On Tuesday 19th March 2019 I had one of my regular meetings with Emma Hewitt, our PADI Regional Manager. Just before leaving, Emma announced that she had something to present to me. It was the wonderful glass plaque that you can see in the Pink Floyd themed picture above, in recognition to our 25 years as a PADI dive centre, wow!
In that 25 years the staff at the dive centre here in Lancing (S7801) have changed the lives of thousands of people, by either introducing them to SCUBA diving or furthering their SCUBA diving knowledge and experience. Nearly 3000 people have learn’t to dive with us as Open Water Divers alone, nearly 700 professional certs (Divemaster or above) have been issued along with 100’s of very excitable Seal Team Members, lots of which have gone on to some amazing diving experiences. In total we have issued over 10,000 certifications! The very first certification was Niki A Sakelaropoulos for her Open Water Diver course, who’s instructor was Warren Falconer.
There have been many ups and downs (many more ups you’ll be pleased to know) including births, deaths, marriages and divorces but hey we are still here. We are the 25th oldest PADI dive centre still running in the UK, now that is an achievement!
During those years we have been to some amazing holiday destinations like The Galapagos, Truk Lagoon, Indonesia, The Red Sea, Malta, South Africa , Maldives, Sri Lanka and The Carribean. We have also dived many many parts of the UK; Cornwall, Dorset, Kent, Norfolk, Wales, Devon, Oban, Scapa, Lundy Island the Farnes for playing with Seals.
We have some amazing staff and instructors that are all passionate about diving that I would like to give a massive shout out and thank you to. Some brilliant suppliers too.
Finally my biggest thank you is to all of you, our customers that have made this 25 years possible, I truly mean this. To us, each of our students and customers are important, you are not just another brick in the wall.
So raise a glass and here’s to the next 25 years where I will either see you in The Fletcher Memorial Home or on The Darkside of the Moon (if you are not a Pink Floyd fan you may not understand this, and anyway, you should be a Pink Floyd fan!)
Graeme
