Good scuba diving friends can empower you to complete your courses, safely push your limits and learn in ways you never imagined before. Read on for a first-hand account of the power of scuba diving friendship.
Scuba Diving Makes Fast Friendships
I will never forget meeting my friend Mariela. From Guatemala, she was a tall girl with brown hair and brown eyes, a big smile and just a few years older than me. I remember the day she showed up on the same island where I was living at the time, in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
On this special day, we greeted each other on the street because she was with some friends of mine that we both had in common and then we chatted while riding our bikes down the road. She quickly told me that she had come to the island to learn to scuba dive. She was living in the city and working in a bank, but had just quit her job so she could live in nature and have new experiences. I told her that I was also diving while on the island and that I was a divemaster. I believe that with just that conversation alone, a smile, and an understanding that we were both city girls who decided to leave our urban lives behind to live on a tiny island we didn’t need much more to become close friends.
The main island of Bocas del Toro is so small that you inevitably run into people more than once a day simply by chance. And, to make coincidences even more common, the few dive centers on the island maintain good relationships with one another; the circles are small. At this time in my life, Mariela and I were likely the only two women on the island who were scuba divers, so we would see each other every day. A sort of alliance developed between us.
Our boats would pass each other in the morning and we would always share information about what we had seen under the water and how the visibility was to help each other have a better dive. After diving, we would talk nonstop about marine topics such as sharks, nudibranchs, wrecks, dive equipment, and clients, as well as recommend marine conservation documentaries, share photos, etc.
Encouragement to Continue Pursuing Diving
While Mariela was not a PADI Divemaster yet, she was doing her
and writing and creating content about the ocean to protect it as well. Mariela and I are still very good friends and constantly share photos of our favorite marine encounters.
Diving Changed our Lives Forever, Together
My friendship with Mariela has shown me just how important it is to have friends with whom you can share your passion, talk about the ocean for hours, share the craziest adventures, get inspired and, above all, how important it is to find those friends and dive buddies who will always support you and believe in you even before you believe in yourself. For Mariela, and so many other scuba diving friends, I am so grateful.
A picture of us in Florida, 6 years after we met in Panama.
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Article written by @oceanomartina – Environmental Journalist and PADI Scuba Diving Instructor.
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