It wasn't easy. We had to choose just one person to receive the Sport Diver of the Year award from many highly qualified candidates throughout the world. Read the heart-warming and inspiring nomination letters for our top ten finalists, including winner Rick Gratkowski, below.

Nominee name: Rick Gratkowski Nominated by: Hollie Stevenson Nomination:

I am honored to nominate Rick Gratkowski for PADI's Sports Diver of the Year. Not only does Rick average 100 dives per year, is a PADI Assistant Instructor, has exemplary demonstration skills, constantly continues his diver education, volunteers as a search and recovery diver for the PA State Police, volunteers countless hours at Ocean Odyssey and Underwater Excursions Dive Centers, and mapped in detail the Strawberry Training Quarry "just for fun," he also encourages new and experienced divers to dive with him twice a week at quarries in the Pittsburgh area throughout the spring, summer and fall. Rick keeps a list of area divers phone numbers in his vehicle and makes numerous phone calls to notify divers when and where he will be diving. Since moving to the Pittsburgh area, my skills and knowledge of diving (along with many others) have drastically improved due to Rick's dedication to the sport.

Nominee name: Christine Fama Nominated by: Gloria Fama Nomination:

"Mom, we are all going to learn to scuba dive!" Christine was 16 at the time. The five of us were living in New Guinea. I had just turned 50 but Christine's enthusiasm buoyed me through and now we are all diving geeks. Each school break she relentlessly pressed on through to Dive Master, recruiting many of her friends and their parents. Returning to Canada she turned down free university in order to pursue her passion — scuba diving. Paying her own tab to Mexico for her instructors and teaching friends, whether it was a Hells Angel or schoolteacher, people constantly came to me praising Christine for her excellent teaching abilities, caring, fun-loving nature, her leadership skills — above and below the surface, her gentle persuasiveness and infectious love for diving. Today, at 21, as MSDT, Christine works in Bermuda. I miss her but I am so proud she is my daughter.

Nominee name: Jason Delgado Nominated by: Maribel Ocampo Nomination:

At his young age or 26, Jay had joined the Navy, wanting to help others. Unfortunately he didn't know how to swim, so when he tried to join the Seals, they laughed at him and kicked him out of the program. He taught himself to swim and became a rescue diver. Now he IS diving. Always talking about ways to improve bottom time, he really does breathe scuba. I am a new diver and his passion is teaching others about this great sport. His dream is to become an instructor and offer people the chance to learn diving, without the ridiculous prices we encounter sometimes. Jason would be a great choice. Because he epitomizes everything that young divers will bring to our wonderful sport in the near future. Please choose him. Love you guys.

Nominee name: Wayne Taylor Nominated by: Elizabeth Guidry Nomination:

I think my Papa should be the Sport Diver of the year. He just came home from Afghanistan, and dove two days later to help my mom finish the dives she needed to become a PADI instructor. My Papa, who is in the Army, is also a divemaster and is the reason why I became a certified diver. He loves diving, and anyone who is around him realizes that he loves to dive and convinces them that they want to try and dive too. Everyone at our dive shop, Aquatic Adventures of MI, likes to have him around and work as a divemaster for their classes and fun dives. I think it is because he is always thinking of safety and trying to have everyone have fun too. He is a great diver and is a great example for everyone who has ever thought of diving.

Nominee name: Johnny Adkins Nominated by: Heather Adkins Nomination:

I would like to nominate my dive buddy, husband and best friend for Sport Diver of the Year. Meeting Johnny the non-diver in 2002, he had always had an interest in underwater environments. In 2003, Johnny was certified and it ignited the ember he held inside. During his first year certification, Johnny embraced the sport and logged 100+ dives throughout Florida and the Caribbean. Johnny again took both his and my experience diving to a new level by proposing to me underwater at Ocean Fest 2004. This was definitely a life-defining dive! He has put forth great effort to capture his underwater experiences with film and video. Johnny gained his Dive Master certification in 2005 and has since worked with open water classes. He has started his own production business, capturing these moments in both formats in order to share with others that can only dream.

Nominee name: Laurence Wahl Nominated by: Taylor Wahl Nomination:

My dad loves to scuba dive. Certified and married in 1988, my parents went on a dive honeymoon in Belize. My dad dives everywhere, including local dives at Catalina, once a year in tropical waters, and veterinary conventions around the world. He bought into a veterinary practice in the Turks and Caicos Islands so he could go there every year to work and dive. My dad's passion for scuba diving has flowed over to me; I became PADI certified as soon as I turned 10 and have been his dive partner for five years. My twin eight-year-old siblings are avid snorkelers and will start diving as soon as they can. In lieu of a 50th birthday party, he decided to take the family diving/snorkeling in Fiji and Australia this summer. My dad definitely eats, sleeps and breathes scuba diving, and is definitely the Sport Diver of the Year.

Nominee name: Rich Moran Nominated by: Randall Gamby Nomination:

Rich is a PADI Course Director in Glens Falls, NY. He runs a dive shop but also provides training, search and recovery, and other scuba related services. Rich recently logged his 7,000th dive yet still shows the excitement, and detail to diving, of someone just entering the sport. He has a genuine concern for safety and for his fellow divers and he keeps everyone on their "up and up" even doing things like refusing to go on a charter with a group of friends if the first aid kit and O2 are not up to standard. And Rich and his team while conducting a training class saw the boat accident of the Ethan Allen that occurred last fall and voluntarily saved and recovered the people. For someone who spends seven days a week in the cold NY waters with little financial return, he really is one of the greats.

Nominee name: Robert Tallent Nominated by: Mike Engiles Nomination:

Bob has been an ambassador for diving through his tireless devotion to introducing the sport to thousands of youth. His largest achievement is as the director of the SCUBA experience at the National Boy Scout Jamboree for the last 20 years (5 jamborees) he as introduced over 75,000 scouts to diving. There were over 20,000 participants in 2005 alone and planning has begun for a bigger/better 2010 Jamboree. During each Jamboree he has coordinated the activities of 250 other volunteers to manage operations of 4 pools to provide a Discover Diving experience to all youth. Some of the youth this past summer have never swum in the ocean and now want to get certified. The experience was provided to special ability youth including blind scouts, paraplegics, and scouts with Down's syndrome, which proved to be more meaningful to the staff than the scouts themselves. During this as a youth advisor he has taught OW, AOW, Rescue, MSD, DM and now Instructor candidates without compensation to provide opportunity to youth in Stafford, VA.

Nominee name: Tim Jones Nominated by: Diego Florez Nomination:

He's a new diver. At the end of last year he became OWD and AOW. Now he is opening a dive center in Panama city, Panama. He's selling his business in the US to become a full-time diver owning his own dive shop in Latin America.

Nominee name: Denise G. Fronhofer Nominated by: Carl Fronhofer Nomination:

My wife schedules vacations four times a year to only scuba destinations. Between trips she constantly reviews underwater photos that she has takes, always tries to get friends and relatives certified and even offers to pay for their classes. She has given wedding gifts of scuba trips to non-divers in hopes of getting them certified. She has such a passion for the underwater world that she cannot stop talking, thinking and dreaming of her next dive. Whenever she is on the Internet she is studying her next dive destination. When I ask her what she is doing her answer is always "dreaming." We have booked a trip to Europe for the first time in our lives and all she talk or thinks about is diving off the coast of Spain. She has only one passion in life and it is scuba diving. Our first grand child is due in August and she has a trip booked to St. Croix in September and will not cancel it even for the baby!!