Why Do We Dive?

Water is life, as human beings, and what draws us - or repels us - to the ocean is incredibly evocative for each and every one of us. Not all divers are alike. Some dive for the excitement, the rush. The thrill of being within the seascape; taking in what we see and practicing our technical skill sets. A curious thing happens though, as many of us divers know, that this can begin to feel almost meaningless without diving deeper, not only in the literal sense. The compelling, unstoppable urge to explore this environment; to discover our past and even gaze into the future for what may be. And in the still seabeds of our world, entire stories sleep —not merely wrecks, but travel, farewell, love, travel, and strength.

Water, they say, remembers. We first became aware of the Diving With a Purpose (DWP) team in 2019 at the precipice of our involvement in Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) through the channel of our own team, Underwater Surveying Team (UST) of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). DWP leads the way in promoting, preserving and protecting UCH through strong community engagement and investing in future scientists, namely those who have a close and personal connection to the wreck sites and environments in question. From first-hand experience participating in the DWP Maritime Advocacy programme, DWP instills a powerful sense of stewardship in all its members and would-be ones alike.

Diving With a Purpose is more than an organization. It is a powerful reminder; What if we did not regard shipwrecks as dead ships but rather as memorials to the passage of human life?

Beneath the surface there is not only salt and pressure; there are waves of ancestral memories. Not only as divers but as living stewards of this fact, it is our duty to remember, to defend, and to pass on these lessons. To become living links in a chain that may never be broken.

Here in Europe —and especially in Greece— we hear a great deal of "heritage." But we stagnantly look for it where the eye can find it: in temples, in museums, in ruins under the open skies…

Our Underwater Cultural Heritage remains a hidden world — greatly forgotten, increasingly endangered, and suspended in the balance between remembrance and oblivion. What if we had instructed our children to respect the sea bed as we instruct them to respect the Parthenon?

This is what Diving With a Purpose teaches. Through outreach both globally and locally, DWP is protecting, promoting and preserving Underwater Cultural Heritage in a way which we must not only admire but seek to replicate and support with ferver. Too long have historical wrecks been corrupted by greed or academic prestige with little or no regard to the context of these sites; outsiders only brushing the surface. It can look like a lack of historical context, a dearth of representation and remembrance of those who went down with these ships.

As divers who seek to combat these issues, may we hold in our hearts and minds that each dive can be an adventure in time, as well, whilst actively remembering the depth of the activities we conduct underwater in reverence.

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that in Greek, the word for diving — katádysi — is going down,

but not escaping. We descend in order to return — truer, smarter, reborn...

#UnderwaterCulturalHeritage

#HeritagePreservation

#SeabedStories

#DiveDeeper