Who is PADI Course Director Chris Owen?

Chris is a British national who started diving in the cold waters of England ... brrrrrrrrrr ...but who has had the pleasure of living and diving in Asia for the last 19 years.

In 1992 Chris arrived in Thailand and spent a year on the islands of Ko Samui and Ko Tao before migrating south to the East Coast of Malaysia and Tioman Island where he worked as a PADI Divemaster with some of the best diving in Malaysia, in fact it was working here that he saw his first manta ray !!

After half a year working and diving there he returned to Thailand and moved up into the Gulf of Siam where he worked out of Pattaya, a coastal resort two hours south of Bangkok, for the next 6 years, before selling his shares in Mermaid's Dive Centre where he was Manager and a partner,and relocating to Phuket to focus solely on PADI Instructor Development.

Chris has worked as a PADI Divemaster and trip leader, filling tanks, loading boats, acting as a dive guide all the way through to being a manager and owner of several PADI dive centres and is familiar with most aspects of the business of diving.

Chris has worked extensively in both in the resort “tourist” environments such as Ko Tao, Ko Samui, Phuket in Thailand and Tioman Island and The Perhentian Islands in Malaysia as well as the “city orientated” environments of Bangkok and Pattaya and is familiar with the benefits and drawbacks of both.

Knowledge drawn from almost 20 years of working in these fields adds a lot of valuable information to the various business and marketing presentations during the PADI IDC and various PADI Career Development educational programs offered by Chris and Indepth Dive College

Chris became a PADI Course Director in 2000 has now taught over 100 IDCs, and certified well over 1,000 PADI Instructors to varying levels.

Chris has received over ten Certificates of Recognition of Excellence from PADI, most recently for his PADI IDC programs and customer service and also four “Certificates in Recognition of Outstanding performance and support conducting Instructor Development programs”

In 2009 Chris got fed up of working with other PADI 5* IDC centres and wanted to see things "done correctly" so with what was left of his savings he bought a building on Phuket, in Chalong 3 minutes walk from where all the day trip boats leave from and rebuilt it specifically to be a PADI 5* IDC training center with state of the art design and technology incl full multimedia support for all purpose built classrooms ...

... and this was the birth of PADI 5* IDC Indepth Dive College (IDC) S-36108

Apart from being a:

• PADI Course Director
• EFR Instructor Trainer
• EFR for Children Instructor Trainer
• PADI Specialty Instructor Trainer (17 Specialties)
• PADI Rebreather Instructor Trainer
• DAN Instructor Trainer: Oxygen, Hazardous Marine Life Injuries & AED
• DSAT Trimix / EANx Blender Instructor Trainer

Chris is also a qualified Dive Medic Technician on call with the local Hyperbaric Chamber in Phuket.

Chris is also an American Nitrox Divers International (ANDI) level 2 Instructor, Gas Blender and Service Technician.

Chris is also a IAHD and DDI Instructor and works training disabled divers when he has the chance and is working on his Instructor Trainer for DDI

Currently Chris is also working on his Cavern Diver Instructor Trainer rating and is looking forward to teaching this soon, the only problem Chris is having is finding the time to ...

GO DIVE !!!!