Each year, leading scuba equipment supplier - Oceanic Australia convenes the Oceanic Scuba Centres Conference. This year the Conference was held in beautiful Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia and involved the country’s finest scuba retailers and an array of very impressive local and international speakers.

As part of the Conference, Oceanic Australia sponsors a prestigious award - the Oceanic Legends Award. The Award recognizes industry peers who have made a significant and outstanding contribution to scuba diving. Terry Cummins, currently International Vice President Marketing Metrics & Performance for PADI Worldwide, was presented with this year’s Award. 

Terry’s roots lie in the pioneering days of spear fishing, dive instruction, dive retailing and the early exploration of Australian diving sites including the underwater caves of Mount Gambier, South Australia.

Notably in 2007 Terry was presented with the OZTeK Award for his “Contribution to Technical Diving in Australia”, but back in the early 80s, Terry together with his partners in Pro Dive; Rick Poole, Russell de Groot and Kevin Deacon (now of Dive 2000) were busy establishing the world’s first dive retail franchise chain.  

Instrumental in establishing PADI as a training agency within Australia from the early 70’s, Terry left Pro Dive as its Managing Director in 1982 and co-found PADI Australia - a licensee of PADI International and the first PADI office in Australia. Terry served first as PADI Australia’s Training Director and later CEO and also went on to assist with the founding of PADI New Zealand and contributed to the introduction of formal training standards in several Pacific Islands. 

Mrs Robyn Kitt with Terry Cummins (International Vice President Marketing Metrics & Performance for PADI Worldwide) receiving the Ocean Legend Award for 2008 from Russell Kit (Chief Executive of Oceanic Australia) at the Oceanic Scuba Centres Conference, held the Opal Cove Resort in Coffs Harbour, NSW.

In 1999 following the merger of PADI Australia, PADI New Zealand and PADI Singapore, which formed PADI’s Asia Pacific office, located in Sydney’s Frenchs Forest, Terry moved to PADI Worldwide where he works as a Senior Executive and Corporate Officer to this day.Apart from this latest honour from Oceanic Australia, Terry has been the recipient of several other significant industry awards over the years including the Dive Australia Scuba Excellence Award (1993) and an award for his “Contribution to the Promotion of the Australian Dive Industry”. 

In a career spanning over 40 years, apart from his many achievements, Terry has co-founded and served as a senior officer on several dive industry associations across the Asia Pacific region, including those connected with dive industry development, dive tourism, Occupational Health and Safety and Industrial Relations. These appointments include the past President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary of Australian Scuba Council, Member of the Board of Management - Dive Industry and Travel Association of Australia (1987-1989) & (1992), past Board Member and Secretary of National Scuba Qualification Commission, past Board Member of Ad Hoc Department of Accident Prevention – Diving (Queensland Government), past N.S.W. Standards Officer of the Cave Divers Association Australia (CDAA), past Member of the Board of Dive Queensland and  past Member of the Board and Secretary of Diving Equipment & Marketing Association (DEMA) - Asia Pacific Advisory Committee (1997 to 2001). 

Terry is also an accomplished writer and award winning photographer.  In addition to his many contributions to dive and wildlife publications globally he was the Chief Editor and co-author of the book; “Dive Accident Management in Australia”, past Editor-in-Chief (1992-1995) of Australian icon Neville Colman’s; Underwater Geographic magazine and is  currently Associate Editor of PADI’s Undersea Journal, a position he has held for many years. 

Through his work on many fronts, Terry has contributed to scuba diving being acknowledged by general communities as a genuine sporting and recreational activity.  For example, in June 2008 Terry was invited to speak at the 1st Commonwealth Conference on Sports Tourism in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on the contribution scuba diving makes to the travel experience and the support it gives to the development of local communities. The Conference involved Commonwealth Government Countries Sports Ministers and over 250 world leaders in sports tourism including those presenting papers on the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Cup Rugby and Soccer and Formula One Auto Racing. 

Currently Terry is a Director of Project AWARE Foundation - a licensed charity which supports conservation of underwater environments through education, advocacy and action. In this role, Terry has worked closely with both commercial stakeholders and local communities on several exciting marine projects with high public profiles. In fact, Terry’s interest in the marine world extends back to the 70’s when he was the winner of the Australian Universities Intervarsity Competition in Marine Knowledge and in the 90’s worked with local dive operators and environmentalists to have Cabbage Tree Bay (Shelly Beach Manly) made into a Marine Park. That work continues to this day with proposals afoot to extend the current reach of the Park into Sydney Harbour.  

On a formal level, Terry holds an Honours Degree and Post Graduate Diplomas from the University of NSW, has served on the UNSW’s Visiting Committee of the Dept of Applied Science, is a Certified Practicing Marketeer, an Associate Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute and a Justice of the Peace. 

In presenting the Legends Award, Russell Kitt, Chief Executive of Oceanic Australia announced; “such a rich and long history of experience within the dive industry makes Terry an obvious choice for Oceanic’s 2008 Legends Award”. 

In receiving the Award Terry declared; “not only is it a great honour to receive this award in front of so many outstanding Australian dive retailers and my peers, but also to receive the award from Russell Kitt, himself an Australian diving legend, is truly an emotional experience for me”. 

Terry went on and joked he hoped that in presenting him with this prestigious Award, the industry was not making a veiled attempt to hint it was time for him to retire. He added, “sadly - maybe for some - I feel I have many productive years left in me”, and promised that the diving industry had not seen the last of him.  Terry further hinted that he was looking forward to working more closely again with Australian retailers on a host of worthwhile projects to help grow the diving industry both locally and globally. Drew Richardson, President and Chief Operating Officer of PADI Worldwide who was a keynote speaker at the Oceanic Scuba Centres Conference also took the opportunity to present Terry with his 35 Year PADI Member Award that was celebrated in 2007. 

Today, between travels to his office in USA, other PADI local area offices throughout the world and the family farm in Central NSW, Terry lives with his wife Cathie and their family on the treasured shores of Pittwater on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. He is still an active diver and is currently looking forward to his annual pilgrimage to the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea later this year.