HollyWakely, age 16
HollyWakely, age 15 snorkeling withWhale Sharks in the Phillipines. Photos by Margo Peyton
Holly as a Sassy, age 4, in Curacao Photo by DavidWakely
KSC AMBASSADOR: HOLLY WAKELY
through my head, only when I saw Margo did this feeling subside. She told me that night I would be part of the team and helping out as a training student for Max Lavinsky and Jacob Schafer who were completing their PADI Dive Master certifications that week.Though I was just acting as a diving student, I was fortunate enough to get to experience the dive master program at such a young age, grasping the concepts and training. I realized how much I truly loved scuba diving; my parents weren’t there so I knew it wasn’t their passions it came from within. I had taken a risk and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Fast forward 3 years to 2020, I have travelled all over the world with Margo, Tom and my KSC family, seeing whale
sharks in the Philippines, sunken wrecks in Palau, and gained valuable lessons in all aspects of travel and life. Margo invited me to attend a few dive shows where I was able to speak with people from different sectors of the Scuba industry.This was where I heard about the creation of the PADI Jr. dive master program, which would allow divers age 15 to pre-train for the professional side of scuba diving and be able to assist dive professionals.This program launched in 2020, and I was the very first pilot student for PADI. Margo took me back to where it all started for me, St Lucia. I am now on my way home, certified by Margo Peyton, my KSC mom, as PADI’s first ever Jr. Dive Master and I couldn’t be more grateful. KSC taught
me to look at my life from a different prospective and to follow my heart. I’m taking a gap year this year, to focus on my scuba diving career. By the time you are reading this, I will be back in St. Lucia for KSCThanksgiving and will be 18 years old and a PADI Dive Master, working on becoming a PADI instructor. So you see, traveling during a worldwide pandemic was a risk I was willing to take. I trust my KSC family to keep me safe and we wear our masks! St. Lucia will always hold a found place in my heart, its where I found my passion and career path . Story by HollyWakely, The first ever Junior Dive Master at Kids Sea Camp Anse Chastanet in St. Lucia with PADI Instructor Margo Peyton. Please since this article was published Holly Wakely is now a PADI Dive Instructor.
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