Odia Girl Dives Deep To Become The Youngest Open Scuba Diver

Odia Girl Dives Deep To Become The Youngest Open Scuba Diver

For years, Odias across the globe have been earning accolades for their achievements in different fields but this success will dive deep into our minds for a long time to come! A ten year old Dubai based Odia girl, Tisya Panigrahi, from Sambalpur has become the youngest odia scuba diver by successfully completing her Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Junior Open Water Scuba Diver’s course.

She earned the tag after completing the course on August 22. Tisya studies at the Raffles World Academy School in Dubai and has completed her grade 4. She achieved the feat by diving into the Arabian Sea in the Gulf of Oman on the east coast of UAE at Fujairah. She completed her certification dives to acquire her license. In her last training dive, she went down to 33 feet below the surface of the sea.

Tisya’s course included a four-day training program. The program consisted of classroom sessions, training in the swimming pool and four dives in the open sea. She had to go through a basic endurance test to be eligible for the course. The test included a 200-meter swim and a 10-minute floating session.

PADI was established in 1966 in Illinois, USA and is the world’s largest scuba diving training and certification organisation. It has more than 6600 dive centers and resorts and has over 137,000 professionals who have issued more than 27 million certifications all over the globe.They specialise in diver’s courses and scuba diving services.

Tisya is the granddaughter of former Cabinet Minister Sriballav Panigrahi and educationist Sunanda Panigrahi. Her interest in scuba diving stemmed from her experiences with her father Priyadarshee Panigrahi, who is himself a certified PADI diver. Listening about the beautiful world that exists under water and watching her father’s diving videos and pictures excited her and she also wanted to explore the submerged world.

Tisya had been waiting to turn 10 so that she could enroll for the diving course. She wanted to start the course on her 10th birthday but the COVID 19 pandemic spoiled her plans. Acquiring the license has been a dream come true for her. Her mother took active interest in her desire to learn diving and enrolled her for the classes.

Tisya was trained by open water scuba diving instructor and speciality instructor Domingo Jasareno Labitag at the Al Boom Diving School, which is the largest in UAE. Domingo, who hails from the Philippines, was impressed by Tisya’s strength and wishes that she dives a lot in her life.