My Life Behind the Mask: Finding My Way Back to the Water
- Daniela Sutter
- Dec 1, 2025
- 18 min read
Updated: Dec 21, 2025
"Dive in with me into my personal blog, where I share a little bit about me, my scuba diving journey from a beginner to a career and my newest adventure—becoming a new technical diver."
Born and raised in Brazil just a few blocks from the shore, I grew up in the beautiful beach town of Balneário Camboriú. The ocean was my playground for as long as I can remember. I spent most of my childhood splashing in the waves and playing in the sand with my family, and even as I grew into my teenage years, nothing really changed—saltwater and sunshine were still part of my everyday life.
But life shifted when my parents divorced. And as my parents and siblings went separate ways, I suddenly had to learn how to navigate life mostly on my own. With my mother moving to the United States, in the search of a better future, I stayed with my father who was facing his own struggles through the separation. In the midst of all the changes, the ocean stayed constant and it became more than just a playground—it became my hideaway, the one place that felt steady when everything else felt uncertain.
I spent most of my teenage years bodyboarding with friends and paddling out to Ilha das Cabras, a small island just off the shore of Balneário Camboriú. Those were some of the most incredible memories I made, moments where I felt completely free. But eventually, as reality hit and things got harder, it meant I had no other choice but to join my mother in the US, so I left everything behind and and moved miles away from the place that had always felt like home.
In 2003, at 18 years old, I arrived in the United States. As I adjusted to living in a foreign country, learning a new language, making new friends, and building a life from scratch as an immigrant. The ocean was no longer part of my daily life. And even through all the challenges of finding my place in a new world, I often imagined myself returning to it someday.
A few years after arriving in the US, in 2005, I met my husband Butch. Butch grew up in New Jersey and had been a fisherman from a very young age. He shared the same curiosity for the ocean—always intrigued by the mysterious world underwater and the behavior of marine life, but even though he loved being on the surface of a boat or fishing offshore, he was never a big fan of being in the ocean.
Eventually, after we got married in 2009, I was finally able to travel outside the United States. And even though tropical vacations weren’t exactly his idea of fun, he eventually gave in, and we began traveling together, exploring new places, and enjoying the ocean during our trips.
My Scuba Diving Journey: Taking My First Breath Underwater
One day, while we were on a relaxing vacation in Cozumel, Butch went snorkeling and spotted the most beautiful, colorful lobster resting peacefully on the ocean floor. As a lifelong fisherman, he was thrilled to see such an amazing creature in its natural habitat, but the moment was bittersweet as he kept having to surface for air and couldn’t stay underwater long enough to truly take it all in. Determined to dive deeper — both literally and figuratively — once we returned home he asked me to join him in learning something new, so together we enrolled in a PADI Open Water Diver Course.
Our scuba diving journey began in late 2018, when we took our very first breath underwater as Open Water Divers at a local training facility, Lake Hydra (formerly known as Dutch Springs) located in Pennsylvania. After we completed our certification, Butch naturally became the leader, as I started out as an anxious diver—partly because I felt pressured to continue our training out of fear that we’d lose the money we've invested in a training package our instructor encouraged us to take. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but looking back, it didn’t give us the chance to truly enjoy and experience how relaxing diving really is as we were always rushed into checking the boxes so we could move on to the next course.
Even though, I've always had a tremendous respect for the ocean and the water in general, I was never really afraid of what is underneath, and even as a new diver, I was always drawn to go deeper. It wasn’t the depths that intimidated me—if anything, it was the shallow water that made me uneasy. It sounds strange, but I often had this irrational fear that a boat might speed overhead while I was admiring a colorful fish or making a slow ascent. Keep in mind, normally diving in a quarry, it was a very safe environment since there was no boat traffic. But as a new diver, that lingering thought was always there, especially when diving in the ocean. “What if something happens?”
Through the first year, we completed several scuba certifications, but even as I collected new cards, I often felt like I was being pushed through the training too quickly without being given the time to actually learn it. I struggled to feel comfortable, safe and confident as a diver. Eventually, Butch and I recognized the need to slow our pace and take the time to truly relearn and practice the skills we were rushed through and just truly experience the feeling of diving without the pressure of a course.
Diving Into A New Adventure
After diving for a few years and gaining experience with the certifications we already held, Butch, decided it was time for us to advance our skills and expand our knowledge. Following in his footsteps—or better said, his fins—we enrolled in the Divemaster Program, the first professional level in the scuba diving career path.
At first, I wasn’t very confident about becoming a divemaster. I knew this wasn’t just another certification, it was a step into a leadership role, a position where I would be looked to as a role model for divers less experienced than me. The responsibility felt big, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for it, but as I started to understand the bigger picture and see where this path could lead, something shifted. I realized it was time to push myself, step forward, and once again allow myself to learn something new.
In 2021, we took on a new challenge and began our Divemaster internship at Atlantis Aquatics. Our teammate, Jon, instantly became an amazing buddy and we complemented each other's personalities, and our instructor, Trout, became more than a mentor—he became a friend and a dive buddy we still dive with to this day. After countless classroom sessions, endless in-water skill development, watching divers surfacing from their dives with a huge smile on their faces, and hauling what felt like mountains of tanks (the main reason we started calling ourselves the “Dive Donkeys”), the dive shop quickly became our second home.
Shortly after that, in 2022, Butch was injured and needed surgery, which meant my dive buddy would be out of the water as he worked through his physical therapy. Since we had always dived together — with him usually taking the lead — I suddenly felt like a fish out of water. But eventually, I had to once again, get out of my comfort zone and finally become a more self sufficient diver on my own. So I started diving with the boys—Butch’s friends, who quickly became mine as well—welcoming me like a little sister and helping me build the confidence I needed.
During this time, our go-to training facility, Lake Hydra, was transitioning to new ownership, and divers were only permitted to enter the water when accompanied by a dive professional. Even though I wasn’t very familiar with navigating the lake, it turned out to be the perfect opportunity to step up my game as a divemaster and put my skills into practice. "Was time to take the lead!"
So I began leading divers on Discover Local Diving experiences, as well as running ReActivate and Refresher sessions for those who had been out of the water for a while. Little by little, I became more comfortable with the dive site and more confident as a leader. And with that growing comfort, the anxious diver I once was slowly faded away and diving no longer made me nervous—instead, it grounded me. It calmed me. It made me feel at peace.
“Even though Butch’s injuries were unfortunate, they pushed me to become a more independent diver—something I’m not sure would have happened if I had continued relying on him the way I always did. And while it may have looked like I was simply leading dives, for me, it was so much more. It sparked a new level of passion in my diving journey—a quiet, confidence-building chapter that was preparing me to take diving from a hobby to a career.”
Decompressing Under Pressure
Throughout the changes in my life—while navigating through personal struggles and managing anxiety—scuba diving became more than a hobby, it became a form of therapy. And even when not living so close to the ocean, the water once again became my hideaway, and a place that made me feel like a kid again.
When I am underwater, I feel calm. I feel free. Life slows down, my worries fade, and I’m completely present in the moment. Scuba diving has become the bridge that reconnected me to the water—to the ocean—and once again I feel at home.
For Butch, after a few years of physical therapy, being underwater became another form of healing—a different kind of therapy that helped ease the pain from his injuries.
And together, we share the same passion for the sport and the calmness it brings us.
Taking Our Passion to the Next Level
After being divemasters for a few years, our passion for diving took us on our next big adventure. We decided it was time to put into practice everything we had learned during our Divemaster Internship and embarked on the challenge of becoming PADI Open Water Instructors.
In February 2024, we packed our suitcases and headed to our favorite Caribbean island—Bonaire—to start our PADI IDC (Instructor Development Course).
Our IDC group was made up of seven of us. Divers from different states, different countries, different ages, and completely different personalities. We all shared an apartment at Buddy Dive Resort, and being the only female of the group, I felt a little uncomfortable at first, but as each of us faced our own challenges through the IDC, the experience pushed us to grow from a group of strangers into a dive family and eventually a team as we worked together not only on the surface, but underwater as well.
We called ourselves the “Dive Duckies” because of the rubber duckies we kept in the classroom. We used to joke that we were trying to keep all our ducks in a row—we also used them for a few of our demonstrations and the duck even became our talking stick. Whoever held the duck was the one who could speak, which kept us from talking over each other.
Even though Butch and I naturally worked as a team throughout the Divemaster program, we made the choice to experience the IDC individually. We still supported each other, of course, but during classroom and training sessions we intentionally kept our distance when choosing team members. It was our way of giving ourselves space to grow, to learn independently, and to truly stand on our own as future instructors.
The IDC was a challenging few weeks. Beyond the pressure of being graded by Lars, our IDC Course Director and his Staff Instructor, Dana (who has since become a close friend). We also had Course Director Kevin and his wife, and Master Instructor CC shadowing the program. And while it was a pleasure to learn from them, the extra set of eyes definitely added an extra layer of pressure, but they helped us tremendously along with our Course Director, Lars. They supported us in recognizing our strengths, understanding where we needed improvement, and reconnecting with the real reason we chose to become instructors in the first place.
Passion.
One of the things that connected us most to Lars' teaching style is that—even after years of diving and instructing—he still passionate for teaching the sport, for the ocean, and for the planet.
And after multiple consecutive training days, from early and long mornings in the classroom, long days underwater and late nights studying and working on our presentations, we were prepared to face our final step of the IDC, the IE (Instructor Examination).
The PADI IE is the final step of the IDC—a two-day evaluation where PADI examiners assess each candidate’s knowledge, teaching ability, and professional dive skills through written exams (dive theory as well standards and procedures) and practical teaching demonstrations in both confined and open-water environments. Surprisingly, on the day of the IE, I wasn’t as nervous as I expected to be, especially as we were greeted by friendly PADI examiners who immediately put us at ease and set a positive tone during the orientation.
Under Pressure
During the written exam, I moved through the dive theory portion confidently—until I reached the RDP/Decompression Theory section. My eRDPml on the PADI app wasn’t showing the ENTER button for some reason, and I was told to update the App, reinstall, and try everything in between. With each minute slipping away, frustration started creeping in, but eventually, after I expressed my frustration to the examiner about the App and that not being my fault, thankfully, the examiner was kind enough to let me borrow her phone so I could keep going.
Once I moved on to the Standards and Procedures exam, a new wave of stress hit. I couldn’t fully access the Instructor Manual on my computer for the open-book portion, and as the clock continued ticking, I had no choice but to rely solely on what I already knew. My nerves spiked, and I started to get tunnel vision, all I could think about was the fear of not passing and having to attend another IE just to finish the exam again.
“I struggle with exams, mostly because even the smallest noises around me make it hard to concentrate. I usually rely on earplugs to stay focused, but I forgot to pack them.”
As the time ran out and we all waited for the results, I was convinced I hadn’t passed the Standards and Procedures exam. I tried to stay hopeful, but deep down I was already bracing myself for disappointment. When the examiner approached me and asked, “How do you think you did?”, I couldn’t even bring myself to answer. I just looked at her with the mix of exhaustion and disappointment.
She smiled and said: “Mid-90s across the board! And for Standards and Procedures, the one you did without the manual, you needed a 75%, but... scored 85%! Pretty good for doing with the info just off the top of your head. You passed!”
I swear my heart stopped for a second. Then she added: “Great job. You are a lot more capable than you think you are.”
I wanted to cry with joy! In that moment, the fear, the frustration, the stress, it all melted away, replaced by the kind of relief and pride that hits you all at once. And was just confidence I needed to move forward through the rest of the IE.
And as we moved on to the presentations—confined water, open water, and all the other demonstrations—I felt confident that I was on the right path. I did an amazing job on my presentation as well on my skill circuit. And as it was time to demonstrated my assigned skills, my confidence got tested once again.
I was assigned to teach CESA to the “students” (the other candidates role-playing), and right after announcing that I would demonstrate the skill… my mind went completely blank. Instead of demonstrating, I skipped straight ahead and called the student up to perform the CESA themselves and the ‘student’ calmly swam over to me and performed the skill just as a real student would.
As Butch says: "It reminded me of the movie Matrix when Morpheus called Neo to fight."
During the IE, even if any of us noticed something we could help a teammate with, we couldn’t step in—doing so could potentially lead to disqualification. So all Butch and my teammates could do was watch me. And after the student performed the skill on his own, the examiner said: "Did you forget something?" And my heart sank the moment I realized I’d skipped the demonstration entirely.
It was one of those moments where your brain just takes a quick vacation without telling you.
But thankfully, I was able to move straight into my second assigned skill—free-flow regulator—and I absolutely rocked it!
And once everything was said and done… the CESA was the moment that still makes us laugh to this day.
After two long, exhausting—yet incredibly rewarding—days at the IE, filled with presentations, demonstrations, and nerve-wracking moments as we waited for our results, we finally celebrated a huge milestone. And we flew back home with our hearts overflowing—with memories, relief, pride, and a renewed excitement for our future as PADI Instructors.
Sharing Our Passion With Our Students
Once we returned home, we jumped straight into teaching. Coming from a non-teaching background, this was something we had to learn from the ground up. Figuring out how to explain things clearly, how to guide students, and eventually how to shape our own teaching style.
As our confidence grew as instructors, we made a promise to ourselves that we never wanted our students to feel the way we did when we first started our scuba diving journey. We took pride in giving them time and knowledge, not rushing them, and working alongside them through their struggles. We wanted every student to feel supported, understood, and empowered, because that’s the kind of instructor we wished we had in the beginning.
"Every certification demands time, practice, and dedication to improvement. And teaching others became yet another skill we needed to develop."
Even as instructors, we continued learning new things, reminding ourselves not to rush our own progress either. And while we love teaching, we also made sure not to get so focused on teaching that we forget to dive for fun. Exploring new places, traveling with friends, and connecting with new people along the way, because that’s what drew us into diving in the first place.
The Moment I Realized I Wanted More
For many divers, recreational limits feel like a comfortable boundary. You descend, drift along a reef, stay well within your no-decompression limits, and simply enjoy the view. It’s peaceful, relaxing, predictable. But for some of us, something stirs deeper — a fascination with what lies beyond the edges of safe recreational depths, behind the line of daylight in a cavern, or inside the silent corridors of a shipwreck, or simply the desire to stay longer and exceed your NDL.
The ocean has shown me countless wonders well within recreational depths, breathtaking reefs, vibrant coral, bursts of marine life, even the occasional shallow wreck I could explore. But the truth is that most shipwrecks lie deeper, far beyond recreational limits, and deep down, I knew I always wanted more.
The idea of exploring a wreck, descending into its story, piecing together its history, discovering what remains and imagining what once was, how it all happened, has always pulled me into dive deeper. I wanted more, but the question lingered: Am I really ready to dive deeper? (Literally)
In November of 2024, Butch and I travelled to Bonaire with a few friends, then hopped over to Curaçao to meet our buddy Justin and celebrate Butch's 50th birthday. While in Curaçao, we rented pony bottles and decided to do a deep, long dive. As always, safety was our top priority—we stayed well within our NDLs but incorporated a gas switch to simulate a decompression dive.
And in that moment, managing our gases and feeling completely in control, I realized I had the discipline needed and was finally ready to take our training to the next level.
"That spark is what led Butch and I to dive deeper to the world of technical diving."
Every technical diver can recall the exact moment when recreational diving stopped feeling like enough. Sometimes it’s the glimpse of a wreck resting just beyond the limits of your certification. Sometimes it’s watching another team in doubles or sidemount glide past with calm, deliberate precision. And sometimes it’s simply the urge to test your limits in a controlled, thoughtful way. For me, I admire the discipline of technical divers and always had a "child like" curiosity to explore shipwrecks.
After teaching many students and watching them learn, improve, and grow more confident as divers, we also continued to develop, not only as dive professionals but as divers with a deep passion for the sport. Eventually, eager to learning something new, we felt ready to take the next step and dive deeper into the unknown.
"While you don’t need to be an instructor to become a technical diver, our journey naturally led us in that direction."
Tec40: Transitioning from Recreational to Technical Divers
Our IDC Course Director, Lars Bosman, had been a technical diver for 15 years and had recently become a Tec Instructor. During our planning to take the PADI Tec40 course, Lars, mentioned that he was now certified to teach it and was doing a course with his brother Niels, who became an amazing team member throughout this course.
Tec40 is the entry-level course in PADI’s technical diving program, designed to bridge the gap between recreational and full technical diving. It trains certified divers to conduct limited decompression dives to a maximum depth of 40 meters (130 feet) and to use up to 50% oxygen for decompression. The course develops essential skills such as technical equipment configuration, gas planning, buoyancy and trim refinement, and emergency procedures, providing a solid foundation for continuing into more advanced technical training.
With Lars' experience, enthusiasm, passion and the fact that he would be instructing in a place that already feels like home to us, the decision was easy. We knew the timing was right, and we were ready to expand our limits as divers. We already knew the fundamentals, basic dive planning, proper finning techniques, and the level of responsibility that comes with technical diving. With that foundation in place, we were ready to take on a new challenge and begin our technical diving journey.
Once again, we packed our bags, and headed to Bonaire for a new adventure.
Our training days started early in the morning, lots of classroom work, decompression planning, dry drills. Followed by in-water training, practicing S-Drills, Valve Drills, DSMB deployment (while hovering and moving no more than a few feet), out of air scenarios, finning techniques and simulated decompression dives before actually doing a real deco dive.
Classroom involved a lot of calculations that made me question what I've actually signed for. One of the most important steps in technical diving is planning your dives and me being not a big fan of mathematics, formulas and other calculations, this part was my biggest issue, least favorite, but I had my eyes locked in the white board. Thankfully, there are Apps that do the work for you, and even though I will of course use the App, being able to understand the actual calculations is definitely something important to know. Afterall, my safety shouldn't only rely on my dive computer.
My Experience As An Experienced Beginner
"Allow yourself to be a beginner"
This is one of my favorite sayings. A reminder that no matter how much I know, I certainly don’t know everything, and there is always more to learn.
When leveling up, people often forget that it’s okay to be a beginner again. We tend to expect perfection from ourselves the first time we try something new. Part of that comes from ego, but another part comes from fear—fear of failure, of not being good enough, or of feeling embarrassed.
Even after years of recreational diving, technical diving is something completely new to me. That’s why another one of my favorite sayings is, “You can’t know what you don’t know until you learn it.” So I went into the course with an open mind and ready for constructive criticism.
During our in-water training, my biggest challenges were buoyancy and trim—especially in shallow water—as well as back-finning. Even though buoyancy and trim are usually things I’m complimented on, this was only my second time diving in doubles. In addition, was my first time in the ocean with a current and aluminum doubles. Normally used to steel cylinders and quarry diving, this made me feel like a complete beginner again.
Buoyancy control is crucial in technical diving for safety and efficiency, especially during decompression as it allows divers to make controlled ascents and descents.
But as an experienced beginner, I quickly recognized what wasn’t working and knew exactly what adjustments I needed to make. Once I removed some weight, I got back in the water feeling far more balanced and confident. Then we moved on to our real decompression dive.
I was so excited! Even though, in Tec 40, our dives are limited to 40 m (130 ft)—no deeper than what our Deep Diver certification already allowed us to safely dive to—this still required a whole new level of training. We knew that our bottom time at that depth would be longer and that we would be exceeding our no-decompression limit. That meant we had to carefully plan our ascent and complete mandatory decompression stops while breathing from our deco bottle (50% oxygen) to avoid the risk of DCS.
As we reached 130 ft, I felt completely at ease—so calm, yet suddenly euphoric. I felt as I was a bit drunk, I felt an intense wave of joy, excitement, and pure happiness washed over me. Am I narked? I asked myself.
Our bottom time was 22 minutes, as we then started to ascend and follow our decompression plan. The current was pretty strong and was a bit of a struggle to stay in trim, but we successfully completed our first decompression dive, safely as a team.
After learning the importance of dive planning, teamwork, taking on the role of team leader, strengthening our discipline, completing our training dives, and understanding the core principles of becoming technical divers, we finally reached another milestone. In November of 2025, we completed our PADI Tec40 course and celebrated a huge achievement together.
The Dive Plan
As we grow and expand our training, our plan is definitely to dive deeper into the world of technical diving—and maybe, someday, even teach a new wave of tech divers. But for now, our dive plan is simple: focus on practicing, refining our skills, and enjoying each moment until we are truly ready for the next certification.
A principle we value highly, as we believe in teaching only what we have personally practiced and fully understood. As the saying goes: "You've got to crawl before you can walk and you've got to walk before you can run". And you certainly can’t teach someone something if you haven’t learned it yourself.
"For us, it’s never been about collecting certification cards; it’s about collecting real experience. In my personal opinion, a certification simply proves that I’ve completed the required training and met the minimum performance requirements—but it’s up to me, as a certified diver, to continue practicing and improving my skills on every single dive."
So for now, we'll leave you here. Stay tuned for our next blog and adventure. And always remember: "Every dive is a training dive and an opportunity to continue to improve and learn something new."
Disclaimer: This are my personal stories. Please do not attempted diving beyond your level of training, is never worth the risk—stay within your limits and dive safely.
Thanks for reading!
To Be Continued...
Early this fall i found myself on a boat being the only diver who planed to stay within my NDL. Continuing to develop and learn is essential. Learning more in this sport is addicting and once im ready I'm excited to have you guys as TEC-40 instructors. Great article i enjoyed reading your story.