PADI Women’s Dive Day: We should learn how to scuba dive!

Holding my hand up above my head pushing the button on my low-pressure inflator hose, I began to drop beneath the surface. As my eyes slowly submerged and I lost sight of the horizon and gained a view of the amazing underwater utopia beneath the water level, I began to feel a lightness that I only felt while scuba diving. Looking down, I could see what seemed like billions of bubbles all flowing toward me from other divers descending into the abyss. I looked into one of the large bubbles, and I saw another face next to mine. It was my dive buddy, my female adventure partner, Stephanie. I turned to acknowledge her presence and saw her smiling eyes peering back at me. We locked in and sank into the ocean together. As we neared the bottom and started kicking along near the ocean floor, the overwhelming feeling of feminine power and solidarity washed over me. I felt the ocean surround my body like a big hug from Mother Nature as I watched the sunlight bounce off the brightly colored coral reef below. Suspended mid-water column, two hammerhead sharks came onto the scene. Stephanie and I grabbed hands to experience this moment… it was truly heaven.

The day my sister asked me to learn how to dive, I reacted with a sneer and then laughter. I told her that hanging a lot of heavy gear on myself to go into the ocean did not seem very fun. She begged me to try it, and I agreed, but only because our sister in law Stephanie had agreed to train us. Stephanie, a PADI instructo