On 21 May, PADI invites everyone to join together in a shared celebration and cultural exchange highlighting diversity in your dive community. Each year, UNESCO leads the celebration of World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development highlighting the richness of the world’s cultures in an effort to drive conversations around cultural diversity. PADI is building a symbolic bridge to the global celebration by hosting Diversity in Diving Day with the extended family of PADI Dive Shops and Resorts, PADI Professionals and millions of certified divers and Ocean Torchbearers, with a call to action to post stories and content that is meaningful to them.
PADI’s third Pillar of Change, People and Humanity, is borne from PADI’s core belief that aquatic environments should be accessible to all. As a global organization, we continually strive to foster an environment of openness across the dive industry with a shared understanding that ‘underwater we all speak the same language.’
Established in 183 countries, PADI operators are part of the social fabric critical to strengthening diversity and inclusivity in almost every corner of the world. The strength of a local dive community plays a significant role in the economic stability and conservation stewardship of a region and millions rely on healthy marine ecosystems for their livelihood and wellbeing. PADI Members play an essential role in their communities by enabling access to diving, diving careers and fostering a healthy relationship and protection mindset with the underwater world.
PADI Diversity in Diving Day honors the existing diversity of our community, but PADI remains committed to creating new pathways in our sport that are inclusive and welcoming for all to enjoy access to the ocean and to the transformational power of diving. PADI Members that operate PADI Adaptive Services Facilities, PADI Freediver Centers and PADI Mermaid Centers all offer opportunities for more people to experience the underwater world. In 2015, PADI Members hosted more than 4,000 global events in honor of the first ever PADI Women’s Dive Day inviting women everywhere to take their first breath underwater. Now nine years later, thanks to the leadership of PADI Members, this annual event continues to reduce the gender gap in diving and is now the largest day of diving action in the world.
By seeking new opportunities for the local community to access and engage with the aquatic environment, PADI Members can unlock doors for new and future divers, professionals and community leaders. Combined with a willingness to create an atmosphere of inclusivity and openness at your business and with your customers, PADI Members can break down social barriers, foster tolerance, understanding and change lives. Sharing content and stories on Diversity in Diving Day can directly benefit your business by inspiring confidence in people to take the next step, or the first step, of their diver journey.
Diversity in Diving is a day to celebrate your diving community for who you are today and who you may aspire to be tomorrow. It’s a day to talk about what work still needs to be done, to make diving more accessible and collaborate on solutions for a better future. It’s a day to form new commitments, invite non divers, or a new community of possible divers, to join you for a try dive, and to learn more about what diving already means to you and what it could mean to them one day. Above all, it’s a day to gather your community- however you define it – and celebrate connection with each other and the ocean.
