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By Frederick Claro CD#18819.
     Phuket, Thailand, recently hosted another international NAUI event from April 12th until 23rd, 1999. A complete set of instructor courses and a workshop was run under the hospitality of Kata Beach Dive Shop and featured candidates from a very new NAUI training facility in Belgium: Le Zanclus, settled in Mons since September 1998.
      In a recent publication, we announced that NAUI in Thailand was training instructors for Belgium (Diving World, "Sources" Jan/Feb 1999). A collaboration has been settled between NAUI members in Belgium, who are doing an excellent job in promoting the association in an environment where not only the water is cold and murky...
    After finishing his training in Phuket in July 1998, Mr Richard Plumes, NAUI #30718, went back to his country, Belgium, and started immediately to promote and develop NAUI as  the  "Quality Difference" diver training association we all agree it is. The first steps were difficult as the local federation controls the diver system of training with an authority and democratic sense which would raise the hairs of all NAUI members around the world.
      Richard, highly motivated and eager to make NAUI more known, used his connections as the headmaster of the third largest Belgian college to get access to media attention. He did an outstanding job in promoting NAUI through the local press, radio and television, where he presented his newborn school and our diver education programs to the general public. 

    Results were quick to show up and Richard is now very active in training NAUI divers throughout his region. Recently he tied up with the first NAUI Course Director in the country, Mr Bernard Volant CD#17853 and they are training NAUI Leaders together to help them in their task of NAUI promotion in the whole Belgian territory, where Dutch and French speaking communities co-exist.
    Last April, Richard came back to Phuket, Thailand to train as an Instructor Trainer. His workshop went well and he staffed an ITC preparatory course and then a full ITC, where one of the candidates came from Le Zanclus, representing the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. This extensive instructor program (ITC-PREP and ITC) was a genuinely international one as the candidates came from England, Canada, Belgium and Thailand. The staff for the courses were French , Belgian and covered four languages necessary to run the courses - English, French, Thai, and Dutch.

    Except for one candidate who was a NAUI Divemaster, the other candidates all came from other certification agencies. All did very well in difficult conditions of weather, as the southwest monsoon hit Phuket sooner than usual, and the IQP was run at the very beginning of a tropical storm, which left the sea in rough conditions for open water and rescue evaluation.
    The training went for 11 days and the candidates developed a real team spirit, specifically when it came to helping each other with language difficulties. Special mention to our Thai candidate Songserm "Sammy", a 1998 ITC-Prep graduate and Patrick Delsaer from Belgium for whom English was not their mother tongue. Their patience and sense of humor gave an extra touch to the training.
    I would like to make a special note as it has been an extreme pleasure for me to train my wife Jennifer Claro to the level of NAUI Instructor and I know that she will be able to train our loved ones - kids and family. It is also difficult from experience to teach your loved one at that level, thanks to her patience with me!
    I will also give kudos to two outstanding candidates, well prepared, highly motivated to become NAUI Instructors as they came from another agency: Christopher Carre and Julian Carnavelli from England, thanks to them for the professional qualities they have shown throughout the course, the help they extended to non-native-English-speaking people. The program was staffed by experienced assistant course director Yann Guillet who helped his new fellow staff member Richard Plumes, to whom special thanks have to be extended for his help in the Dutch language.
    In the future, we hope that more NAUI leaders will be trained with the combined programs of Le Zanclus diving school in Belgium and Kata Beach Dive Shop in Phuket, which as usual provided outstanding help for the logistical part of the courses.
    Richard is back in Belgium with new ideas and projects to promote NAUI in that part of the world and we know that a dozen future NAUI leaders are under intensive training in Mons, Belgium, with Le Zanclus diving school. We also know that French and Dutch translations are on the way in Belgium for scuba diver courses and leadership courses.
    I personally hope that this article will make understood if needed, that the collaboration of members of an association like NAUI in different parts of the world is a benefit for all of us: divers, leaders, and members alike. Solidarity and understanding in sharing a common goal is a part of being a responsible educator, professional or vocational. Common interest should be the lead concern of all and not the mercantile aspect of an activity which, I believe, will endure much in the coming years. Sticking together will help us not only to survive but promote NAUI growth throughout the world.

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