{"id":4372,"date":"2026-07-02T15:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/?p=4372"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T03:40:12","slug":"meet-phoebe-our-newest-and-youngest-instructor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/2026\/07\/02\/meet-phoebe-our-newest-and-youngest-instructor\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Phoebe \u2013 Our Newest (and Youngest!) Instructor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phoebe2-2-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"896\" src=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phoebe2-2-1024x896.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4379\" style=\"width:424px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phoebe2-2-1024x896.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phoebe2-2-300x263.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phoebe2-2-768x672.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phoebe2-2-1536x1344.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been diving with us over the past six months, there&#8217;s a good chance you&#8217;ll already recognise me. I&#8217;ve been around the shop, helping out, learning the ropes, and spending as much time in the water as possible. Now I&#8217;m excited to officially introduce myself as one of your instructors!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Scuba diving wasn&#8217;t always part of the plan. It wasn&#8217;t until I finished university at Otago that I found myself thinking, <em>&#8220;Huh&#8230; scuba diving seems like something cool to do.&#8221;<\/em> That one thought completely changed the direction I was heading. At the beginning of 2025, I jumped straight into my diploma course. It was an incredible journey filled with plenty of learning, challenges, and unforgettable dives. By the end of it, I had earned my PADI Open Water Specialty Instructor certification, and I haven&#8217;t looked back since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like all good divers, I am passionate about protecting our oceans. As an ocean advocate, I believe every dive is an opportunity to appreciate and care for the incredible underwater world. While your typical Wellington diver is usually <em>nudi (branch) obsessed<\/em>, I tend to be drawn to the bigger animals. If there&#8217;s a sea lion cruising past, an octopus tucked into a crack, or a shark in the distance, that&#8217;s where my attention will be! I also have a bit of a soft spot for the weird little treasures hiding on the seafloor, you can often find me admiring old bottles, and other quirky relics (I love rusty spoons!) that tell a story from dives gone by . \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hez-edited.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"4382\" src=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hez-edited-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4382\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hez-edited-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hez-edited-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hez-edited-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/hez-edited.jpg 1472w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/banana.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"896\" data-id=\"4374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/banana-1024x896.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/banana-1024x896.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/banana-300x263.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/banana-768x672.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/banana-1536x1344.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/banana.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As I continue growing as an instructor, one thing I&#8217;m especially excited about is teaching Rescue Diver and Divemaster courses. Helping divers build confidence, develop their skills, and take the next step in their diving journey is something I&#8217;d absolutely love to be part of. So if you&#8217;ve been thinking about signing up for a Rescue or Divemaster course&#8230; This is your sign! I&#8217;d love to be your instructor.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you&#8217;re ever out diving with us, look for the split fins and come say hi. I&#8217;m so excited to continue diving with familiar faces and to meet plenty of new ones along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> I can&#8217;t wait to get underwater with you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phoebe<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve been diving with us over the past six months, there&#8217;s a good chance you&#8217;ll already recognise me. I&#8217;ve been around the shop, helping out, learning the ropes, and spending as much time in the water as possible. Now I&#8217;m excited to officially introduce myself as one of your instructors! Scuba diving wasn&#8217;t always [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,142,141,1],"tags":[8,182,14,147,16,17,155,18,23,38,72,39,121,76],"class_list":["post-4372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","category-padi-dive-instructor","category-padi-dive-professional","category-uncategorized","tag-advanced-wreck-diving","tag-blog","tag-dive-buddy","tag-dive-instructor","tag-dive-sites","tag-dive-trip","tag-diveclubwellington","tag-diving","tag-exploration","tag-open-water-diver","tag-padi","tag-padi-scuba-instructor","tag-scuba","tag-wellington-diving"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phoebe-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DJeY-18w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4372"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4384,"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372\/revisions\/4384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diveski.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}