UTD WAtersports
san diego!
By Randy Tay, Manager, San Diego Watersports
A
lmost every dive professional with a facility will tell you the same old story, maybe with
a few variation. They will tell you how they got hooked to
scuba diving after that first breath off the regulator, how
that quickly turned into a passion which prompted them to
“move up the ranks,” eventually attaining the Scuba Instructor rating. At this point, the story would either branch out to
quitting their jobs to plunge head-long into the Scuba industry, or how they planned for a business after their retirement
which they can enjoy doing in the form of a scuba shop. My
story was no different, at least in the beginning, except that
it was the facility that found me.
I first got involved with Unified Team Diving (UTD) back
in 2009 after watching those popular YouTube videos of
Andrew Georgitsis in impeccable trim and buoyancy control. I remembered I was floored when I first saw those
videos as I never knew a diver could have such incredible
control. I also remember vividly talking to Andrew on the
phone for over an hour inquiring about training paths and
the route to becoming an instructor. That was my very first
encounter which left me with a very good impression. My
second encounter was a face to face interview with Jeff
Seckendorf, the co-owner of UTD during the annual DEMA
show. Not long after that I began my training with UTD.
The route to becoming a UTD instructor was long and arduous, at least for me. During the four years of my struggle,
UTD became my second home and I got to know both Andrew and Jeff on a more personal basis. Both of them have been incredible as my mentors, and
Andrew even personally recommended me to another instructor when I was ready for my Cave
Diving training – UTD Instructor Trainer Poh Chang Chew, who has also, during the course
of the last two years, became my mentor. When I was finally also Tech trained, I got an unexpected call from Jeff.
You see, UTD has been growing by leaps and bounds since they started and as part of their
growing plans, they are also doing something revolutionary in the industry: supporting the
instructor like no other training agency has done. And that call from Jeff was the opportunity to
be part of this revolution.