Victor's PADI OW Experience - Learning to Dive through FAYD!

Hello everyone! I'm Victor Tu (15 years old). I’m one of the sponsored youths taking the PADI Open Water course thanks to the FAYD (Fund A Youth Diver) programme by Kaia Initiative, sponsored by SeaKeepers!

The PADI Open Water course was definitely one of a kind for me! The instructors were professional and nice to us, providing us interesting learning experiences. There were challenges that were somewhat “scary” to someone that was totally new to diving like me. However, our buddies and instructors were there for us to help us go through the tough processes. 

My journey to diving started when I signed up for the “Fund A Youth Diver (FAYD)” program. The ocean has always been a part of my heart that I want to explore but never had a chance to. When signing up to be a funded youth diver, I was SUPER nervous that I wouldn't get chosen. However, after a long few days, I received an email saying “Congratulations!” The excitement of me receiving the email cannot be expressed in words.

My journey to becoming a certified Open Water diver officially began. First, I had to go through a 7-hour-long online learning module to learn all the knowledge needed to dive. The questions were difficult to answer at first as someone who did not know anything about diving. But with time, I found the diving learning course extremely helpful and interesting. The questions started to get easier, I started to enjoy the process of learning! When I took the final exam for the e-learning course, my heart was pounding, thinking, “What if I don’t pass?”. Thankfully I passed with a score of 49/50 (soon realized the exam could have been retaken if I failed LOL). And with that, the first stage of the OW diver program passed (PHEW).

Finally, it was 19th of September, the first day of the 3 days of Open Water Diver Course. I met my instructors, Chip, Aaron, Yongxin and Ferdy. At first, they stated that the next three days will be tough for us. I was somewhat scared when they said that, however, I told myself, I WILL DO THIS! I will be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver! We started with introducing ourselves along with 7 different buddies with different backgrounds. There are dads, college students and my Kaia buddy, Crystal! We started from the swimming test, which with swimming experience, I passed with ease. However, things were just getting started. Next we started getting ready for our first dive at the 3m mark, we learned how to assemble our gear for diving. First time with the heavy gear, it felt like a huge chunk of rock on the back of my body. But with the help of my instructors I quickly got used to it. When I first dived into the water, breathing with my mouth was kinda uncomfortable. We went through several training sessions which were fun and engaging! The first day quickly came to an end.

The second day was a lot more tiring than the first day. We spent the whole morning preparing for our first open water dive in the afternoon. When afternoon came, we were ready for our first 12m open water dive at the Singapore Oceanarium Open Water Habitat. I was excited, got into the 12m deep water, and saw beautiful marine lifes. Suddenly, I struggled with breathing, the fear from my deep heart rose to the top of my lungs. My instructors Ferdy saw me struggling with breathing, he gave me his secondary regulator and helped me breathe a bit better. However, we still decided to go back to the surface as I was still unable to breathe properly. Ferdy remained calm while I was nervous. He explained to me that there was seawater in my lungs. It was the last dive of the day, I went home with fears for the 3 more open water dives the next day. At night, I thought about giving up, thinking about the possibility of the day if Ferdy wasn’t there to help me. Should I show up tomorrow? I questioned myself.

It was 7:59 AM at RWS on Sunday, 21st September, 1 minute before the gathering time. With the instructors knowing how I struggled the day before, they thought I wasn’t showing up and were ready to bring the students into the facilities. 5 seconds later, I showed up. In the end, I told myself that I’m brave enough to do this! On my 2nd open water dive, I swam around the Oceanarium at 12m deep with ease for 26 minutes. The 3rd open water dive, same thing again, controlled my tempo, dived for another 33 minutes. The last dive, which I’ll say was the best one! My mom took pictures for me and my diving buddies from the oceanarium which gave us a perfect ending to our 3-day diving course! After that, everyone celebrated, took pictures and our instructors congratulated us for finally becoming a certified Open Water diver!

This diving experience not only taught me how to dive, how to save myself if I had any problems while diving, and more... But it also taught me teamwork, how to dive with a buddy, how to help each other. Besides, how to conquer the fear I have and face the challenge. Lastly, it gave me the opportunity to meet amazing people such as my diving buddies, Crystal, Instructor Aaron, Chip, Ferdy, and Yongxin. It was indeed an absolute pleasure and I definitely had FUN!

For this wonderful experience, I first would like to thank my wonderful instructors who were very patient and supportive. Even though they gently chided us when we didn’t do things right, I understand that they were trying to keep us as safe as possible when we go for an open water dive in the future. Secondly, I would like to thank Kaia Initiative for arranging such an amazing experience for me. I would never have loved diving so much without the support of Kaia Initiative's team! Next, I can’t express how thankful I am for Gail Tay and the Seakeepers! They not only taught me how to love the ocean with the Junior SeaKeepers Program and this incredible experience of learning to dive, and Gail helped arrange the opportunity to dive on a school day. Lastly, I would like to thank my mother for being completely supportive of me diving. As an Asian parent who does not know anything about diving just like me when I first started, she supported me! Even came to take pictures for me on my last dive. Diving not only gave me happiness and a new skill in life to protect the ocean. It was an important part of my life and a huge lesson that helped me make new friends and meet new wonderful people!

-Victor Tu, 15

Kaia Initiative team:

Thank you for reading this article! If you read about our youths' experiences and want a chance to learn to dive too, sign up for FAYD now – you could be our next youth diver 🌊

tinyurl.com/kaiaFAYD