I started diving in 1983 at 17. It was a natural thing for me to do, having grown up in a boating family, watching Sea Hunt, Jacques Cousteau, Flipper and spending as much time below the water as I possibly could. As a child, my friends and I always stayed in the deep end of the pool, seeing how long we could stay down or how far we could swim underwater. At local lakes, in addition to skiing, I always had my mask, fins and snorkel to explore wherever we were when the water was clear enough. My older brother was a scuba diver and used to tell me stories of diving while he was a student at UT in Austin. I was hooked before I was certified! I still have Skin Diver magazines from the 1970’s somewhere. When I was in college in the mid 80’s I worked for the local scuba shop, filling tanks, fixing gear, helping with classes and working the retail side of things. I took a break from diving when I joined the Army, but came right back in 1993 when I was again close to places to dive. I’ve continued over the years to dive for pleasure and it never gets old, no matter how many times I’ve seen that rock cliff at Possum Kingdom. There are many places to dive in Texas and I’ve been to most of them. I also enjoy diving in the Florida Keys, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Haiti and even a few mud holes in Oklahoma. I decided to move to the professional ranks in March of 2007, earning my Divemaster rating in July and Assistant Instructor in December. Sharing my enjoyment and love of the aquatic world with other divers and new divers is a passion I hope I’ll always have. It’s been with me for 42 years so far!