Meet Handicapped diving Jedi: Mark Slingo

Mark is a PADI Course Director in Phuket, Thailand.
After learning to dive in Australia Mark got the diving bug so following completion of his university studies worked his way up to PADI Instructor, diving in many countries including Kenya, Spain, Malaysia, Croatia and Thailand.

After this Mark worked in a 5* Career Development Center in Thailand towards the rating of PADI Course Director which he earned in 2008 at the age of 25 becoming one of the youngest Course Directors in the world. He followed this with a stint as a Course Director in the Red Sea.In the past few years Mark has worked with hundreds of students on IDC’s to help them in their goal of becoming PADI Instructors.
Mark also has set another landmark. On land at least Mark is confined to a wheelchair following an accident (Non-diving related) 3 years ago when Mark was working in Thailand. He is the first and only wheelchair user to achieve the rating of PADI Course Director putting him into the top 1% of PADI Instructors.

‘The great thing about scuba diving,’ says Mark, ‘is that it offers someone like myself a chance to throw off those constraints that I have on land in to an environment where I am the same as everyone else in the water. The only difference is that I swim with my arms rather than my legs.’ I just want to get more people able bodied and handicapped to experience the wonders of scuba diving and get themselves as far up the diving ladder as possible.

You can contact Mark Slingo at
PADI Course Director
West Coast Divers Co., Ltd.
PADI Five Star IDC, S-6156
120/1-3 Rat-u-tit 200 Pee Rd
( opposite Patong Bayshore Hotel )
Patong Beach, Kathu, Phuket 83150
Thailand
Tel: 66 7634 1673, 66 7634 1515
Fax: 66 7634 1515
Mobile: 66 8 1797 7142
Skype markslingo
Email:
info@phuketschoolofscuba.com
mark@westcoastdivers.com
Website: http://www.phuketschoolofscuba.com

Popularity: 2% [?]