In the waning days of PADI‘s 50th anniversary year, the dive training agency hit one heck of a milestone: It issued its 25 millionth certification.
To celebrate, PADI invited Canadian Sarah Gleeson, who earned her Open Water Diver Certification card No. 25,000,000 on December 29th of last year, along with a dive buddy and her instructor on a trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Gleeson learned to dive at Davy Jones Locker Diving in Koh Tao, Thailand.
Bobby Post, the Master Scuba Diver Trainer who taught and certified Gleeson, was also invited. He said:
“When I received the first email from PADI CEO Drew Richardson, I thought it might be a joke from a friend. I can’t wait to see what Australia has in store for me.”
Post noted that Australia will be the sixth continent that he will have gone diving.
Gleeson, who is currently six weeks into a backpacking trip through Southeast Asia with her boyfriend, said:
“Now that I can dive I have an excellent excuse to travel the world even more. Diving is a unique experience that allows you to see an entirely new world — an experience you will never regret.”
The prize trip to Australia includes a three-night live-aboard dive adventure on the Great Barrier Reef aboard the Mike Ball Dive Expeditions vessel Spoilsport; round-trip economy airfare to Cairns, Australia; four nights’ accommodation in Cairns, Australia; and a day trip to the Daintree Rainforest, a World Heritage Site.
