It was 1990 and I was fidgeting in my grade school classroom on career day. If you know me at all, fidgeting keeps me occupied, I would much rather be out diving or adventuring than sitting at any desk. Suddenly, the next career day presenter was a Scuba Center owner, and the next thing you know, my fidgeting stopped! I was mesmerized by the slide show of the shipwrecks off New Jersey and the Scuba gear and information Brownie presented to my classmates and I. I had never taken a breath under water at this point, but I was hooked.  At the end of the presentation, I grabbed one of every sticker Brownie had to offer, the biggest, a bumper sticker said, Discover Diving! For the next two years, I badgered my parents to not only let me get certified, but of course to pay for it too.

Have passport will travel! Whenever Everette is not at the dive center, there is a good chance he is somewhere exploring the world. One of his goals is to visit every country on the planet and has logged frequent flyer miles and dives in some of the famous and most obscure places imaginable. As a birthday present over 30 years ago, he was certified by a fraternity brother and began diving in the Red Sea. Ultimately he quickly rose through the ranks as an explorer, advocating for the underwater world, and achieved the rating of PADI Course Director developing the careers of other PADI pros on several continents. 

How did I get into diving? As is typical for someone “of a certain age”, I grew up watching Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt reruns and the Jacques Cousteau series as they were broadcast. I didn’t truly get into diving until I was a senior in college and went to sign up for a fun fencing class. It did not fit into my schedule but I ran into a teammate in the hall who said he just signed up for a Scuba Class! Sounded good, it fit my schedule, so I did too. That was in 1981.

Like many of his generation, Sheldon Bender was drawn to diving as an 8 year old sitting front of a black and white television fascinated by the adventures of Mike Nelson in the iconic weekly television series “Sea Hunt”

I started diving in college in 1989, when I needed a PE credit. I had always love the water and always wanted to try SCUBA diving. I instantly fell in love. I dove on and off over the years but life got in the way. Eventually, my three sons got old enough to become my permanent dive buddies so I decided to go all the way. As a music educator, I love sharing my passion for music. It made sense to go the professional path of PADI and share my passion for diving as well and advanced to level of PADI Staff Instructor. Many years later, I still wish I could be under the water every day. 

I am a diver. Diving is and has been a singular passion of mine since my childhood in the 1960s when I would watch Jacques Cousteau explore the world’s oceans aboard his famous research vessel Calypso and Lloyd Bridges starring as the scuba diving Florida detective Mike Nelson on Sea Hunt. The first time I saw a live diver was when my mother took 8-year-old me and my siblings to the aquarium outside of Boston in 1969. There was a large tank with no fish as it was probably undergoing maintenance but there was a diver in that tank working and that was what I could not stop looking at for what seemed like forever…

I started my underwater adventures in Australia learning to dive on the Great Barrier Reef. My first day on the bottom of the pool I knew this was where I was supposed to be. For many years after this I just did a few resort dives, but in 2016 I was re-introduced back into the sport.

I first fell in love with the ocean as a teenager living in Hawaii. Never content to sit on the beach, I learned to free dive and surf and spent as much time in the water as possible. 

After becoming a certified open water diver in 1996, I immediately invested in all of my own gear and started my path to becoming a Divemaster. I was in college studying Marine Biology in the Pacific Northwest so most of my diving was in the chilly but beautiful waters off the coast of Northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Colombia. A lot of people think about diving tropical reefs, never realizing how much colorful life and biodiversity you see when exploring a kelp forest! 
 

I have always loved the water and the ocean in particular, it's my happy place. I was able to try through Discover Scuba at resorts, but 2009 offered me the opportunity to really get involved with it and I haven’t slowed down since.

Scuba Diving is something that I have always interested in trying, while on vacation in Mexico I had a huge fail on a try dive experience.  A year later my son went on vacation to Mexico with his grandparents. Upon his return he would not stop talking about his scuba diving experience in the pool.  After learning that he could not get certified until he turned ten. I promised him that when he was old enough to take the course, I would pay for his certification. When he turned ten our new adventure began. My son and his Godfather and I (dive buddies) began our adventure into the world of scuba diving. 

Brent became a diver on his honeymoon over 20 years ago to avoid long days baking on a beach with his wife. After 15 years topside, he rekindled his passion for the sport, became a Master Scuba Diver Trainer, and has created a number of dive buddies including his youngest daughter, Abby.

Hi, I’m Leon Sell. I have been a Phys. Ed. and adventure sports instructor for 35 years both in a school and camp setting. While most of my adventures were above water, I was eager to add SCUBA to my list of accomplishments. My first dive was with my wife on our honeymoon in Aruba and our favorite place to dive since then has been the warm waters of the Caribbean with its’ abundant and diverse wildlife. My favorite dive was probably a night dive on the Benwood wreck, Key Largo. We saw tons of beautiful fish including a giant turtle.

I got into diving after a trip to Jamaica in 2003 where my wife and I took a Discover Scuba course.  We were able to do a dive off Negril and the experience of being in another world felt like we had landed on the moon.  I was hooked ever since!

I got into diving when I was on a cruise in Cozumel and did a discover scuba. The moment I descended, I knew I was hooked.

As a Philly native I spent a lot of time as a little kid fishing off the coast of New Jersey. I've always loved the water and wondered what was down below. My son and I got certified in 2018 to learn something new together where we'd both be complete novices. 

I was a late bloomer to scuba but caught on very quickly. My scuba journey began at Sandals Montego Bay on Nov 17, 2012 receiving my Scuba Diver Certification. This erupted an extreme desire and excitement to learn more. Two weeks later I was back at Sandals Montego Bay for work and decided to complete my Open Water and Advanced Open Water Certifications. I completed these Dec 18 and 21, 2012. 

Peter Benchley. During 2020/2021 I was reading "The Deep" and it re-kindled a desire I'd had for many years.