11-year-old Dubai girl dives 40ft into sea with dad to celebrate festival

She became Odisha’s youngest scuba diver last year

An 11-year-old girl along with her father - both trained scuba divers - dived 40-feet-deep into the Arabian Sea to celebrate their hometown Odisha’s harvest festival – Nuakhai.

On the eve of ‘Nuakhai’ (September 10), Dubai residents Tisya Panigrahi and her father Priyadarshee Panigrahi jumped into the sea at the ‘Dibba Rock’ dive site in Fujairah and sent out their wishes by holding placards on the seabed.

They travelled on the diving boat to their dive site and took the plunge in full diving gear. After descending to a depth of around 40 feet amid colourful coral reefs and beautiful marine life, they took out some celebratory placards. One of the placards read ‘Nuakhai Juhar’, a traditional way to greet people on this festival, while the other read ‘Happy Nuakhai’.

The dive was organised through UAE’s largest diving school Al Boom Diving. Diving instructor Hani El Hajjar, who hails from Lebanon, helped the duo take photographs and videos using an underwater camera.

Tisya, who currently is a student of Grade 6 in Dubai’s Raffles World Academy, became Odisha’s youngest scuba diver on August 22 last year when she obtained her PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Junior Open Water Scuba Diver Licence in the UAE at the age of 10. One can attempt getting this licence only after turning 10. PADI is the world’s largest scuba diving training and certification organisation. Tisya did her training in Al Boom Diving.

She was inspired by the scuba diving exploits of her father Priyadarshee, who has been diving since 2012 after getting his PADI Open Water Scuba Diver Licence from Vietnam.