Tom Mount - NSS-CDS Workshop Speaker of the Week

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/TomMount.jpgTom Mount
Tom Mount is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of IAND, Inc./IANTD. He brings over 40 years of active diving leadership to IANTD. Tom's career includes military diving, commercial diving, research diving, saturation diving, supervision of saturation diving projects and a wide variety of recreational diving leadership positions. Tom owned a dive shop and commercial diving service company where he specialized in installing underwater communication cables for the Cape Kennedy missile range and salvage work from 1963 to 1968. During this period he formed the Aqua Marine Cave Dweller s (later renamed the Florida Cave Dwellers) from which he and Dave Desautels, Larry Briel, and Dale Malloy formed the first cave (technical) diving certification program in the USA, The National Association of Cave Divers (NACD). From 1968 to 1976 Tom was the Diving Officer at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS). While in this capacity he developed programs that had scientists routinely performing air dives to 240 fsw (72 msw) and Heliox to 300 fsw (90 msw). In addition, RSMAS was the most active university program involved in saturation dives. Tom participated in Tek Tite II, Hydrolab (supervision and performance of numerous saturation dives) and supervised the diving on the NOAA sponsored FLARE saturation diving project. From 1969 to 1976 Tom supervised the chambers at RSMAS which treated the vast majority of diving accidents in South Florida and the Bahamas.
Tom left RSMAS to become the Training Director for the National YMCA Underwater Activities Program. While there he was the Director of the Army Corps of Engineers Diver Training Program and the lead author of its training manual. Tom then spent a short period of his career as the Vice President of Marketing for Teach Tour Dive Travel Company and Resorts. Following this Tom continued his career as a diving consultant, instructor, free lance photographer, journalist, author, and marketing consultant. Tom became the Vice President of IAND, Inc. in 1991 and developed Standards and Procedures for technical diving. In 1992 he accepted Dick Rutkowski's proposal to become the President of IANTD and then in 1996 to become the CEO of IAND, Inc./IANTD. In 2006 Tom was voted to his current position of Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Since that time Tom has been active in IAND, Inc./IANTD and Tom Mount's Quality Diver Education. Tom has logged in excess of 11,000 dives including cave dives, wreck dives and dives deeper than 200 fsw (60 msw). Tom has been instrumental in developing rebreather training programs and in particular CCR programs. He is one of, if not the most experienced CCR divers in the world. Tom was the first to be a certified CCR Instructor. His deepest dive on CCR is to 537 fsw (160 msw). Tom is truly one of the most, if not the most, all around experienced technical divers in the world today.
Tom is the author of The Cave Diving Manual, Safe Cave Diving, The Greatest Adventure Photography, Practical Diving, The New Practical Diving, Mixed Gas Diving, The Army Corps of Engineering Course Syllabus, The Advanced Deep Air Diver Student Workbook, The Technical EANx Student Workbook, The Trimix Student Workbook and The Cave Diving Student Manual and Workbook, The Technical Diver Encyclopedia, A contibutor to various CCR manuals and workbooks, a contributor to the NOAA Dive Manual, author of hundreds of articles in various magazines worldwide. His photographs have received publication and acclaim internationally.
Tom has worked with the Cousteaus, Bruno Valetti and John Stoneman and several other production companies on various TV specials and has been involved in commercial and advertising photography. Tom is also a Master in Martial Arts, a licensed Coast Guard Captain and an airplane pilot. Tom is an IANTD Instructor Trainer at all levels, NACD Instructor, NAUI Instructor Trainer, PADI Instructor number 498, and is listed in the books Who's Who In Diving, and Pioneers In Diving. Tom has received dozens of awards for his contributions to diving. He is the recipient of diving's most prestigious award, the NOGI, for his contributions to Sports Education.