AQUATICSPORTSis Oregon's oldest and largest full service diving center. We help you get in the water. Let's go diving!
MORE >
OUR STAFF
AQUATICSPORTS boasts some of the most competent diving staff around. We love what we do.
New and experienced divers can explore everything in the diving industry in our 6,500 sq. foot store. Our on-site, heated pool provides the ultimate in training convenience. Students have unlimited access to the pool between class sessions.
MORE >
| JEFF POWELSON OWNER / INSTRUCTOR |
 |
||||
 Jeff has been diving almost his entire life. His father, John had him cleaning the pool on scuba at the age of 8 years old. At 10 he took his first open water class. He does admit to having a take home test. The U.S. Navy Dive tables were a little complexed for a 10 year old. Jeff would tag a long on open water weekends and dive with his dad during the summer at Hoodsport, Wa.
He really did not start his career in diving until 1986. After graduating from the University of Idaho he began working for the family business, earned his instructor rating from NASDS clinic. Purchased the dive store from his parents in 1989. Jeff has been diving in numerous locations. Including: Palau, Chuuk, Australia, Philippines, Hawaii, Cabo, LaPaz, Out banks of the Baja, Costa Rica, Honduras, Cozumel, Cayman Islands, Antiqua, Bahamas, Belize, California, Florida, Cuba, Fiji, and the Pacific Northwest including Canada. His favorite places to dive would be Canada, Fiji and Palau and Australia wasn’t too bad either. Jeff is married to Tracy and they have 3 children, Cody 14, Kenzie 10 and Shelby 7. Yes, the whole family dives. Other interests include golf, boating, skiing, the outdoors, coaching, reading, bike riding and working out. Education:
|
|||||
| BUD KUNZ DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION |
|
||||
 Coming soon
|
|||||
| DALLAS FORBES INSTRUCTOR |
|
||||
 Dallas has been with Aquatic Sports since 1997. He started dive under the NASDS training. When NASDS and SSI joined he then crossed over to SSI. He has a rating with SSI as a Dive Control Specialist Instructor. He also holds 10 Specialty Diver Instructor rating. He is also certified under TDI for Advance Nitrox and Decompression.
Dallas has traveled throughout the world diving. Locations included Indonesia, Micronesia, Australia, PNG, Hawaii, Mexico, Canada, and throughout the Caribbean. His favorite diving has been in PNG and Indonesia. Dallas’s true passion for diving is underwater photography. He tries to have a camera with him every time he goes diving. |
|||||
| RICHARD YOST INSTRUCTOR |
|
||||
 Richard Yost started diving in 1965 when such things as C-cards and formal classes were relatively new to the fledgling dive industry. At the time, SPGs (submersible pressure gauges), BCs, drysuits and Nitrox, let alone dive computers had yet to be invented.
Self-taught at the local YMCA, in Nebraska, Richard became a YMCA instructor in 1969, and a PADI instructor (#120) in 1970. As the surf seldom makes it that far inland, he had to content himself with diving in sand pits, rivers and lakes, and ice diving in the winter. Having seen the light and switched over to SSI several years ago, he now teaches beginning Open Water classes, along with an occasional Drysuit, and Marine Naturalist class. The majority of his diving has been in the Northwest, with a few rare trips to the Caribbean. He currently is a team leader for a group of volunteer divers at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and also does the Marine Naturalist class in the orientation training for new volunteers at the Aquarium. |
|||||
| DIANA SCHMITT INSTRUCTOR |
|
||||
 Diana finally took up SCUBA in May of 2001 after years of being a virtual diver watching Jacque Cousteau explore our oceans. She is currently an SSI Dive Control Specialist and makes about 100 dives annually. She dives year round in the Puget Sound area and has dove the lava tubes of Kauaii’s South Shore, Cabo Pulmo in the Sea of Cortez the only living reef North of the Equator on the West side of North America, Lands End and Pelican Rock in Cabo San Lucas, the Channel Islands in California, Palancar Reef Cozumel, Grand Cayman East End and Little Cayman Island’s famous Bloody Bay Wall. October of 2004 will find her on Quadra Island B.C. Canada counting fish for REEF and if you are looking for her in November, you can find her on Little Cayman with her camera looking for healthy coral and lots of critters.
She is a Founding member of the Central Caribbean Marine Institute and on it’s Board of Directors. Saving our living reefs has become an increasingly important part of Diana’s diving philosophy. In the future she will be involved in dive training on L.C.I at the Institute and hopefully leading some of their dive adventures. Photography has become a passion with Diana. Dallas Forbes of Aquatic Sports and Joe Wysocki of Optiquatics put a camera in her hands in February of 2002. She subsequently won third prize in the Digital category. Diana is sure this was rigged so that she would buy a camera, which of course she did. (winning photo of Spanish shawl nudibranch). Diana is a Senior Project Manager for Facilities Management at the 5M square foot Oregon Health & Sciences University located in Portland Oregon. She is in her eighteenth year and is responsible for major medical tenant improvement projects from conception to commissioning and post occupation. Diana also loves to snow ski on Mount Hood in Oregon, plays golf with enthusiasm and is an avid reader. Her family is extremely important to her. Her Grand daughter Corrine, three and her Grand son Grant, six spend at least one weekend a month with her. |
|||||
| GREG GAMBILL INSTRUCTOR - SSI/PADI/TDI |
|
||||
 Greg came to Aquatic Sports in 1999, and has been a part of the shop ever since. A strong cold water advocate, Greg rarely dives warm or tropical waters, preferring instead to spend his bottom time from Monterey Bay, CA up to Juneau, AK. The pacific coast is littered with shipwrecks, and Greg has spent time exploring many of them, including such notables as the Princess Kathleen, Princess Sophia, The Vanleen, and the Transpac.
Greg is an SSI Advanced Open water instructor and teaches Dry Suit, Navigation, Deep Diving, Night Diving, Nitrox, Stress and Rescue, and Oxygen Administrator. Greg also teaches the Aquatic Sports TDI technical dive program, including Decompression Procedures, Advanced Nitrox, Entry Level Trimix, and Advanced Trimix You can also check out Greg on his personal web page at: http://hometown.aol.com/nwscuba/index.html |
|||||
| KARLY RITCHEY INSTRUCTOR |
|
||||
 Growing up I spent a lot of time swimming and always wanted to be able to spend more time underwater. I took my open water class in 1993 for a college course and never looked back. Although I spend a lot of the year diving in local waters I still like to get away for a warm water dive vacation a couple of times a year. I started teaching in 2004 to add to my diving experiences and to pass along the fun and enjoyment to others. I hold certifications through SSI, PADI, NAUI, IANTD, DAN and TDI. I recently took up rebreather diving and like the silence that goes along with it. See you on the bottom!!!
|
|||||