Aquatic Nirvana Diving

There are candidates you remember because they were naturally gifted. Then there are candidates you remember because of the work they put in to become exceptional.

If you knew these two young men, you’d know this picture is exactly who they are. It captures their friendship, their unique individual personalities, their relief in finishing one of the most challenging weeks of their diving careers, and the excitement of what’s next.

They came to Eastern Academy of Scuba Education as Divemasters from another training organization with a background centered around scientific diving and research. Their understanding of dive physics, physiology, and theory was rock solid. The challenge wasn’t what they knew—it was learning how to transform that knowledge into effective instruction.

For the last 10 days, that’s exactly what they did.

Long classroom sessions.
Hours in confined water.
Open water teaching scenarios.
Presentations.
Skill evaluations.
Knowledge reviews.
Exams.

They were coached, challenged, pushed outside their comfort zones, and they never stopped working to improve.

Today, that effort paid off.

Congratulations to both of you on successfully completing the PADI Instructor Examination and becoming PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors!

Watching candidates grow into instructors is one of the most rewarding parts of being a Course Director, and I couldn’t be prouder of what you’ve accomplished.

Now… quit dinkin’ around… we’ve got MSDT Prep to finish! 😎🤙

6 candidates.
10 days.
Countless hours of growth.

And now… 6 NEW PADI INSTRUCTORS. 🔥

Different backgrounds.
Different skill levels.
One team.

Over the past 10 days, these individuals didn’t just level up their diving—they learned how to teach, present, evaluate, mentor, and lead.

They showed up.
They put in the work.
They pushed through challenges.
And they came together in a way that defines what this program is all about.

That transformation is what it’s all about.

To all six of you—thank you for trusting me and EASE with your journey. It’s been an honor to be part of your development.

Now go out there and make an impact. 🌊

This is only the beginning.

Mission Objectives (debrief):
✅ Laughter — achieved (sometimes underwater, always inappropriately)
✅ Good times — confirmed, logged, and replayed
✅ Fun dives — conducted as planned, with bonus chaos addressed
✅ Lessons learned — some written down, some burned into muscle memory

Unexpected variables included long days, deep thinking, deeper dives, and the occasional “who packed this gear?” moment. But every objective mattered, every dive counted, and every laugh kept it real.

Mission complete:
🎓 Tec 50 Instructor
🎓 Tec Sidemount Instructor

Same passion. Sharper skills. Bigger responsibilities.
Now on to the next mission. 🤿💪

When you have a massively important project due and all your devices decide it’s time to not work unless you update… 🫤

Well enough time has passed for you all to have the spot light. Time for me to shout you all out!

to you 5 on earning your rating

It was an amazing and I’m so happy and excited to see where you 5 take your new careers.

Well, I guess it’s time to make it FB official.

Most everyone on this page knows that I have worked for for several years now as an instructor.

Well as life likes to throw it’s little surprises at us, on Monday I accepted and formally signed for a new position at Tsunami Scuba as the Program Manager. Yup that’s right, they let me be the dang BOSS, 🤪

My predecessor Gary Joyce left behind an amazing team that I am now in charge of… 😬 but I am up for the challenge and I am super excited for what is in our future.

So 🍻 to our successes and let’s go bang out some amazing things!

Massive and a huge to these 6 new

3 candidates from and 3 candidates from

To all the new instructors and to the mentors and staff,
Your and was on point

I look forward to seeing what the six of you do in the here in Okinawa

are over and these three are on their way to being full fledged

Was a full day of and

You guys are doing awesome and I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow… 🧐😎

Been a huge pleasure and humbling experience mentoring these three .

You guys got this!

Best of success to our Instructor Candidates at the PADI Instructor Exam this weekend. You WILL rock it…