About Me

When I was in my mid-late teens, a good friend tried to get me to try scuba diving. For whatever reason I wasn’t interested. Fast forward 5 years. I was looking for something to do on a vacation and a family member was telling me how awesome scuba diving was. Why not make the vacation a scuba diving trip? Well, why not?

I received my Open Water Diver certification on May 16, 1993. During the Open Water class, I immediately knew I found something that was not only fun, exciting, and interesting, but something that somehow touched my soul in a way very few things ever have. I signed up for the very next class and on May 22 I finished the Advanced Open Water Diver course. Still craving more, I completed the Stress & Rescue class in June and then the Dive Control Specialist course in August 1993 (today’s equivalent of Divemaster/Assistant Instructor). I spent the next year assisting with classes and learning from several great scuba instructors.

In my first year of scuba diving, I’d completed over 100 dives and still couldn’t get enough. Some people are “one and done” divers in that they’ll dive somewhere once, but once they’ve seen it, they don’t care to go back. Me on the other hand, I’m happy just diving. Want to check out a reef? Let’s go! Want to jump in a puddle and look at muddy rocks? Let’s go! Want to try a spot you’ve only heard about but nobody goes to? Yes, please!

In August 1994 I branched out and dipped my feet into technical diving. I obtained my IANTD Nitrox certification and took my NSS/CDS Cavern and Intro to Cave classes from Jarrod Jablonski. In September 1994, I took the SSI Instructor Training Course with the wonderful Dee White. Dee has an SSI professional number of 9. He was definitely one of the early SSI instructors. We completed the course and I received my SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor certification as SSI professional #5399. I found that not only did I absolutely love scuba diving, but I also loved teaching. I love teaching people of all types, whether it’s someone that’s nervous, someone that’s excited, young, old, families, strangers, or whatever. It’s truly my privilege to be able to help people get started in this amazing lifestyle. So here I am, loving the opportunity I have to join people on this amazing journey and diving as often as possible.

I hope to see you in the water!