PHILIPP OTTO BREICHA

Scubadiving is like space traveling. you are in fascinating but quixotic surroundings – completely depending on your equipment. and if you can manage it – you are totally weightless

Philipp was born in 1966 in Austria and raised in Vienna. Since his childhood, he was fascinated by the underwater world but, due to a perforated eardrum he was not allowed to dive. During his time, he spent endless hours exploring the shallow waters and the shorelines during his family vacations in Croatia. 

As soon as he got the medical go ahead, he started training and became addicted to diving. In 2007, he became a Divemaster and in 2008 he reached the Assistant Instructor rating. 

In 2010 he became a partner of Under Pressure at the Attersee in Austria and became an Instructor in 2011  after finishing his IDC with Ben Walzinger and the IE by Dive Asia in Phuket. Since 2012, he spends his time on the fascinating island of Gozo. In 2018 he got the opportunity to become part of Gozo Diving, leading recreational diving activities. He now spends two months in spring and two months in autumn on Gozo.

Total number of dives: +2000
First dive: 2006
Training agency: PADI

Tom Steiner Van Den Ouweelen

DIRECTOR OF DIVING

Teaching diving for me is more than a lifestyle; it's my passion, it's a part of me.

Tom is a Technical Instructor Trainer living in Gozo, Malta. His passion is teaching technical diving and cave diving either in backmount (double tank) or sidemount configuration. After 40 years in the water, Tom's extensive experience will provide you with the most interesting and demanding courses that you could possibly ask for. The training is tough but through this, you will become a very good diver.

“One important key to extreme diving is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is training and to never overestimate your self-confidence...” — Tom Steiner

Tom was born in 1965, in Switzerland, 1 km from Bulle (which means Bubble in French!). He speaks and writes seven languages fluently (EN, F, D, SP, NL, I & HUNG) and also has good knowledge of Arabic. Tom started diving during a holiday in 1979 with an intro dive in Barbados. After returning to Switzerland, he decided to start his diving education in Lake Geneva, (Montreux). 90% of all of Tom's diving education took place in the cold, dark Swiss lakes with the other 10% in the Mediterranean Sea. He started with CMAS adding additional agency certifications with PADI, TDI, SDI, EDA, NRC, IANTD, BSAC, PROTEC, ISE and ANDI Instructor.

After over 36 years of professional diving, Tom has now completed over 15,600 dives and a total of 2,500 hours on rebreathers. He has worked in the diving industry all over the world and has also presented seminars on technical diving at a number of international dive shows and events. He is an EDA Examiner, CMAS Course Director & Examiner, TDI, SDI, PADI TECREC Instructor Trainer, INNERSPACE Explorers Instructor Trainer, PADI Master Scuba Instructor, Master Freediving Instructor and finally a BSAC & IANTD Instructor.

Tom has trained instructors all over the planet and is one of the most experienced and sought after Technical Diving Instructor Trainers in the world. Tom has also trained Astronauts at the European Space Agency and performed rebreather training for the Greek Navy and Coast Guard.

In addition to his work as a technical diving instructor, Tom has been involved in providing dive safety at a number of high profile events. In 2000, he organized the AIDA Freediving World Championship at Lake Geneva where his team was responsible for the safety of 48 freedivers. During this event his team had to endure four hours non-stop underwater at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. Tom has personally acted as safety diver for world renown freedivers Loic Leferme, Fred Buyle and Sarah Campbell. He has also provided safety diver services to Pascal Bernabe (former world deepest dive record holder at 330 meters), assisting him during his training sessions and deep trimix courses.

Tom has been involved in a number of prominent marine movie projects including "330 Metres Below the Sea" and "22 minutes". He has written and translated books on Rebreather and Nitrox Diving and developed the first Tec Sidemount course in the diving industry. He moved to Gozo in February 2012 after having spent 15 years diving and working in Sinai, Egypt. In Egypt, he was the Manager of Dahab Divers Lodge and then the owner of two dive centers; Fantaseatec and Dahab Divers Technical. 

Tom is located in Gozo, Malta from March to end October and teaches technical diving courses around the world during the northern hemisphere winter.

Total number of dives: +15,600
Rebreather hours: 2,500 (Inspiration, SF1, Draeger, OMG "Azimuth", Voyager)
Cave dives: +2,000 (Spain, France, Mexico, Malta, Egypt)
Dives between 40 to 100 meters: +4,000
Dives between 100-150 meters: +250
Dives between 150-200 meters: 5
First dive: 1979
Training agencies : TDI/SDI and PADI
SDI AND TDI : Instructor Trainer Ambassador