PADI AmbassaDiver™, Hassan Khayal is so passionate about diving that he has dedicated his life to it and spreading his love of diving to all his students! We thought we’d catch up with him to find out exactly what it is that makes this three time PADI Elitte Instructor tick…
Hi Hassan, how did you get into scuba diving?
From a young age, my family used to go for weekend getaways to the east coast of the United Arab Emirates to enjoy the shores of the Indian Ocean. It was there that I learned how to swim, got introduced to freediving, and fell in love with the water.
Scuba diving came later as the natural progression in order to discover more of the aquatic realm that I was dearly in love with, and I earned my PADI Open Water licence on the very same shores that I first fell in love with the water.
After encouragement from my family, I signed up for my Open Water Diver course, and a few years later, I’m now a proud PADI Course Director guiding fellow passionate people into the world of recreational and professional diving on the very same shores I learned how to swim many years ago.
What was is that inspired you to become a PADI pro?
The more I went diving, the more I became passionate about the aquatic world. My passion encompassed being immersed in it, preserving it, and most strongly for myself, sharing it with the people in my life.
Getting to share the knowledge and pass on the passion I had for the underwater world inspired me to become a PADI professional in order to be able to safely share the world I treasure with the people I encounter in my life.
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How does social media help you to spread the love of scuba diving?
As young as I am, I remember a world before social media took over, even if my memory of such times was somewhat foggy. Talking with my friends and family about diving back then used to be a lot more challenging.
With the rapid advancement of several lines of technology, such as photography and social media, taking underwater pictures became extremely affordable unlike it was in the past, and sharing these images with a myriad of people from all over the world became extremely easy.
With the quality of underwater media we are able to easily capture, and the ease by which we are able to document and showcase our underwater adventures thanks to social media, the understanding and appreciation of the underwater world has exponentially grown, and the interest in partaking in and learning scuba has also developed.
How important is it for divers to protect and promote the preservation of our oceans?
As young as I am, and even though I have only been diving for a short amount of time, in comparison to the amount of time that the oceans have been around, in the past few years, I have been able to witness firsthand the drastic damage that the underwater world has been experiencing.
We have explored the world, the lands are about entirely discovered, but the underwater world has barely been, with so much of it remaining untouched. The underwater world is, from that point of view, Earth’s final frontier.
If we wish to continue being able to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the underwater world, and more importantly, if we wish to pass on this beauty to the future generations, we must protect our oceans, by taking action ourselves, and by promoting their preservation to all the citizens of our planet.
What does My PADI mean to you?
My PADI has been a lifetime parent and partner in my journey in the scuba world. Starting off into scuba at a young age, my parents trusted the My PADI brand to deliver a safe and quality standard of scuba instruction to me.
As I developed in the scuba world, the world class educational system of My PADI ensured I received a sound and nurturing educational environment.
Finally, once I became a My PADI professional, once again at a young age, once again, the support of the My PADI brand gave my students, who more often than not were older than myself and dubious about my age, the confidence they needed in me as their instructor, as I had the My PADI educational brand and tools at my disposal.
The My PADI brand is, in my opinion, the most sound and well developed educational system in the diving industry, and it has supported me at every stage of my development as a diver from Open Water until I became a My PADI Course Director, trusting me to hold the highest and most respected professional rating in recreational scuba diving, nurturing the future generation of scuba instructors, and representing the My PADI Brand to them, an honor and a privilege that I endeavor to live up to every time I’m in the water.
Inspired by Hassan’s Story?
Catch Hassan at the PADI Kite Beach Party event where he’ll be giving a talk about his journey up the PADI Professional ladder. RSVP here now
