Ex-Aquanauts Intern Helps Raise $6,000 for PADI’s Proejct AWARE

Posted on 09/26/10 No Comments

Now Course Director Tom West Auctions Off Himself for Charity

Former Aquanauts intern and now PADI Course Director Tom West

Former Aquanauts intern and now PADI Course Director Tom West. (Click to enlarge.)

An Aquanauts intern who trained to become a PADI instructor in 2006-2007 helped raise for than $6,000 for PADI”s Project AWARE conservation program when the Indonesia dive center where he now serves as Course Director joined five other shops in a football tournament and charity auction.

Tom West of Blue Season Bali — one of two Aquanauts interns who’ve so far risen to the Course Director level — and Bali Crystal Divers, Puri Wirata Dive Resort, Divemasters, Bali Hai Diving Adventures and Atlantis International all swapped their diving fins for football boots in the first ever 5 A-Side Soccer Tournament for Project AWARE Foundation.  Each dive centre submitted a team and, based on a point system, progressed through to each round of the competition.

The centers also donated over $3,000 worth of prizes which were auctioned off at an evening event at Stiff Chilli.  About $1,000 worth of prizes was donated by Vimal Lekhraj from DiveMasters.

Former Aquanauts intern and now PADI Course Director Tom West

Then intern Tom West shakes PADI Instructor Examiner Rob Scammell's hand after posting a 99.5% perfect score on the January 2007 Instructor Exam. (Click to enlarge.)

The finale, according to Underwater Asia, came with the auctioning of PADI Course Directors, including West, whose rise to the pinnacle of the PADI world was predicted by Aquanauts before he even took his Instructor Exam in January 2007, scoring the highest marks ever or since recorded by an Aquanauts intern on the I.E.

Tom West from Blue Season Bali ran the Auction show and got the crowd spending big especially when it came to auctioning off some of the PADI Course Directors. Course Directors ‘sold’ themselves as personal slaves for half a day to the lucky bidder.  Slave tasks included cooking, cleaning, tank refills – you name they had to do it (within reason!)

“The bidding for the PADI Course Directors Slave Auction got really competitive.  One Course Director went for 6.4 million IDR!”, said Tony Andrews, PADI Regional Manger.

Congratulations to Tom and all the Project AWARE benefactors over in Bali. Mr. West has made us all at Aquanauts very proud.