Thanks for taking the time to check out our website. Our dive shop is committed to High Quality dive training. We realize that anyone can say that, but this is how we prove it!
We train QUALITY divers, not a quantity of divers!
Our goal isn't to try to certify as many people as possible. We want to give you the best training you can receive and make the best divers. While you can find classes that put up to 12 or more students per 1 instructor, our student to instructor ratio is only 4 students to 1 instructor. We believe learning in small groups creates a better learning experience!
More time in the water!
Part of making our students better divers is that we spend more time in the water with them. Many instructors will only do the bare minimum training time to expedite the course. It's similar to a waiter flipping tables at a restaurant. The faster they can get you in and out, the more customers they can get. Our mentality is different. We believe that more time you spend in the water, the more comfortable you will become. This leads to a better overall experience and a higher quality course.
We are all full time instructors and dive for fun outside of teaching classes!
Diving isn't just a side-job or a hobby for us, it's our life. Nearly all of our instructors teach diving full time. Outside of teaching classes we are constantly diving. Our instructors are required to take at least 2 continuing education courses per year. This ensures we are bringing our customers the most up to date and quality training we can offer. We also dive for fun outside of training. From local diving to expedition dives around the world, you will find us diving for fun as often as possible.
We offer flexible scheduling.
If our normal scheduling for our courses doesn't work for you, no big deal! We offer flexible scheduling with private courses based on your schedule! Because our instructors are full time, we can offer training pretty much anytime. There are additional fees associated with private scheduling because of additional cost we incur. However, we are happy to talk to you about it and see what we can do to meet your needs. Just contact us!
No-pressure gear selling, because training is our priority!
We know how aggravating it is to walk into a store and end up talking to a high-pressure salesperson. That is not us. Our focus is on high quality training. We do sell gear and are happy to help you with selection. We will even let you try gear out before you buy it. We don't stock a giant collection of random trinkets, we only sell products that we use ourself and that fits our training style. We offer our professional opinions and provide consultation at no charge.
We don't try to be the cheapest!
We realize that you maybe be able to find dive courses cheaper than what we offer and we are okay with that. We believe that we are offering a better product that is more valuable. McDonald's is always going to be cheaper than a gourmet restaurant, but there is a giant difference in the quality of the product. If you are new to diving and haven't experienced dive training before, we realize it can be overwhelming and difficult comparing training options. That is why we offer free dive training consultation. Just contact us to set that up!
Training divers is our passion and priority. We want to be a part of helping you succeed in your diving goals. But don't just take our word for it, check out these reviews on Google!
We train QUALITY divers, not a quantity of divers!
Our goal isn't to try to certify as many people as possible. We want to give you the best training you can receive and make the best divers. While you can find classes that put up to 12 or more students per 1 instructor, our student to instructor ratio is only 4 students to 1 instructor. We believe learning in small groups creates a better learning experience!
More time in the water!
Part of making our students better divers is that we spend more time in the water with them. Many instructors will only do the bare minimum training time to expedite the course. It's similar to a waiter flipping tables at a restaurant. The faster they can get you in and out, the more customers they can get. Our mentality is different. We believe that more time you spend in the water, the more comfortable you will become. This leads to a better overall experience and a higher quality course.
We are all full time instructors and dive for fun outside of teaching classes!
Diving isn't just a side-job or a hobby for us, it's our life. Nearly all of our instructors teach diving full time. Outside of teaching classes we are constantly diving. Our instructors are required to take at least 2 continuing education courses per year. This ensures we are bringing our customers the most up to date and quality training we can offer. We also dive for fun outside of training. From local diving to expedition dives around the world, you will find us diving for fun as often as possible.
We offer flexible scheduling.
If our normal scheduling for our courses doesn't work for you, no big deal! We offer flexible scheduling with private courses based on your schedule! Because our instructors are full time, we can offer training pretty much anytime. There are additional fees associated with private scheduling because of additional cost we incur. However, we are happy to talk to you about it and see what we can do to meet your needs. Just contact us!
No-pressure gear selling, because training is our priority!
We know how aggravating it is to walk into a store and end up talking to a high-pressure salesperson. That is not us. Our focus is on high quality training. We do sell gear and are happy to help you with selection. We will even let you try gear out before you buy it. We don't stock a giant collection of random trinkets, we only sell products that we use ourself and that fits our training style. We offer our professional opinions and provide consultation at no charge.
We don't try to be the cheapest!
We realize that you maybe be able to find dive courses cheaper than what we offer and we are okay with that. We believe that we are offering a better product that is more valuable. McDonald's is always going to be cheaper than a gourmet restaurant, but there is a giant difference in the quality of the product. If you are new to diving and haven't experienced dive training before, we realize it can be overwhelming and difficult comparing training options. That is why we offer free dive training consultation. Just contact us to set that up!
Training divers is our passion and priority. We want to be a part of helping you succeed in your diving goals. But don't just take our word for it, check out these reviews on Google!
Meet the Instructors
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John Baker
John fell in love with diving in high school. During college he worked as a divemaster for several shops and spent a serious amount of time underwater. After graduation, he earned his dive instructor certification. Besides teaching scuba, John's passion is exploration and technical diving. John has dived to 300+ft on some of his adventures, dived the Andrea Doria, the U869, dives rebreathers, and has salvaged everything from airplanes to cars. John has taught 1000's of dive courses ranging from open water to technical trimix diving. He is also an instructor trainer, technical diving instructor trainer, and a course director trainer. John can help you achieve your goal of becoming a diver, dive instructor, and even a course director! John is a USCG Master Captain and runs dive charters for spearfishing, wreck, and ledge diving off the South Carolina coast. His favorite place to dive in the world is offshore Charleston, SC. |
Amanda Baker
Amanda got certified not long after dating John in 2007. She later went on to earn her scuba instructor certification. Amanda also loves photography. Many of the pictures on this site were taken by her. Amanda is also a technical diver. She has been certified on several rebreathers, loves diving caves, and teaching technical dive courses. She enjoys deep dives to places no one has ever been and interacting with the sea turtles! She had been underwater all over the world in beautiful places like Australia, Hawaii and Cozumel. She is the co-owner/manager of the shop. If you call, you will most likely speak with her. That is because she is the one who keeps the shop schedule running smoothly! When Amanda is not working at the shop, she is busy being a mom and chasing around her two boys! |
Casey Fissel
Casey learned to dive in 2016 to help in her career path of becoming an Underwater Archeologist. She immediately fell in love with the underwater world and worked hard for several years to achieve her SDI Instructor certification! She loves killing lionfish and is currently holds the SC record for largest lionfish! You will find Casey teaching new divers, working the dive shop, helping on the dive boat, and on dive trips! Casey also is a Dive Tech at Riverbanks zoo in Columbia, SC. When she is not teaching people to dive, she is taking care of the sea lions, penguins , and all the fish at our local zoo! |
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Stuart Vernon
Stuart grew up in north Florida, watching his dad dive and bring up all kinds of cool fossils and artifacts from the black water rivers there. The hook was set. But, for many years after college he devoted all his energy and money to his other passion - roadracing motorcycles. That kept him from finally jumping into diving until 2014. Since he took it up, he has been full throttle in diving and earned his scuba instructor certification in 2017. Nowadays, Stuart’s preferred diving is “anywhere there’s water.” Leisurely drifting along with a single tank and his camera in the Caribbean, or scootering around a deep, dark, cold wreck on his rebreather in the Saint Lawrence River, or anything in between, he is DTD (Down To Dive). Stuart especially likes photography and has his camera along almost any time he’s diving. His favoritest diving of all is diving the wrecks of the Graveyard of the Atlantic, going out of Morehead City, North Carolina, to take photos of the many WWII wrecks chock full of sharks that can be found there. |
Jason Pfentner
Jason grew up in Buffalo, NY. Having spent much of his time around the great lakes and in the water on boats, scuba was a natural fit for him. Jason fell in love with diving and dives weekly. When he isn't out exploring the world on his Megalodon rebreather, he loves sharing his passion thru instructing Scuba! Jason is also a professional in the compressed gas industry, bringing to the table a wealth of knowledge and experience to gas blending, dive compressors, and much more. Jason loves to help others in diving whether is helping assemble gear or answering questions about a dive site. |
Drew Byrd
Drew begin diving in 2009 and his only regret is not starting sooner! Since then he has been underwater any chance that he gets. He has dived in a wide variety of conditions ranging from the beautiful waters in Cozumel to zero visibility in lakes and rivers. Drew earned his divemaster and instructor certification and now enjoys sharing his passion to divers every chance he gets! Drew can be found running boats for dive trips and assisting students during their courses! |
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Kyra Boyette
Kyra is our newest Dive Master! She is finishing her degree at USC and will be interning at the SC aquarium in the spring. After she completes her education Kyra hopes to use her scuba skills and knowledge of marine life to pursue a career as an aquarist. Come by and meet her at the shop or come dive with her on one of our many upcoming trips!
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David Tran
David loves diving. He has dove all over the world! Some of his favorite dives were in Scapa Flow in Scotland! He is a respiratory therapist and bring to the table a wealth of medical knowledge in that area. We he isn’t out exploring the world, you can find him divermastering boats and assistings with courses! He is also a panda!
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Shannon Cook
Shannon loves helping others learn to dive. You will find him often at the pools, dive sites, and even at the shop helping clients discover their new passion. He loves treasure hunting underwater at local lakes and rivers! Come by and meet Shannon at the shop or come dive with him on one of our many dive trips.
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Affiliate Instructors
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Bill Routh
Bill Routh began diving in 1981. Bill has shot underwater footage for several news channels, the Discovery Channel and CNN. Bill has been diving South Carolina’s lakes and rivers for many years and is one of the area’s most knowledgeable diving experts. Bill is the owner of Lake Jocassee Dive Shop in Salem, SC. He has researched and located the Camp Jocassee for girls, the steel bridge, and now the Attakulla Lodge on the bottom of Lake Jocassee. He is a technical diving instructor and teaches advanced trimix courses. Bill is a USCG Master Captain and guides dive trips for Megalodon teeth in the cooper river, offshore South Carolina, and Lake Jocassee and Keowee. |
Avi Ratica
Avi learned to dive in the Red Sea after many years wanting to learn. He is a multi agency instructor but is most proud of being an Instructor Trainer with SDI. He has dived all over the world from Australia to the Canadian Great Lakes and is always looking for new and exciting places to go. He also loves Pugs and singing Karaoke. He is married to the worlds greatest Physician he met while being an Instructor in the Cayman Islands and Father to Ariel. You can find Avi out making new SDI instructors all around the world! |
Drew Dye
Drew begin his diving career after coming home from serving in the US Army. He has a passion for cave diving! He spends all of his free time diving in Florida's beautiful cave systems and exploring new spots. He is a full cave instructor and cave guide. He knows all of the local spots that are off the beaten path and can take you to some beautiful cave systems. If you want to step it up and get into cave diving, we will get you hooked up with Drew. |