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When Steffi and Marek started working at Komandoo a year ago they decided to offer the resort staff the opportunity to learn to dive. Not only did they want to share their love of the ocean with colleagues from other departments but also let them see the incredible marine life beneath the waves, creating awareness of the fragility of the underwater environment. The team spirit on Komandoo was already great and this initiative contributed to making the inter-departmental bonds even stronger.

The idea was fantastic but the scheduling wasn’t easy – they are an extremely busy bunch! However, with the resort staff making good use of their ‘off-time’ and Prodivers dedicating time at non-busy periods they have had some fantastic achievements…

Abigail from the Philippines, working at the Human Resources department, completed her PADI Open Water Diver (OWD) course with Carola, an instructor from Kuredu, and became so hooked on diving that she went straight on to do her Nitrox course followed by the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course with Steffi. She is a great diver with almost 50 logged dives and can’t get enough of diving.

Ibbe from Water Sports completed his OWD course together with Imad and Shimaal, waiters from the Maldives. When Steffi took them on their first boat dive recently they saw 10 bottlenose dolphins underwater as well as a shark and lots of turtles at Kuredu Caves! Two more waiters, Ali and Rasheed are part way through their OWD courses with Oliver who has recently joined the team on Komandoo, moving from Vakarufalhi; the pair can’t wait to finish their course so they can go diving more often.

Amanda, the Housekeeping Manager from Zimbabwe, gained her OWD certification after a course with Marek and in true team spirit, Scott from Hurawalhi helped out with conducting some of Amanda’s confined water sessions too! The chefs wanted to be part of the underwater action too with Sachin and Sujan from Nepal taking part in the Discover Scuba Diving program last year.

It’s quite exciting for everyone involved and it spreads lots of happiness, so much so that word is spreading and the waiting list for staff to take part in diving courses is growing.

The results of this ‘teach the team to dive’ initiative have been truly amazing – it’s so rewarding to see the waiters and chefs chatting to the guests in the restaurant about diving and to see guests and staff having a great afternoon together on the dive boats with smiling faces all around – it makes it all worthwhile. With diving as a common language, all ethnicities, nationalities and backgrounds are united and it seems all resort departments are too!