Meet Our Team in Columbia, MO
Ryan Oestreich
Area DirectorIndependent Assistant Instructor Trainer
Ryan’s love for diving and boating has kept him around water all his life. Here in the Midwest, Diventures makes it possible to experience everything the water has to offer. Ryan has been an integral part of our team for nearly a decade. As Area Director of our stores in Missouri and Iowa, Ryan enjoys building passionate teams, inspiring new dive professionals, and constantly making lifelong friends through our team and, most of all, our customers!
Phone: 417.883.5151Email: [email protected]
Connor Hendricks
Scuba Experience ManagerIndependent Assistant Instructor Trainer
Connor started his career in the water where he earned his degree in Marine Biology. His passion for teaching scuba emerged while volunteering at his Aunt and Uncle’s dive shop. Diving since 2012, Connor has dove throughout the Midwest and Caribbean and is an Open Watter Diver Instructor. He enjoys helping new divers discover their own passion for the water.
Phone: 573.442.3483
Danny “Doc” Diaz-Arias
Independent Open Water Diver InstructorIndependent Classified Diving Instructor
Danny, or Doc, has grown up in and around the water. Like most kids, Doc loved to swim as a kid but he was also a competitive swimmer through all of high school, and a US Navy Search and Rescue swimmer. He is truly at peace when surrounded by water or more specifically, when blowing bubbles. Doc has been diving for 23 years, and was certified in Columbia at Captain Nemo’s with his mom.
Docs passion for diving has led him to discover Extended Range or XR diving. Doc’s passion for teaching and diving shines through his vast knowledge. Always learning and striving for excellence, he’s dedicated to helping students grow, achieve their diving goals, and see the world in a new light.
Email: [email protected]
Dave Martin
Independent Assistant Instructor
Dave has been diving for 30 years and has assisted with scuba classes as an Assistant Instructor for 28 years. He is patient, safe and thorough when teaching. He has helped thousands of students take their first breaths underwater. Dave has a calming effect on everyone especially beginning scuba students. He would be the first to tell you that he gets a kick out of seeing the new things his students can come up with when teaching them skills!
Dwain Gardner
Independent Assistant Instructor Trainer
Dwain took his first scuba class when he was 19 at the University of Missouri in Columbia. After the first day of scuba class, he knew what he wanted to do with his life. For four and a half years, Dwain helped teach a course at the University of Missouri, then continued to teach scuba and managed several dive stores before starting Capt. Nemo’s Dive Shop 36 years ago. Now, 42 years after that first scuba class, Dwain enjoys giving newcomers the same inspiring experience he had in his first lesson, teaching beginning students and helping over 2,000 divers become certified.
Phone: 573.442.3483Email: [email protected]
Jerry Hess
Independent Assistant Instructor
Phone: 573.442.3483
John Robinson
Independent Assistant Instructor
John started diving in 1989 and has been a Divemaster and Assistant Instructor since 1992. He enjoys assisting beginning students and certified divers on their journey to experiencing the wonderful world of scuba diving. John dives in fresh water and salt water whenever he is able and enjoys meeting customers at the dive shop.
Ken Campbell
Independent Advanced Open Water Instructor
Growing up on healthy doses of the TV series Flipper and Jacques Cousteau specials, Ken turned his underwater fascinations into his own story when he became a certified diver in 1978. He is now a Level 9 Diver and Advanced Open Water Instructor. Ken spent 30 years teaching middle school science and is excited to bring the world of underwater adventure to every diver.
Email: [email protected]
Mary Stanford
Independent Advanced Open Water Diver Instructor
As a child, Mary was always near an ocean and spent much of her time swimming. She has been diving for 36 years and feels like she “can’t live without it.” Mary has been an active instructor for 28 years and loves teaching scuba. She and her husband, Dwain, have owned and operated Capt. Nemo’s Dive Shop in Columbia, Missouri, for 36 years, introduced thousands of people to scuba and conducted close to 100 escorted diving trips to the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. Her boundless energy comes from a passion for introducing new divers to the beauty of being underwater and “getting them hooked on not just getting certified, but becoming a diver.”
Phone: 573.442.3483Email: [email protected]
