Tom Steiner van den Ouweelen

Congratulations to Ulrike and Christian for their Advanced Nitrox and Decompression procedure course.
15 days together, intensive but a nice time for all of us. I wish you safe diving and as always, now keep on practicing to polish the small details. You both did great. Also a big thank you to Alma Mejia and Christian assisting on the course and co-teaching it. A nice surprise to see Oli and joining the 2 last days of the course. Very nice 2 weeks thanks to all of you!

Here is the chance for you to join the first SDI/TDI Instructor Training Workshop happening at Gozo Technical Diving. If you are interested to become part of the Elite of Instructor Trainer's, we offer this possibility for you this November 2026.
Contact us!

🎙️ NEW EPISODE OUT NOW
The Making of an Exceptional Technical Diver
After nearly forty years in technical diving and more than 17,000 dives, Tom Steiner has trained thousands of divers around the world.

But as Tom says...
"It's not about how many certifications you have."

In this episode we discuss:
✅ Becoming a better diver
✅ Technical diving philosophy
✅ Sidemount vs twinset
✅ Teamwork and attitude
✅ Instructor development
✅ Greenland expeditions
✅ The future of technical diving

Tom has been my mentor, instructor and friend for more than a decade, and this conversation is full of lessons that every diver can benefit from.

🎧 Watch or listen now!

YouTube - https://youtu.be/Z0zrS8sffAU
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2VE05FRwk2pfg5PRCZsRnB?si=85492140581c4cd3

A huge thank you to our sponsor XDEEP, and to the Patrons of Speaking Sidemount for helping make conversations like this possible.

The Making of an Exceptional Technical Diver | Tom Steiner | Speaking Sidemount #123 What does it really take to become an exceptional technical diver?...

Congratulations to Kagan on successfully completing his Cavern and Intro to Cave courses!
The final dive was a great way to finish, we did referencing and shutdowns on the way out, putting some skills we had worked on into practice.
It was a real pleasure diving with you and teaching you these courses. You took the challenges seriously, listened, worked hard, and showed great commitment throughout.
Well done, Kagan — this is just the beginning of your technical diving journey into the dark side 🙂
Also on the dive Martin Kaminsky and myself part of the Team, Philippe was Camilla's buddy and she was in charge to debrief the dive after that. I also want to say thanks to her for the assist and the great help. Promising Cave Instructor 🙂
At the end some fun for Camilla doing a squeeze passage 🙂

Weather hasnt been in our favor because the wind has been blowing North and safety is our prior concern, so we went with Kagan for a cool fun dive on the wreck of the Karwela 🙂
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Today for the Cavern and Intro to cave course Kagn did a dive at Billinghurst cave with Camilla as a buddy, a connection main line, "T" left and then the skill lost diver. Also Crossed Yvonne Press inside the cave. Crystal clear water and nice warm 29 degrees !
Coming out a low viz exit skill 🙂.

Congratulations to Philippe for his decompression procedure course that he finished today, Excellent deco dive at 45 meters, spot on and a real pleasure to dive with such a precision 🙂
I wish you all the best and thanks for beeing such a great buddy.


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Very well executed dive today for Philippe at the Inland Sea, tomorrow happy to go for his first deco dive for his Decompression course 🙂