Scotsman Takes Long, Winding Road to PADI Instructor

Ewan Greenwood keeps Aquanauts’ 40-month 100% pass rate intact

Course Director Roger M. Smith congratualtes new PADI OWSI Ewan Greenwood. (Click to enlarge.)

It took a few months longer than planned, but Scotsman Ewan Greenwood is now the latest Aquanauts intern to become a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor.

Greenwood, 46, came to Aquanauts in January 2010 as a newly minted PADI Open Water Diver. The former social worker did his course in the U.K. and recalled it was “freezing,” even in a dry suit. The appeal of changing his life and becoming a PADI instructor in the warm seas of Thailand seemed like just the adventure he was looking for.

Greenwood’s internship was originally for three months, but things slid out of April and into June, when he did his Instructor Development Course. But a last-minute change saw him postpone actually taking the Instructor Exam and head back to the U.K. for a few months.

He came back in late September, did a bit of a refresher and stormed into the I.E. in Pattaya Oct. 8. Unlike students from other schools, Greenwood failed nothing and needed no make-ups, keeping up Aquanauts’ tradition of turning out the area’s best instructors.

Aquanauts now has a perfect, 100 percent pass rate for 40 consecutive months, the longest of any PADI instructor training facility in Thailand.

The I.E., Greenwood said, was a bit easier than his IDC. “The exams are what spooked me. I knew once I got past those I’d be fine, as I’m quite happy in the water,” he said.

Greenwood now will spend the next two months with Aquanauts working on his Master Scuba Diver Trainer rating.