12-YO Tisya dives 70 ft into sea, becomes Odisha’s youngest junior advanced open water scuba diver

Ashadeep Mohanty Published On : Jun 11, 2022 at 2:50 PM Updated On : Jun 11, 2022 at 2:49 PM

Sambalpur: Twelve-year-old TisyaPanigrahi from Odisha’s Sambalpur has become the state’s youngest junior advanced open water scuba diver as she dived 70 feet into the Gulf of Oman on June 8 (her birthday) and June 9.

As the Advanced License can be attempted only after attaining the age of 12 years, Tisya went for the same on her birthday by diving to a depth of 70 feet in the sea at Martini Rock dive site, on the east coast of UAE. She was also accompanied by her father Priyadarshee Panigrahi, who himself is a certified scuba diver since 2012.

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On completion of five dives, Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) handed over the Junior Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver license to Tisya on June 9. The course began with eLearning through interactive lessons. A deep dive below 18 metres/60 feet and an underwater navigation dive were compulsory. Moreover, she had to choose three more dives from an available list of specialty dives. Spending over three hours underwater during the five dives, she completed her course in two days at Al Boom Diving, UAE’s largest diving school at Al Aqah, Fujairah.

Tisya said, ‘I enjoy scuba diving and the underwater world fascinates me. Being a junior open water diver, I was allowed to dive upto 12 metre/40 feet. However, I was very keen to explore further and dive like adults, who could dive upto 18 metre/60 feet. I was looking forward to turning 12-year-old so that I could do the junior advanced course and dive upto 21 metre/70 feet.”

“I am glad that Tisya has strong enthusiasm for diving and she pursues it with a lot of passion. It is a great feeling to dive with her and explore the underwater world together,” said her father Priyadarshee.

Tisya became Odisha’s youngest scuba diver in 2020, when she obtained her PADI Junior Open Water Scuba Diver license at the age of 10.

Born to Priyadarshee Panigrahi and Soumitri Nanda, Tisya is the granddaughter of Sriballav Panigrahi, who was a Cabinet Minister and three-time Lok Sabha member. Tisya also happens to be the granddaughter of former MLA from Sambalpur Dr Raseswari Panigrahi.