John Williams
John Williams, born in California, USA, began diving in 1975 at the age of 15 years. Since becoming a PADI Instructor in 1983, he has logged thousands of dives in lots of beautiful tropical locations around the world, including the Red Sea, Australia, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia. He settled here in Thailand in 1987 and refuses to leave. He's pretty stubborn.
John has worked as a diving instructor, a liveaboard divemaster, a photographer, a marketing manager, and was managing director of Siam Diving Center for seven years before he got mad at his partners and quit to form Siam Dive n' Sail with Bent.
Now a Master Instructor, John does some work with Bent on IDCs, but mostly manages the office here in Kata Center. He maintains these nice web pages we have, answers e-mail and faxes, and when he has time, writes stories for various publications.
He has had a monthly column in the Phuket Gazette, and has written three guide books on diving in Thailand, including the one that is included on this site, Diving Southeast Asia published by Periplus Editions. In November 2001 he completed work on a dive guide to Thailand and Burma for the Lonely Planet folks.
He hopes to do more writing in the future where he's paid more. But, as we say in diving "Don't hold your breath". |
Bent Posejpal
Bent "It's hard to admit you're Bent" Posejpal, born in Tønsberg, Norway, began diving when his father, the first PADI Instructor in Norway, put a tank on his back when his mother was giving him a bath. That certainly pissed his mother off, but started Bent on his career in diving and he hasn't looked back since. He became a PADI Instructor in 1988, and is now a PADI Course Director. Bent is in charge of our IDC programs.
Bent has dived extensively throughout the Andaman Sea, has worked on liveaboard and day trip boats here, and was the instructional manager at Siam Diving Center for seven years before he got angry at John's partners and quit to form Siam Dive n' Sail with John.
Bent has written several articles on diving for Norwegian diving magazines, and is an accomplished underwater photographer.
Bent now mostly concentrates on teaching monthly IDCs both here in Phuket and on Phi Phi Island.
He is also the resident expert for post IDC parties, and has a special way of influencing people to have a good time even if they can't speak his language. His many Japanese IDC candidates can attest to this.
It may be hard to admit you're Bent, but not for him. Blame it on his father. |
