Cristina Zenato - One of our heroes. Shark lady, marine conservation activist, educator, techy.
As well as being a shark expert and founder of the conservation and education non-profit 'People Of the Water', Cristina Zenato is a very active and passionate instructor, explorer, and educator. She divides her attention between expeditions, managing her operation, working with sharks, and exploring caves. As a public speaker, she has been inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame (2011), The Explorers Club (2013), and The Ocean Artists Society (2013). She is also a recipient of the Platinum Pro 5000. She is a PADI Course Director, NSS-CDS Advanced Cave diving instructor, TDI Technical Instructor, Rebreather instructor, speaker, writer, and photographer.
When did you start diving?
I started diving in 1994.
What made you want to become a diver?
I had a childhood dream of wanting to become an underwater scuba ranger with sharks for friends.
I grew up in a family from the ocean who took me to the ocean. My dad was an ex-military special forces diver and told me of the beauty of the underwater world, taught me at an early age to swim and free dive and my mom always made sure we spent considerable amounts of time in the water, no matter where. At age 22 I had the opportunity to finally learn how to scuba dive in The Bahamas. On my first dive and all subsequent dives, there were always sharks swimming around us. I took a chance by accepting a job to work at a local hotel whilst continuing diving, and ended up falling in love with all of it, the island, the sharks, the caves, changed my life and I have been here since. That was 30 years ago.
What is your best/most memorable dive?
Each dive has a meaning; some, of course, allow us to experience something more profound than others, but it's hard to pick only one...
I would say of all of them, every time one of my sharks comes to put her head in my lap and let me pet her. I still remember the first time it happened, and the feeling that surges through me now has not changed.
I could also say that another memorable dive was when I witnessed an octopus giving birth during a night dive; I had been watching this moma for quite some time as she took care of her eggs and during a night dive I decided to swim by her coral head and I found myself in the midst of her blowing all the hatchlings out in the water. A month later, in the same location, I saw a 3 cm wide baby octopus, I knew where s/he had come from.
There is also the feeling of laying a line in virgin caves, places never seen before, the sound of the reel in my hand as it produces a small scratching sound in the silence of my rebreather and the thousands of metres of line unspooled through these places I am the first to explore.
And thinking of darkness, I remember those dives when the bioluminescence of the reef was so strong it felt like we were swimming through a galaxy.
(editor note: soooo true! It's the most amazing feeling)
But there are many more: I discovered an animal that was not yet listed on any ID book (pre-internet world) or the time, I was leading a dive and this trunk fish came straight to me and rested under my body, belly to belly for the duration of the dive, the first time I discovered a neck crab, saw a sailfin blenny dancing above his nest, heard the whales singing underwater, had the sunlight covered by the most impressive school of jacks I have ever seen in my life and the list goes on...
The memories of these incredible dives are intertwined in my thoughts, one not better than the other, each different, unique and equally special.
Most gratifying course you took or taught?
Becoming a full cave diving instructor was perhaps one of the best ones, because it was not a course, as per agency standards it requires several internships and following different instructors and courses; it allowed me to see my progress and monitor my improvements while co-teaching a dozen or more courses over a year and a half; and finally arriving at the institute (instructor exams) and being able to conduct a full class, feeling ready, confident and also having learned to teach from metric to imperial.
The most satisfying course I teach is the one followed by the messages of my students telling me how it changed their diving, at times their lives, how it changed their view on things, be it sharks, ocean or conservation, how it allows them to continue diving and having fun when they had almost given up.
5 qualities of a great dive pro?
- listens and adapts the course and skills to each student,
- is firm, and demanding but provides full attention not only below the water but also above.
- keeps diving for personal interest,
- is engaged in what they do
- thrives to always improve themselves.
Do you think women are different divers than men and why?
Yes and no. Of course, physiologically women and men are different divers, it comes from our bodies and natural features. At the same time, saying that all women or all men dive in a certain way would be a generalization.
What I found different through my years of teaching, is unfortunately something that comes from projections and not reality. More women than men come into diving with the impression that they are not good enough and might need a lot of work, while men feel they can do it much more easily. While a woman is completing an excellent course, she might still be doubting her performance and results. While a man is completing the same and perhaps not at the same level of performance, he instead thinks he is doing much better.
So when I work with divers, I find that working on the mindset, self-awareness, and personal evaluation is the base to then work on their skills. Once the mindset is leveled, the results will show and those differences will no longer be there.
One piece of advice for someone starting diving.
Learn horizontally, not only vertically.
It is one of the most significant recommendations I can give when people ask me how to grow, and it can be applied to diving or life.
The horizontal concept is to learn things we are interested in, even if they might not seem directly related to the level at which we want to be. They create a platform that expands with time and allows us to not only reach higher but also stand firmer on the new ground we are venturing through. A perfect example is when, in 2015, I received an invite to participate in a special Nat Geo expedition. The expedition required advanced cave diving skills, survey and mapping experience, and reasonably good knowledge of the systems we were completing the work. Over the previous decade, I had spent much time learning and growing said skills and travelling back and forth to these specific caves. This "cost" me a lot of time and even more money, but allowed me to grow laterally, making me the perfect candidate for this fascinating expedition.
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