By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
Local scuba divers joined thousands around the world to celebrate the seventh annual Professional Association of Diving Instructors Women’s Dive Day. Michigan Scuba Sports hosted the event for the first time at Stoney Lake Township Park last month. The day aims to help create balance between humanity, the lakes and oceans.

“It’s a global thing, so it happens on July 17 all around the world,” said Michigan Scuba Sports owner and instructor Mario Lepore. “This is the first year that I’ve done it.”
The event started out as a way to get more women involved in the sport. “You go out on a dive charter on any given weekend, you’re going to get maybe one woman – if that – on the boat. Mostly, it is a male dominated sport.”
But that is starting to change, he said. The event itself has taken on its own character as “then it kind of took on its own feel where the women that were getting interested in diving wanted to get involved in water conservation, with cleanup days. That’s how it morphed, and now it has become an all-inclusive (event).”
Men are welcome to join the event as well.
Rachel Alder, a Brandon Township resident who grew up in Oxford, recently got into scuba since she and her fiancé, Michael Leo, are planning a wedding in Jamaica. “We decided to get certified to be able to do it there, but also to take advantage of all these lakes that we have around us,” she said.
She attended the women’s day event with him because she is still very new to the sport. Michael is a more advanced diver, doing search-and-rescue type training. “I just wanted to do it to be able to do it with him,” she said. “I had never done it and I actually liked it and continued with it.”
Lepore took them on a guided dive through some of Stony Lake’s underwater features.

Representatives of the Oakland County Water Resource Commission attended the event to discuss environmental issues related to the lakes and watershed.
For those who aren’t already certified divers, Women’s Dive Day provides unique opportunities to learn what it takes to dive and meet new dive buddies. Michigan Scuba Sports offers dive training and certifications across all skill levels.