Dubai-based Odia father-daughter duo joins select club of advanced divers

Bhubaneswar: Dubai-based Odia father-daughter duo Priyadarshee Panigrahi (47) and Tisya Panigrahi (12) have made a noteworthy achievement in scuba diving.

Priyadarshee, a Certified Open Water Scuba Diver since 2012, dived 100 feet into the sea at Redang Island, Malaysia on April 29. He successfully qualified for PADI’s Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver license on April 30 after completing five certified dives and finishing his knowledge reviews.

California, USA headquartered PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is the world’s largest ocean exploration and diver organization, operating in 186 countries and territories, with a global network of more than 6,600 dive centers and resorts.

With this PADI Advanced Open Water Scuba diver certification, this father-daughter duo is now qualified Advanced Scuba divers. It is believed that they are among the very few advanced father-daughter scuba diving duos in India.

Tisya became Odisha’s youngest scuba diver in 2020 (at the age of 10) and also Odisha’s youngest advanced diver in 2022, when she turned 12.

Priyadarshee was an Open Water Scuba diver which allowed him to dive up to 18 meters only. Tisya’s feat inspired him, and he then went ahead to train himself and secure an Advanced Open Water licence for himself. An advanced licence now allows him to dive up to 30 meters (around 100 feet) depth.

“This Advanced Open Water Scuba diver licence gives me a lot of joy. With this licence, I keep pace with my daughter’s diving qualifications and look forward to her turning 15, when we both can dive up to 100 feet together. The ease with which Tisya did her advanced course and the desire to keep up with her diving certification, in order to be able to dive together to the same depths, inspired me to go for this course and dive up to 100 feet in my certification dive,” Priyadarshee said.

PADI Instructor and Malaysian Citizen, Mohamad Syafiq was Priyadarshee’s coach. “Priyadarshee is a good student. He picked up the skills pretty fast. He learnt buoyancy control and hovering quite well. I hope this father-daughter duo inspire more people to learn diving and help conserve our marine life,” said Syafiq.

The dive sites were off the Malaysian island of Redang, on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia in the South China sea. Redang is famous for its marine life, crystal clear waters and white sandy beaches. Redang offers 80 per cent of species found in the ‘coral triangle’ (an area bounded by the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea known to have the highest number of marine species in the world).

Bhubaneswar born Priyadarshee and Sambalpur born Tisya are Dubai based Odias. They have been in the news because of their scuba diving exploits like diving with sharks and sending underwater wishes on Nuakhai festival.

Tisya happens to be the granddaughter of former Minister and eminent Congress leader late Sriballav Panigrahi and educationist late Sunanda Panigrahi. Tisya is also the granddaughter of former MLA from Sambalpur, Dr. Raseswari Panigrahi.