The AquaSub Team is a great group of dive enthusiasts who enjoy sharing their passion for diving with others. They bring together a wide range of experiences and backgrounds from all over the world. Click on their images below to learn more about them.


Jessica


Norbert


Diane


Andrea 


Marc


Christine


Stephanie


Zi


Jacquie


Tom

 

 

 


  

 

   Norbert Pietkiewicz

Turn to Page 12 of the 1999 Whites Dry Suit Dive Catalogue, and you'll see a gentle giant emerging from the frigid waters of Labrador: that's Norbert Pietkiewicz. Norbert is a cold water diver, sea urchin harvester, PADI Staff Instructor and Polish NAVY-certified commercial diver.

As a member of a competitive diving club, he developed his skills through intensive training and drills (Mares Diving Club, www.mares.koszalin.pl). Norbert entered the Polish Navy in 1987, training hundreds of recruits under brutal conditions in military diving and underwater explosives. In 1990 Norbert immigrated to Canada and was one of the pioneers in the sea urchin harvesting industry in Newfoundland.

He soon founded TERRA NOVA DIVING CENTRE (Gander) and ran a full-service retail dive operation. In 1998 the government of Newfoundland asked him to oversee the SEAFOOD HARVEST DIVING PROGRAM in Labrador. At this time he worked with the BC-based dry suit manufacturer Whites (www.whitescoldwater.com) to develop a dry suit capable of handling the severe conditions that the seafood harvesters faced.

In 1999, Norbert left Newfoundland and came to Toronto where he attempted a career in a different field, soon realizing that he missed his true love, DIVING! For the next 2 years, he managed a successful dive centre in Toronto, running many exciting trips to the Caribbean and introducing hundreds of students to the exciting world of diving. Norbert is always helpful and patient with new diving students.

In addition to holding a Canadian off-shore petroleum board commercial license, Norbert is a DAN Instructor, Emergency First Responder Instructor, PADI IDC Staff Instructor, DSAT TecRec and TecTrimix Instructor, DSAT Gas Blender Instructor, TDI Advanced Gas Blender, TDI Equipment Oxygen Service Technician, TDI Advanced Nitrox Instructor, TDI Decompression Procedures Instructor.

When it comes to attention to detail, Norbert is your man. As a trained technician, he services all lines of equipment, making sure that your gear is in top shape.

Favorite places to dive: Newfoundland, St. Lawrence River, British Columbia
Next place he would like to dive: Philippines

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Jessica Templin
Jessica's passion for scuba diving began when she went to work in the Bahamas in 1995, scuba diving in her spare time with local spear fishermen. She later became a certified diver and has since trained through and for a variety of organizations including PADI, NAUI, CMAS, ACUC, DAN and TDI.

She enjoys traveling around the world diving in a variety of locations (Bahamas, Barbados, St. Marteen, Honduras, Cuba, Mexico, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, British Colombia, Newfoundland, San Andres, the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River and more...) Jessica has logged more than a thousand dives including a dive to 1620 feet for six and a half hours in a small submarine.

She is a certified PADI Course Director, Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer, TDI Advanced Gas Blender and TDI Equipment Oxygen Service Technician. She is also a certified equipment technician for Mares/Dacor, Oceanic, Zeagle, and Aeris.

Her 2 passions in the water are teaching and videography/photography.

Jessica also holds a diploma in Recreation Facility Management.

Favorite Motto: "Where there's a will, there's a way."
Favorite Places to Dive: Utila (Honduras), St. Lawrence River.
Next place she would like to dive: Maldives

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 Andrea Novak (instructor / scuba board administrator)

 

When she was 10, Andrea's dad gave her Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; since then, she's dreamed of exploring the aquatic realm. Countless books and aquaria later, Andrea finally took the most important step: she learned to scuba dive. With that first giant stride, Andrea embarked on her excellent underwater adventure, often with her two brothers, one of whom is a PADI Assistant Instructor, while the other is a PADI Divemaster and Publisher of Asian Diver magazine (Asia Pacific's best selling dive publication).

With scuba diving, Andrea discovered her one true passion in life and became an instructor to share her sense of wonder and pleasure at being underwater. Her instructional philosophy is simple: sweat the small stuff and the rest will take care of itself. She is also a gear hound and will happily discuss diving equipment with you all day long if you let her.

Andrea is a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer.

Favorite Places to Dive: St Lawrence River, Tobermory, Newfoundland, the reefs of the Caribbean, south-eastern Malaysia, and the Gulf of Thailand...in other words, whereever there's water!

Next place she'd like to dive: either the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Thailand or the British Virgin Islands

Motto: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

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 Diane Francis (PADI Divemaster/Customer Service)

 

In 2008, Diane began diving with her father in Foy Lake at Algonquin and since then has taken her love of diving where ever she goes. Up until now, Diane has termed herself a 'Caribbean Diver' given that most of her time in water has been spent diving off the reefs of Utila. Her love of diving has been an adventure that has led her to starting the 2009 New Year at 130ft in the Great Blue Hole in Belize, and the easy diving off of Tobacco Caye.

 

With growing experience in Canadian waters, Diane has come to love the wrecks and fast drifts in the St. Lawrence and the eerie calm of the ships sitting at the bottom of Georgian Bay in Tobermory. Diane is a certified PADI Divemaster and EFR Instructor. Her next goal is to become at PADI Instructor. If you call the store or come in for a fill your sure to meet Diane.

 

 

Favorite Motto: "Just breathe, everything else is secondary."

Favorite Places to Dive: Belize, Utila, St. Lawrence

Next Place to Dive: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Great Barrier Reef, Malaysia

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Tom Wilson (instructor)

By his own admission Tom Wilson dives essentially for one reason: to capture photographs. You may have seen the fruits of his efforts in the magazines such as Diver, Advanced Diver, Scuba Press, Immersed, Ottawa Outdoors, and even the Toronto Star, all concentrating on the amazing wrecks of the Great Lakes which he firmly believes offer the best wreck diving in the world. To compare he has traveled to such places as Roatan, Truk Lagoon, Turks and Caicos, Bahamas, and North Carolina but has found they pale in comparison to the diversity and numbers we have in our own backyard. Tom is a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, and holds various certifications from IANTD, TDI, and GUE all the way up to full trimix. He enjoys teaching underwater photography, along with ice diving and nitrox courses.

Favorite motto: Practice like you play.

Favorite places to dive: Kingston and the St. Lawrence

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Marc Kemper (Instructor)

Marc's passion for diving first began on a vacation in Jamaica where a simple discover scuba turned into 6 days of diving. From that moment he was hooked, fascinated by the underwater world.

Marc is a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor with hundreds of dives under his belt in variety of places including; Tobermory, Brockville, Newfoundland, Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, St. Marteen, and more. He is also an Emergency First Response Instructor.

Many are surprised to find out that Marc has a "real" job since you can find him at the shop most days of the week.

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Jacquie Bayer (Divemaster)

Jacquie's Love of the water began as a very young infant 6months old where she was "drown proofed" with Jack Bucklers Aquatics. She could swim the width of an Olympic size pool and hold on to the side until someone took her out of the water. As a three year old she had stepped into a drop off in the French River and swam the distance back and saved herself.

She was a member of the High School swim team for many years.

Introduced into scuba after a trip to Mexico with her sister where she snorkeled all week and wanted to go deeper to see more aquatic life. Since then she has she has taken many courses and is always reading about more places to go diving.

Her Interests include

  • Photography
  • karate
  • Kayaking
  • canoeing
  • baseball

Can't slow her down!

Her next course of action is in taking EFR instructor course , and becoming an instructor and she is interested in any and all opportunities to learn more and perfect her skills.

Favorite places to Dive: Bonaire,Newfoundland,Honduras, Columbia and Costa Rica.

Wants to go to Figi, Maldives, Africa and Australia eventually to open her own dive shop down south and retire.


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Christine Lovett-Shaus a.k.a. Chris Red (Instructor)

Christine shares a love of diving and the under water world, she dives year round, even in winter, and coined the term "Calender Diver", ask her about it some time and you might find yourself diving more often. 
 
Always looking for new adventures, Christine has explored many dive sites in the Great Lakes, Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers, fresh water and salty destinations too.
 
Christine is an Open Water Scuba Instructor, as well as an Emergency First Responder Instructor and DAN O2 Provider Instructor, as well as a certified TDI Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures Diver.
 
Favorite Motto:  "Live life to it's fullest. Have no regrets!"
Next Challenge to Dive:  The Oriscany, in Pensacola, FLA
and Cavern training


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Stephanie Benincasa (PADI Instructor)

Steph is a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, PADI Emergency Oxygen Instructor, First Aid and CPR Instructor with the Canadian Red Cross and an Emergency First Response Instructor.

Her diving career officially began in 1989 with her first openwater certification. She has trained with PADI, NAUI, TDI, GUE and also enjoys recreational freediving and underwater videography. She's certified as a TDI advanced nitrox and decompression procedures diver and is looking forward to trimix training as her next goal.

Steph can often be found diving her home waters of southern Ontario (St Lawrence River, Kingston, Tobermory and points in between). Her travels have taken her to the sharks and shipwrecks of North Carolina's outer banks, fantastic reefs in Bonaire, the caverns of Mexico, swimming with the wild dolphins in Bimini, and diving adventures in Honduras, Belize, Turks & Caicos and the Dominican Republic. Closer to home, she has visited both east and west coasts of Canada to dive.

Places still to visit: Cocos Island, Raja Ampat, Canadian Arctic, New Zealand, Fiji, Palau, Red Sea, just about anywhere in between!


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Nizaha "Zi" Iberahim (instructor)

Nizaha Iberahim learned to dive 12 years ago in Tioman Island, Malaysia.  After becoming passionate about the sport he left his job in Kuala Lumpur and moved to Tioman Island to turn pro.  He spent 8 years getting to know the aquatic life in the South China Sea and he became famous for his ability to identify and locate macro life. 

 

After meeting his wife on the island and moving to Toronto in 2004, Nizaha took advantage of the cold water diving available in Ontario and became an enthusiastic year-round diver.  He is very interested in technical diving and equipment.  He holds a PADI IDC Staff Instructor and various certifications from GUE, TDI, IANTD and DAN.  

 

Favourite motto:  The equipment can go to those depths, but your body may not be able to.
Dream Dive Destination: Micronesia
Favourite places to dive:  Sipadan & Layang-Layang (Malaysia), Kingston (Lake Ontario).