From first-time divers taking their first breaths underwater to future dive professionals beginning their careers, Burcu has dedicated her life to helping people discover the underwater world with confidence, curiosity and respect for the sea.
Some people discover diving as a hobby. For Burcu, it became a lifelong passion.
Burcu began diving in 2007, and the underwater world soon shaped not only her career but also her outlook on life. What started as a personal journey developed into a profession centred around education, marine conservation and creating positive experiences for every diver.
She became a PADI Instructor in 2011 and later progressed to PADI IDC Staff Instructor. Today, as the founder of Dive Cypria, she teaches beginner divers, continuing education courses and professional-level training while mentoring the next generation of dive professionals.
For Burcu, every certification represents far more than a card. It represents confidence, personal growth and a new connection with the underwater world.
Burcu’s passion is not simply diving. It is teaching.
She believes a great instructor does more than help someone complete skills and earn a certification. A great instructor helps people become safe, confident and independent divers.
Some students need more time. Others need reassurance, a different explanation or simply an instructor who believes they can succeed. Burcu adapts her teaching style to the individual, rather than expecting every student to learn in exactly the same way.
Small groups, patience, clear communication and individual attention are at the centre of every course she teaches.
Burcu believes training should never feel rushed. Skills are not simply completed and forgotten; they are practised until the student understands them and feels comfortable performing them.
Her goal is not to create the fastest certified diver. Her goal is to create a diver who feels calm, capable and prepared to continue diving safely after the course has finished.
Every person learns differently, and every course should leave room for questions, repetition and individual progress.
Dive Without Borders is more than a slogan. It represents Burcu’s belief that diving should welcome people rather than exclude them.
Dive Cypria welcomes families, solo travellers, women, LGBTQ+ divers, neurodivergent divers and people with disabilities. Burcu adjusts communication, pacing and teaching methods wherever possible to help each diver feel safe, respected and supported.
She is committed to inclusive teaching and continuously adapts her approach to support different needs. She actively seeks new knowledge and practical experience in this area. Her aim is to keep improving how she creates safe, respectful and welcoming learning environments for every diver.
Every diver deserves equipment that fits, an instructor who listens and the opportunity to experience the underwater world without judgement.
Burcu is a PADI IDC Staff Instructor who began diving in 2007 and became a PADI Instructor in 2011. She holds numerous PADI Specialty Instructor ratings and continues to develop her knowledge in areas that reflect her identity as an instructor, particularly underwater natural history, marine conservation, diver education and professional development.
Her current qualifications and experience include:
• PADI IDC Staff Instructor
• PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor
• Numerous PADI Specialty Instructor ratings
• Professional-level training from beginner courses through Divemaster and Assistant Instructor
• More than 15 years of teaching experience
• Hundreds of diver certifications and extensive training experience.
Burcu’s strongest connection to diving has always been the relationship between people and the marine environment.
She is particularly interested in underwater natural history, fish behaviour, marine ecosystems and helping divers understand what they are seeing rather than simply swimming past it.
Through Dive Cypria, she supports citizen science, marine research and responsible diving initiatives, including collaborations with Dive Reporter, MER Research, MP4Change and CMMI’s THEΤΙDA project.
She believes divers can become valuable observers and advocates for the sea, and that every dive can contribute to greater awareness and better protection of marine life.
Burcu’s experience building Dive Cypria has also shaped her work beyond the water. Combining her background in journalism and communications with first-hand experience running a dive centre, she founded The Dive Office to create practical digital tools and resources specifically for the diving industry.
From website diagnostics and customer communication to content and digital visibility, The Dive Office is built around a simple idea: dive professionals should not need to become web developers or marketing experts just to run their businesses well.
Burcu founded Dive Cypria to create the kind of dive centre she believed should exist: professional but personal, inclusive without being performative and focused on creating confident divers rather than simply processing customers.
Under her leadership, Dive Cypria became a PADI 5 Star Dive Centre and received recognition from PADI, international diving publications and the Stelios Bi-Communal Awards.
The centre continues to grow around the same principles it started with: small groups, honest communication, high training standards and respect for every person who walks through the door.
As a woman-owned dive centre, Dive Cypria understands that inclusion requires more than a special event or a slogan.
Burcu works to make diving welcoming to women throughout the year by providing correctly fitting women’s equipment, open conversations about anatomy and hormonal changes, period products at the dive centre and women-only groups when requested.
Her approach is simple: women should not need a special day to feel that they belong in diving. Every day should be open to them.
Burcu is especially passionate about helping divers move from recreational training into professional development.
As a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, she mentors Divemaster candidates, Assistant Instructors and instructors preparing to strengthen their teaching skills.
Her long-term goal is to create more opportunities for local divers, women, people with disabilities and underrepresented communities to build sustainable careers in the diving industry.
She believes professional training should develop not only excellent divers, but also patient teachers, responsible leaders and positive representatives of the diving community.
“I believe diving changes people. It teaches patience, confidence, humility and respect for a world very different from our own.
I do not teach people simply to complete courses. I teach because I love seeing someone realise they are capable of more than they thought.
Whether you are taking your first breath underwater, returning after a long break or preparing for a professional career, my goal is always the same: to help you become a safe, confident diver who genuinely enjoys being in the water.”
Whether you are trying scuba diving for the first time, continuing your education or preparing for a professional career, Burcu and the Dive Cypria team are ready to support your next step
