This year’s PADI Women’s Dive Day will highlight the critical role of inclusivity in bringing humans and the ocean together.
Throughout July, PADI will shine a light on the activities of various individuals from across the globe.
One of the first to be highlighted is Zandile Ndhlovu, a PADI Freediver Instructor from Johannesburg, South Africa. She founded the Black Mermaid Foundation with the aim of making the ocean more inclusive.
Ndhlovu commented on the event, stating:
“Together as a global dive community we can save our oceans. Once people get to experience the ocean, it changes everything around how they’ve always looked at it. It begins to also feel like home, a place that they will always protect. And that is why it is important that there is always diverse representation in the ocean.”
Other women included this month are California marine biologist and PADI AmbassaDiver Xochitl Clare, who is busy researching the impact of climate change on fisheries species.
Junior divers also feature on the list, among them 13-year-old PADI Junior Advanced Open Water Diver Julia Aveline Rabenjoro from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
Commenting on the ethos and ambitions of Women’s Dive Day, PADI Worldwide Chief Brand and Membership Officer Kristin Valette Wirth stated:
“PADI Women’s Dive Day is an opportunity for divers everywhere to unite as a community with the common goal of creating balance between humanity and ocean. PADI has a wonderfully diverse and inclusive community of members and divers in 186 countries around the world. We celebrate this diversity, as it is embedded in the ethos of our organization. We take pride in the progress we’ve made to increase diversity, accessibility, and inclusion in our sport and constantly challenge ourselves to do more.”
You can find out more information here, or check out a video of Women’s Dive Day below.
