CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — A young woman is not only making a big splash here in the Coastal Bend, but also around the world. 12-year-old Mickey Castellano, according to Ascuba Venture, has clocked more than 500 hours in the water which led to her becoming a Master Scuba Diver. Mickey said this all started as a little hobby with the family.
"On my birthday I made the record of world’s youngest Master Diver," Castellano said.
Mickey Castellano has been diving for four years now. She explained what she had to do to earn that title.
"It was five specialties, meaning tons of classes to do and lots of diving. I had to have 50 dives," Castellano said.
Among those specialty classes was “search and rescue,” in which Castellano learned valuable life skills.
"I learned CPR, how to get someone pulse. How to get someone safely out of the water without making their injuries worse," Castellano said.
"It was a lot of hard work; it was very tiring," Castellano said.
KRIS 6 reporter Tony Jaramillo spoke with the trainer at Ascuba Ventured who certified Castellano, Brendan Churchman, who said this feat is not common.
"For that young it is very rare. We have kids that will start as early as 8 and our scuba explorers program but most of them will not become Master Divers because of the time frame that it takes to work up to get there," Churchman said.
But Mickey gave lots of credit to her family who kept her afloat.
"There are no words to describe how proud I am. She made a major accomplishment. How often can you say yes, ‘my daughter is the best at something in the world and have proof of it," asked Mickey's mother, Christy Castellano.
"I didn’t think I’d get this far without them," Mickey said.
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