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!

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!

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.

Mark Weninger’s diving career started late in life. Looking to fulfill his dreams as a professional, he started interning, divemastering, and working as a deck hand on a charter boat. He has travelled for diving to such places as Bora Bora, Honduras, Barbados, Grenada, and Cozumel.

Mark realized teaching and helping others learn was what he loved most. It was time to step up as an instructor. Mark earned both his PADI and SDI instructor ratings. He is also a volunteer diver at South Carolina Aquarium.

Mark loves the smiles from his students when they take their first plunge into his underwater classroom!

Why does Mark dive? Simple. It’s fun!

Melannie Bachman is a published marine scientist by training, and has been fortunate to have experienced our underwater world from both scientific and recreational standpoints around the globe. After working in remote areas of Indonesia studying coral reefs and marine mammals, she began her journey as a dive instructor. She felt she could make a bigger impact with preserving our marine ecosystem by improving connections between people and the environment through diving. She is both a Scuba diving and Freediving instructor with numerous teaching specialties as well as a certified Yoga Instructor.

As a breast cancer survivor, she aims to create an alternative healing program for other survivors integrating the wonderful benefits of diving and yoga. Mel has instructed through PADI & SSI, and is excited to now teach for PFI and SDI.

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.

Spike is an ADCI licensed commercial diver and an SDI Assistant Instructor with a wide variety of experience working and exploring underwater. Spike enjoys sharing his passion for scuba with students and introducing newcomers to the wonders of the underwater world. When not at Joe’s you can find him diving at SC Aquarium or spending time with his wife, JB, and daughter, Dutch.

Bryan spent 20 years in the US Army traveling all over the world. He then began his passion for diving during the summer of 2022 and as of the summer of 2023 is already a Divemaster!

Some of Bryan’s favorite types of diving are drift dives, deep wreck dives, and blackwater diving. Bryan is very safety conscious and really enjoys making you feel comfortable in the water.

If you are just starting out in your scuba journey, there is a good chance he will be helping in your class!