Alex Santos
IANTD Cave Instructor, Trimix and Technical Wreck Instructor Trainer, Founder and CEO of Philippine Technical Divers (PHILTECH)
At age 9, Alex began using scuba and would empty his uncle's tanks in a pool. His appetite for discovering the marine world naturally led him to technical diving, which he introduced to the Philippines in 1993, the same year he founded Philippine Technical Divers. In 1995, he became the Philippine Licensee for IANTD, spreading technical diving to the rest of Asia from where many students come to be trained.
Alex and his team at PHILTECH undertake commercial diving contracts. They have performed several repair and maintenance works for power plants and other large corporations. Being at the cutting edge of diving drove him to design and manufacture equipment that endures the rigors of his diving activities and extreme environments. Alex is also a practitioner of hyperbaric chamber therapy, but has long advocated oxygen in-water recompression. He has used oxygen in-water treatment to save a number of divers from possible permanent disability due to DCS.
Cave exploration, however, is his true passion, and he has made some good finds. He is a member of the Filipino Cave Divers, an active group of select individuals who apply their various expertise in the study, exploration, and preservation of underwater caves systems.
For many years, Alex has been involved in deep recovery work, both for valuable objects, and victims of drowning. His experience in victim recovery has been called upon many times in shipping accidents, as well as in aircraft crashes at sea. Alex has received several awards from the government for leading recovery operations during maritime disasters. He has trained recovery teams from other countries, and currently trains the Philippine Coast Guard's Special Operations Group in search and recovery techniques from deep inside wrecks.
Teaching technical diving still takes up most of his time. But the time he considers most valuable is that spent with his seven-year-old daughter Natalia. He always looks forward to diving with her, and remember just how good it is to look at fish!
