What is PSAI Poland? - Interview with Robert Jablonski

Talking about organizations that train and certify divers, it is impossible to ignore the entity, which is the PSAI. The organisation has also been present in Poland for many years and, as it turns out, our compatriots hold a strong position in its main structures. We invite you to a short conversation with Robert Jablonski, one of the IT organizations in our country and recently a member of the Board and Vice President of the PSAI.

Since when is PSAI present on the Polish market?

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PSAI has been present in Poland since 2003 and I have also been an IT trainer instructor since 2003. However, in 2005 we signed a 10-year agreement for the so-called national licence, and in 2015, at the Dema Show held in Orlando, we signed a new agreement for another 10 years, i.e. until 2025. The PSAI representative for Poland, and at the same time the party who signed the agreement, is CCR Sp. z o.o.

What distinguishes PSAI as an organization from other, also current, training and certifying divers in Poland?

I think that what is most important for PSAI from the very beginning is that we do not care about the number of trained instructors and flooding the market with them, so that the organisation is visible everywhere, but much more about the quality of their training.

All the IT staff in Poland, and there are 8 of us in total, have been very carefully selected and at the moment we have no plans to expand this group.

What certainly makes us different is our training system. For example, our Advanced Open Water Diver course, unlike many of our competitors, has 3 levels: silver, gold and platinum. We were the first to introduce such specializations as twinset diver and full face mask diver.

When it comes to technical diving, the big difference between us and other technical diver training providers is the ABC – Advanced Buoyancy Control programme. A very difficult course from a practical point of view, being an introduction to technical diving.

However, when it comes to closed circuits, we have instructors in our ranks who train on Inspiration, Megalodon, X-CCR, Kiss Sidewinder and soon also on TReb.

Another thing that certainly sets us apart is PSAI founder and true diving legend Hal Watts’ original programme called Mr Scuba – Narcosis Management. This is a 5 level deep air diving course covering depths from 30 to 60m.

What for divers in Poland means a change in the board and the appearance of your person in it? Because you have joined the board of PSAI, can we now expect any changes in the organization of training in Poland?

Let’s start with the fact that there was no change in the board. I simply joined the PSAI board and was appointed as vice president of the organisation. As part of my duties, I am responsible for the training programme and training related to cave diving and exploration projects.

It seems to me that my appointment to such an important position shows the strong position of PSAI Poland, and that we have and will have a greater influence on what is happening in PSAI e.g. in terms of training programmes.

What are the plans for further expansion of PSAI in Poland?

To be honest, we are not interested in training hundreds of instructors a year, just in training a few that represent the highest standards. Of course, as an organisation we would like to train as many divers of each level as possible, but we want to do this to the highest standards. First of all we focus on the quality of the training and only then on the quantity. As I mentioned early, currently we have no vacancies for IT positions and there will be no more IT PSAI in Poland, so we continue to work at the grassroots level, training and doing it in the best possible way. This is our plan and way forward.