Mother and daughter call for more female divers

A mother and daughter from a landlocked city have encouraged more women to start scuba diving.

Mia Ellis-Kennedy and her mother, Maddy Kennedy, from Milton Keynes, have both qualified as scuba instructors after they started diving in 2020 in what Maddy described as "a crazy Covid idea".

Mia completed the course in December just months after turning 18 - which the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) confirmed put her among the youngest instructors in the world.

She said she felt "proud" to be a young female instructor in an industry where, according to PADI, women currently represent only 20% of all professional divers.

Mia was just 12 when she completed her first dive in Turkey.

During Covid, Maddy said: "While we were in that pit of 'we're all going to either die or be skint', I said to her [Mia] 'should we do our open water [course]?'"

Mia told the BBC she now had close to 300 dives in her logbook and had reached 32m (105ft) in depth.

She explained she had become an instructor as soon as she could, at 18, because she "wanted to teach and make people understand the water".

The managing director for PADI Europe, Middle East and Africa, Dave Murray, described Mia's progression as "nothing short of exceptional" and said that "achieving her PADI Divemaster and Instructor ratings" within months of turning 18 placed her "among a new generation of highly driven young professionals shaping the future of diving".

Murray described Mia's journey as a "powerful example to young girls and women".

Maddy, 54, and Mia have frequently dived abroad and in the UK, at inland dive sites such as Stoney Cove in Leicestershire.

The pair now work together at Rec2Tec Diving in Milton Keynes.

Maddy said she had never contemplated being an instructor but now had over 900 dives logged and had reached depths of 50m (164ft).

She said it had been "nice to see more women in general around the dive sites" and to see "more colour and fun" in the dive equipment.

She added: "Without a doubt you don't get taken seriously [as a woman] and I know that, and I'm quite happy to have fun with that.

"So I jump in with all of my pink kit and people have lots to say and I really don't care because I'm just having fun with it."

Maddy described breathing underwater as "a privilege" and referred to the experience as "bubble therapy".

Kristin Valette Wirth, Chief Brand and Membership Officer for PADI Worldwide, said: "Prior to 2014, women accounted for fewer than 35% of dive certifications worldwide, and fewer than 18% of dive professionals.

"Now, over a decade later, women make up nearly 40% of PADI certifications."

The organisation announced the PADI's Women in Diving initiative in 2015, which Wirth attributed to "narrowing the gender gap" in the industry.

She explained that, since then, "more than 250,000 additional women have become certified divers", which represented a nearly 7% reduction in the worldwide gap.

Wirth added that female divemaster certifications also "rose from under 18% in 2015 to more than 30% by 2024".

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