by Aria Kerebs

Getting your PADI open water scuba qualification is an exciting enough achievement on its own, but getting to complete this qualification on the big island of Hawai’i is all the more delightful! Through the university “Student Life Centre”, I, along with three other of my friends, was able to complete our four-day open water course.

Before ‘diving’ into the practical pool and ocean days, we were all required to complete the online learning modules. These modules were fairly comprehensive and did take a significant amount of time to complete, but doing so was crucial to the success of our course. And by learning the background information we were able to feel comfortable and competent in the water.

The dive days involved five confined water dives split across two days (one weekend), and then four open water ocean dives split across two days (the following weekend). The four of us who entered the course together all passed, and we have been granted our open-water scuba qualification! With this, we can dive to depths of 18m or 60ft.

Since then, I have participated in ‘fun dives’ organised through the same university program where we have been able to explore the depths of Māhukona and experience the wonder of life underwater! Ultimately, being able to enter into the wonderful world of scuba has been such a fun experience, and I feel so lucky that I was able to do so in Hawai’i!