Scuba Venture Instructors and Staff
Do you have scuba equipment, training, or travel questions? Ask one of our experienced Scuba Venture staff members or certified instructors.
Scuba Venture Certified Instructors
Mark Stitzer
Instructor Certifier
He progressed through the training ranks to SSI Instructor Certifier, and also teaches PADI, and TDI certifications. From snorkeling through scuba instructor, Mark teaches all levels of scuba students, and is certified to teach 42 different specialty courses.
He teaches Enriched Air courses through SSI, PADI, and TDI. He is an instructor certifier for the National Safety Council’s First Aid, CPR, and AED Programs as well as an Instructor Ceritfier for all DAN courses. He also holds TDI certifications in Gas Blending, Enriched Air Nitrox, and Oxygen Equipment Service Technician. One course Mark really enjoys teaching is Scuba Rangers, which is for children ages 8-12.
In 2001 he achieved a Platinum Pro 5000 instructor rating. When Mark is not running the store, or teaching students, he can be found in the Tech Room helping Scuba Venture’s main repair technicians. Mark loves both wreck diving and running trips to the Pacific and the Caribbean.
Rick Briscoe
Instructor
Some of Rick’s favorite wreck dives have been in Lake Huron where the water is cold but the wrecks are unbelievable! In Michigan Rick also spent summers working at a local dive shop and maintaining boat moorings for a local yacht club.
Favorite diving experiences in salt water include diving the Great Barrier Reef, manta rays and whale sharks longer than the dive boat. Rick is an active Boy Scout leader and has a strong interest in helping young divers learn to respect and safely experience the natural environment under the water.
Brett Galambos
Instructor
His interest in diving came from watching divers retrieve fishing lures from Indian River Inlet, Delaware as a seven year old. After completing his open water class at eighteen, he bought his own equipment and began diving in local quarries and off the coast of New Jersey.
In 1995 he completed his divemaster rating and immediately went to work on local dive boats in New Jersey, with an interest in spearfishing and lobstering. He has extensive experience as a boat diver and says that shore diving is a way to experience the ocean without the high expense of chartering a boat. Along with Mark Stitzer, Brett is the only other instructor certified at Scuba Venture to teach Waves, Tides, and Currents (Shore Diver).
In 2004, he completed his instructor rating, and anticipates working with many new students as well as continuing his innovative intervention diving program that he uses to teach scuba adventure education and other activities to his Middle School students.
Charlie Haldeman
Instructor
Terry Messerschmidt
Instructor
Chuck Ogborn
Instructor
Chuck has been a diving since 2002 as a recreational diver traveling to places such as the North Atlantic, North Carolina, Florida Keys, the Philippines and throughout the Caribbean. In addition to recreational diving Chuck is also an avid technical diver challenging himself with deep wreaks and cave adventures. He has been active Dive Master for several years and during 2016 he joined the Scuba Venture staff.
Mel Petrochko
Instructor
Rahn Richards
Instructor
Brent Watts
Instructor
Robin Wood
Instructor
ScubaVenture Staff
Laura Emerich
Dive Control Specialist
Leon Franken
Dive Control Specialist
Chad Frankhouser
Dive Control Specialist
Robert Gebhard
Dive Control Specialist
Joe Gimont
Dive Control Specialist
Shawn Kane
Dive Control Specialist
Cheryl Miller
Dive Control Specialist
Richard Mitchell
Dive Control Specialist
Michael Petrochko
Dive Control Specialist
John Smith
Dive Control Specialist
Mark Stitzer, Jr.
Dive Control Specialist
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