A decade ago I wanted to expand my dive and training experience. At the time I was helping out on this club called Miramar Friesland in The Netherlands. But was seeking a way to go beyond the boundaries of the club. My answer? My own centre called Duikschool Onderwater.nu. (apologies a Dutch name 😉
Now the concept was a bit different than the dive centres that you might know. I was not looking for more obligations, loads of cost and so on. I was looking for a great way to expand my options but not limit my freedom.
There are already a lot of centres in The Netherlands. Most have a shop, their own teaching facilities and contract on pool rental. A lot of obligations that I was not looking for. So I decided to set up a flexible concept. Meaning rent a location or pool as needed. Use the facilities of other centers as in rental equipment and compressors. And just teach as I get requested in any location possible. And that is exactly what we did. Together with my good friend Paul, we were both NOB instructors, we started to do mostly speciality courses. After all we were still helping out at the club where we taught Open water, AOWD and so on. And honestly we had a ball.
We teach according to the concept of the Nederlandse Onderwatersport Bond, known as NOB ;-). It is basically a teaching method closely related to CMAS. And we had loads of fun teaching it.
These days I am still a NOB instructor trainer. But due to my job as a Cruise director and dive guide, I don’t teach NOB courses that much any more. Up until today the centre is still there and used at request.
