The Dive Shop

Back in the early sixties when my family first took over the dock, my brother Dan and I both learned to scuba dive. The closest and about the only place to get tanks filled was at Theodosia Boat Dock (they were just a boat dock then, too). We were about their only customers so they sold their compressor and air bank to us. We started handling U.S. Diver equipment. It was pretty much state-of-the-art at the time.

Our old dive manual and equipment service manual.

We had to replace our original compressor sometime in the seventies and then again in the eighties. Then had to do a major overhaul on that one later in the eighties. The dive shop was NOT a high profit center. When the 1969 office (now known as "the dive shop") was replaced in 1986, I was approached by Jim Turk to set up a "real" dive shop in the old office building. He offered lessons, sold and serviced gear, and filled tanks. Many of our current customers, including my wife, Johnna, and Dave Schlicht, got certified by Jim.

As you can see from the card, Dave also became an instructor.

After a few years Jim gave up the business. We ran it as a dive shop ourselves for a short time until we were approached by Cliff Mashburn, another dive instructor, who came in and ran it as a full-service dive shop for a few years. Jabet and Caldwell took their first dive lessons under Cliff and earned their open water certifications as young teens.

Cliff Mashburn's dive shop sign.

Next was Amy Bean and Randy Graham. Amy was running a shop in Lebanon called Blue Water Divers, and Randy was going to run the shop in Pontiac. Amy and Randy's partnership did not last long. Randy took over and opened Pontiac Dive Service in our building. Randy did a great job. He moved a houseboat here and lived on it all summer while he ran the dive shop. He was open daily, offered lessons, dive trips, sales and service and had an air station.

Randy's old houseboat, Parrothead. It's mine now, and that's another story for another time. :)

Randy could teach advanced open water diving, deep diving, and other classes all the way up through Dive Master. Caldwell and Randy hit it off, and Caldwell took all the classes Randy offered and became a Dive Master. Matt and Jabet took their advanced open water class through Randy. Unfortunately, Randy gave it up after a few years, too. We have since gone back into the airfill business, and we have a few scuba accessories for sale. No lessons or equipment rental at this time. Below is a picture of our current compressor. I suppose this is our fourth or fifth, and hopefully it will last a long time.

Our current compressor.

As for the Dive Shop building? It sustained some damage in the storm of August 2013. I wanted to tear it down - or give it away - but Jabet insisted we keep it. We now use it for storage and for our summer Docktail Hours. Join us for our first Docktail Hour on Saturday, June 6.

Written By Cap'n T. Morgan