PADI IN MAURITIUS

Mauritius has just overtaken South Africa with the greatest number of PADI Dive Centresin the Indian Ocean Region in Africa.

Mauritius now has 40 registered diving centres to South Africa’s 39. Previously unknown as a diving destination, Mauritius has become a popular place for tourists who want to Discover Scuba or take a PADI course or two.

I had a coffee at the Pereybere Beach Café with Anders Heegard who is the Regional Manager of PADI for the Indian Ocean and Africa, where he has been for two and a half years.

He started in Denmark with cold water diving, and decided to do a PADI qualification, which was readily available in Denmark.

From there his career in diving has trended steadily upwards, through Managing diving centres in Mexico, to part ownership of a diving centre in the Caribbean, to an approach from PADI to take over the Indian Ocean Region as Manager.

He is energetic, a passionate diver and a PADI guru.

His recommendation to young divers who want a career? Keep training and strive to become a better diver with every dive. We never stop learning, and for a career in PADI, it’s about teaching people, knowing the system, it’s about knowing about the structure of the Organization.

“I went from Dive Master, to Instructor to Course Director, to Dive Centre manager, part owner, and eventually I was approached by PADI to become a Regional Manager.

This man has done an incredible amount of work for diving in Africa in two and a half years, boith with his presence in his region, his dedication to diving centre support to his indefatigable attention to detail in his PADI Pro posts on Social Media.

Anders sees Mauritius as a natural PADI training ground for divers. It’s is an obvious choice as a diving destination for training, with its benevolent climate, year- round warm water, excellent year -round visibility and its superb safety record, together with an abundance of placers to stay from 5 -star resorts to tiny apartments, a great social life, and lots of things to do.

With 40 PADI Diving Centres and 3 resident course directors, this is a great place to kick start a diving career.

It is also becoming a conservationists delight, with plastics control, recycling and environmental controls, coral re-growth and increasing juvenile hatchings as the controls on fishing on the reefs take effect.