The training staff and boat crew on board the Sea Experience harbor quite a mix of knowledge. They all have one thing in common though and that is their love for the sea. Each of our staff and crew members are experienced scuba divers. They all enjoy sharing their time on the water with our guests and students.
So without further ado, let us introduce you to the training staff and boat crew!
Captain Bill has been running dive/snorkel vessels for over 30 years and is one of the most experienced boat captain’s in South Florida. Bill started diving on his honeymoon in Grand Cayman in 1977 and it’s been hard to keep him out of the water ever since. Completing scuba instructor training in 1979, Bill began teaching diving at the University of Georgia. In 1988, Bill brought the first glass bottom boat to Fort Lauderdale that ran daily charter. He had spent the previous year training the fish on a shallow reef that he named “Fort Lauderdale Twin Ledges”. To this day the fish come to greet the boat when it arrives at the site.
Bill became a PADI Course Director in 1993, this is the highest instructor rating attainable with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). He has trained thousands of instructors who are now employed around the world. In 1993, Bill was among the first group of elite divers awarded the Platinum Pro 5000 certification by SSI (Scuba Schools International). Divers in this group have over 5000 SCUBA dives. Bill loves taking passengers out for tours to the coral reef whether it is in the water or just pointing out things of interest through the boat’s glass bottom windows.
Favorite Local Dive Site – Loves revisiting Willies Way which he helped find and name.
Favorite Local Restaurant – You can find him at Subway almost every day for a bite to eat.
Colin is a PADI Course Director for nearly 30 years and hails from the United Kingdom. Once upon a long, long time ago… his underwater journey began in the navy, affording him the luxury of diving all over the world. Then moving onto the Cayman Islands where he started as an instructor, videographer and boat captain, ending up managing one of the larger SCUBA resorts down there. While down there, he trained hundreds of divers and authored the first PADI Distinctive specialty featuring the stingrays at “Stingray City”.
Then he moved to south Florida and for the next ten years managed the two largest PADI instructor Career Development Centers in the world. He found his passion, training people for careers in diving and loved working at the most chosen PADI Career Development Center to date. During this time, he helped launch the instructor careers of thousands of people. PADI came calling and off he went to California. He was the liaison between HQ and the worldwide regional offices. He also conducted a few PADI IE’s while he was there. Divers Alert Network was next which afforded him the opportunity to really get involved with diver safety and education, hyperbaric medicine, etc.
Now he has come full circle and is back with Sea Experience working with Bill Cole again. In fact, he is sitting in the same office as he was over 20 years ago while working for Pro Dive. Colin is proud to have won numerous awards and recognition including being among the first group of elite divers awarded the Platinum Pro 5000 certification by SSI (Scuba Schools International), divers in this group have over 5000 SCUBA dives and is an award from his peers. In fact, he has over 15,000 dives around the world.
Colin looks forward to helping students achieve their goals and become successful SCUBA educators throughout the world and still loves to take his camera down with him to shoot footage.
Favorite dive site: The Mercedes, both pre and post Hurricane Andrew. There used to be a great motorbike on the deck and I have a friendly octopus that shows up more often than not. I even lost my wedding ring there years ago…. she has forgiven me now
Favorite Restaurant: Any English/Irish pub so I can get my Bangers and Mash. But for every day, you have to go to Laspadas Original Hoagies, their subs are to die for. Don’t forget to ask for the sweet peppers on it.
Hi My name is Bob Meadows , one of the Course Directors here at Sea Experience. I’m proud to be part of the team that has been training divers and Instructors in this location for 40 years!
I hope to see you in Professional Career Courses soon!
Dr. Alex Brylske (PADI #3839) is Sea Experience’s Director of Marine Education and creator/primary instructor of Sea Experience’s ECO PRO course. Combining his training as an educator and marine conservation biologist, Alex Brylske has forged a unique and diverse career in the diving industry and marine conservation community. Since his retirement as Professor of Marine Science at the College of the Florida Keys, he has focused on creating innovative marine science and conservation programs for divers and other ocean enthusiasts.
Aside from his role with Sea Experience, Alex is the founder and president of Ocean Education International, a consulting firm focusing on marine environmental education and sustainable tourism. He also serves as Sustainability Editor for both Dive Newswire and the trade publication, Scuba Diving Industry.
His accomplishments have been recognized by numerous honors, including NOAA’s Walter B. Jones Memorial Excellence Award for Coastal and Ocean Resource Management and Divers Alert Network Rolex® Diver of the Year.
Marcy grew up in Canada counting the days until the family pool reached 65 degrees and they were allowed in! She moved down to southern Florida to teach scuba classes in 2007. She has always been passionate about water safety and after having her own family, she became purely focused on it.
Marcy is a Water Safety Instructor and runs our Swim School. She has two main priorities, safety, and fun, because she feels learning to swim should always be an enjoyable experience for both parent and child. Marcy is a certified trainer for Basic Life Support First Aid, CPR, AED and Emergency Oxygen for adults, children, and infants as well as a scuba rescue diver instructor. She is also an instructor in the Career Development side of Sea Experience.
When not teaching in the pool she is busy instructing in water rescue and safety courses with Sea Experience career diving school. In her spare time, she can be found spending time on the water, snorkeling and paddle boarding with her family.
Captain Mateo is also a PADI Course Director. Mateo enjoys scuba diving and sharing those experiences with others. Mateo’s passion is working on the ocean. He enjoys passing on the knowledge he has to students and to teach them to dive with respect to the marine life and to leave only bubbles! He has been diving since 2000 and became a PADI Instructor in 2006. In June 2016, Mateo became a PADI Course Director. Mateo has dived Florida and the Bahamas.
Favorite Local Dive Site – Can’t resist an exciting dive at Hog Heaven.
Favorite Local Hangout– Enjoys a relaxing evening at home with his dog.
A native New Englander, Jayne has been Sea Experience’s Career Development Administrator since December 2010, and is the expert on staff for all programs from the Veterans Administration (including Montgomery GI Bill and Post-911 VA benefits), British Military Resettlement, and Vocational Rehab for all 50 states.
Jayne is also the principal liaison for Sea Experience’s accreditation with the State of Florida Commission for Independent Education. Her knowledge and experience make certain that Sea Experience students receive their maximum funding and entitlements and are enabled to pursue an appropriate career development curriculum. Jayne is often the first point of contact for any student inquiring about training.
Growing up in Topeka, Kansas, Brito didn’t have a lot of chances to be in the water. When she was 14, her family took her to the ocean for the first time. She convinced her dad to take a Discover Scuba Course with her and ever since then, she was hooked. She developed a passion for our ocean and the creatures in it. When she graduated from high school, she packed her things and travelled the world seeing Europe, Central America, and Asia as a photographer until she ended up in Koh Tao, Thailand. On the island, she did everything she could from diving with Whale Sharks and Rays to completing her Master Diver and Divemaster training. Brito is planning on continuing her Pro career and will be taking the instructor course in the near future!
Favorite Local Dive Site: Second Reef
Favorite Local Hangout: The Alchemist
Suzanna began diving in a murky lake in Austin, TX. During a trip to Cozumel, she did her first ocean dive and fell in love with the sea. About a year later she became a PADI Open Water SCUBA Instructor. Throughout her diving career she has worked with three dive stores, the Boy Scout Sea Base in Islamorada, taught diving to juvenile offenders and conducted numerous group dive trips including one to Cuba. Now a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, Suzanna is thrilled to work with Sea Experience and spend as much time diving in the ocean as she can! Her passion is ocean conservation and coordinating local reef cleanups. Her favorite local reef is Barracuda Reef and also loves diving the Tracy wreck. When not diving, her favorite local hangout is Dania Beach with friends or Disney World (not necessarily local, but close enough!).