removing programs can be found at on-resort PADI-certified dive facilities, giving friends the chance to make an impression and contribute to the ocean’s wellness whereas on trip.
Emma Casagrande: Photographer, Shark Diver, and Mom
Emma Casagrande is a proficient underwater photographer, fearless shark diver, and mom who has traveled the world together with her two kids and husband, Andy Casagrande. Her love for journey and the ocean has impressed her to share her adventures together with her kids and increase the subsequent era of conservationists.
Pictured: Emma Casagrande helps the Seashores Negril group take away invasive lionfish.
On a current journey to Beaches Negril, Emma’s son celebrated his tenth birthday with a PADI Open Water Certification, whereas her eight-year-old daughter accomplished her PADI Seal Staff Certification. The household cannot wait to return to Seashores and dive collectively someday quickly, seeing the world by way of its oceans.
Pictured: Emma Casagrande and son Ace Casagrnde earlier than their first dive collectively in Negril, Jamaica.
Shanissa Nestor: Sandals St. Lucian PADI Licensed Dive Teacher
Shanissa is a PADI Licensed Dive Teacher at Sandals Grande Saint Lucian. Born and raised on the island, the ocean has at all times surrounded her life, however now it performs a a lot larger position as her profession.
Pictured: Shanissa Nestor at Sandals Grande Saint Lucian.
“Scuba diving has modified my life by giving me a profession that I do not wish to change. It has given me the chance to dive across the Caribbean, develop and develop professionally, assist construct careers for the youth, and even encourage reef and coral conservation,” says Shanissa. “Scuba diving means all the things to me: the eagerness, the drive, the training, and the flexibility to do what I like for a dwelling.”
Pictured: Shanissa Nestor making ready her tank for a dive.
Friends can dive with Shanissa at Sandals Grande Saint Lucian by way of the resort’s all-inclusive diving program and even assist restore coral reefs on the resort’s close by coral restoration website.
“This occasion has grown into essentially the most celebrated day of diving on the planet, reworking lives and empowering extra individuals to hunt journey and save the ocean collectively,” says Katie Thompson. Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts invitations all friends and scuba divers to discover the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean area. For licensed friends, Sandals and Seashores contains scuba diving with state-of-the-art gear, custom-built Newton Dive boats, and PADI-certified dive instructors and dive masters.
For friends all in favour of studying to scuba dive, Sandals and Seashores provide Uncover Scuba, an intro course to the underwater sport, and a range of scuba certifications, from PADI Open Water to specialties like deep sea diver, underwater pictures, and extra.
