Dubai: Odia girl Tisya Panigrahi has become a certified scuba diver at the age of 10.
Sambalpur-born Tisya, based in Dubai, successfully completed the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Junior Open Water Scuba Diver’s course on Saturday.
A student of Raffles World Academy School in Dubai, completed her certification dives by jumping into the Arabian Sea in the Gulf Of Oman, on the east coast of UAE at Fujairah.
In her last training dive, she went down 33 feet deep and practised her skills, which helped her acquire the prized licence from PADI.
The daughter of Priyadarshee Panigrahi and Soumitri Nanda, Tisya is the granddaughter of Late Sriballav Panigrahi — a former Cabinet minister and a three-term member of Lok Sabha.
Tisya’s interest in scuba diving was kindled by listening to the experiences of father Priyadarshee, who is a certified PADI Open Water Diver.
“I was itching to turn 10 as one can learn diving and enroll for the Junior Open Water Diver’s course only after attaining that age. I wanted to do the course on the day of my 10th birthday but could not because of the coronavirus pandemic. Acquiring the Junior Open Water Diver’s licence is a dream come true for me,” said Tisya.
