New PADI Regional Headquarters Delivers Expanded Benefits to Members

Launch of new office will increase product and customer support offerings for local members.


BRISTOL, GÖTEBORG, HETTLINGEN 01.01.2011 -- PADI Members in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will enjoy a higher level of customer service and support as PADI International Ltd., PADI Europe and PADI Nordic prepare to combine forces in 2011. The new regional headquarters, PADI EMEA (PADI Europe, Middle East and Africa), unites the talent and resources of the three offices to provide PADI Members with an unparalleled level of support, services and products.

“Trends in the dive market are changing, so the PADI Offices are responding to meet changing member’ needs,” says PADI Europe Executive Director, Jean-Claude Monachon. “The goal of the new regional headquarters is to move PADI Members ahead as market leaders through a broader range of products and services than currently available, and by leveraging resources to make it easier and more convenient to access products, services and support through PADI EMEA.”

PADI EMEA will be the largest PADI Regional Headquarters and serve more than 2,000 retail and resort members and 57,500 individual members, who in turn certify more than 380,000 divers annually. To meet the demands of this culturally diverse membership, PADI EMEA will extend its service hours, centralize its phone system, expand online services and provide customer support in more than twenty languages. The centralization of services will allow for faster member and diver certification processing, consistent marketing campaigns, enhanced PADI eLearning® support, simplified pricing, broader job search and placement options, easier instructor mobility and more. In addition, the regional headquarters size will significantly increase its ability to interact with and influence media, government and industry relations.

“The size and scope of PADI EMEA creates tremendous bargaining leverage on behalf of PADI Members and opens the door to new partnerships and exciting opportunities for attracting new divers,” says PADI President and Chief Operating Officer Drew Richardson. “PADI EMEA’s reach will help bring new people into diving -- potentially in unprecedented numbers.”

Mark Caney, VP, Training, Education and Memberships at PADI International Ltd, emphasized the value in pooling the talent of the three offices: “We are excited about the expansion of capabilities PADI EMEA represents for our members. Among the staff of the new office we will have an extraordinary range of talents, with specialists who have run thousands of Discover Scuba sessions in the Maldives or those who have conducted tec diving courses in the frozen Baltic Sea. The breadth of diving experience and language support now available to PADI Pros is unmatched in the industry”.

PADI EMEA will lead the regional dive industry in customer service, sales, business education, marketing and training consultancy. To ensure a smooth transition and uninterrupted member support and customer service, the three offices will integrate their services in stages throughout 2011, with full integration scheduled by 2012. For more information regarding PADI EMEA, please contact Jean-Claude Monachon, tel: +41 52 304 14 14, email: jcm@padi.com or Mark Caney, tel: +44 117 300 7309, email: mark.caney@padi.co.uk.

PADI – The Way the World Learns to Dive®

PADI TecRec Instructor Trainers

PADI’s TecRec range of courses has become extremely popular since the recent revision of the range, and demand among divers who want a TecRec credentials has been high. Technical diving is still a specialist type of diving that is embraced by a relatively small number of instructors and instructor trainers. The majority of PADI Instructors and Course Directors don’t emphasize teaching tec diving, instead focusing marketing efforts on the wider field of recreational diving.


In most regions, relatively few experienced individuals have instructor trainer level experience in technical diving, but those who do often specialize in technical instructor training rather than recreational instructor training.

We recognize that there are suitable, highly experienced specialists within the PADI family who meet the requirements of DSAT Tec Deep or Tec Trimix Instructor Trainer, but who are not PADI Course Directors. To better meet the demand for PADI TecRec Instructor training, some of these individuals will now be eligible to qualify as TecRec Instructor Trainers.

To accommodate these specialists, PADI Technical Diving Division staff will conduct several orientation courses during 2011 for selected individuals, who, if successful, will become TecRec ITs. Course entrance will be very limited and on an invitation-only basis, with only very experienced instructor trainers from other technical organizations who are also at least PADI IDC Staff Instructors accepted. Those who succeed in the course will only be able to teach instructor-level TecRec courses; they will not be able to conduct PADI recreational instructor courses such as the IDC.

All the existing procedures for PADI Course Directors seeking to become a Tec Deep Instructor and Tec Trimix Instructor Trainers remain unchanged.

PADI TecRec: New rebreather course range

Submerge Productions interviewed Mark Caney, vice president for Rebreather Technologies at Eurotek to ask about the latest rebreather developments.


For over 40 years, PADI has been offering a complete range of recreational diving courses. Ten years ago, the agency entered the world of technical diving. Today, PADI launches a brand new range of courses for Rebreather diving: from recreational courses to full tec.

Mark Caney is vice president for Rebreather Technologies with the Technical Diving Division of PADI. He knows exactly what they have in store. Obviously we wanted to know how their new range of CCR courses is structured, what kind of courses PADI will offer, and which rebreather they will work with.

You can find this video interview on Submerge Productions: http://www.submergeproductions.com/videos.aspx