News
How are you celebrating PADI Women’s Dive Day?
On 20 July 2019, PADI® Dive Centers and Resorts will host thousands of divers for the fifth annual PADI Women’s Dive Day, a global celebration of shared adventure, passion and ocean advocacy. Don’t miss the opportunity to join together with the amazing community of divers who will be celebrating around the world.
The events will build a strong community that encourages people – male and female alike – to discover (or rediscover!) their love of diving and become active stewards for our oceans. Here is just a small sampling of the hundreds of events you can get involved in (or gain inspiration from to plan your own):
- Together with a local Girl Scouts troop, Dive World in Austin, Texas, USA, will have an underwater trail of facts and suggestions on how to protect aquatic ecosystems and #divelikeagirlscout for an event called “Operation Conservation” at Windy Point Park.
- Asia Divers in Puerto Galera, Philippines, is dedicating the weekend to a “Healthy Ocean, Healthy Body” with an underwater cleanup, yoga and opportunities to try freediving with a PADI Freediverä
- Lanzarote Non Stop Divers in the Canary Islands is devoting an entire week to celebrating with 50 percent discounts on PADI courses for women and girls, and a free dive in the underwater Atlantic Museum.
- A dive shop that’s giving back to the community, Scuba Ventures in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, USA, is running a PADI Women’s Dive Day event that will raise funds for a local women’s shelter and rape response group.
- With Reef Check, Divers Alert Network and the local government, Blue Submarine by Scuba World ASD will offer Dive Against Debris® courses and dives for women to remove debris and ghost nets from the marine protected area near Maierato, Italy.
- A Seattle-based youth scuba team will voyage on a liveaboard dive boat in California’s Channel Islands. The kids and teens, led by PADI Master Scuba Diverä Trainer Annie Crawley, will explore kelp forests, learn dive skills and share the importance of ocean health through underwater videography, photography and storytelling.
- In Grand Cayman, Divetech will host 100 women to break its own record for the longest female underwater human chain, an event that will raise funds and awareness for the Breast Cancer Foundation and local conservation organizations.
- Bali Scuba in Indonesia will organize an event, “Dive into a Great Cause for Women”. All event proceeds from drinks, food, music and a silent auction will go to support Pink Ribbon.
- COMO Maalifushi in the Maldives will celebrate throughout July with reef cleanups, movies under the stars, ocean conservation courses and youth dive experiences. Dive instructors will also provide PADI Discover Scuba® Diving opportunities for local women.
While the first PADI Women’s Dive Day in 2015 underscored PADI’s dedication to strengthening female participation in scuba diving, the positive influence of the day extends beyond gender.
“PADI Women’s Dive Day has become a global movement to create and inspire a passionate community of ocean advocates that spans generations,” says Kristin Valette-Wirth, Chief Marketing Officer at PADI Worldwide. “What started as a celebration of women in diving has quickly become the single largest day of diving in the world – something every diver can draw inspiration from.”
If you don’t already have plans for PADI Women’s Dive Day, contact your local PADI Dive Center or Resort or find an event at padi.com/women.
Source: www.divenewswire.com.
Day three of my trip to Somabay and we were spending the day on the Lady Christina and diving on the wreck of the Salem Express.
Diving wrecks for me is always one of mixed emotions. The excitement of diving a wreck is more than often tempered by the thought of loss of life when she sank. The Salem Express was a passenger ship and a roll-on/roll-off ferry travelling from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt. Most passengers were of poor class travelling home from their holidays while around 150 people were returning home from their pilgrimage to Mecca.
The ship struck a reef and sank within 20 minutes. Passengers were trapped below deck and the ship was filled with fear and panic.
The wreck area is strewn with personal belongings from the crew and passengers such as a transistor radio and a flat iron for clothes. A diver at sometime has put them in a prominent place to be seen.
Tragically only one life boat was launched while the others went down with the ship. More than 600 men, women and children lost their lives here.
It’s a stark reminder that the sea can be unforgiving and so when we dive on such wrecks we should do so with humble regard.
Returning to the surface, shoals of fish are gathered under our boat and seem to be welcoming us back into the light.
Back at the Breakers I sat in the dining area with a beer and a very good meal while my thoughts still remained with the day’s dive on the Salem Express.
Check in for part 3 tomorrow for Jeff’s last day of diving with Somabay on the off-shore reefs looking for turtles.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
For a week at the end of February I was invited to sample the diving with Orca Dive Club based at the Breakers Diving and Surfing Lodge by courtesy of SOMABAY.
Somabay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds. Somabay caters for scuba diving as well as many other sports, including windsurfing, golf, sailing, go-carting, horse riding and many other activities.
All the activities are of a world-class standard and any or all of these can be booked directly from The Breakers.
I took Easyjet from Bristol (UK) to Hurghada. Easyjet are not by any means my favourite airline but the flight was cheap and direct (except for the surprise extra £48 I was charged at the gate for my carry-on bag).
I was met at Hurghada airport by a driver and car and taken to the Breakers 28 miles (45Kilomaters) south along the coast. Once at the hotel I was too late for an evening meal and so a basic meal was delivered to my room. That and a beer from the fridge and I was fast asleep.
Early the next morning after breakfast I arrived for my rep meeting at the Orca Dive Center for 8.00am. I was immediately made to feel welcome, and after brief introductions I got some dive gear from the store, had a chat with my dive guide Mohamed and got ready to try the house reef situated at the end of a very long wooded pier where all diving gear and divers are taken out by buggies.
Once at the end of the pier, a helping hand from staff makes sure your gear is set and then it’s a short walk to the very end where you can either climb down a ladder of simply jump in the water next to the reef. The house reef extends both north and south giving a very easy and safe dive with plenty to see. At this time of the year the water temperature was a constant 22 degrees Centigrade and there was little or no current, so there were no issues in swimming back to the pier.
Quite a few divers were in dry or semi-dry suits, but being from the UK and used to the cold I found a 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm neoprene vest quite comfortable. Even after 50 years of diving I still find that first dive of a trip slightly nerving until I am actually underwater and then all becomes relaxed and I ease into auto diving mode. There was plenty to see with many of the Red Sea favourites along the way.
After the dive and a buggy ride back to the hotel for a very good buffet lunch I was back in the water, once again on the house reef for an afternoon dive.
Check in for part 2 tomorrow when Jeff gets on a day boat and dives a few of the off-shore reefs.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
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