By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: As one of the leading and certified diving centers in the world, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) awarded the swimming and diving center at the Kuwait Science Club (KSC) with the PADI GoPro Award for its role in improving the diving industry inside and outside Kuwait.

The award was part of the Regional Director of PADI Captain Firas Jindi's visit to GCC countries, where the new updates to PADI's program were discussed. Jindi praised the high standard of Kuwaiti divers and diving instructors in general and the diving instructors of KSC's swimming and diving center in particular. He noticed the increasing number of divers who have undergone professional courses of PADI during the last few years.

Due to the pandemic, Jindi was not able to visit Kuwait for the past two years. "After life returned to normal, PADI's visits were again scheduled to review the activity of certified diving centers. KSC's swimming and diving center is one of two centers in Kuwait that are specialized in developing the skills of diving instructors," he pointed out.

During the visit, Jindi met the instructor of diving instructors and Director of KSC's Swimming and Diving Center Captain Meshari Al-Khabaaz and other instructors to discuss developments and updates to PADI special programs for training quality systems and standards, and security and safety procedures followed by the organization to develop diving, Jindi said.

According to him, Kuwait and GCC countries achieved positive results in the diving industry despite the travel restrictions due to the pandemic. "The industry registered visible growth during the pandemic, greater than before the pandemic, because of the e-learning applications and programs of PADI," he noted.

"KSC attracts different age categories, especially young people with different interests. There are only two people holding the title of 'instructor of instructors', and one of them is Captain Meshari Al-Khabaaz, the director of KSC's swimming and diving center, which is important for PADI, which considers KSC as one of the most important centers for training instructors," Jindi said.

Many diving centers around the world survived the pandemic due to e-learning applications. "PADI designed all its programs with the latest e-learning technologies provided in different languages for diving centers including Arabic, which became one of the main languages in PADI's programs and applications. Most specialized courses and main courses were provided in Arabic," he concluded.

Khabbaz expressed his happiness at the great achievement of KSC to obtain the PADI GoPro Award. "We are proud that PADI chose the swimming and diving center of KSC as part of its regional visit. This reflects the high standard of our center, which has become one of the best certified diving centers in the region. The PADI updates seminar, which is the most significant event in the diving industry, was previously held at KSC, as our training center is one of the five-star centers in the region," he explained.