At its heart, #facesofdive is all about celebrating the dive community worldwide. From Fiji to Florida, the Maldives to Michigan, we pursue our mutual passion for diving and the unknown.
What connects us, at the end of the day, is that we all love exploring the underwater world. No matter where you’re from—or what your background is—the same grin hits your face when you spot your first sea turtle, or get immersed in a thick cloud of fish.
What is #facesofdive?
“You really see that first twinkle,” Doyle Larsson, IDC Staff Instructor at Auckland Scuba, told us during a recent call. “When someone first breathes underwater, and it blows their mind—and you’re there to see it. That’s the thing that really gets me.”
As a DIPSI Instructor (Diploma in Professional Scuba Instruction), Larsson is tasked with instilling his love (and knowledge) of diving in his students, of which there are many.
At 5-Star PADI center Auckland Scuba, he’s double blessed with a plethora of local dive sites and also a national infrastructure that’s set up to support young people who are interested in furthering their education.
“In New Zealand, we can get student loans to become instructors,” he explains, “so we do a lot of courses. We train our students through Open Water all the way to becoming Specialty Instructors.”
Any New Zealander is entitled to the loan program, Larsson says, which for some students can even turn out to be interest free. “Pretty much. You pay what you get. But there’s still rules. Like, if you don’t pass half the course—you can’t apply for another student loan, etc. So, they are definitely incentivizing people to get educated.”
Those attractive terms translate to Auckland Scuba having a lot of young, diverse students. In fact, Larsson knows so much about the Kiwi loan student program because he graduated from it himself.
The DIPSI instructor and his students originally caught our eye when they started posting in response to the #facesofdive campaign. In addition to instructing, Larsson also operates as an ace photographer during every course.
What is Larsson’s favorite dive gear?
And as a quick side note, because Auckland Scuba is a Huish Outdoors gear proprietor, Larsson naturally gets to play with a huge range of top-notch equipment. What are his favorites?
“I just like diving,” he jokes. “I’m heavily sidemount, but we’ve also got PRISM 2 Rebreathers. As for soft goods, I’m heavily a fan of the M3, the M4, and I’ve got Shadow Masks as well.”
“But the Hollis masks are sexy!” he continues. “The best fit for me is definitely the M3, though. I also love ExoWear.”
But aside from all of the cool gear that Larsson gets to work with, his classes are in the water every day and are a great example of what #facesofdive celebrates: People from all walks of life coming together to dive. Because they love it.
“Pretty much every class I’ve taught has had a diverse set of students,” he says. “But I gotta say, if it weren’t for the loans, I’d have far less students because then diving would only be targeted at people who could afford it.”
In other words, wherever there’s access, people from all walks of life will dive.
“My students live together for nine months, so they kinda become family,” he explains. “But they also learn to have the passion and love that we as a diver center, and instructors, have. What makes it the most rewarding is to see them pass on that love for diving, too.”
Editor’s Note: Wanna get involved in #facesofdive? Jump into the deep end and post pictures of you and your dive crew on social media and tag them #facesofdive!
