A Brush With Death and the Life Lessons That Followed: 'Beyond Work, We Can Live With Greater Dreams' — PADI Course Director Huang Zheng-Yuan (Biandi)

As a child, Huang Zheng-Yuan — known as Biandi — was an accomplished competitive swimmer, training more than 18,000 metres every single day on a strict schedule. Representing Hsinchu County in competitions, he earned the nickname "Frog King of Hsinchu County," and water sports were second nature to him from a very young age. He went on to become Taiwan's youngest certified scuba diving instructor at just 18, and from there, step by step, rose to become a PADI Course Director. Over the course of his career he has trained more than a hundred professional instructors across Taiwan and mainland China. He even assisted in the translation and production of the world's very first PADI Open Water Diver Chinese-language instructional DVD — making him, without question, a driving force behind a whole generation of Taiwan's diving industry.

Taiwan's Youngest PADI Course Director

But what seemed like a smooth path through the diving world was shattered in an instant by an accident that forced him to reconsider the very meaning of life. In 2007, Biandi became Taiwan's youngest PADI Course Director. Deeply familiar with the dynamics of the diving industry, he believed Taiwan needed to elevate its capabilities beyond instruction and equipment sales — specifically, that the local industry should develop the ability to service and repair dive gear independently. With that goal in mind, he travelled to the United States to attend an equipment maintenance course at the international dive trade show, then returned to Taiwan and sourced hydraulic testing equipment from a local supplier, ready to launch a dive equipment repair operation.

Life's Unexpected Turn

Tragically, the hydraulic pressure test cylinder he had purchased exploded without warning during a pressure-release procedure. The cylinder struck the edge of a table and then hit Biandi squarely on his right cheek, causing severe fractures to the bones in that area of his skull. Fortunately, his young son — still in primary school at the time — happened to be home that day, and Biandi was rushed to hospital in time to save his life. But beyond the seemingly endless road of rehabilitation ahead, he was told he would almost certainly never be able to dive again — the activity he loved most — leaving him in a state of profound despair about the future.

The force of the impact had shattered his orbital bone, broken his nose, fractured his cheekbone and jaw, and caused significant damage to one of his eyes. Over more than a year of medical procedures, he underwent four reconstructive surgeries and two surgeries on the eye nerve. While his outward appearance today is nearly indistinguishable from before, the lasting effects of the accident are something he will carry for life — double vision (diplopia). Both eyes simultaneously produce two separate images, and this condition cannot be corrected through any form of vision correction. Reflecting on the two years of rehabilitation that followed surgery, Biandi recalls feeling utterly lost about the future, as though everything he had built had been stripped away from him in an instant.

It was in the basement bookshop of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital that he came across the book The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama — a book about how, growing up in an America still shaped by racial bias, Obama found his way through school, work, and family life by choosing a positive, proactive stance against the darkest and most primal shadows within himself. Reading those pages, Biandi was deeply moved by the book's guiding motto: "The audacity of hope — affirming the American Dream." As he read, thoughts of his beloved diving came flooding back, and the pressure he had been carrying for so long finally broke. He sat alone in that basement corridor and wept — the kind of tears a man rarely lets fall. He never forgot the moment a passing stranger wordlessly handed him a tissue. Life, he realised, is full of warmth in the most unexpected places. When he had composed himself, he redefined his own personal motto: "The audacity of hope — reclaiming the dream of diving."

The Road to Transformation

Returning to his doctor's clinic marked the beginning of an unexpected plot twist. Biandi describes with a laugh how the physicians there came to dread seeing him walk through the door — because every time he encountered anyone in the medical team, he would ask when he might be able to start diving again, even though every doctor had already concluded he would never be able to pursue the sport he had dedicated his life to. Perhaps it was precisely that unquenchable determination that wore them down: his attending physician eventually gave reluctant approval for him to slowly re-enter the water and test the depths. After completing four successful scuba dives, Biandi pushed further, telling his doctor he wanted to pursue deep-water technical diving — at which point the physician reportedly lost his temper in the clinic, accusing Biandi of disrespecting medical expertise and making unreasonable demands.

Yet once the doctor understood Biandi's reasons, he ultimately agreed to provide the medical clearance needed for Biandi to travel to the Philippines and complete deep-water dive training. At the time, Taiwan's maritime rescue operations fell under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard Administration, but training at that point was limited to missions at depths of 40 metres or less — anything deeper was beyond the rescue teams' operational capacity. Biandi wanted to change that by introducing the capability himself. This was, in many ways, the transformation that a near-death experience had brought about in him. Previously, as both a Course Director and a business owner, he had everything he needed and had expected to retire comfortably at 50. But after everything that had happened, he began to think differently — that perhaps life still held dreams worth chasing.

And so Biandi's perspective shifted. Beyond doubling down on his commitment to teaching quality, he began channelling energy into helping the nation train professional diving talent. He set his sights on deepening his expertise in specialised diving fields — military diving, tactical diving, rescue techniques, PSD public safety diving, and UCI underwater criminal investigation — with the aim of expanding the intellectual depth and applied value of diving knowledge. After completing his deep technical diving training in the Philippines and obtaining his teaching qualification, he went on to help three Coast Guard seed instructors complete their own deep-water search-and-rescue training — a concrete example of that mission in action.

With years of deep industry experience behind him — spanning product distribution, dive instruction, dive trip planning, and the management of both domestic and overseas resorts — Biandi had also served as one of PADI's first seed training officers for mainland China from 2004 to 2007, shouldering the significant responsibility of helping PADI break into that market. Given such a wealth of experience, one might wonder what drew him to settle at Dive Cube in Taichung.

He had originally been on track to open a resort in Palau, but when relations between Palau and mainland China began to thaw, tourist numbers dropped sharply and the resort project was put on hold. Returning to Taiwan, he heard through the grapevine that Jim — CEO of Dive Cube and a fellow alumnus of the National Taiwan University of Sport (NTUS) — was hoping to bring him on board. The two kept trying to meet, but somehow the timing never worked out for a proper conversation. Then one time, travelling between southern and northern Taiwan and passing through Taichung, Biandi was too exhausted to go on. He called Jim to ask if Dive Cube had a room available for the night. By the time he arrived, it was already two in the morning — and Jim was waiting for him in the lobby. That gesture of loyalty meant everything to Biandi. The two sat and talked until nearly dawn, exchanging candid thoughts on the challenges and future strategies of running a dive shop and resort. It was that single conversation, deep into the night, that led Biandi to officially join Dive Cube in June 2018, taking on responsibilities for course development and venue operations.

Jim believes a strong diving business requires the following: a well-designed operational system, a responsible Course Director to implement that system, instructors trained within that system who hold the right values, a comfortable and well-equipped diving environment, and a marketing sensibility that keeps pace with the times.

During the interview, we were curious to ask Biandi about the nature of his working relationship with Jim. Biandi told us that any new partnership inevitably goes through a period of adjustment, and that requires broad and frequent communication to align two people's visions. In the six months since joining Dive Cube, no matter how busy either of them has been, Biandi and Jim have made it a point to carve out at least 30 minutes every day to talk — covering both current operational challenges and deeper conversations about Dive Cube's future brand direction. Building a business is hard. This diving hotel, conceived as something distinctly Taiwanese in character, has tested the management team's adaptability at every turn — from land acquisition and construction in the early days, to staff turnover, venue operations, and cash flow management once open. Beyond their shared sense of mission in running the business, a commitment to giving back to society is the other key bond that holds their partnership together.

Jim, who knows the state of the Taiwanese diving market as well as anyone, is keenly aware of the challenges the industry faces. His vision is to raise the sector's overall capability through vertical integration across the industry supply chain. Because both he and Biandi are NTUS alumni, they began promoting dive training programmes at the university. After four years of structured training, students graduate with solid, professional diving skills. From there, the programme bridges students into positions at overseas resorts to broaden their international perspective — after which they can return to Taiwan and contribute what they've learned. This model is now being replicated across other universities, with the goal of building strong foundations from the ground up. In Biandi and Jim's vision, Dive Cube is far more than a venue — it is a brand. In the future, Dive Cube may expand by exporting its entire service model to other countries, at which point the young professionals shaped by this programme — equipped with expertise and a global outlook — will be ready to step directly into operational roles.

As for his own career, Biandi still hopes to retire to the United States at 50 to be with his children. In the two years he has left before that milestone, he hopes to help Dive Cube find its footing and grow into something truly sustainable — and perhaps one day see it flourish around the world as another shining example of Taiwan's excellence. When that day comes, he says, he hopes to look his grandchildren in the eye and tell them proudly: Grandpa was one of the people who helped make this great diving hotel what it is.

Related links:

• Diving 21 Metres Underwater in the Middle of a City — Dive Cube Taichung & H2 Underwater Scooter First Experience

• Dive Cube Hotel — Asia's First Indoor Deep-Water Diving Hotel!