Just a little over a year after taking our first scuba dives, we achieved one of our biggest goals by becoming PADI Junior Master Scuba Divers™ at just 12 years old. Reaching this milestone together as identical twins made it even more meaningful, as we have shared every step of our diving journey from the very beginning.
To the best of our knowledge, we became some of the youngest identical twins to earn the PADI Junior Master Scuba Diver certification, making this achievement even more special.
We wanted to earn the rating because we love challenging ourselves, improving our skills and discovering more about the underwater world. Every course and every dive helped us become more confident and excited to keep learning.
Diving Goals in the Maldives
To achieve this goal, we travelled to the Maldives for an unforgettable two-week diving adventure, where we also celebrated reaching 50 logged dives. We began in Fuvahmulah, diving with magnificent tiger sharks, before boarding the White Pearl liveaboard to explore the central atolls. Along the way, we saw manta rays, nurse sharks, sea turtles, stonefish, scorpionfish and even a rare bowmouth guitarfish.
One of our favorite dives was a night dive. Swimming alongside nurse sharks, watching the reef come alive after dark and seeing fluorescent coral glowing under our dive lights made it unlike anything we had experienced before.
Before diving with sharks, we understood why some people feel nervous around them. However, seeing them in their natural environment changed our perspective. They were calm, graceful and fascinating to observe.
Although the weather was beautiful throughout the trip, earning this rating was not always easy. Waking up early and completing three or sometimes four dives a day required lots of energy and concentration. By the end of some days, we were almost as ready to sleep as the fish! Looking back, these challenges made the achievement even more rewarding.
As PADI Junior AmbassaDivers, we are incredibly grateful to PADI for supporting our journey. Thank you to Alina for coordinating the trip and encouraging us, Jude for capturing our adventure on camera, and our Divemaster, Hadrien, whose experience as a former French Navy diver and calm guidance helped us become safer and more confident divers.
Most importantly, thank you to our parents, who supported us every step of the way. Their encouragement and belief in us made these opportunities possible.
What’s Next for Us
We are incredibly proud to have become PADI Junior Master Scuba Divers, but this is only the beginning of our diving journey. Our next goal is to become PADI Junior Divemasters when we turn 15, and we hope to inspire more young people to discover the underwater world until then.
Our advice to other young divers is simple: keep going. Every dive teaches you something new, and you never know what amazing experience is waiting just below the surface.
This blog was written by Julia and Alexa Wong, PADI Junior Ambassadivers™.
