Instruction & Tours

  The recreational scuba diving industries dive boat service operations are standardized procedures adapted and validated throughout the world.  It’s basically for everyone to arrive at the boat in the morning, load their gear, and complete paperwork for certified divers or referral training. The boat goes on a predetermined route and dive sites. The operators dictate when to get in, where to go under the water, what you can and can’t do under the water and when to come up. This is all done with very little regard to the divers needs. It is rather more about time and numbers. Most operators have more duties for the boat and crew for that afternoon.   Working with these conditions I found it difficult to cater to everyone’s requirements. It’s impossible to take a boat to one dive site to cater to everyone’s needs onboard. You have a 12 year old who’s never been ocean diving alongside someone they’ve never met who’s been diving for 10 years. It became frustrating as a dive leader. I had a choice. I could either quit after a few years, as most dive educators do, or I could design a better way for everybody. I choose the later.  

 Our services opened up the ability to go diving to many persons whom would otherwise not have considered it. Beginners could take 45 minutes or more to learn how to take the water of their masks without coming to the surface, in water shallow enough to stand up in. Experienced divers can go deep, go into wrecks and photographers can stay in one spot for as long as they want. There are also the affluent, wealthy or famous person’s, of which the Caribbean seems to get a lot of, who will not go with strangers or inexperienced dive leaders. The crewed yacht industry in the Caribbean is a vast and exceptional service for those who can afford it. You can choose a 54 catamaran, or sailboat all the way up to your heart’s content. It’s not uncommon to see 150 foot sailboat next to a 200 foot motor yacht around the waters of the BVI. Some of these boats have full dive centers inside the back, but they either did not have a dive instructor on board or anyone onboard familiar with the local area dive sites. I discuss some of the fun and interesting people I’ve met or taken scuba diving on another page in this website.  

   Another area of dive services in the BVI is renting of scuba equipment so the same sailors whom have a lot of local knowledge and dive experience can dive by themselves. I decided to make it very easy for them to dive on their own. I did not just deliver equipment to their boat but did a thorough dive briefing with them. During which I went thru a packet of information I would leave for their reference for their charter. In it was information on local dive sites, air fill station locations, GPS Coordinates to 50 mooring ball locations, safe diving practices, recommended night dive sites, wreck diving, nearest recompression chamber information, basic first aid for common maladies, and in an emergency, means to contact Virgin Islands Search & Rescue.

 Retail sales of scuba equipment is an important aspect of dive companies that are not situated nor have access to the resources of the BVI. I provided and charged for diving services and education not equipment purchases. I was a wholesale dealer and representative for Genesis Scuba, BARE wet suits, Trident Marine, Bauer Dive Compressors and Port Supply. Those dealerships provided me with excellent equipment and the ability to be trained and purchase the tools to repair and service those brand names. Living on a small island in the Caribbean I had to learn to do a lot of things by default, meaning I had learn to do a lot of things I would otherwise have outsourced. 

During the 24 years in the BVI I have seen the degradation of the coral reefs and oceans. From land reclamation, coastal development, coral bleaching in 2005 and to just too many visitors have, and will continue, to cause incomprehensible harm to our oceans. For this reason I have tried to educate all of my divers. I instilled safe boating practices, good buoyancy control, fish, coral, mangrove and sea grass identification and the manner in which the ecosystems work.

   I have certified 941 persons. 397 in experience level, 344 as open water divers or greater, 189 in emergency care and 11 as professionals. I have taken thousands on their first introductory dives and thousands more on guided tours. I created an ecological kayak tour and used it to educate thousands of cruise ship visitors. I helped manage and control the Lion Fish Invasion. I have been instrumental in many coral reef projects, underwater construction and I designed an underwater boat maintenance program.  I was responsible for the medic training of the British Virgin Islands Search & Rescue squad for 15 years.

 I have found that a majority of people have a heartfelt and caring interest for the marine environment, they just never understood it. There is no better way to learn than to see and feel it for one’s self and begin to understand how important and precious, yet fragile, the oceans are to our well being.