My PADI Open Water Diver journey started taking shape on March 16, 2020, when, following my graduation, my mom revealed her gift. A voucher to earn the PADI Open Water Diver certification at the PADI 5 Star IDC dive center Evasioni Blu Diving in Ustica.

What an unusual gift, everyone probably thought; what a wonderful gift, I thought, my heart already full of emotion. It had always been a great desire of mine to go underwater and go diving. Overjoyed, I went to buy my diving gear: wetsuit, fins, boots, regulators — basically everything I needed for something that, once started, I knew I would never give up.

So, a few months later, after the lockdown, having arrived on the island of Ustica, I went to the PADI center Evasioni Blu Diving and met the staff. They all had that contagious smile that happy people have, that smile that only contact with nature and the sea can bring out from within. That smile that makes you never want to leave them.

I felt like it was my first day of school, and when they handed me the PADI Open Water Diver manual to study the theory of diving, I remember I started reading and flipping through it on the way home already. I took that study very seriously — underlining, transcribing, and reviewing — then going back to the Ustica dive center to go over the quizzes together with my PADI instructor.

But let’s get to the most important moment: my first practical lesson of the PADI Open Water Diver course — the first dive, or rather, the first backward roll off the boat. Being a lover of “extreme” sports myself, no one understood why I was so nervous. That was emotion. Punta Galera, in my opinion one of the most beautiful dive sites on the entire island of Ustica.

I could feel the emotion spreading everywhere — in my feet, my legs, my hands, my stomach. And so I laughed, laughed a lot, and kept asking if I could jump in, but then I didn’t. Palm on the regulator, fingers on the diving mask, and go. THE BLUE! The real thing!

Rino, my PADI instructor, and I began our dives in confined water, shallow and calm water, starting by performing the first diving skills. Mask clearing, regulator recovery, mask removal, and then, over the following days, other exercises: using the diving compass and the dive computer, assisting a tired diver, and so on. Rino, just like the rest of the diving staff with us on the boat, was always attentive to my physical and mental state.

He made sure I was okay, focused and in good spirits. He knew which diving skills scared me the most, and so, calmly, we would practice them several times on the surface first before going underwater. I remember clearly being very afraid of removing my diving mask once I was down there, but then, thanks to him and the way he explained the exercise to me, I did it right away and even got congratulated with a handshake!

Right after the diving skills, came the best part: the underwater tour of the dive site around the boat. The depth was shallow, but the wonderful creatures already there were countless. Shells, starfish, sea urchins, and lots of peacock wrasse. All in water so clear that, even though they were far away, it seemed like you could touch them.

As the days went by, my desire to go diving grew bigger and bigger, and in the morning I couldn’t wait to get on that boat and set off for a new wonderful lesson of my diving course. So, once the PADI Open Water Diver lessons in confined water were finished, we started the last ones in open water. Deeper waters, subject to currents, and in my case, sometimes choppy too. My first dive in open water was done on a day with slightly rough seas, and there I understood that if I liked it even then, I would like it forever. And that’s how it was. Not even the waves managed to change my mind.

The PADI Open Water Diver lessons in open water let you savor, little by little, the beauty of a true dive; they let you imagine and almost feel firsthand what all the divers who went out every morning to explore new dive sites experienced daily. The open water lessons brought you closer and closer to that blue that gets into your heart and makes you come out of the water wanting to go right back in. “The more dives you do, the more dives you want to do,” someone once told me. They were right. I believe that’s exactly what diving is.

The open water lessons of my PADI Open Water Diver course also come to an end, and so, finally, having passed the final test, in August 2020 I officially earn my diving certification. I’m finally a PADI Open Water Diver, thanks to Rino, Esther, and the whole staff of Evasioni Blu Diving in Ustica.

But it doesn’t end here. Rather, this is where the good part begins. On the diving whiteboard where the daily dives were scheduled, my name was always written somewhere. Every day I would go diving together with them, discovering all the wonderful dive sites of the island of Ustica.

The famous Scoglio del Medico, full of canyons and passageways, loved and known by many divers; the Secca della Colombara with its submerged wreck, the barracudas and the big amberjacks; the caves of Pastizza and many others, though for me the most beautiful spot and my favorite remains: Punta Galera, which, with its inviting meadow of Posidonia, the turquoise of the sea and the wonderful colorful wall to follow underwater, stole my heart from the very first dive. Schools of barracuda, amberjacks that aren’t afraid to swim right past you, giant groupers that watch you curiously, hidden nudibranchs, and damselfish that swirl around and accompany you in wonderful vortexes. All this in a sea as clean as only a Marine Protected Area like the Ustica reserve can offer. A place with friendly people, mindful of others’ wellbeing and ready to tell the first curious visitor all the island’s oldest sea stories.

Thanks to Evasioni Blu Diving and my PADI Open Water Diver course, I discovered the true beauty of the sea of Ustica and its incomparable seabeds; I discovered a diving community made up of friendly, welcoming, kind people, many of whom have now become dear friends, and above all, I discovered that underwater, you can — and do — laugh, a whole lot!!!

Roberta Nicosia, 26 years old, ACSI educator and acrobatic instructor

Palermo, Sicily.

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