Commercial Dive Academy
A beacon of excellence in the global diving industry – is nestled in the pristine waters of Tasmania. We train aspiring commercial divers across Australia, from the iconic Great Barrier Reef to the rugged South-West of Western Australia.
Established in 1993 by the Commonwealth Government and reinvigorated in 2017 under the visionary leadership of Alan Strong, CDA proudly stands as the only institution offering saturation dive training to depths of 300 meters.
Certified by ADAS and ADCI and fully IMCA compliant, CDA sets the benchmark for safety, efficiency, and comprehensive training. Our courses, meticulously crafted to meet the demands of sectors from scientific research to offshore oil and gas, range from basic SCUBA to Surface Supplied Air and Closed Bell mixed gas diving.
CDA holds prestigious training contracts from defence with the Royal Australian Navy to the world’s largest oil and gas servicing and salvage companies.
Our unique capabilities, including a fully operational hyperbaric rescue chamber, position us at the forefront of the industry. We ensure our graduates are not just certified but truly prepared for the challenges ahead.
With a steadfast commitment to excellence, CDA boasts an unrivalled 100% job placement rate, reflecting the industry’s trust in our training and our graduates’ prowess.
CDA – Tasmanian Business Excellence Export Award Winner.
The resilience of the Commercial Dive Academy was recognised in 2021 at the Tasplan business excellence awards. Pictured above, Alan, Susan and Tasport Sponsor Kate proudly received the excellence in export award.
In 2018, 19 and 20 CDA issued over 500 Diver certifications and found employment for every student that chose CDA as there training provider. Tasplan recognised both our results for students as well as ability to work dynamically with employers across the globe to export skills that they felt were unrivalled across Australia in a myriad of industries from, civil construction, science, salvage, aquaculture and military operations.
CDA aspires to offer worlds best practice in training solutions for the hyperbaric industry and each day, more and more organisations are recognising our success and worlds highest level of dive training.
Why choose the Commercial Dive Academy?
We set you up to stay ahead of your competitors
CDA has a combined training staff of 10 tutors across our full range of courses.
Our ten tutors are from a combined six different countries and three continents.
The cultural diversity at CDA and our willingness to provide training for a wide range of client needs is what has led to CDA being the diving school of choice in Australia. This is why around 90 percent of all Commercial Dive Training and company sponsorship is through CDA.
In 2019 over 100 students of CDA were sponsored by companies from a wide range of industries. We believe we are the only diving school in the world to receive this level of industry support. This support is a large reason why CDA is the only Diving school in the world that can boast a 100% job placement rate.
Meet the Team
With connections all over the world CDA has the ability to source the best tutors and dive specialist for all its courses.
Alan Strong
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2, ADAS Part 3, ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
Stephen Clark
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2, ADAS Part 3, Supervisor, DMT
Steve has been teaching offshore commercial diving since 1996, beginning in Fort William in Scotland before teaching at The Underwater Centre in Tasmania. He then moved to start training with Alan Strong at The NZ School of Commercial Diver Training and then later returned to work at CDA in Tasmania. Steve holds a unique understanding of training in various parts of the world.
Awie Thomas
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2
Awie is an experienced recreational diving trainer with many years’ experience as a commercial diver as well. Awie has decided to combine teaching with commercial diving and is now teaching CDA’s ADAS Part 1 and ADAS Part 2 courses.
Simon Talbot
ADAS Part 1 Scientific
Simon served as Diving Officer at the University of Tasmania for 25 years and has over 40 years of scientific diving experience. He has been conducting ADAS courses for scientific divers since 2004 and currently focusses on teaching our scientific dive courses at Orpheus Island.
Roger Dennerly
ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Roger, one of our incredible saturation supervisors has over 40 years’ experience working in the oil and gas diving industry and more than 20 years of experience as an IMCA & ADAS bell (saturation) superintendent.
Spending most of his life managing large projects throughout Asia and Pacific, Roger brings a wealth of knowledge and connections into the CDA training team.
Mohammed Ewida
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2, ADAS Part 3, ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
Terry Elding
ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
Roger Cole
ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
Nelson Overton
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2, ADAS Part 3, ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
Andrew Mason
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2, ADAS Part 3, ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
Felipe Prada
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2, ADAS Part 3, ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
Michael Strong
ADAS Part 1, ADAS Part 2, ADAS Part 3, ADAS Part 4, Supervisor, DMT
Alan holds over 30+ years’ experience in the oil and gas diving industry and 20 years ownership of ADAS Commercial Diver training schools.
“I loved diving and my career in the industry, my hope is that all my children become commercial divers and have far greater success than I ever could have dreamed of. If I could go back, the only part of my career I would change is doing this sooner.”
