Gözde AKBAYIR was born in Ankara, 1986. She has completed her primary and high school education at TED Ankara College. She has studied Business Administration at Bilkent University and has a Master's Degree in the field of Finance from the same university.

She has taken her beginner's level course in 2005 in Aqua Club when she was a university student and she couldn't stay away from diving ever since. In 2008, with the encouragement and support of Asutay Akbayir, she has earned her first professional level diving certification and become PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. Gözde has attended every dive trip beginning in March 2008 and continued her diving career while studying for her M.S. degree.

In 2008, Gözde has earned two more instructor ratings: Master Scuba Diver Trainer and IDC Staff Instructor. She has begun to help Asutay in his instructor development courses as a staff instructor. In the same year, she has earned PADI Tec Deep and PADI Tec Trimix Diver certifications and become one of the very few female tec divers of Turkey.

In 2009, she became administrative and financial coordinator of the company as well as an active instructor. After completing her Master's Degree in 2010, she decided to focus on her career as a dive center manager and instructor. And she became one of the highest ratings in dive instructor: PADI Master Instructor.

Being an instructor and manager of the best dive center in Turkey has brought Gözde many incredible opportunities. She has worked in Free Diving World Records of Yasemin Dalkılıç, Devrim Cenk Ulusoy, Şahika Ercümen and Derya Can. In 2009, Asutay and she have made a dive to 126 meters/413 feet and she has become the first Turkish woman to dive this deep.

Gözde has merged two fields she loves in 2013 and become the first female PADI Tec Deep Instructor & PADI Tec Trimix Instructor of Turkey.

In 2016, she was the safety diver of Derya Can at 111 meters in her Free Diving World Record. Also in 2016, Asutay and Gözde Akbayir have conducted the deepest dive of Turkey to 150 meters/490 feet. There are very few people in the world that have dived to this depth with the equipment they use. So, this dive has become a sensation for Turkish diving industry and appeared in press and tv news.

She has worked with Asutay Akbayir in Turkish Radio and Television's (TRT) underwater documentary series. 
 

Gözde is PADI Deep Diver, Night Diver, Wreck Diver, Enriched Air Diver, Digital Underwater Photographer and First Aid Instructor and a licensed Silver Lifeguard. She speaks fluent English and translates training materials to Turkish, and also works on her German.

She is interested in web design and visual arts. She has developed and designed the current website and she is competent in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and inDesign.

She has worked as an instructor and dive leader in 13 Red Sea, 3 Maldives, 2 Malaysia and 2 Indonesia dive trips. She also attends to Dive Shows in Europe and follows developments in the diving industry.

She is a volunteer member of AKUT (Search and Rescue Association) and works in diving and first aid courses conducted for the association members. Asutay and she work in volunteer rescue missions in deep sites or challenging dive environments such as caves.