Meet Your Instructors

Atlantis Tech Manager Matt Reed has been diving since the age of 12, doing the majority of his training in British waters. Five years after graduating University there and leaving the country, he has worked in diving in a variety of destinations, always searching out the deeper spots to dive. A friend and student of John Bennett's for 2 years, Matt is a TDI Instructor Trainer, with an extensive knowledge of technical diving. He is fully cave trained and can be found in Florida on his holidays.

Like John before him, Matt is crazy about wreck diving, and was one of the first divers to see the USS Perry in Palau at 76m when it was discovered in 2000, after 56 years on the bottom.

Matt came to Atlantis Tech following a year teaching and guiding in Truk Lagoon, and he can often be found conducting advanced wreck penetration courses on the WWII wrecks in Subic Bay.

Due to his reputation in the industry he is now a beta tester for Scubapro tech computers, and is always willing to gloat about the fact that he is wearing free computers on his arm!

Mike is originally from the UK. He first became interested in tech diving whilst helping to lead a 10 week wreck diving expedition, which circled the globe. Suffice to say that the need for further training became ‘apparent’ whilst diving at 55m (200ft) on a single tank on the President Coolidge in Vanuatu. We’ve all done it, the wise learn from experience.

John Bennett introduced Mike to Atlantis Tech in 2003 and the rest is history.

Mike is a TDI instructor teaching all the way up to Advanced Trimix including Advanced Wreck. He has experience diving all over the world in a variety of conditions, but his passion is for wrecks. So ask him what his favourite wreck is diving experience is if you have a spare few hours!

Since joining us he has refined and improved on the courses which we have been teaching here since John Bennett conceived Atlantis Tech. He has also developed the TDI Enhanced Skills speciality course, which has been so successful that it has been copied!

He’s one of the few instructors on the beach who is purely dedicated to tech, is highly knowledgeable about all aspects of tech diving and he actually does tech diving for fun in his spare time! This may sound like a strange thing to say, however very few instructors still have that passion.

Unlike many instructors he sets high standards for his students, believing that they should be able to cope with problems underwater rather than just hoping that things go well. As such you will receive a technical diving course from him, rather than a recreational course on doubles.

Andy is from Dover in England. His travels brought him to Puerto Galera over 10 years ago, with a planned stop for "a couple of months" on his way to Hong Kong. Over a decade later and he is still in PG.

Andy has been diving for 15 years, has been a PADI course director since 1999 and was one of the first technical instructors in the Philippines.

He was a support diver on John Bennett’s 1000ft dive as well as being the project manager for the entire day, and as if that wasn’t enough was involved in the planning of the dive to the Princess of the Orient.

He is a keen a runner, if you fancy a look at some of the trails around Puerto Galera.

Pedro grew up on a beach in the Philippines, in fact he grew up here on Sabang beach in Puerto Galera. Locally raised and educated he has moved from life carrying tanks in a dive shop in 1993 to training other instructors and running one of the most successful dive teams in the country.

Although Pedro is primarily routed on the recreational side of things, he is available to teach Advanced Nitrox / Deco Procedures and guides in the 40m – 60m range.

Pedro’s main claim to fame is that his butt was shown on the TV documentary of John’s 1000ft dive. Pedro was a support diver for the event.