Posted: Tue, 14 June 2022, 15:32
Last updated: sun. 19 June 2022 at 09:13
A 12-year-old Indian expat from Odisha, Tisya Panigrahi, has the state’s youngest complex junior open water diver after diving 70 feet in the Gulf of Oman.
On June 8, when he turned 12, he dived into the sea on the Martini Rock dive off the east coast of the United Arab Emirates. He attempted to obtain the complex license at the eligible minimum age.
She is also one of the youngest in this category in the UAE to have done so. While performing this daring feat, he accompanied her through her father Priyadarshee, who is also a qualified diver.
Tisya, who has been very happy in the water, while talking to Khaleej Times, explains that all this is not only for fun but also for a purpose.
“Once I’m older with my dive license, I’d like to explore and publicize ocean preservation and help with cleanup. Not only do I need to explore, I need to do something concrete for the ocean. This is incredibly vital and is already doing a lot for us. Therefore, it would be a mistake to simply exploit it. I would also like to announce the concept at the school. I need to raise awareness about the ocean and everything like marine conservation. I would like to inspire my friends to keep diving,” says the sixth-grade student at the World Raffles Academy, who needs to become an astrophysicist.
She explains her complicated scenario when she is on an online learning platform.
“At first, when I read textbooks, I was literally afraid of decompression sickness and the main technical points similar to slow progression. There is something called a (time) level of decompression. He was literally interested in how it is calculated and how it would protect us. The manual made it look like it was literally scary, but it’s very easy to avoid,” the woman says.
Tisya, who finished her course at Al Boom Diving Al Aqah, Fujairah, obtained her Junior Open Water Scuba Diver license from the Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) at the age of 10.
As a junior open water diver, she initially allowed diving up to 12 meters/40 feet.
But eager to explore more and be able to dive at 18 meters/60 feet, she hoped to be 12 years old so she could take the complex youth course and dive up to 21 meters/70 feet as adults.
“So I started educating myself when I was 10 years old. But first it motivated me, thanks to my father. He is also a diver. When I was younger, he would show me videos and images of his amusements every time. he went diving. I enjoyed watching the videos and sought to delight in them. So, I took the course and that’s how I turned myself in,” he added.
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