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Dragoman Diving and Outdoor

PADI Diving center, seakayak & outdoor activites in Kas

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Dragoman

Dragoman Office

Dragoman adventures are unique !

DRAGOMAN Diving & Outdoor organizes unique outdoor activities in the historical Lycian region and in the heart of Kaş-Kekova Marine Protected Area, but also in a few very special spots in Turkey. We are at your service in Kaş, Antalya since 2002.
We conduct our operations with our subsidiaries Dragoman Travel Agency (authorized by the Union of Turkish Travel Agencies with TURSAB License no: A-4615), Kaş-Archipel Diving Centre registered within the Turkish Diving Federation, and in our early years Ekomarin Sea-Kayak and Dragoman Outdoors, but to make it simple, we now call ourselves “DRAGOMAN”.
Our goal is to develop excursions that are authentic in style, in harmony with natural biodiversity, geographical assets and cultural riches of Anatolia, within a strong interactive frame. Turkey, the “cradle of civilizations”, has a very rich cultural heritage all over its geography: we hope our outdoor activities will give you a rewarding taste of those.
Dragoman is genuinely concerned with outdoor ethics, responsible tourism with minimum impact by small groups. We want to be innovative: soft adventure trips, new and first-time expeditions, and brand-new activities that may combine sports and fun at the same time are our speciality… Did you know that we are the ones that started “Coasteering” in Turkey and the only outdoors centre to offer it to visitors now? And the only ones to do night-snorkelling, bio-snorkelling and SUP stand up paddling? One of the very few dive-centres in the world to have published a dive guide book? The only sea-kayak team with paddling tours in Gallipoli?

You will realize that your dive leader is striving to show you the tiniest sea creature without ever compromising your security, or that your scuba instructor pushes you gently to perform best underwater practices in the easiest way. Even in our simplest daily excursions, you will feel that the chosen itinerary is out of the ordinary, and that your guides strive to show you the most interesting details of the Lycian heritage… You will enjoy nature fully with utmost care by our team for your safety and comfort. On our side, our satisfaction will be having you coming back another season, and seeing that you appreciate our system and standards…

Who are we?

What makes DRAGOMAN what it is, is its enthusiastic crew…
First, the founding members… Four excited fellows that were, once upon a time along the nesting beaches of the sea turtles for documenting their spur action; then through the underground waters of limestone (karstic) caves of the Taurus range for Project Karst Dive; once paddling 3216 kms with kayaks for the “Trans-Europe Sea Kayak Expedition” crossing from the North Sea (Holland) down to Black Sea (Turkey) for attracting attention to clean rivers; one day surfacing the secrets of Struma Wreck in the Black Sea – one of the most tragic stories of the World War-II – from the depths of 80 meters to daylight; at times in nature- and under-water-photography shoot-out competitions; or in beached oil clean-up projects of the Society of Underwater Research SAD… If these folks would decide to run an outdoor activities centre and plan to “retire” in Kas… what would happen there?
It would be days filled with energy, sharing, learning and teaching, and a set of “Dragoman-brand” discovery tours exploring the amazing cultural, historical and natural diversity of the region. It would not be a tourism “business” as we don’t like to use the term “customers”: we prefer “guests” with whom we share fine memories and empathy. We won’t talk about the difficulties of our job, but we will instead mention the beauty of it all… from the greens and the blues of nature, taking you from the summit of mountains to the depths of the underwater. If you are fond of human exchange, in peace with yourself and with the natural world, if you want to listen, have time to learn or teach how to dive, how to reach high peaks, how to cultivate a bougainvillea plant or a basil, to help the future of sea turtles, if you wonder why it’s necessary to care for monk seals… You are at the right place…
Basically… what brought all of us to Kaş is not a “business” plan, but a “life” plan… It’s an endless dream, a philosophy never to quit, and a way of live leaving out a bunch economical aspirations…

Murat Draman

Founder and Director Murat DRAMAN

PADI OW SCUBA Instructor
TSSF Guide diver
EFR Instructor
Underwater photographer and marine biology enthusiast

Alias “Doctor” for his diver friends in Bodrum: born 1957 in Istanbul, mechanical engineering from INSA in Toulouse, France, PhD in Industrial Engineering from UCF in Florida, and former professor in the faculty of industrial engineering of Boğazici University in Istanbul… He tried hard for 10 years, to stay in academy, but could not resist the call of the underwater world… Always mesmerised by the Big Blue, he dove in Indonesia, Philippines and Papua, walked in Nepal, survived 11 years as a partner and manager of a dive centre in Bodrum, and finally found his salute in the blue waters of Kas. Former president of Underwater Research Society SAD, now participating in Kaş-centred research and preservation projects with them, WWF, Kaş Underwater Association KASAD and the Mediterranean Protection Society AKD. His utmost interest areas now are the success of the Kaş-Kekova Marine Protected Area, and its evolution with the presence of lessepsian species migrating from the Red Sea…

After 15 years of mapping and underwater photography, in 2018 he published the 3rd enlarged edition of the book “The Diving Guide: Kaş”; and in 2017, “Red Sea in the Med”, a book on Red Sea species invading the Mediterranean.

He fell in love in his late forties with Meriem that arrived for diving and stayed for good; now they added their sons Reha and Selim to the team. He is now a “local” in Kaş…

At the start of Dragoman, its founding members:

Kemal Gökhan Türe

K. Gökhan TÜRE
We remember him with love…

Instructor, guide, leader, motivator, dreamer, partner, friend…

Our founding partner… President and founding member of a series of student clubs and associations that were pioneers in “learning for preserving nature”, research and discovery; a leader, project creator and educator… Turkish underwater and nature interest communities owe him a lot… In 2014 we lost our inspiration source Gökhan to a merciless illness… We miss him! Now DRAGOMAN is home to his daughter Tuna Su.

Kemal Gökhan Türe Anısına
Kemal Gökhan Türe Anısına

We placed two souvenirs in Kaş in his honour, one underwater and one in the mountains…

Levent Yüksel

Levent YÜKSEL

CMAS 3* SCUBA Instructor

Constant teamster during unforgettable SAD diving, kayak and discovery projects, founding partner in our beginning days in Kaá¹£, now “retired” Levent is fully involved in early morning jogging and his new sailboat… He is there whenever we need him, as an instructor, dive leader, outdoors guide, a friend to lean on… The only change is that “Archipel Hotel” of the earliest days of our company is now “Archipel Residence” where he lives, that’s all…

Nalan Fırat

Nalan FIRAT

Archaeologist

TURSAB official tourist guide
Keeping track of 3 male partners in our start-up days, she had enough, and went back to her first love, archaeology… If she is not helping us as a guide in one of our archaeology/cultural tours, she must be sailing about somewhere in the Med, or digging the wonderful Sagalassos site in Burdur.

Dragoman Team

Ozan Atabilen
Dragoman Diving Manager
PADI Course Director
PADI Specialty Inst. Trainer
EFR Instructor Trainer
TSSF Guide Diver
WHO?

He started diving in 1995, and worked in various diving centers in different parts of Turkey since 1999. Ozan is with Dragoman since early 2008, when he walked into our office for a very short interview. Since then, together we raised the bar to become a PADI CDC (Career Development Center). In his spare time he is very much into underwater “art” photography, cooks and tries different musical instruments.

O. Batuhan Özyurt
Dragoman captain and boats responsible
Captain
TSSF-CMAS 2* Instructor
TSSF Guide Diver
WHO?
Tuba Atabilen
Dragoman Diving Supervisor
PADI Master Instructor
EFR Instructor Trainer
TSSF-CMAS 2* Instructor
TSSF Specialty Instructor
TSSF Guide Diver
WHO?
Çağatay Arıcan
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor
EFR Instructor
TSSF ILS Silver Lifeguard Instructor
TSSF-CMAS * Instructor
TSSF Guide Diver
WHO?
We met at a SAD (Underwater Research Association) project in Kaş. Çağatay is a member of our team since he graduated from Karadeniz Teknik University (president of the water sports and sea club) as Marine Science Engineer in 2012.
Murat Kabaş
PADI IDC Staff Instructor
EFR Instuctor
WHO?
Çetin Keçeci
Seaman
WHO?
Murat Baykara
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor
EFR Instructor
WHO?
Namık Diktaş
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor
EFR Instructor
WHO?
Orhun Can Varol
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor
EFR Instructor
WHO?
Eda Nalçacı
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor
EFR Instructor
WHO?
Güvenç Duman
Outdoor Guide
Oğuzhan Durmuş
Outdoor Guide
Erol Bozdağ
Outdoor transportation department, technician
WHO?
From Kaş Belenli village; professional driver, outdoor equipment maintenance technician, expert deal fixer in Kaş, welding, plaster, cement, garden, and tree master… Every company should have one like him!
Elif Terzioğlu
Office Manager
WHO?
She started her professional life in their family business in computer hardware and continued in a software company in METU. When she realized that she was not that much into Ankara and corporate life she decided to move to Antalya (the closest city to her beloved Kaş). She worked at the Antalya Chamber of Shipping for 6 years as a Quality Assurance and Corporate Communication Specialist. When we first met at the Chamber she was saying “If I ever move to Kaş I will only work at Dragoman”. After that, anytime we met we were making jokes about her move to Kaş and Dragoman. In 2013, fate decided to do something about it and since May 2013 we entrust her with everything in our office.
Gökçe Durusoy
Dragoman Webmaster – Graphic Design Consultant
TSSF-CMAS 1* Instructor
WHO?
She started diving in 2000 as soon as she was at Koç University and she never left Dragoman since she walked into our boat with the student dive club. She kept on promising us that she will move to Kaş, always blaming somebody else for why she doesn’t, but still always there to give us a hand, our invariable, voluntary and honorary dive instructor… Well it’s a good thing she chose to be a designer, so she did the graphical designs and digitized dive maps for Murat’ Draman’s “the Diving Guide: Kaş” and merged her love for design and the underwater world to create her t-shirt brand “Seathinks”, and finally she created this web site. Then she found her real love, and married Tankut in Kaş, in a ceremony where naturally Murat acted as the registrar.
Hatice Bozdağ
Kitchen and cleaning
WHO?
From Kas Belenli village; she is with us since our first Arşipeh Hotel years, i.e. 2001. The first employee of Dragoman… She looks after us, knows the budget, cuts the meat, feeds us with carbs. All of a sudden we all gained weight, don’t know why?
Paspas & Damat
Security
WHO?
Cat! 🙂

Diving Assistans

Mertcan Güneş
Hazal Draman
Demir Öngüt
Hazal Yıldız
Sena Duran

Outdoor Assistans

Dragoman family: earlier collaborators

Aleyna Su Büyüktepe
Alize Yüksel
Alper Gül
Alper Özhan
Altan Turhan
Arife Hanley
Atakan Güven
Aysu Bağran
Belek Öztürkcan
Bernis Portakaloğlu
Beste Çağlayan
Bikem Yüce
Bora Ömeroğulları
Burak Boz
Cedric Menard
Cenk Metinkaya
Ceren İyim
Coraline Chapatte
Çağla Akpınar
Çağla Çorumluoğlu
David June
Deniz Disa
Diarmuid Hanley
Eda Nalçacı
Ekin Işım
Ekin Tuncalı
Elif Terzioğlu
Emrah Cantekin
Emre Şimşek
Ersin Aydın
Ersin Demirel
Gökhan Çakır
Görkem Çetin
Gülseda Uz
Gürel Dimez
Güzden Varinlioğlu
İbrahim Oğuz
Justin Van Guyze
Kenan Verbakel
Kevser Mermertaş
Levent Ülker
Mahmut Durmuş
Mehmet Aytuğ
Mehmet Sağçolak
Melih Celal Özgüle
Meltem Demir
Mert Kocaefe
Mete Kayabaşıoğlu
Murat Baykara
Murat Ayyıldız
Nagehan Ekici
Namık Diktaş
Okan Halaçoğlu
Onur Cengiz
Orhun Can Varol
Ozan Yazgan
Ömer Akman
Ömer Faruk Oka
Özkan Yaşar
Pamir Sevinçel
Serap Görünme
Serkan Durusoy
Sıla Akpınar
Sinem Bircan
Sinem Güldal
Sinem Kurnaz
Süha Özgeçen
Timur Yılmaz
Togay Tanyolaç
Tolga Yücel
Tuba Göçer
Tuna Su Türe
Uğur Aytuğ
Zuhal Uz
Dragoman
The Team
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