Page 66 - KSC Magazine 2020

A PASSION FOR SHARKS AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Introducing Zebedee Wakely, Jr. master scuba diver, age 18
FDA:Family DiveAdventures (not to be confused with the Food and Drug Administration) and KSC (Kids Sea Camp)
I just don’t know where to begin. Kids Sea Camp is just so awesome to even attempt to write about. But here you are now, reading my excited mess of ideas and thoughts on what diving means to me, so I’ll give it a go (no promises, though.)
I should probably start with the exciting stuff, like where I backward roll into
a school of 50 plus sharks inYap (the country, not the small annoying noise made by dogs) or when I’m charging at top speed through the current of Ulong Channel in Palau, but instead, I’ll start at
the beginning.
At the age of 5,I joined my first KSC.
My parents signed me up in the PADI group known as SASY.Little kids get to put on scuba gear but substitute the BCD for a life jacket, so we float on the surface while breathing through a regulator.This was my first incredible experience with scuba diving.
Since I was already a water baby by
6 months and swimming by 1, I thought KSC was created just for me. Quickly making my way through the dive ranks, I again returned to KSC in Roatan for Seal Team.This was a landmark in my interest for scuba diving.
SealTeam is a program for 8- and 9-year-old kids to experience diving in confined water. However, KSC Seals can dive in the ocean. I just fell in love with diving.
On my 10th birthday, my mom and
dad choseYap and Palau for our family adventure, and that’s where the real
story begins.The experiences I had inYap and Palau were likely some of the best I thought I would ever have. Completing my PADI Jr.OpenWater certification with manta rays overhead was surely one of the greatest moments of my life.
The feeling I had when I was diving with 15-foot mantas and some 50 plus reef sharks daily was phenomenal, too amazing to fully describe. It’s funny, everyone said
it was all downhill from there. I guess they didn’t know Margo andTom Peyton or Kids Sea Camp. Since then, I have dove with and learned about tiger sharks
and bull sharks with the shark school
at KSC Fiji. I traveled with my family to the Philippines, where I dove with rare thresher sharks and had the second best
www.familydivers.com
803-419-2556 email: dive@familydivers.com www.oceanwishes.org