We’d like to thank Kevin Evans and Simon Watton for caretaking the agency since 2008, and wish them well in future projects. Now, we’re in for a very exciting time because currently IANTD UK (www.iantd.uk.com) is in a very good position to grow and expand. After all, virtually every experienced diver and instructor in the UK has done an IANTD training course at some point in their career.
 
Whilst this announcement doesn’t immediately seem to be that important to the-diver-in-the-sea, it’s of more significance to the UK dive shops and training centres.

Stanton said: “From today, we are delighted to announce fulltime superior support ensuring same day despatch of materials, efficient processing of qualification cards and high quality assurance. We know that, at the end of the day, a good course primarily comes down to the quality of the instructor rather than the agency.

A good way of demonstrating this is by looking at Mark Powell (TDI), Phill Short (IANTD) and Rich Walker (GUE) in the water—there’s not much to tell them apart. So, get a well-trained, experienced instructor, and you gain so much more from your course. Hence, it’s very important to us that we focus on high quality assurance and training, delivering from the top downwards. Consequently, we’re delighted to announce that Phill Short will be the new UK Training Director whose remit will include Standards of Training.”

Fortunate
“As an Instructor, Instructor Trainer and Instructor Trainer Trainer who has maintained loyalty to one technical agency throughout my career—IANTD—I’m honoured that Tom Mount and Joe Dituri have asked me to be involved with the new management team at IANTD UK,” stated Phill Short. “I was very lucky to be introduced to the world of technical diving and the diving opportunities it could offer me by Kevin Gurr. Over the years, I’ve gained experience through teaching and knowledge on further instructor courses and diving on many cave and wreck expeditions. I also consider myself fortunate that I’ve been trained and evaluated as a Cave Instructor by Tom Mount.
 
“Being appointed UK Training Director and work alongside Martin Stanton is very exciting because it gives me the perfect opportunity to share some of the incredible things I’ve learnt over the last 15 years. I very much look forward to raising the quality training bar with my colleagues to help create safer and better educated divers at all levels.”

From rookie to tekkie
In 1990, Short completed his PADI Open Water Course in order to use SCUBA to pass short flooded sections of dry caves in Mendip and South Wales. His passion at the time (which he maintains to this day) was dry caving and climbing. Short, however, was bitten by the diving bug, and he continued his diving education under the guidance of Course Director Steve Axtell.

In 1991, Short qualified as a PADI Instructor and began teaching full time, working his way up to Master Instructor. During this period, he began developing his technical diving skills through training with Kevin Gurr, and in 1993, was involved in forming one of the first Trimix wreck diving teams in the UK. He is now one of the UK’s foremost IANTD Instructor Trainers.

Film work
Having spent three years developing his technical skills, Short began to use them for cave diving, his true passion, on expeditions to Mallorca, France and Spain. At the same time, he began teaching technical diving full time for Phoenix Oceaneering.

Over the years, Short has been involved in film projects for ITV, BBC and Channel 4 on the M1 submarine, the shipwrecks from the battle of Jutland and cave diving projects in Northern Spain and the UK. He recently trained the presenters and assisted with the filming of the BBC Oceans series. He has also taken part as a closed circuit rebreather diver in several shipwreck search projects in the Western Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.

Short has also been leading a continuing cave exploration project in the Ural Mountains in Russia and digging underwater in his pet project (Swildon’s Hole) in the Mendips, England. He has been diving professionally for 15 years and has logged over 5,000 dives in caves and open water using both open and closed circuit equipment.

A bit about Stanton
Martin Stanton is a highly successful businessman, having owned, managed and sold a number of multi-million-pound businesses. A proven self-starter, with management experience at the highest levels in a UK plc, Stanton demonstrates commitment, leadership and strength in even the toughest of commercial environments. With a strong IT background, Stanton has developed systems for some of the largest firms and institutions in the world.

Stanton and his wife, Amy, decided a number of years ago to combine their passion for diving with their business skills to develop a centre of excellence for diver training in the UK. The first step of this vision was realized when they acquired Vobster Quay, one of the UK’s premier diving facilities and recently voted the UK’s favourite inland site by an online poll. The Stantons are extremely proud of Vobster Quay, and many would say rightly so. Having spent the last two years developing Vobster Quay, the Stantons are now embarking on the next leg of this adventure by taking on the UK license for IANTD, the world’s senior technical diving agency.

IANTD UK can be contacted by email: info@iantd.uk.com, or telephone 0845 644 0635.

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