Joe Laposta
Joe Laposta is the “Joe” in Joe’s Scuba.
Joe’s passion for scuba diving began after taking his initial scuba course in 2008. He was immediately hooked and spend every spare moment working on the boat, diving in his backyard lake or volunteering at the South Carolina Aquarium.
In 2017, Joe took a month long extended trip to Florida doing an intense instructor training course to become a PADI Master Scuba Diving Trainer, Handicap Scuba Instructor, and Tank/Equipment service technician.
Joe loves to travel for scuba diving and has dove all over the world. Some of his favorite dive locations are Belize, Bonaire, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste. Another of Joe’s favorite types of dives are blackwater dives in the Cooper River. It is quite satisfying to come back from a dive with a megalodon tooth souvenir!
The SDI specialties Joe can teach are:
The PADI specialties Joe can teach are:
James Comfort
James Comfort brings a ton of experience to the table! James started diving with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Underwater Recovery Team in 2016, learning to conduct underwater crime scene investigations to recover victims, weapons, vehicles, or other evidence, and frequently conducting searches for underwater explosive devices with other state and federal agencies.
James is currently certified as a Trimix Diver / Closed Circuit Rebreather diver and his favorite dives are deep wrecks, but does frequently conduct blackwater diving for fossils locally in the Cooper River, or spearfishing offshore Charleston. He is looking forward to instructing more students as one of our newest instructors!
The SDI specialties James can teach are:
Micah Leigh
Micah Leigh is a brand new PADI and SDI scuba instructor. Micah started diving in 2020 and just couldn’t stop! Micah’s open water class with Joe was actually halfway through when the world shut down for the pandemic. He didn’t give up, and he finished a few months later.
Micah rapidly progressed through his diving certifications and got to spend almost a month in Florida completing his Divemaster and Open Water Scuba Instructor certifications in early 2022.
He is super excited to share his passion for diving with new students and continue to grow in his scuba experiences!
The SDI specialties Micah can teach are:
The PADI specialties Micah can teach are:
Mendi Johnson
Mendi Johnson has been diving since 1999 and has been an instructor since 2001. Her diving started in the west – Washington, California, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho with a favorite spot being the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.
She moved from the west to be an Instructor on a live-aboard in Belize which then led her to a resort in the Dominican Republic, and finally to a dive store in Florida. She has enjoyed many Caribbean destinations.
Mendi has been an independent instructor in Charleston since 2009 and has been offshore diving here as well as blackwater diving in the Cooper and Wando Rivers for relics and fossils. Her bucket list dive trips are the Red Sea and Indonesia.
The SDI specialties Mendi can teach are:
John Baker
John fell in love with diving in high school. During college he worked as a divemaster for several shops and spent a serious amount of time underwater. After graduation, he earned his dive instructor certification.
Besides teaching scuba, John’s passion is exploration and technical diving. John has dived to 300+ft on some of his adventures, dived the Andrea Doria, the U869, dives rebreathers, and has salvaged everything from airplanes to cars.
John has taught 1000’s of dive courses ranging from open water to technical trimix diving. He is also an instructor trainer, technical diving instructor trainer, and a course director trainer. John can help you achieve your goal of becoming a diver, dive instructor, and even a course director!
John is a USCG Master Captain and runs dive charters for spearfishing, wreck, and ledge diving off the South Carolina coast. His favorite place to dive in the world is offshore Charleston, SC.
The SDI specialties John can teach are: