Happy Women’s Day – Introducing 3 Incredible Women That Shaped The Dive Industry

As a PADI Eco Center there are two things we love: teaching people to dive and protecting our wonderful underwater world.

Even though the dive industry started out as a very male dominated field (and still remains quite male-dominated in many areas), we wouldn’t be where we are today if it weren’t for lots of brilliant women paving the way.

This women’s day we want to highlight and celebrate the accomplishments of some truly remarkable female divers who dedicated their life to underwater exploration and conservation.

Let’s start with Valerie Taylor – you’ve surely seen her work before without knowing it! She is the brilliant videographer who – together with her husband – filmed the iconic real-life footage of great white sharks that you see in the movie classic “Jaws”.

In a time when sharks were still feared as man hunting monsters, she was one of the first humans to dive with them (without a cage!) and understand their important role in our ecosystem. She has contributed to countless conservation efforts and received many awards for her outstanding commitment to marine conservation.

Canadian cave diver Jill Heinerth is truly one of a kind. After walking away from her successful graphic design agency to work as a scuba instructor, Jill kept honing her skills in underwater photo- and videography and became an avid cave diver. She has been an integral part in many cave exploration dives and combined her talent for visual storytelling with her experience as a cave diver to advocate for underwater conservation and water resource protection.

Her undoubtedly coolest project took place in 2001, when she became the first person to ever dive inside the caves of an iceberg in Antarctica.

A little closer to our work as a dive school is Szilvia Gogh. She started diving when she was 14 years old and had already logged over a thousand dives by the time she was 21. In 2003, she became the youngest female PADI Course Director in the world. But she did not stop there! These days she oversees water safety in huge movie productions as well as giving private scuba lessons to actors and working as a scuba stunt double for famous actresses.

Has reading about these women’s stories inspired you to follow in their footsteps? If you’re a certified diver, you can click here to make a direct impact by joining one of our marine biology dives, if you’re not certified yet, click here to make the first step by becoming a certified diver. We'll see you underwater!