Thomas Heinemeyer has been diving since 1972 in different parts of the world.
He is a certified ANDI CCR Instructor Level 5 and Open Water Instructor and Trimix-Instructor OC (Level 5),
as well as CCR and OC Trimix Diver, Service Technician and Gas Blender. As an enthusiastic Inspiration diver
he will participate in coming deep wreck and deep wall projects. Thomas is a mechanical engineer by trade and
has built his professional career in the United States from 1992 – 2006. He returned to Europe in summer 2006
and therefore knows the US technical diving community relatively well. We are happy to welcome Thomas to our
team at dwd – deep wreck diving. His experience is a welcome enrichment in several areas. What follows is a
brief diving biography in his own words:
Growing up in Hamburg, Germany; I guess you can say my diving career began during the summer of ’72, when a
close family friend appeared with brand new diving equipment at our local lake. Already an enthusiastic snorkeler,
my father and I (8y at the time) immediately plunged in with him. All three of us dropped to the muddy bottom at
around 40’ and swam around for about 10min. Just imagine the picture for a moment: We had no suits, no BCs, fins
from Woolworth, not even a pressure gauge and only one regulator to share between the three of us – BUT! I had
already an “authentic Jacques Cousteau diving knife” firmly strapped to my shin - an essential piece of equipment
for an 8 year old. Looking back, it probably has been one of the more “unwise” things I have done - but still,
it has left me with one of the most memorable experiences of my childhood and is probably an important reason
for my affinity to the sea. Needless to say, after this rather unorthodox start my father and I were hooked and
decided to put some formal training around it. During the winter of ’72 we got our first CMAS certification in
the Baltic Sea. A couple years later I started to work as an assistant scuba diving instructor on Malta during my
summer breaks. In college I took on underwater rugby and amateur free diving. Dive trips have taken me to some of
the most wonderful places in the world: Adriatic Sea, Bavarian & Austrian lakes, Caribbean, Maldives, Malta,
North/Baltic Sea, Red Sea, Sardinia, Sicily, and Spain. All of my dives had been on conventional equipment and
compressed air (even the deeper ones). Driven by curiosity and nudged by friends I started to venture into the
world of rebreathers in 2001 – And there is NO WAY that I am going BACK!
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