Today we’d like to introduce you to Dina Zawaski.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Dina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve always loved the ocean: being in or on it, looking at it, and learning about the animals that live in it. On a trip to Hawaii in 2009, I got a chance to try an introductory scuba dive. The second I descended, I saw a giant manta ray, gliding along like a majestic bird extending its wings below me. Watching in awe from that perspective, and feeling weightlessness for the first time, I felt like I was flying. I was sold.
A year or so later, in between jobs, I moved to San Diego and signed up for a scuba certification course before I even had a place to live. After a couple years of west coast diving, I started to feel the pull to move back to Boston, but I wasn’t sure what the diving scene was back east, so I researched and found that a new dive shop had opened right in my hometown of all places – East Boston. I emailed the owner, Jim, and he graciously agreed to take me on as an intern and trained me all the way up to Divemaster level at Boston SCUBA.
Since then I’ve been on some truly amazing ocean adventures: diving with the seal pups at Graves Light in Boston Harbor, on shipwrecks crawling with sand tiger sharks, swimming with manatees in Florida, diving around a near fully intact WWII German U-Boat and many local wreck sites, scooping up scallops while drift diving, finding 100-year-old artifacts including a full bottle of french brandy, and even a dive in the Giant Ocean Tank at the New England Aquarium (in addition to my regular dives in there in the seal exhibit as a volunteer).
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’m not going to lie, I was silently freaking out before my first few open water dives. Humans aren’t built to survive underwater, and it’s easy to let that thought take over when you’re new to the sport. I nearly called off my first-night dive on the way there because I had no idea how I would be able to tell which way is up or down (hint: watch your bubbles). But for me and many others, this stress is limited to pre-dive time.
Once I’m submerged, I always feel a calm wash over me, even if things don’t go exactly as planned. I think it’s a combination of the soothing sounds and the feeling of weightlessness. Plus, the only muscle memory you really have for that underwater environment comes from your pool training during the certification process, and nearly everything you’re taught there involves fail-safes and what to do in case something happens.
Anytime I find myself in a sticky situation (there’s been a few), I just calmly and naturally default to my training without having to think about it much.
Please tell us about your story.
Being a Divemaster, I’m an independent contractor that works at Boston SCUBA part time, otherwise, I work full time at the MSPCA-Angell in Jamaica Plain. At Boston SCUBA, I assist scuba certification classes, teach discover scuba classes, and teach refresher courses to certified divers that have been dry for too long. This year, I’m working on my HSA (Handicapped Scuba Association) certification so that I can also assist paraplegic, quadriplegic, amputee, and blind diving students in the future, thanks to a grant I received from the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
I’ve also been an active dive volunteer at the New England Aquarium since 2014. My goal always is to introduce as many people to the sport as I can, and in New England, we have the benefit an extremely supportive and passionate local dive community. It’s not uncommon around here to get into the water with people as strangers and to come out of it as new friends with amazing common experience to talk about. I’ve seen it happen on nearly every trip on Boston SCUBA’s dive boat, the Keep-ah. Learning to dive was one of the most self-empowering and transformative experiences of my life, and I don’t see a reason why anyone shouldn’t try it.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have been scuba certified the minute I was old enough to do so (which is 10 years old in case you’re wondering). I feel that I already missed so many great diving opportunities since our oceans are becoming filled with plastic at an alarming rate, fish counts are down (and also getting full of plastic), and our coral reefs are dying.
I hear so many stories from divers about how much better things were even 10 years ago, and as divers, we know more than anyone about what is going on down there. I need to get to the Great Barrier Reef in Austrailia quickly before it’s not worth the flight. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic but, I’m truly scared for the ocean’s future, and the little I can do personally never feels like enough.
Contact Info:
- Address: 256 Marginal St
East Boston, MA 02128 - Website: www.bostonscuba.com
- Phone: (617) 418-5555
- Email: info@bostonscuba.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bostonscubainc/
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