Scuba Part II: Making a Career Out of Diving

Meet Cindy, pro diver and advocate for women in the water

This week, we continue our Scuba Diving Mini-Series. Last week, we met an avid scuba diver, and next week we will meet an industry entrepreneur. Today, we meet a professional dive instructor. Through these different lenses, we will share and experience the joy and awe of the ocean!

I found Cindy’s Facebook group, Scuba Women, on recommendation from my Open Water Dive Instructor. As a new diver, I was hungrily devouring any and all dive content I could find. Through the Scuba Women FB group, I kept seeing sage posts from a woman named Cindy. When my local dive ship organized a trip to Cozumel, I realized I could arrange to meet and actually dive with this guru. I excitedly reached out to her and the rest, as they say, is history!

I had the privilege of diving with Cindy in Cozumel and in the cenotes on the mainland. Diving the cenotes was one of the most magical experiences of my life. And Cindy lived up to the hype. She has cultivated close relationships with local dive shops and created a safe learning environment for all of us.

Cindy encapsulates the spirit of adventure and camaraderie that I strive to create with this series. I hope we can find a community of adventurers who lift each other up and encourage each other. I hope we can do something a little scary, and yet feel empowered because we are doing it together. I hope we can lean into the experiences that make our heart race and time stand still. Most of all, I hope we can do it as a community of strong, courageous women.

With all of that said, I am so excited to introduce you to Cindy.

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Welcome, Cindy! Tell us about your life as a dive professional!

I am Cindy Sieman. I spend half my year in Cozumel, Mexico and the other half of the year in Catalina Island, California. I am 58 years old and have been a dive professional for around two decades.

I dive pretty much every day, either teaching or guiding divers. In Cozumel, the schedule is pretty relaxed with 2 to 3 dives a day. In Catalina, I can do up to 6 dives a day when the high season is in. I am responsible for pretty much everything from bookkeeping to gear maintenance. I do have a small team in Catalina and have just hired an assistant to help with the daily logistics. In Mexico, I am lucky enough to be affiliated with a great local shop.

I am typically awake around 5.30am, grab my morning coffee and nail out some internet work and emails. Then I run down to the dive locker and pull whatever gear I will need for the day. I head down to the water and it is dive, dive, dive. After diving is cleaning and repairing gear, usually followed by answering more emails or bookkeeping stuff.

You also run a business called Scuba Women. Tell us about this business and platform.

I created Scuba Women in 2018 when I felt that there was a lack of good information available for female divers in the sport. It is primarily on FaceBook although we are currently building our Instagram and TicTok platform. We also have a webpage at www.scubawomen.com.

Scuba Women does have a business side with swag and dive trips, however our goal of Scuba Women is to connect women divers globally and to encourage safety in diving. As of now, we have somewhere around 65k members worldwide.

Our team consists of dive professionals from most of the big agencies as well as technical divers. We feel that we are able to give accurate and safe information to divers. We also host a photo of the month, small gear sales posts, and let divers know when there are upcoming events.

What inspired you to pursue this career and lifestyle?

I started diving a little late in life. I was at a point in my life where I was striving to move past things I felt were holding me back. One of those things was a fear of the ocean. I had seen Jaws a few too many times as a kid and also had a near drowning when I got caught in a rip tide swimming in Malibu. I also started skydiving around the same time due to a fear of heights. Both sports took off for me. I was involved in skydiving very actively for about 14 years. Scuba however, I decided to go the professional route. I enjoy teaching and like to see newer divers overcome their fears as well.

I have always been a bit of a nomad and the dive life suited my style, although these years I tend to be more predictable about where I reside. I do enjoy the beauty of both the islands that I live on and it gives me the best of what diving and the cultures have to offer.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

I enjoy working with divers that struggle. I mean it makes for an easy day when one’s student nails out all the skills easily, but there is a certain satisfaction in working with someone where it is not natural to them.

I have had more than one diver that has panicked, needed their hand held for the first couple of dives, and shed a few tears. Seeing divers like this progress and finally earn that cert is super rewarding.

Every adventure has its challenges. Tell us about the personal limiting beliefs or external barriers you grappled with along your path and how you handled them.

I think when I started out, there were simply not a ton of female professionals out there. Living on Catalina can be isolating and clicky at times with little opportunity for social stuff. Working for others I found limiting as well; for example, I disliked watching great ideas getting shut down.

When I moved back to Catalina full time, I was promised a job. After moving, it didn’t pan out. So, I started my own company and luckily for me, it worked out well. I don’t have a lot of time for personal things as I am still in the process of building, and there are many times that I can’t go do some of the fun things I’d like to do. But I am working to change that. As for now, I work seven days a week and rarely take an off day.

Speak to the importance of mindset, especially in dealing with any setbacks or failures.

Mindset is key to everything. I was able to complete my doctorate in clinical psychology while working in diving. It was hard but keeping a list of what needed to be done and continually working on it got me through. Pushing myself to get up and do what needs to be done even when I really don’t want to is part of the mindset that keeps me strong. Also knowing when to take a mental health day or two to recharge is key. I do try to find some balance even with the workload.

Would you choose this career path again?

Absolutely! I have the best office in the world. I love working with students and love being in the water.

What did you learn about yourself from the experience of becoming a full-time scuba instructor? How has it changed you?

I have learned that I do not know it all. Diving is a never ending rabbit hole of information and science. The deeper I progress in this sport, the more physics and science I find out I need to learn. I have gained confidence in myself along the way. I have also had the privilege of training with other excellent instructors and have learned patience and skills from them.

Who have been your mentors or role models?

My dad was my biggest role model and mentor. My dad created a magazine in the 70s for dirt bike riders. It turned out to be the 3^rd best selling magazine in the US for years. He created something from nothing but a dream. He showed me that if I wanted something bad enough that I could manifest it with hard work and pushing forward.

In your work and travels, is there a topic that you have become passionate about or that has altered your worldview in some way?

I think that would be climate change and the conditions that I am finding our oceans in. I dove reefs 20 years ago that were alive and stunning, only to come back and find nothing but dead reef. It is heartbreaking to remember what these reefs looked like prior. A lot of this is due to various pollutants, but it is also sadly due to divers that are poorly trained.

What do you hope will be the impact of your work on your community and the world?

Hopefully, I will make an impact on safety in diving as well as a safe space where women divers can be themselves.

What advice do you have for another woman wanting to pursue a career in diving?

Pay for your training and avoid the internships. Have a clear goal. Get things in writing. Learn to say no when things are not okay. Build a network of other like-minded women.

Where can our readers find you? Use this space to promote your work. We want to support you!

On Facebook on the Scuba Women group and www.scubawomen.com

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Thank you, Cindy! I love that both Amanda from last week’s post and Cindy discuss the importance of having clear visions around their lives. Amanda spoke about having a vision board and Cindy speaks about manifesting her dream life through a clear vision and hard work. They speak to a common theme of dreaming unhindered by reservations and “realities” and of the power of taking consistent, small action towards achieving the bigger picture.

Cindy also touched on how climate change has affected the ocean’s reef ecosystems. Stay tuned for next week when we will hear from a woman who also noticed this change and built a business focused on creating reef safer products.

My parting question for you today is: what aligned actions can you take to help manifest your big dream?