PADI Course Director Thailand:
Letter from PADI Course Director Jonas Samuelsson,
09 of March, 2004.

You are about to make a great choice! To become a PADI Instructor with some of the most amazing and beautiful places in the world as your office.

I was 6 years old when my father introduced me to his friend who was a college swim teacher. My father was a great swimmer and always had a special relationship with the ocean. He wanted me to early on to establish a simillar relationship with water. I started to take swim training and despite the fact that I was the only one in the beginners class who had to take the class twice, I continued. The swimming lead to snorkeling and free diving after a few years. I still remember when i received my first diving mask and i was standing in the shower in our family house and practicing clearing the mask! It took my almost 10 years to start diving. Together with some family members I took the beginners class. I was hooked from the first breath. I always loved free diving but there was limitations to it and now i could stay for hours under water without having to surface. Quickly I signed up for all course up to PADI Divemaster.

The diving became a part of my life, something that i did in the cold Baltic Sea on almost every weekend. After my formal degree I was offered to start a new diving magazine in Scandinavia called The UnderwaterMagazine (UVM). We were only three in the beginning and my title was "Marketing Director". But together we wrote the articles, took the photos and edited each others text and in the evenings run around and to try to get Mares or ScubaPro and the rest of the manufactureres to sponsor the magazine. It was a great time! During this time I also completed my Instructor Course and after that I became the writer of Educational Articles for the magazine. UVM became the largest diving magazine in Scandinavia within one year!

After years of teaching diving and working for the magazine I got offered to take the PADI Course Director Course and establish IDCs in Thailand. I jumped at the opportunity because I wanted to come back to teaching full-time and to actual diving (rather than "just" write about it). We established the Koh Tao IDC Group in 1998 which I became the Head PADI Course Directors for and which I am still in charge for.

You are making a great decision, the world is waiting for you! The Instructor Card is going to be your passport to the over 175 countries that PADI is represented! Please e-mail me if you have any questions about a career in diving. I would be proud to work with you towards your goal of becoming a PADI Instructor!

Jonas Samuelsson, PADI Course Director, Ban's Diving and The Koh Tao IDC Group
contact@instructor-kohtao.com



• Final training: PADI Asia Pacific, PADI Course Director Course 1998, Kota Kinabalu, Borneo
• Editor and Photographer UVM 1994-1996, (The Underwater Magazine)
• Training Manager and Operation Manager for some of Asias largest divecenters 1997-2003

Teaching Experience:
• 2000+ Open Water to Divemaster Certifications
• 700 Open Water Scuba Instructors
• 600 Medic First Aid Instructors
• 100 EFR Instructors
• 350 Specialty Instructors
• 200 Internship and MSTD Instructors

Certification levels:
• PADI Course Director #72605 (1998)
• EFR Instructor Trainer (2002)
• MFA Instructor Trainer (1998)
• Specialty Instructor Trainer in 15 areas (1998-)
• IANTD Enriched Air (1994)
• DAN Oxygen Instructor (1997)

Instructor Trainer in the following PADI Specialty Courses:
• PADI Rebreather Diver
• PADI Ice Diver
• PADI Enriched Air Diver
• PADI Wreck Diver
• PADI Diver Propulsion Vehicle
• PADI Deep Diver
• PADI Search and Recovery Diver
• PADI Naturalist Diver
• PADI Multilevel Diver
• PADI Fish Identification Diver
• PADI Night Diver Diver
• PADI Navigation Diver
• PADI Photography Diver
• PADI Videography Diver
• PADI Peak Performance Bouyancy Diver