Adrienne Gittus,
filmmaker, camerawoman, founder and CEO @Soulwater Productions
After 10 years of teaching diving, Adrienne became the promotional video content creator for a variety of diving operations, including high-end liveaboards.
She has also supplied footage to CNN, ARD, Discovery, and National Geographic. She trained in technical diving and on the JJ-CCR rebreather, with a certification to 100m.
As a result, she can film at great depths, and get close to hard-to-capture marine life.
She won many awards for her heartbreaking film about shark finning in Indonesia 'A fish full of dollars', amongst her many projects.
Her visual content company: www.soulwaterproductions.com
Insta: @adriennegittusphotography, @soulwaterproductions
When did you start diving?
I learned to dive in 2001 in Grand Cayman and became an instructor In 2003. I have been diving almost continuously since then.
What made you want to become a diver/ dive pro/work in the dive industry?
I knew diving was the career for me from the first breaths in the pool. It just clicked, one of those few eureka moments you have in life. Since then I have fallen more in love with the ocean every day. The more I learn about the underwater world the more fascinating it becomes. Understanding the importance of the ocean to humanity has continued to grow my passion for diving and ocean conservation. I can’t imagine life without the ocean and diving, being a part of it in some way.
What is your best/most memorable dive?
A dawn dive to the bluecorner dive site in Nusa Lembongan with cold (16 degrees) water with strong current but seventeen Mola Mola. They were just stacked, one after the other. Some were deep below us but several were very close. Incredible memory!
Most gratifying course you took or taught?
Taking mentally challenged teenagers diving(a one-on-one week-long Discover Scuba Diving program) in Little Cayman, which we ran every year( when I worked there), giving our time for free. An incredible experience and I still have friendships with my students nearly twenty years later.
5 qualities of a great dive pro?
Patience
Empathy
Calmness under pressure
Passion for the ocean
Ability to laugh even when things go wrong
Do you think women are different divers than men and why?
No. I think there are good female divers and good male divers, bad female divers and bad male divers. I think some women like to dive deep and push the same limits as some men. I think some women love to go slow and dive shallow and just like to see beautiful reefs and amazing marine life, as well as men. I don’t think our sex has anything to do with the way we dive or what we love about the ocean or why we like to dive. Human curiosity and love of the ocean is trans-gender. As in, it translates across all genders and doesn’t discriminate between them.
One piece of advice for someone starting diving.
Remember that everything we learn to do, even from learning to walk as a child, needs practice and experience. We are not born with gills so diving is a learned skill and we need to practice to become good at it. Don’t feel disheartened if I don’t get it the first time. If it were easy everyone would be doing it. Keep persevering.
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