While most birthday\u00a0parties are filled with cakes and balloons, this 10-year-old celebrated her special day with a dive in the sea, in an attempt to set a world record. Visakhapatnam scuba diver Debopriya Saha dived to a depth of 35 feet in the Bay of Bengal off Rushikonda coast to become a certified junior scuba diver on her 10th birthday on June 10, making her one of the youngest to do so. The certification has been given by Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), the world\u2019s largest ocean exploration and diver organisation operating in 186 countries and territories. To be eligible for PADI junior scuba diver course, one must be at least 10 years old with adequate swimming skills and be in good physical health. Debopriya received\u00a0the certification on completing two open water dives (within an interval of 40 minutes) and one confined dive\u00a0under the supervision of a professional diver. \u201cI enjoy swimming and the ocean has always fascinated me. This was my first dive of such depth and I was absolutely thrilled to do it. I was looking forward to turning 10 so that I could experience the underwater world,\u201d says Visakhapatnam-born Debopriya. She was accompanied by Balaram Naidu, a scuba diver-instructor and director of Live-in Adventures. \u201cDebopriya was very comfortable in the water and communicated well. She had to brave a one-and-a-half metre wave and did it without any hassles. We have seen even adults getting unsettled by such waves. But Debopriya covered it with confidence,\u201d he adds. She completed the certification after three days of training in shallow waters. For a diving certification, Balaram says, the prerequisites include the ability to swim 200 metres at a stretch and float for 10 minutes. \u201cDuring the training, I saw her ease under water and was confident of her skills,\u201d he adds. She had to learn sign language to communicate underwater.\u00a0 Debopriya is inspired by her father Deepankar Saha, who served the Indian Navy as a scuba diver for 12 years. \u201cEvery time she saw me head into the sea, she would\u00a0tell me her desire to become a scuba diver and see the underwater world. So when she expressed her wish to celebrate her 10th birthday with a scuba diving course, we started preparing her six months ahead. She did rigorous swimming practice and I could see her confidence in water,\u201d says Deepankar.\u00a0 The most difficult part of scuba diving is equalising pressure between the inside of the ears and the underwater environment. According to Balaram, Debopriya followed instructions with perfection and there were no uncontrolled movements.\u00a0 While Debopriya came back with the excitement of getting her first\u00a0glimpse of the marine world, she was sad to see plastic waste clogging it. She hopes to become a marine biologist to create awareness on marine pollution. \u201cThere is a treasure trove of living life underwater and we must save it,\u201d says the young scuba diver, who has a dictionary of aquatic animals in her personal collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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She received the certification from PADI on her 10th birthday While most birthday\u00a0parties are filled with cakes and balloons, this 10-year-old celebrated her special day with a dive in the sea, in an attempt to set a world record. Visakhapatnam scuba diver Debopriya Saha dived to a depth of 35 feet in the Bay of … Continue reading Visakhapatnam-born Debopriya Saha becomes the youngest certified junior scuba diver<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,20,12,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazing-feats","category-records-india-national","category-sports","category-women-girls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15999,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions\/15999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalrecordsindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}