10 Oct 2017

First female dive instructor from Solomon Islands

6:30 pm on 10 October 2017

The Solomon Islands has its first internationally accredited female dive instructor.

Belinda Botha and Zaza Bedford

Belinda Botha and Zaza Bedford Photo: Facebook

Zaza Bedford is from Munda, Western Province and New Zealand and is part of the Dive Munda scuba diving centre.

The 19-year-old qualified through Scuba Schools International and can work world wide as an instructor.

Operations manager of Dive Munda Belinda Botha said she had been grooming Ms Bedford as an instructor for the last 18 months.

"Zaza came to me, 18 years old, just fresh out of school and never dived before," said Ms Botha.

"It was first of all getting her comfortable in the water and luckily it was her passion as well," she said.

"Growing up in a small community like Munda, she was one of the girls especially on the canoes every day, so she was very very confident in the water, but making that jump from freediving to scuba diving was quite a big learning curve."