CHEW POH CHANG –
UTD’s SINGAPORE-BASED
INSTRUCTOR TRAINER
Chew Poh Chang started with
UTD in 2008 as one of the
original 10 UTD instructors.
Poh has been diving since 1991. Although his passion for diving took him from a recreational diver
to Naui instructor, his drive to continue his education and discover new skills and knowledge, led
to UTD.
On his way to UTD, Poh’s desire to explore beyond recreational limits lead him to cross over to
IANTD in 1998, gradually progressing to technical instructor with both IANTD and NAUI Tech.
doing skills, because before UTD he was trained that
way and taught to teach that way. Finally the training
courses he was teaching were not build in a progressive and building block approach.
In 2008, together with nine other committed instructors, he joined the first UTD IDC held in San Diego
and became the first instructor in Asia Pacific. From
that training he took away three key philosophies that
he truly believed in.
• First, we are able to dive as a Unified Team because we have a consistency within the team,
environment, equipment, and training.
• Second, UTD trains Ocean Friendly divers. This
means that trim and buoyancy are the foundational skills that is taught right from open water.
All training programs are developed in a building
Chew Poh Chang’s decision to become a UTD
instructor was simple. Prior to UTD he was
training his students in traditional jacket buoyancy compensators and regulators with octopus.
Next, he was putting his students on their knees