Thien Do
PADI Course Director

 Arrived in Phuket over 6 years ago, Thien was attracted to the island for her tremendous underwater marine life, great local and international food, and the first class professional training facilities.

Born in the former South Viet Nam, Thien grew up in California where he had lived for 20 years. A graduate of University of California at Santa Barbara, his professional life has been as a Stores Manager for Gap Inc. and a Business Development Manager for the team that launched E-greetings Network Inc. in 1999. Prior to making Scuba Diving his daily lifestyle, Thien’s hobbies included mountain trekking, running marathons, stumbling through triathlons, and had fallen off his skis and mountain bike quite often while searching for the ultimate “downhill adrenaline rush”.

Between the IDCs, Thien loves to go diving with his students, customers and friends to local and liveaboard dive sites. He also enjoys teaching all levels of PADI courses from beginner level to advanced level. When he's not diving, he spends some time trying to catch up with his other business, traveling or chilling with his friends.
  • Graduated from PADI Headquarters in California
  • Achieved "Platinum Course Director" status in 2007 (the highest frequent trainer level - achieved by only 98 out of 1,184 Course Direrectors worldwide)
  • The first and only Vietnamese-American Course Director
  • Specialty Instructor Trainer: Deep, DSAT Gas Blender, DPV, Naturalist, Navigation, Night, NITROX, Search & Recovery, Wreck
  • EFR Instructor Trainer
  • DAN Instructor Trainer
  • Have trained 500+ instructor level students
  • Have worked with 3 of leading PADI Course Directors in SE Asia
  • Business owner of two companies in Phuket & US
  • Language: English & Vietnames
Please email Thien for any comments and inquiries at thien@gopro-thailand.com or GoProThailand@gmail.com and he'll get back to you within 24 hours.

Thailand


Chrisopher Hutton
PADI IDC Staff Instructor 		Chris bacame PADI Instructor in early 2006 and met Thien in Phuket. Falling in love with life style in Phuket, he continued his Specialty instructor, MSDT and Staff Instructor training with Thien and now is one of the main staff at Calypso Divers.

  • Specialty Instructor:
  • EFR Instructor
  • Spends time teaching & guiding in Phuket and also in the Similans
  • Language: English. His Thai is also getting pretty good.

Polpich Komson (Aey)
PADI IDC Staff Instructor 		Aey met Thien over 6 years ago during thier PADI Divemaster training.

Aey travels between Phuket and Bangkok where he has his own business. A graduate from one of the top university in the nation, he is very talented archetecture/designer, enterprenuer and experienced English speaking Thai PADI IDC staff instructor.

Not only staffing IDCs, Aey has quite a few experience as Thai-English translator for PADI IEs.
  • Specialty Instructor
  • EFR Instructor
  • Have trained and worked with 20+ instructor level students
  • Have worked with 4 of leading PADI Course Directors on Phuket
  • Fins Magazine - associated publisher
  • Language: Thai and English
Please email Chris or Aey for any comments and inquiries at info@gopro-thailand.com or GoProThailand@gmail.com

Singapore


Thomas Koh
PADI Master Instructor

After becoming a PADI instructor, Thomas started his own dive center in Singapore. His center has grew one of the most reliable & successful dive centers in the area. Not only to staff IDCs, he enjoys travelling between Singapore, Malaysia and Phuket to take his customers to diving.

  • Specialty Instructor
  • EFR Instructor
  • Have trained and worked with 30+ professional level students
  • Owns and operates Sunny Cove in Singapore
  • Language: English and Chinese
Please email Thomas for any comments and inquiries at info@gopro-thailand.com or GoProThailand@gmail.com

USA & Thailand


Dave Purkeypile
PADI IDC Staff Instructor 		Dave met Thien about 4 years ago in Phuket and went diving in the Similans with Thien.

Dave is a native of California, USA. He have certified numbers of students in Bakersfield, CA before moved to Phuket in 2007.
  • Specialty Instructor:
  • EFR Instructor
  • Language: English
Please email Dave for any comments and inquiries at captainfrogscuba@gopro-thailand.com or GoProThailand@gmail.com

Thailand and other places


Sandris Grantins
PADI IDC Staff Instructor 		Sandris met Thien years ago during his IDC and then return to Thailand for his IDC Staff Instructor course with Thien. Then he return again to staff Thien's IDC and again with 30 Latvians to charter 2 liveaboards for 2007 new year!
  • Specialty Instructor (going for his MI rating)
  • EFR Instructor
  • Business owner in Latvia
  • Own a dive club & teaches PADI courses in Latvia
  • Language: Latvian, German and English

Dennis Kaandorp
PADI IDC Staff Instructor 		Thanks for all the fish photos on this page!

We can't reacall how Dennis & Thien met. He was kind of there one day and then was helping Thien's business diving & teaching. Then he was in Thien's IDC Staff Course.

We miss you!
  • Specialty Instructor
  • EFR Instructor
  • Managing a dive shop, teaching & guiding in Maldives
  • Language: English & Dutch
Please email Sandris or Dennis for any comments and inquiries at info@gopro-thailand.com or GoProThailand@gmail.com