Mandy has been diving for over thirty years. She calls it an escape from the busy world and her ‘inside talking’ head. Floating under water gives her a ‘Zen’ feeling. She says about it: “When I put my head under water, I immediately feel happy”. She has often wondered about it on and under water. She also sees this wonder and curiosity in the animals that look at her in turn. After her retirement, she wanted to learn to draw. While talking to her drawing coach, Inge Koetzier van Hooff, she told her about writing and drawing underwater during cave and wreck dives. And that she had drawn an eel during a dive.
Her drawing coach became enthusiastic. With the information from Mandy, Inge went drawing while snorkeling in Lanzarote. This went very well. Mandy put the drawing of the eel on Facebook and Substack. It turned out that many people here were also interested in the subject. Gradually, Mandy developed a serious desire to do ‘something’ with this subject. She missed information about nature journaling in the underwater world in books and on the internet.
Mandy wants to break a lance for the underwater world by sharing her experiences on this website. According to her, this environment deserves our attention more than ever. By observing and drawing underwater life, she hopes that people will feel a greater connection with it. And with that, hopefully, a greater need to better protect that part of our world.