TOM STEINER VAN DEN OUWEELEN

Teaching diving for me is more than a lifestyle; it's my passion and it's a part of me.

“One important key to extreme diving is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is training and to never overestimate your self-confidence...”

                                                                                                                                                                                 — Tom Steiner

Tom Steiner van den Ouweelen is a Technical and Recreational Course Director Instructor Trainer and Examinator living on Gozo, Malta. His passion is teaching technical diving and cave diving either in backmount or sidemount configurations. After 45 years in the water, Tom's extensive 35 years experience as a professional will provide you with the most interesting and demanding courses that you could possibly ask for. The training is tough but through this, you will become a very good diver.

Tom was born in 1965, in Switzerland. He speaks and writes seven languages fluently (EN, F, D, SP, NL, I & HUNG) and also has good knowledge of Arabic. Tom started diving during a holiday in 1979 with his first course in Barbados. After returning to Switzerland, he continued his diving education in Lake Geneva, (Montreux). 90% of all of Tom's diving education took place in the Swiss lakes with the other 10% in the Mediterranean Sea. He started with CMAS adding additional agency certifications with PADI, TDI, SDI, EDA, NRC, IANTD, BSAC, PROTEC, ISE, and ANDI Instructor.

After over 35 years of professional diving, Tom has now completed over 15,500 dives and a total of 2,500 hours on rebreathers. 

He has worked in the diving industry all over the world and has also presented seminars on technical diving at a number of international dive shows and events. He was an EDA Examiner, CMAS *** Instructor Course Director & Examiner, TDI, SDI, PADI TECREC Course Director Instructor Trainer, INNERSPACE Explorers Instructor Trainer, PADI Master Scuba Instructor, Master Freediving Instructor and finally a BSAC, ANDI & IANTD Instructor.

Tom has trained instructors all over the planet and is one of the most experienced and highest-profile Technical Diving Instructor Trainers in the world. Tom has also trained Astronauts at the European Space Agency and performed rebreather training for the Greek Navy and Coast Guard.

In addition to his work as a technical diving instructor, Tom has been involved in providing dive safety at a number of high profile events. In 2000, he organized the AIDA Freediving World Championship at Lake Geneva where his team was responsible for the safety of 48 freedivers. During this event his team had to endure four hours non-stop underwater at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. Tom has personally acted as safety diver for world-renown freedivers Loic Leferme, Fred Buyle, Şahika Ercümen, William Trubridge and Sarah Campbell. He has also provided safety diver services to Pascal Bernabe (former world deepest dive record holder at 330 meters), assisting him during his training sessions and deep trimix courses and dives. Aswell as Don Shirley on his Trimix courses in the Red Sea.

Tom has been involved in a number of prominent marine movie projects including "330 Metres Below the Sea" and "22 minutes" as safety and stunt diver.
He has written and translated books on Rebreather and Nitrox Diving and developed the first Tec Sidemount course in the diving industry. He has also build the first fresh water reefball project in Lake Leman Switzerland. He moved to Gozo in February 2012 after having spent 16 years diving and working in Sinai, Egypt. 

In Egypt, he was the Manager of Dahab Divers Lodge and then the owner of two dive centers; Fantaseatec and Dahab Divers Technical until 2012.

Tom is now located on Gozo, Malta, from March to end October and teaches technical diving courses around the world during the winter in the northern and southern hemisphere.

Total number of dives: +15,500
Rebreather hours: 2,500 (Inspiration, SF1, Draeger, OMG "Azimuth", Voyager)
Cave dives: +2,500 (Spain, France, Mexico, Malta, Egypt)
Dives between 40 to 100 meters: +6,000
Dives between 100-150 meters: +250
Dives between 150-200 meters: 5
First dive: 1979
Training agencies : TDI/SDI and PADI