woman and diving
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Woman and DivingTRANSCRIPT
Contents Page 59 | www.africandiver.com
Debbie SmithPassionate about sharks, passionate about the sea
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Inducted to the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2007,
Debbie is a passionate shark-lover who is driven to change
perceptions of the oceans and sharks, in particular. “Diving with
Sharks”, her eco-tourism company, focuses mainly on shark
diving, shark distinctive speciality courses and the sardine run.
Debbie is a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer and her career
has, thus far, seen her working with top researchers in shark
awareness and reef conservation and leading projects setting
up of top dive centers at upmarket resorts; from mapping and
naming sites to full operational status. She is currently setting
up and exploring shark diving and eco-tourism in the Port St
Johns area – operational base for many sardine run operators.
Debbie describes herself as an “outdoor and total nature lover”
and it was this love that led her to diving in 1986. The people
who taught her to dive were her early influences resulting in
her love of the ocean and sharks. Indeed, these same people
continue to inspire and influence Debbie in her endeavors.
People such as Marie Levine (director of SRI - shark research
institute world wide), Geremy Cliff (Sharks Board shark
scientist) and Jeff McKay (who has been a long-time advisor and
teacher to her) are her early (and continuing) mentors.
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Debbie learned to dive with sharks from
the moment she started to dive. As her
diving education continued so did her
involvement with sharks, which gave rise
to her passion for sharks and teaching
others to get to know and understand
sharks.
Her eco-tourism company, “Diving with
Sharks”, was formed not only to teach
scuba diving, but mainly to guide and
educate divers (and non-divers) in learning
about sharks as well as how to dive with
sharks. And through this Debbie shares her
passion for the ocean – “I want to make
a difference in whatever way I can, via
education and understanding the ocean
better and of sharks in particular”.
Debbie commenced her professional
diving career after some ten years of diving
- leading dives and assisting Jeff McKay
with shark courses.
On holiday in Mozambique she realised
that she loved what she was doing so much
that nothing else mattered and that she
could break away from what is socially
accepted as a job - “I wanted to make a
difference, and do this full time.
My passion for the ocean and its
inhabitants is so great and this spurred me
on further. I wanted to teach people what I
know and love so much.
I wanted to change people’s perceptions
regarding the ocean and sharks, in
particular, and I basically wanted to be in
charge of my passion and make sure the
message got out there.
I have been hugely fulfilled in teaching
others to dive or dive with sharks and see
their faces once out of the water. Guiding
dives or shark dives for those that are keen
to learn and educate themselves and share
this with me is one of the most fulfilling
parts of what I do”.
On her induction to the Women Divers
Hall of Fame, Debbie says it is the single
most important honour ever bestowed on
her: “to be doing what I absolutely loved
more than anything and to get recognition
for something which I love so much is the
highest honour that anyone can receive.
When the selection and induction came
in I was overwhelmed by this recognition
given to me by some of the top names in
the ocean realm, internationally.
I went to New York to receive this
incredible award and met highly influential
people that I had heard about. The greatest
honour of all is that I have been placed
amongst incredible women divers from
around the world that have achieved and
continue to achieve so much”.
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Debbie has been fortunate to do a lot of diving and exploring
outside of the borders of South Africa but she still prefers the
east coast of South Africa for her diving. “Nothing compares
to diving along the east coast of South Africa. The reason
being that its unpredictable in all forms, from conditions to
sightings to experiences, which is what makes it exciting. We
have some of the best diving along the east coast of South
Africa and I love it all. But I have to single out the sardine run
as my absolute personal best, as it’s nature at its best with so
much life in the same place at the same time”.
We asked Debbie if she has a message for our readers about
diving and diving with sharks and her reply was unequivocal
and direct: “The jaws era was the worst thing for sharks all
over the world as it created a massive lack of respect and
care for an apex predator so vital to the balance within our
oceans that people are not aware of or care to be aware of.
Shark diving worldwide has become quite a big thing and the
positive is that it has changed many perceptions on sharks.
What people need to do further is educate themselves more
on all the different species that they dive with and their
role as apex predators. It’s funny how people respect apex
predators on land and yet the oceans’ apex predators are still
fighting for survival. This is why more people need to spend
more time with sharks and learn how absolutely incredible
and misunderstood they are. Until divers all over get ahead
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of themselves about this fear of sharks and
educate themselves by spending time with
them and learning more, we cannot and
will not ensure the survival of the oceans’
apex predator. And, in my opinion, man
will have failed dismally in protecting the
ocean realm due to ignorance and a lack
of caring when one day we have an empty
vast expanse of water”.
In typical pioneering fashion, Debbie has
recently moved her business to Port St
Johns, the home of the sardine run. There
is very little shark work being done there
and no education being given to the local
community on this subject either - Port
St Johns is becoming known as an area
with large shark populations. Debbie and
Offshore African Port St Johns will be doing
a lot of shark research work in the area,
along with education, and of course they
will be in the prime location for sardine run
action when it happens.
We asked Debbie for a final message for
anyone considering a career in diving and
this is her message: “My advice to anyone
wishing to dive professionally is to be
yourself - be true to yourself and your
direction and do it with passion because
if you don’t have the passion and love for
what you do, it will not fulfill you. If you
are going to work with nature be a giver in
all that you can do and be and don’t allow
others to take away your true love of what
you do.
It’s not about personal glory or how much
or how little you make. True fulfillment will
occur because passion is there and passion
is directed and this cannot be bought or
sold. The diving industry can be hard! Stick
with your passion and love of nature and
it will keep you true and do not let human
interference or criticism guide you.”
To Contact Debbie or to visit her website
please click on the Diving with
Sharks logo
Contents Page 64 | www.africandiver.com
Verna du Preez (née van Schaik)
“Everything just came together. I was relaxed, able to be present in the moment and just be at 221 meters. Listening to the si lence, absorbing every moment. “
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On 25 October 2004, Verna became the current Female World
Record Holder for Depth on Scuba. It took 12 minutes to get
down to 221 meters and five hours, 27 minutes to return to the
surface. The dive took place at altitude in Boesmansgat in the
Northern Cape in South Africa, which made it a World Record
for fresh water, altitude and cave diving.
Verna started diving because she wanted to become a marine
biologist and to get closer to the creatures she was seeing in
rocks pools. Motivated to become a dive master in order to
get “free dives” (because of her student budget) she hated the
first deep dive she had to do as part of her training. However
training, time and a love of being underwater soon got her over
the dislike of a deep diving and as she became more confident,
and mastered the skills, she began with baby steps leading to
cave diving, deeper dives and eventually the world record.
Verna didn’t begin diving with a view to being a technical
diver. She describes it as simply a “place she ended up … that
challenged her skill set”. The challenge was deeper than just a
skill set challenge though, because she wanted to know if she
could dive deep, and in caves, especially as the common wisdom
was that women could not.
When asked about this “common wisdom”, Verna told
us: “I think that as a woman I am better adapted to being
underwater. The biggest challenge for me underwater was to
stop copying the men who had been there before. Men dive in
a totally different way that leverages their strengths (one of
which is physical strength). I cannot carry around twin 18’s
so I had to change the way I thought about diving and find
new ways to do the same thing. Having said that, not having
a pee valve was probably the most annoying compromise I
had to make - meant I ended up very wet and far colder than
I needed to be.
The effects of depth and time in the water are not measured
based on your gender. You can either tolerate depth or you
can’t - that is genetic. The rest is a matter of personal fitness,
so it is irrelevant what sex you are. The trick is to know your
physiology and so create a plan that works to your strengths
and minimises your weaknesses. To dive deep is also not
really a physical exercise, it is largely mental ... and attitude is
not something that is gender based”.
According to Verna, technical diving and diving in general is
very different to what it was in the 90’s.
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These days it is not unusual to find woman
doing technical diving, or leading dives
as DM’s and dive operators. She therefore
feels that the dive industry has become a
lot more open. And in her own words “but
I don’t think there is anything a woman can
not accomplish in diving should she want
to ... you just have to ignore the attitudes
that don’t work for you and create your
own support team”.
In training for her world record, Verna
dived every other weekend for 5 years
(excluding June and July which were
too cold). In a year that she made a deep
attempt she would do a build up dive to at
least 160 meters (finding a depth that would
give her the same time in the water as her
deep dive would so that she had at least
proved that part of the equation).
Then her training would be progressively
deeper until November when the deep
diving happened. Outside of diving she
would do cardio exercises three to four
times a week for 60 to 90 minutes at a time
in order to condition her body.
We asked Verna what advice she had for
young women who would like to become
professional divers or do technical diving
and she told us: “take it one step at a time
and don’t be in too much of a hurry.
You need to take the time to become
good at what you are doing which means
practicing until you no longer have to think
about the basics. You also need to give
yourself what you need to get to that place
of mastery ... in my case it meant doing
Trimix three times and getting very fed up
with my male counterparts for whom doing
things for me was easier than explaining it.
So do what it takes to get the information
you need and don’t be intimidated ... and
keeping asking why, especially when you
get told there is something you cannot do.
Most of the time there is no real reason
behind why not … it is a mind set and
perception. Having said that, often you
have to go around people who cannot see
your potential. Sometimes you have to go
around people who are creating obstacles ...
so be creative and innovative ... but listen.
There is a lot of wisdom out there ... don’t
be in too much of a hurry to throw it away
as old thinking.
I guess there are a lot of contradictory
statements in that, the point I think is to
learn how to think for yourself and at all
times to know ALL the consequences of
what you are intending to do, especially the
bad one’s ... and then be prepared to accept
your mistakes, proudly and learn from
them”.
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Like a lot of us divers, Verna is frustrated by “politics
in diving” and the way people latch onto heroes and
follow their every word without ever taking the time
to absorb and challenge and question. Similarly she
is concerned about the lack of transparency and how
the industry hides things, especially when it comes
to diving incidents. But on the flip side, she loves the
independence, freedom and empowerment of being
underwater – “it is silent, a place where the stress of
land cannot reach. I can hear myself think (and not
that annoying chatter that never stops) - the silent, real
thoughts. Take the time to become a master. When you
look at the statistics, divers die because they want to go
from zero to hero.
So think for yourself; take responsibility for yourself.
The only person responsible for you underwater is you
... too many people look up to other divers who they see
as better and put their lives into those hands ... and end
up paying the ultimate price for it”.
Like most people who have achieved something
spectacular, Verna is quite humble about her deep
diving records – “my record is not really about diving
deep. It has become a guide to creating real and lasting
empowerment and change in my daily life. I was quite
disappointed when I finally got the label deepest to find
that it only had any meaning in diving.
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And finally we asked Verna where she
would still like to dive and what the best
dive site in Africa is – “Florida caves no
doubt. In South Africa ... Boesmans! There
is no other experience that comes close to
cave diving and no other cave in the world
like Boesmans”.
For the past six years I have been working
on unlocking the lessons from my dive
and translating them into any moment of
any day. This has been a tough and very
stimulating journey. I learnt what I needed
from diving and my new adventure is in
creating empowerment both in my life and
other people’s lives.
I have written my book on my diving
experiences (Fatally Flawed – The Quest to
be Deepest) and have started on my next
book, which uses the lessons from diving
to create Conscious Empowerment (or as
I prefer to call it, Conscious Enlightenment).
Creating Conscious Enlightenment is my
next venture and I am working hard to get
the practice of Living Empowerment out
there through my website, seminars and
coaching.
To Contact Verna or to visit her website
please click on the Enlightenment
logo above
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