About our Instructor Claus Rasmussen

Claus Rasmussen had his first diving experiences in the mid-90’s while on holidays in Cyprus. Although he enjoyed the experiences his work-schedule, running his own Physio and massage therapy service as well as working with refugees and asylum seekers through Danish Red Cross, did not allow him to pursue it any further until the change of the Millennia.

After finishing his PADI Open Water Course in Denmark and doing a few dives around Denmark and Sweden, he started going on holidays to Egypt. This was where he got really hooked, both on diving in general but especially on warm water diving.

PADI Staff instructor level

Claus arrived in Thailand in January of 2002. The general idea was to travel around a bit and maybe complete the PADI Rescue Diver Course. Just about 6 months later he returned to Denmark as a Certified Instructor. It did not take many hours before planning began for the next trip back to asia.

By the end of 2003 Claus had reached the level of PADI IDC Staff Instructor, done his first technical dive course -IANTD Advanced Nitrox, and while working in Malaysia started to do Deep Air Diving. All in all not a bad 11 months.

Thailand since 2004

Triton MCCR in SimilansBy early 2004 Claus was back in Thailand after pretty much having packed up his life in Denmark. A job as a multi lingual instructor shared between 3 dive centers in Pattaya had already been set up the previous November. But inside a couple of months he was on permanent staff with Mermaids Dive Center, the then only PADI CDC in the area and a major Internship training facility. He was also part of a small international group that started up Barcode Divers, a Thailand based company that imported and traded dive equipment and apparel like Pinnacle Wetsuits, Draeger Rebreathers, Dive Gear and Amphibious Outfitters shirts etc.

By the middle of 2004 and until 2007 Claus Rasmussen played a major role in the involvement of the internship programs and professional level courses conducted at Mermaids and taught on nearly 30 PADI IDC’s with numbers between 1 and 28 candidates.

December 2006 brought the untimely demise of the owner of Mermaids CDC and Claus had to step up and became the manager of the company. In the time he held that role he initiated the restructure of the company and put a new management team in place. That team is still managing/partners in the company.

Cambodia

In 2008, in the search for a bit of a change, Claus left Thailand for Cambodia. What was supposed to be a few months of normal instructor work ended up becoming almost 18 months, as the owners of Scuba Nation –the first PADI Dive Centre took him on as manager of their shop.

But Thailand was calling so Claus Rasmussen relocated his family to Phuket. After a few years of freelance work and quite a long stint with Scuba Cat Diving, a PADI CDC and later SSI Instructor Training Facility he is now shareholder and full-time with Blue Label Diving.

Which agencies

Through his diving career Claus has been teaching divers of all levels and have held Instructor or Instructor Trainer ratings with multiple agencies including DAN, DSAT, EFR, PADI, PSAI, TDI and SSI..  He also works with the local Recompression Chamber as a Tender and Operator.

In June and July 2018 Claus was, just like Ben Reymenants, heavily involved in the Cave Rescue of the 12 kids, The Boars, and their coach. Claus arrived at Tham Luang Cave in Chang Rai on the 2nd of July and was there until the last kids was carried out of the cave. 

Technical Diving instructor Levels

  • Megalodon Rebreather
  • Triton Instructor
  • Poseidon Seven Instructor
  • TDI all levels
  • SSI all levels
  • PADI all levels
  • TDI cave all levels