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TEKCAMP 2012 INSTRUCTORS
Meet the class of 2012
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TEKCamp offers a unique opportunity to train with some of the most experienced and influential technical instructors in the industry. Our instructors aren't weekend warriors - they're the 'creme de la creme' of technical training and active diving explorers at the very cutting edge of exploration.
What makes our instructors different? Many of our instructors are either training directors or instructor trainers - they're the guys who literally define the standards and write the training manuals for many of the leading technical training agencies.
Meet the instructors who made TEKCamp 2012 such a phenominal success!
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TEKCAMP 2012 HALL OF FAME
Meet the tech talent who taught at TEKCamp 2012
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Paul Vincent Toomer
RAID Global Training
Director
Paul began his training diving career in 1996 and is now at the forefront of technical diver training with DiveRAID - the Rebreather Association of International Divers. He has dived caves and wrecks all over the world and has safely planned and executed ocean dives to a maximum depth of 150 metres. Paul regularly contributes to the dive press and has worked with film and TV companies as a diver, supplier and advisor. He has given many diving related presentations at leading conferences including LIDS, Eurotek and DEMA.
Martin Robson
NACD Training Director
+ IANTD ITT
Martin is one of the UK and world's most experienced instructors and teachs courses from IANTD, PADI and both NACD & NSS-CDS. Martin is the International Training Director for NACD, sits on the Board of Advisors for IANTD and is also a Technical Field Consultant for PADI's range of rebreather programs. Martin specialises in extreme environments and regularly teaches courses such as expedition trimix, ice diving, advanced cave and technical wreck to instructor level in environments from the arctic to the equator.
Phil Short
IANTD UK Training Director
After 25 years in the dive industry logging over 8000 dives including over 3000 hours on CCR, Phil now works predominantly in the scientific diving community as a CCR project manager, trainer and consultant. Phil has worked on projects with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the US National Parks Service, Chinese National Museum and the UK Police dive teams. A passionate cave explorer, Phil acted as lead diver on Bill Stone's J2 project in Mexico which saw him spend 45 days underground. Phil is a BOA member, UK Training Director of IANTD and an active ITT. Phil has trained the UK HSE and BBC divers and worked on film projects such as 'The Road to Certain Death'.
Mark Powell
TDI IT Evaluator + Training Advisory Panel
Mark has been diving since 1987 and has been teaching since 1994. He has been a full time technical diving instructor since 2004. He is a contributor to Sport Diver Magazine in which he writes a regular column on technical diving. In 2008 Mark published Deco for Divers, a widely acclaimed overview of the theory and physiology of decompression. This has quickly become the standard text on the subject and is recommended reading by a number of the technical diving agencies.
Richard Walker
GUE Board of
Advisors Member
Rich Walker started diving in 1991 and soon found himself spending all his spare time exploring the shipwrecks off the coast of the UK. Rich is a member of the GUE board of advisors and is able to teach all GUE recreational and technical classes up to Tech 2 and CCR. He is also an instructor evaluator at all recreational levels and to the Tech 2 level. Wreck diving has always been his passion. He runs Project Tiger in the UK, documenting two WW2 LSTs in the Channel. He has dived on Ghost Fishing projects in Croatia and Scapa Flow. In July 2015 Rich was part of the team diving the Mars in the Baltic Sea. Rich is also a keen cave diver and enjoys exploring caves both here in the UK and abroad.
Vikki Batten
PADI Director of Rebreather Technologies
Vikki works for PADI as a member of the Technical Diving Division developing and supporting TecRec courses. Vikki has been teaching tec for 15 years and has thoroughly enjoyed being a part of Tekcamp and the opportunity to work with their enthusiastic divers over the last few years. As her normal role involves training instructor trainers at sidemount, open circuit and rebreather levels, this is a rare opportunity to work with a member of PADI's full time staff at diver level. Vikki is a passionate cave diver and can think of nothing better than spending a week in southern France enjoying the caves, countryside and cafes.
John Kendall
GUE Tech + Cave Instructor
+ GUE Instructor Trainer
John Kendall has been diving since 1993 and is a GUE Technical and Cave Instructor and an Instructor Trainer. John has worked on exploration projects around the world, including the Woodville Karst Plains Project (WKPP), the Mexico Cave Exploration Project, and recently has been working on deep water 3D photomapping of 2300 year old shipwrecks off the coast of Sicily, in association with the Soperindenza del Mare.
Kieran Hatton
IANTD Tech + CCR Instructor
Kieran Hatton has been diving since 1996 when he was just 14 years old. At 16, prior to visiting Scapa Flow for the first time, he took his first Tec Course and from then he has never looked back. Currently based in Plymouth, Kieran teaches both open circuit and rebreather nitrox/trimix. Kieran is well regarded amongst the diving industry for his knowledge, for his practicality and for his passion for thorough course training with each and every student from the start.
Mike Potts
IANTD Tech + CCR Instructor
With a passion for deep wreck diving, Mike Potts has been diving for over 30 years and has logged over 3000 dives. In 1993, Mike qualified as an IANTD instructor and has been teaching budding technical divers for over 17 years. In 1995, Mike took over the training activities at Divers Down in Swanage and has been running it ever since. Mike teaches both open circuit and rebreather courses for a number of leading tek agencies including IANTD, TDI and DSAT TecRec.
Phil Grigg
IANTD Tech + CCR Instructor
Phil first started diving at the age of 13 with a local SAA club. Phil finally became an instructor with BSAC before moving on to become an IANTD Instructor. Phil currently dives and teaches both open and closed circuit, mostly within the UK, which he considers to offer some of the best wreck diving in the world. He has an interest in marine and underwater archaeology, and is now busy pursuing experience and qualifications in these subjects whenever he has the spare time.
Howard Payne
IANTD Technical Instructor
Howard Payne is passionate about open circuit technical training and considers himself fortunate to have learned from visionary explorers Phil Short, Jarrod Jablonski and Richard Lundgren. Now teaching exclusively for IANTD, Howard runs open circuit technical courses to normoxic trimix level both here in the UK and in the warm, clear waters of Malta. Although he loves UK diving, even he would concede that there's nothing quite like running a mix course on a wreck like the Le Polynesien!
Jim Dowling
TDI Technical Instructor
Jim began his diving career in the UK Military back in 1993. A working trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt led to a holiday in the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. A career change in 2005 then prompted a permanent relocation to Sharm. Linking up with world-famous technical diver Leigh Cunningham, Jim progressed through diver and instructor ratings with Technical Diving International to become a TDI Advanced Trimix Instructor.