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Jim Hutchinson
 
Course Director

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Kenneth Stromberg
 

Course Director

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Kaja Danda

Master Instructor

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Ulrike Wetzel

IDC Staff Instructor

Clear Water

MEET OUR TEAM

PADI PRO'S

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James "Jim" Hutchinson

Platinum Course Director #151979

Jim learned to dive in 1990 on Australia’s world famous Great Barrier Reef, an experience that that truly changed his life and sent him down the long and amazing road of Professional Scuba Diving.Jim hails from England, and shortly after completing his B.A in History and Political Science decided to pursue his new passion of SCUBA diving and enrolled in a Commercial Diving program in England’s South East. Diving in sewage plants, paper mills and even giant vats of milk was an education but the call of warmer, clearer tropical waters was too strong to resist and Jim left for South America with the goal of teaching SCUBA diving somewhere warm, beautiful and exotic.Jim eventually landed in Honduras where he became a PADI Instructor and spent the next 10 years earning a reputation as a true professional Pro. Known for fun, thorough and professional teaching, Jim was soon rising up the PADI ladder and was certified a PADI Course Director in 2003.Jim went on to work for PADI 5 Star CDC centers in Honduras, Thailand, Australia and Mexico. In 2007 he was recruited by PADI as Regional Manager for north Australia and Papua New Guinea working with over 90 PADI Dive Centers and resorts to achieve their goals and grow their business. This experience has been a huge benefit to all who worked with and learned under Jim over the following years.Now in Cozumel, Jim has teamed up with Cozumel Dive School with the mutual goals of establishing one of the greatest PADI 5 Star IDC centers in the Caribbean, and the world.With over 6000 logged dives (and counting) Jim’s interests revolve around underwater photography, Free Diving, Marine conservation and anything involving fish, critters and the amazing aquatic realm. In his free time Jim is an avid sports fan, outdoorsman, reader and foodie. Jim loves teaching PADI Courses of all levels, especially the Divemaster, Instructor and Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT) professional-level courses and programs.

Jimmy
Ken on Rebreather

Kenneth "Ken" Stromberg 

Platinum Course Director #322656

A Swede who decided to turn his career from Swedish Armed Forces and Construction Engineering into a diving instructor profession on a Caribbean island of Cozumel. The same Swede who decided that Go Pro Cozumel & Dive Master Internships, 2 programs training PADI professionals on Cozumel, should be accompanied by a dive school teaching non-professionals the art of scuba-diving. His adventure with diving started in 1998, in Phuket, Thailand and continued through the waters of Cambodia, Jordan, Egypt, Croatia, Spain, Sweden, Costa Rica and Jamaica until 2011, when on Maldives he heard about Divemaster Internships on Cozumel. ‘I knew it was the right program for me. I packed up and flew to Mexico, where I completed my Divemaster and Assistant Instructor training. I came back to Sweden but couldn’t really adjust back to what they call a ‘normal’ life. I returned to Cozumel and became a fully certified PADI Instructor in 2014. Since then I have certified over 2000 students, took over the business from my mentor Mike Sobel, became a Course Director 2021 and developed quite strong position in diving industry on the island. My passion is Tec Diving: in 2016 I went to Dahab in Egypt to reach the depth of 100 m. I am currently a Trimix Diver and Tec Deep Instructor and I have just recently started another exciting adventure: diving with a rebreather.’

Ken
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Karolina "Kaja" Danda 

Master Instructor #396112

More info coming soon

Kaja
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Ulrike "Uli" Wetzel 

IDC Staff Instructor #519227

Team member of Cozumel Dive School since 2021. Uli is our Operational Manger organizing the daily operations. German citizen with a background as a project manager in a global bank in Europe. She is an volunteer at Cozumel Ocean Research with favorite animal spotted eagle ray and nurse shark. Uli is an outdoor lover and mountaineer, a Ayurveda Health Coach and love cooking. But her favourite happy place is in her 7mm wetsuit.

Uli
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