Island Divers Hawaii

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Learn more about our team

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[av_testimonial_single src=’3222′ name=’Matt Zimmerman’ subtitle=’Owner’ link=” linktext=”]
Matt moved to the island of Oahu in the year 2000 after completing a Ph.D in Biomedical Sciences at UCSD. Having already completed a PADI Instructor level certification, it soon became clear to Matt that one could support an avid diving habit on the island of Oahu by taking island visitors scuba diving – score!

What was at first an informal local diving club quickly became a part time business run from a one bedroom ground floor apartment in Waikiki. That part time business soon became a full time endeavor with new friends/divemasters helping out (moved up to 2 bedroom apartment). Eventually, a strong local reputation led to a diving service contract on Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam and the evolution of Island Divers Hawaii into a traditional, established dive store.

Success serving the military led to the opening of a second retail location at the Hawaii Kai marina and shortly thereafter the addition of the vessel Sea Fox imported from Florida. Since then the scuba dive vessels Dive Barge, Sea Hound, Enzo, and Moe Mac were added to the fleet.  Matt believes that the success Island Divers  enjoys comes from his position that customers are friends.

Matt started Island Divers with the goal of making customers into friends, and that principle has guided the growth of the business. Matt tells a story to each new instructor that comes into the business.  “A diver may remember what they saw on the dive, but for sure they will remember how they were treated at the dive shop and how you made them feel about diving with Island Divers”.  The dive professionals selected to work at Island Divers are chosen because they are friendly, outgoing people that truly enjoy sharing their passion for diving with a new group of divers every day.  The people you will find on this page are the best of the best.

 
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[av_testimonial_single src=’2381′ name=’Sheila Jordan’ subtitle=’Boat Captain and Staff Manager’ link=” linktext=”]
Sheila moved to Honolulu at the age of 19 from California. Her first scuba dives were in 1994 but she really caught the diving bug in 2005 and a few years later she began working in the dive industry. At Island Divers Hawaii, Sheila is largely responsible for getting the right people assigned to the right boats and shops  so that the daily operations run as smoothly as possible.

Managing the schedule for five boats and two dive shop locations is a challenging job with so many people and moving parts, but somehow she brings it all together day after day with a kind approach and sincere attempt to accommodate everyone’s personal schedule. You can find Sheila manning the front desk, organizing the shop or captaining the boats as needed.
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[av_testimonial_single src=’4368′ name=’Mark Savel’ subtitle=’Scuba Instructor (MSDT) and Master Repair Technician’ link=” linktext=”]
Mark grew up in San Diego, CA and has always spent time in and around the water. He first came to Hawaii in 1997 to study marine biology and oceanography at Hawaii Pacific University. He first took up scuba diving in the summer before his senior year of college in 2000 and found time at least once a week to avoid school work and go shore diving around the island of Oahu.

Upon graduating in 2001 Mark moved back to San Diego and started working in a dive shop. Over the next four years he worked his way up from an open water diver to an open water scuba instructor. But after getting tired of putting on a hood, gloves, 7mm suit, and a ton of weight to go shore diving, he decided to pick up and move back to Hawaii.

Mark has since been working at Island Divers Hawaii from 2005 and has become a Master Scuba Diver Trainer. His main passion in diving is photography and enjoys playing with his camera whenever he has a chance. Over the years he has been diving in Thailand, Grenada, Australia, California, and Hawaii.

Mark has been servicing shop and customer gear for more than 20 years.  First in San Diego and now on Oahu.  There are very few people in the world with this level of experience.  These days one finds him mostly at our sister shop Honolulu Scuba Company where he puts in most of his time servicing scuba equipment and rebreathers for the divers of Oahu.
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17172′ name=’Colin Wilson’ subtitle=” link=” linktext=”]
Colin is a Canadian chef and sommelier who got into diving completely by accident while on a prolonged vacation in Indonesia. While on a break after running a fundraiser in NYC Colin took his advanced open water diver certification, got hooked, and made his first 100m (330ft) dive 6 months later. Colin spent a couple of years in south east Asia working with new instructors, exploring technical wreck sites, and focusing on divers with disabilities. He organized events for dive professionals to train with and assist with students who were in need special accommodation and/or equipment modifications to be able to complete their training. He also made a series of training videos demonstrating how skill objectives could be met while being performed by a diver with one arm missing, paralyzed, or with limited movement.  After representing Disabled Divers International at DEMA in 2019 Colin decided to take a step back from the dive instructor life and focus on a combination of Sommelier work and fun diving around Egypt and Gibraltar. When he is not planning dive trips or hunting down craft beers, Colin can be found diving on his rebreather or swimming/playing board games with his wife.
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17182′ name=’Captain Taylor’ subtitle=’Captain’ link=” linktext=”]
Taylor is a rescue diver and Captain at Island Divers. She grew up in a long line of naval sailors and was introduced to boats and diving at a young age by her father. She ended up studying marine science and music at Coastal Carolina University where she also competed on the equestrian team. After finding out that she would not be able to take the horses diving, Taylor took a leave of absence and returned to Island Divers (where she had completed her Open Water certification 8 years before) and began working as a crew member until she made it all the way up the ladder to Captain. She is currently studying at Kapiolani until she decides to return to Coastal, and her favorite dive site is Halona blowhole.
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17184′ name=’Hunter Vivirito’ subtitle=’SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor’ link=” linktext=”]
Hunter is a Platinum 1000 Instructor who got bit by the dive bug after a stint in the finance industry. He ventured over to Hawaii after teaching diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and in Fiji. He can be found diving almost every day and specifically enjoys drifting over the wrecks outside of Hawaii Kai. Hunter’s favorite courses to teach are the deep diving and navigation specialties, he loves to help students master skills and become strong, adept divers. He gets most excited to see squadrons of Eagle Rays, the infamous Hawaiian Monk Seals, the tiny and elusive Harlequin Shrimp, and every kind of Shark!
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17031′ name=’Kevin Wong’ subtitle=’Instructor Trainer, Captain’ link=” linktext=”]
Kevin joined the team in 2018 as a dive instructor.  He has since completed a USCG Master license and become an instructor trainer for SSI.
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17510′ name=’Yudelka “Judy” Lorange’ subtitle=’Instructor & Manager at Military Base Shops’ link=” linktext=”]
Judy is an energetic soul, standing fort at our scuba shops in the military bases on Oahu. Before diving into the scuba industry, Judy worked as an Army Officer and middle school teacher. She loves teaching the youth of our world, she believes they are a more enthusiastic crowd for her banter and have the same maturity level as her!
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17511′ name=’David Rosario’ subtitle=’Dive Instructor & Boat Captain’ link=” linktext=”]
David is an SSI Instructor Trainer, a PADI Master Instructor, a Poseidon 7 Instructor, and a Tec 40 Instructor. He certainly is drawn to deeper, darker side of diving (tec), and loves to teach Self-Reliant, Sidemount, Gas Blender, Independent DIver, DPV / Underwater Scooter and Full Face Mask specialties.

Before Diving, David spent 14 Years in the Marine Corps and afterward became involved in the PTSD program taking Warriors to the ocean to combat their PTSD.
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17512′ name=’Russel “Russ” Schoenhard’ subtitle=’Photographer & PADI Divemaster’ link=” linktext=”]
Russ is a talented photographer and Divemaster at Shark Tank Scuba. Has has been diving on Oahu for 2 decades, and has dived in 21 countries and counting. Russ has had some pretty awesome and unusual experiences: diving in a flooded former Soviet prison camp in Estonia, freediving with humpback whales in Tonga, snorkeling in Jellyfish Lake, Palau. Russ has been fortunate to encounter an array of unique underwater creatures, including the Weedy Sea Dragons in southern Australia, Thresher Sharks in the Philippines, Pygmy Seahorses smaller than a pinky nail in Thailand!

Before working in the dive industry, Russ spent 20 years in the USAF, retiring as a Master Sergeant in 2011 after spending his entire career in Military Intelligence. Interesting fact, he is also a working actor and member of SAG-AFTRA!
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[av_testimonial_single src=’17513′ name=’Carrie Younkin’ subtitle=’Manager at Honolulu Scuba Company & SSI Divemaster’ link=” linktext=”]
Carrie is Deep/Wreck Specialty Diver, certified to dive and blend Nitrox. Being underwater is her ultimate happy place, she especially loves drift and night diving, as well as keeping a keen eye out for colourful nudis, and camouflaged octopuses and frogfish! Carrie has loved the ocean since as long as she could remember, she has a degree in Marine Biology, she’s had jobs from working in aquariums, teaching in the U.S. and in Thailand, to working on boats on Maui – where she loved teaching curious visitors about Hawaii’s fascinating North Pacific Humpbacks!

Carrie is an avid sports fan (Go Steelers!), if she’s not underwater, you’ll find her playing or watching games. Interesting fact, Carrie is a loving mother to a 24-year old Florida Peninsula Cooter turtle named Cecil and a 15-year old handi-cat named Piper (after the PVC piping she found her inside on Maui).
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[av_testimonial_single src=’2361′ name=’Larry Hogan’ subtitle=’In Memoriam’ link=’https://www.facebook.com/StevenJDPalumbo/posts/10210131859111331′ linktext=’Larry’s Memorial Off the Sea Fox’]
It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing of dive instructor Larry Hogan.  Larry passed peacefully, but unexpectedly, at home last week (August 2016).  He was 66 years of age.

Larry worked at Island Divers for the better part of the past decade as a dive guide and scuba instructor, and many of you will remember him and his passion for sharing the underwater world.  He was a rock of patience and calm in our scuba diving family.  Again and again our guests over the years commented on what a kind a talented ambassador to the underwater world he was.  At the memorial service his family held one pastor said something that truly resonated with me personally: that is it not the passing of Larry that we grieve, but his absence.

We won’t ever get to see his smiling face again in the morning, or his sly joke, or his honest interest in what you have been doing, or see his latest great underwater picture, or again get to hear the happy words and smiles of divers he guided through the unique experience of scuba diving.  We grieve, because we are going to miss the presence of our friend.

Larry grew up with a great family, spending his youth exploring the tiger-filled jungles of rural Connecticut, and the ocean known as Long Island Sound. Not quite a valedictorian, he still really enjoyed NWCH high school in Hartford, and graduated from Villanova University, with lots of great friends and a degree in Psychology.

Which prepared him perfectly for a career owning and managing a construction company for over 30 years in New York city. While visiting Hawaii in the mid 70s with some friends, one of whom was a PADI CD, he was thrown into the ocean with a full set of dive gear on (thanks Dave) and immediately fell victim to scuba’s greatest danger – a serious addiction to diving.

Added to a love of travel, he has managed to dive all over the place and has seen and marveled at the profound sights the ocean offers, the great white sharks of South Africa, the giant mantas of Komodo, the whale sharks of Thailand, the white dolphins and piranhas of the Amazonian rain forest, as well as the Humpback whales, spinner dolphins, monk seals, and octopi of Hawaii.

He began the road to diving professional in the early 90′s assisting instructors at Beach 9, Brooklyn, Friday nights at the Y, and under the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens (while still having a real job). A Master Scuba Diver Trainer since 2005 he has also worked in Phuket, Thailand, as well as NYC and worked with a great group of people at Island Divers Hawaii.
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