Jane Rhodes Martin, the American diver recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest female scuba diver, has died at the age of 99.
According to the memorial published by her family, Martin passed peacefully at her home on September 1, 2026. But reducing her story to the world record she eventually held would miss much of what made her life remarkable.
She did not become a diver as a teenager, build a career around the ocean or spend her younger years chasing records.
She started diving after retiring at 55.
What followed was more than four decades of scuba diving, sailing and travelling, culminating in a dive off Isla Mujeres, Mexico, that eventually put her name into the record books.
From Mathematics Teacher To World Traveller
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on March 24, 1927, Martin earned a bachelor’s degree from Birmingham-Southern University and later a master’s degree from Adelphi University in New York.
Her family obituary records that she married Jack Martin in 1949 and later taught mathematics at New Hyde Park Memorial High School.
Retirement changed the direction of their lives.
In an extensive account of her diving life published by Pocna Dive Center, Jane recalled an agreement with her husband that if she worked as a teacher for 20 years, he would retire at 55.
When the time arrived, they followed through.
Before embarking on a new life of sailing, the couple decided they should learn to scuba dive. Their introduction to the sport was hardly tropical. They trained with a PADI instructor during a New York winter, including completing their open-water training in decidedly cold conditions.
It didn’t put them off.
Within a week of retiring, Jane and Jack had bought a condominium in Florida and travelled to Hawaii, where they joined a charter boat and spent a year sailing the South Pacific.
After returning to Florida, they bought their own boat, Capella, and continued a life in which sailing, travelling and scuba diving became increasingly intertwined.
Hundreds Of Dives, But Few Records
Martin later estimated that she had completed around 300 dives.
More than 200 had been recorded in her early logbooks, although eventually she stopped keeping count.
That perhaps says more about her relationship with diving than the number itself.
The dives were not undertaken in pursuit of a statistic. Diving had simply become part of a much larger life built around travel, curiosity and experience.
Her influence also spread through the family. When Spectrum News interviewed Martin in 2023, it reported that family members had followed her into diving, turning scuba into something that crossed generations rather than remaining Jane’s individual pursuit.
That became particularly apparent as she grew older.
For her 90th birthday in 2017, Jane had little interest in simply having a conventional birthday party. She wanted to go to Mexico and dive with her family.
The resulting trip to Isla Mujeres included diving at MUSA and Manchones Reef with members of a family increasingly connected by scuba.
Five years later, she returned.
This time, the dive would make history.
The Dive That Put Her Into Guinness World Records
On March 23, 2022, Jane Rhodes Martin entered the water at Isla Mujeres.
She was 94 years and 364 days old.
That precise age matters because some subsequent reports have given conflicting ages for Jane when the record was achieved. The official Guinness World Records entry confirms that the qualifying dive took place on March 23, 2022, one day before her 95th birthday.
Three generations of women from her family were aboard the boat that day, with some diving and others snorkelling. Her grandson-in-law and dive instructor Eduardo Martin del Rio del Campo was there to assist her.
According to Pocna Dive Center’s account of the record-breaking dive, there had been some concern about how Jane would manage entering and exiting the boat in full equipment.
Jane apparently had other ideas.
She performed a backward roll and entered the water.
Guinness subsequently verified the dive and recognised Jane Rhodes Martin as the oldest female scuba diver.
The recognition brought wider attention to a woman who appeared considerably less interested in the record itself than many of the people around her.
For Jane, growing older was not an achievement she had deliberately pursued. She had simply continued doing the things she enjoyed.
And she wasn’t finished diving.
Pocna reported that Jane subsequently returned to the water several times in the Florida Keys.
And Then She Wanted To Go To Space
Even a Guinness World Record apparently wasn’t enough to exhaust Jane Martin’s curiosity.
Her next ambition was space.
When Spectrum News caught up with her at the age of 96, Jane was still talking about the possibility of travelling beyond Earth.
Her family had entered her into a competition for a space flight in 2021 without success. Recognition of her diving achievement only added another dimension to the idea.
It was an ambition entirely consistent with the rest of her life.
This was a woman who had spent decades travelling, sailing and exploring beneath the surface of the ocean, and who continued looking for the next experience long after most people might have decided they had already seen enough.
She also remained remarkably active. At 96, she told Spectrum News that she was still swimming 25 laps every other day.
More Than A Diving Record
Jane’s husband Jack died in 2008, but the adventurous life they had created together remained part of her identity.
Her family’s tribute to Jane remembers a couple who loved travelling, sailing, scuba diving and meeting people along the way.
Jane also volunteered for years with hospice care. Her family has suggested that anyone wishing to make a donation in her memory support their own local hospice organisation.
She leaves four children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and an extended family in which diving became something shared across generations.
There is an obvious temptation when writing about someone diving into their 90s to make the story entirely about age.
Jane Rhodes Martin’s life suggests almost the opposite.
She didn’t begin scuba diving until she was 55.
By conventional standards, that might have been the point at which an adventurous chapter was supposed to be winding down.
Instead, it was where another one began.
More than four decades later, she was still getting on dive boats.
The record was extraordinary.
The life behind it was considerably bigger.
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