A great time to Go Pro – Meet John Stanley

Who hasn’t dreamt about waking up in the morning, leaping out of bed and heading off to your dream job?

Come and join us at Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand whether you are a certified Diver or not we have a Scuba Diving Career internship for you.

Are you a PADI Divemaster with 100 or more logged dives?

Meet John Stanley:

” Hi all

Just thought I’d let you know what I got up to this winter.

Being a PADI DM in England I thought it was time I went up to the next level, PADI Instructor.

John, Tom and Henrik

John, Tom and Henrik

So where to start. October 2013 was the dive show at the NEC, Birmingham England. Having trolled round the stalls for two days and talking to everyone several time Scuba Cat came out tops for me for friendliness and genuine, I set of for Phuket. I started my PADI IDC in November and thought I would struggle with my classroom work but they were very patient with me and took me through it step by step (thanks Sarah and Claus). 2 ½ weeks later I’m was PADI instructor!

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand MSDT Internship

MSDT

Having decided to do my PADI MSDT with Scuba Cat I then started working with the team of experienced instructors to gain teaching experience whilst getting the 25 certifications required. I team taught PADI Open Water Courses, Advanced Courses, Discover Scuba Diving Programs and a few PADI Specialities too.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand PADI IDC

Phuket have some nice dive sites and we visited all of them seeing sharks, turtles, and even my first ever manta and whale shark.

Whale Shark

Whale Shark

Scuba cat has 3 boats, I spent time on all of them : Scuba Sport- used  for ½ day trips, Scuba Fun- full day trips and Scuba Adventure the liveaboard, my favourite! Learning Liveaboards from Kath the permanent Tourleader and PADI IDC Staff Instructor, team teaching Advanced Courses too, we had some good fun and great diving.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand MV Scuba Adventure Similans Liveaboard

MV Scuba Adventure

So thanks to everyone at scuba cat I had great fun and made some good friends.

PS: if you’re looking at diving in Phuket or wanting to go to the next level of your diving you won’t go far wrong with SCUBA CAT. ”

What are you waiting for? Our next PADI IDC here at Scuba Cat Diving with Sarah (Platinum Course Director) and Claus PADI Master instructor is starting on 4th May 2014. There is still space available for you to join us.

PADI Divemaster’s – Congratulations Gus and Cal

Scuba Cat Diving are proud to have certified two new PADI Divemasters, yesterday Gus from Italy and Cal from the USA.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand PADI Divemaster

Gustavo Penada on board MV Scuba Fun

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand PADI Divemaster

Cal assisting on a PADI Open Water Course

Both are participants in our Career Internship Program.

Cal joined the Internship program on 27th April 2012 as an Advanced Open water Divemaster. He quickly completed his PADI Rescue and EFR to start his Divemaster training with us. At the same time Gus joined us on his internship as a PADI Rescue diver and started on the Divemaster course with Cal.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand PADI Divemaster

At the same time both of them have achieved the rating of PADI Master Scuba Diver with the completion of 5 PADI Speciailities and will be continuing onto their PADI IDC on the August 2012 program.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand PADI Divemaster

Congratulations Guys!

Meet our dedicated IDC Boat…….MV Scuba Sport

When the decision was made to retire MV Scuba Cat after 18 years working in the Similans and Racha Yai, this left our transfer boat MV Scuba Sport without a job.

Scuba Cat Diving PADI 5 * CDC Phuket Thailand MV Scuba Sport

After much though on what to use her for and looking at the local diving area we decided that a half day trip would be the perfect solution.

Up until now Phuket has been lacking a well organized half day diving and snorkeling trip from a purpose built dive boat. She has a big advantage over the longtail boats, where sunburn can be a problem or difficult shore entry for guests who have never dived before.

She also offer flexibility for our PADI Open water students, who have limited time in Phuket, so the course can be completed in 2.5 days rather than 3 if they arrive mid morning.

So MV Scuba Sport has been refitted with compressors, nitrox blending and a zodiac. She is based in Patong bay and offers both morning and afternoon trips on a very flexible basis.

Scuba Cat Diving PADI 5 * CDC Phuket Thailand Zodiac

"Dueng"

We wanted a boat that was available for both fun divers, PADI Discover Scuba Diving experiences, PADI Open water courses, snorkeling and Night dives, for both fun or as part of the PADI Advanced open water course.

Since she has started to run in November she has proved popular with trips to Paradise reef and Kalim Reef.

Scuba Cat Diving PADI 5 * CDC Phuket Thailand Patong Bay

She is also used every month with our PADI IDC. This allows our candidates to gain valuable experience of the dive sites where their PADI IE for open water will take place. Whilst being used for IDC’s no other customers are onboard to allow the maximum time for training, time can be used more effectively and the location of the boat means no long travelling time.

Scuba Cat Diving PADI 5 * CDC Phuket Thailand IDC Boat

 

Due to the popularity of this trip and being able to offer more variety of diving for our guests there are more plans for Scuba Sport for next season.