About Dive Otter
In 1998, on our honeymoon in Maui, Melissa and I tried scuba diving for the first time in a protected lagoon along the Kapalua coast. I had been snorkeling for years and always wanted to be down among the fish rather than looking at them from above. Breathing underwater felt surprisingly natural, and I was immediately interested in doing more. Melissa had a very different experience. By the time we surfaced, she knew scuba wasn’t for her.
I knew I wanted to dive again. It just took me twenty-five years to get around to it.
My Diving Story
In 2023, I walked into a dive shop in the Chicago area during a snowstorm and finally began the process of getting certified. I completed my Open Water training in Florida, but much of my early diving afterward took place closer to home, in the colder, darker, and generally less accommodating waters of Midwest quarries and lakes.
I remember those early dives well, particularly the nerves. I could understand a skill in the classroom, watch an instructor demonstrate it, and still struggle to perform it smoothly underwater. Buoyancy seemed unnecessarily complicated. Tasks that looked effortless when performed by experienced divers demanded nearly all of my attention. For roughly my first ten dives, I was still finding my footing, and even today I feel a little apprehension on the first dive of a new season.
What surprised me most was how much there was to learn after certification. I had assumed the training process would be reasonably consistent regardless of where I went or who taught me. Instead, I discovered how much the quality of instruction, the people around me, and the dives I chose influenced my development. Some instructors taught me the required skills. Others fundamentally changed how I thought about diving.
Since then, I’ve continued training with SSI, SDI/TDI, and GUE, eventually becoming an SDI Divemaster. I’ve spent a great deal of time working on the fundamentals of diving and discovering how much room there still is to improve. The more capable I’ve become, the more clearly I can see the things I haven’t mastered.
How I Approach Diving
I enjoy the deliberate side of scuba. I like getting into the water with a clear plan, equipment I understand, and people I trust. I pay attention to buoyancy, trim, efficiency, gas management, and team awareness because I want those things to become ordinary habits rather than tasks that consume attention throughout a dive.
I also enjoy repetition. Diving the same quarry or wreck again doesn’t bother me because the objective isn’t always to see something new. Sometimes it is to notice something I missed, execute a familiar skill a little better, or finish a dive with fewer unnecessary movements and corrections. That process of improvement is a substantial part of what keeps me interested.
My professional career has been spent in technical environments where risk, systems, and human behavior have real consequences. That experience influences how I think about diving, particularly the importance of preparation, clear decisions, and recognizing when something isn’t working. It doesn’t make me a better diver by itself, but it has given me a way of examining problems that I find useful underwater.
Why I Built Dive Otter
When I started diving, I spent an enormous amount of time researching equipment, training, techniques, and the decisions facing a new diver. There was no shortage of information, but much of it was surprisingly difficult to put into practice. Advice was frequently vague, recommendations were repeated without much explanation, and genuinely useful details were mixed with marketing or personal preferences presented as universal truths.
I made my share of mistakes along the way. I bought equipment I eventually replaced, misunderstood things that seemed obvious in hindsight, and discovered that some of the most useful lessons came from instructors and other divers who took the time to explain why something mattered. I also learned that simply accumulating certifications and equipment doesn’t necessarily make someone more capable underwater.
Dive Otter grew out of those experiences. I wanted to build the kind of resource I would have appreciated when I started: one that takes recreational diving seriously without making it unnecessarily complicated, explains the reasoning behind its recommendations, and recognizes that becoming a capable diver takes more than completing a course.
That approach eventually became The First Breath, my book about the experience of entering recreational scuba, and it continues through the articles, guides, and other resources on this site. The principles behind the publication are explained further in the Editorial Standards.
Why I Dive
I dive because it forces my brain to focus. For that hour underwater, everything else goes quiet. There is no room for distraction or overthinking, only the work of staying sharp, aware, and in control. That kind of peace is rare, and diving gives me access to it.