Our instructors

Nathie and Damien, two diving professionals

Passionate and fully qualified, our diving instructors in Martinique guide you from your very first try dive right through to advanced certifications. Each of us has our own specialities and qualifications, and we all share the same commitment to safety and the same love of Caribbean waters.

In small groups, the supervision adapts to your level and to what you want to see. We know the island's best sites inside out, from the Rocher du Diamant to the wrecks of Saint-Pierre, in a protected environment monitored by the Martinique Marine Nature Park.

Nathie

• BEES level 1 diving instructor (French state qualification)
• PADI Instructor certification
• E.F.R first aid instructor certification
• Marine biology guide
• Fin swimming instructor
• TIV equipment inspector, BEES judo and jiu-jitsu, adapted sport option
• BEES all-activities instructor, kayak instructor
• Class II B commercial diver

Damien

• BEES level 1 diving instructor (French state qualification)
• PADI Instructor certification
• Federal instructor, second degree
• E.F.R first aid instructor certification
• Marine biology guide
• TIV equipment inspector
• BEES all-activities equivalence
• Class 2A commercial diver

Together since 2005

We have been diving together since 2005, the year Histoire d'Air was founded. More than twenty years on the same sites, in every season and every condition. We know the Martinique seabed like the back of our hand.

That knowledge is what separates a decent dive from the one you are still talking about that evening.

Which languages we speak

We run the club in French, and we speak enough English to brief you, guide you safely and answer your questions. If you are more comfortable in English, tell us when you book and we will take the time.

What our qualifications actually mean

The acronyms only speak to divers. Here is what they change for you.

• BEES level 1: the French state diploma for diving instructors. It is what allows us to teach professionally, which no club-level certificate does.
• E4 for Damien, E3 for Nathie: the two highest grades of the French federal teaching ladder.
• PADI Instructor certification: we know the international system from the inside, so we can handle your crossover without making you repeat what you already know.
• First aid: it has been part of the job from day one, not an optional extra.
• TIV visual cylinder inspection: our tanks are checked in-house, every year.
• Marine biology guides: we can name what you see, and tell you why it lives there.
• Class 2A and 2B commercial divers: our underwater works qualifications. They are not what supervises your dive, but they say a great deal about our relationship with water.

Who takes you, and for what

Damien usually handles try dives and Level 1 courses. He is the one who will put your head underwater for the first time.

Nathie takes Level 2 and Level 3 courses.

This split has nothing to do with our commercial diving qualifications. It is simply how we work, and it has worked from the start.

If water frightens you

We have taken everyone diving. Experienced divers looking for sites they did not know, curious beginners, and a great many people who were afraid.

Nathie holds a French teaching qualification for people with disabilities. That training teaches one precious thing: move at the other person's pace, never your own. It is exactly what someone anxious about water needs.

If a fear of water has always held you back, tell us when you arrive. We will never make you do anything you have not decided to do.

Morning coffee, and a planteur after the dive

Histoire d'Air is a family-run club. Coffee and tea are on us every morning, and there is a planteur, the local rum punch, after every dive, to talk over what we saw.

It is a small thing. It is also, very often, what people remember.