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Legends of Diving Articles |
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A Legend of UNEXSO:
Cristina Zenato
Cristina
Zenato was born in Italy, 21st Dec 1971, grew up in in the middle of the
rain forest of the Congo Africa till the age of 15, and in doing so
developed a love of the outdoors and a passion for the ocean.
Life
took a different turn though and at the age of 22 she went to the
Bahamas to learn Scuba diving. It defined her career for working at the
hotel and completing her dive training.
For the past 14 years
she has worked for
UNEXSO, starting to work as a temporary diving supervisor back in 1998.
She cave dives and
explores
on the
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Cristina Zenato |
island.
From her exploits she has written a few short stories for newsletters
about cave diving and training. With UNEXSO she also embarked in her
other passion: Sharks.
She
first learned to feed sharks from her mentor, the legendary Ben Rose.
Self taught about sharks, their behavior, and the difference in sharks,
she is the shark feeder instructor for the staff training and guest
program. She is in the process of writing a distinctive specialty for
shark awareness.
Christina has traveled to many locations to learn the behaviors of
sharks. She has gone to such places as the Bimini Shark Lab, South
Africa, North Carolina,
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and
Little Bahama Bank. At these locations she has observed the behaviors of
Tiger, Great White, Lemon, and Bull sharks.
But her
best knowledge is with Caribbean Reef shark. She has learned tonic
immobility from Ben Rose and has developed it even further. She uses it
to educate people and to remove hooks out of the mouths of these gentle
creatures with voracious appetites.
Currently she is working as a
diving instructor
in charge of the
Technical Department as a full cave instructor and as an Extended Range
Instructor.
In her own words, "I
dive for living and after 14 years I still live for diving."
fascination with scuba diving started at the age of 8 when her dad was in
the military, a member of the special forces dive team back in the 50s. She
grew up swimming, snorkeling and playing in the water.
Two "movies"
reinforced her idea of wanting to be involved in Scuba Diving: a documentary
about Amy Slate, and a movie about a guy who could swim with sharks, she
wanted to do both.
Christina
speaks five different languages: Italian, English, German, French and
Spanish, in order of capacity.
She learned
to cave dive in 1996. In 2000 she used her own time and money to train in
Florida to become a Full Cave Diving Instructor, I am #325 Full with
the NSS-CDS
She has
worked on several films: BBC Nature, BBC Science, Discovery Channel Shark
Week, National Geographic on shark feeding and tonic immobility, Ushuaia
Nature program in France, Quark, Italian TV Nature program, ABC, Galatee for
the movie Oceans, Movie Shark Man, movie Shark Water, and the movie Sea
Wolf, just to name a few.
She has
worked and assisted for different magazines including Advance Diver
Magazine, Skin Diver, Sport Diver.
Some of the
photographers/videographers she has worked with:
Stephen Frink, Walt Sterns, Bob Talbot, Pete Zuccarini, Mark Wrackley, and
Wes Skyles.
Christina
has worked pro bono for calendar photo shoots to fund shark awareness: Shark
Water photo shoot, Protect the Sharks Foundation, and Shark Lab.
Dive
Community Involvement: Bahamas National Trust Dive Guide, Bahamas Internship
Program, Environmental Moorings Project, Artificial Reef Program
Diving
Qualifications: UNEXSO Shark Feeder Trainer - certified 73 divers as
feeders, NSS-CDS Full Cave Instructor, TDI Cavern, Intro and Cave
Instructor, TDI Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures and Extended Range
Instructor, TDI Advanced Wreck Instructor, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer,
NAUI Open Water, Scuba Instructor, SSI Rescue Instructor
Diving
Experience Summary: 8000+ total dives, 1600+ shark feeding dives, 600+ cave
dives, 1000+ mixed gas dives
Christina Zenato
and Ben Rose at the International Legends of Diving
Festival off the shores of Grand Bahama Island, April 2009.
ILD would like to congratulate Cristina on being inducted into the Women
Divers Hall of Fame in March of 2011.
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