Sterling, Va

Independent Assistant Instructor

Andrew was certified in July 2005 in Clarksville, Tennessee while stationed at Fort Campbell with his wife, LTC Nancy Bodyk (Ret). He convinced his wife to get certified in 2008 and made scuba diving a family activity. Andrew advanced through other specialties including Deep Diver, Wreck Diver, Aquarium Diver, Enriched Air Diver, Dry Suit Diver, Search and Recovery and Under Water Hunter. He earned his Advanced Open Water certification in November 2007, Rescue Diver in July 2014 and Master Scuba Diver in September 2014. He completed the Divemaster Program in July 2015.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Dr. Chris Looker learned how to scuba dive in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt in 1985 while serving as an overseas Missionary for the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Princeton Theological Seminary. He has dived six of the seven continents. Chris believes that if you really want to see the world, you have to become a scuba diver.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor
Service Technician

Drew was certified in 2004 at Lake Millbrook, but it wasn’t until a family vacation to Aruba that he fell into the diving lifestyle. After completing his Advanced Open Water in 2010, he hasn’t looked back; becoming a dive master in 2011 and an instructor in 2012. He loves the challenge of deep, wreck and cave diving, but is always up for a dip in the local quarries. Drew also holds numerous certifications in recreational and technical diving.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Duane got an early start in diving by earning his Junior Open Water certification in 1984, and spent his summers diving in the Chesapeake Bay. He has completed his Advanced, Rescue, numerous specialty courses (Deep, Dry Suit, Night) and technical courses (Cylinder Inspector, Gas Blender). Duane loves all kinds of diving. From reefs to wrecks, but especially loves the wall dives off Grand Cayman and the shore diving of Bonaire.

Owner of Nautilus Aquatics
Instructor Trainer

Jason started his diving career on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. He was on his honeymoon and suggested he and his wife get certified together. Almost immediately upon returning to Northern Virginia Jason found Sterling Silver Scuba (now Nautilus Aquatics) and continued his diving career. In 2008 he and his wife Melissa purchased Sterling Silver Scuba.

Independent Assistant Instructor

Jay was certified as an Open Water Diver in the summer of 2003, Divemaster in December 2013 and AI in May 2014. His nickname, “Pearl”, comes from his determination to keep diving until he sees his first freshwater pearl underwater. Jay is never without a smile and his dry sense of humor helps students feel comfortable while learning something new. Besides fundamental scuba instruction, he specializes in helping nervous divers overcome their anxieties.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Jeff was enticed by a former colleague to try scuba diving and became hooked after his first dive. He earned his Open Water certification in 1991 and dove sporadically for years. He eventually got back to diving more regularly and moved on to earn his Advanced Open Water certification, Rescue certification, Master Scuba Diver and various specialties. Jeff decided to go pro so that he could share his fascination for scuba diving with others. Jeff’s next goal is to continue to learn new specialties and to work towards an Instructor Trainer certification.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Jerry first fell in love with the underwater world while watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, but the hook was truly set when he went on two iterations of SEACAMP in Big Pine Key Florida in 1980 and 1981. Jerry dove infrequently until the military deposited him in central Florida in 2008, for his last active duty tour, where he resumed diving with a passion and worked up to his Master Diver rating. In 2012, he beat Hurricane Sandy to Cuba, landing at US Naval Station GTMO about 18 hours before the storm made landfall. Once the weather cleared, he enrolled in the Divemaster program, and then the Instructor Development Course.

Independent Divemaster

Joshua started his diving career with Nautilus Aquatics in July 2015 with the intention of being certified before attending a destination wedding in Saint Lucia. He was quickly bitten by the scuba bug and decided to continue with the sport. Joshua completed his Master Diver certification in October 2016 after completing 50 dives and 10 certifications (only 5 are required). 2017 brought the introduction of Technical Diving as well as the idea of moving to a professional diver by completing the Divemaster certification in December. Joshua is excited to be assisting instructors who trained him with classes and further his love of diving.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Lee began diving in the early 1990s. He was drawn by the beauty and adventure and has been at it ever since. Lee has been blessed to have dived in many parts of the world. He has seen a lot of amazing places and made a lot of great friends thanks to diving. Now as an Instructor, Lee looks forward to helping new divers discover the same things that drew him in years ago.

Customer Experience Specialist

Mackenzie received her Open Water Diver certification in 2019. She was raised near the beach and fell in love with swimming and the ocean. Mackenzie was on the swim team in high school and took an interest in topics like environmental science and marine ecosystems. Being the oldest of five, Mackenzie took pride in teaching her younger siblings to be strong and safe swimmers.

During her first three years of college in the Virgin Islands, Mackenzie worked part-time at a local scuba shop and majored in marketing. A year after St. Croix endured two CAT 5 hurricanes, Mackenzie moved back to the States and transferred to George Mason University. Now Mackenzie looks forward to future trips and continuing her scuba education toward Advanced Diver.

Email: [email protected]

Independent Divemaster

Marlene started diving in 2014 and quickly fell in love with the sport. She worked her way up to the requirements for Divemaster and successfully completed the program in 2017. Marlene has completed 6 recreational specialties with wreck and coral restoration being her favorites. She is also a certified technical diver and working on furthering her technical diving skills.

Owner of Nautilus Aquatics
Open Water Diver Instructor

Melissa started her diving career on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. She was on her honeymoon and her husband suggested they get certified together. Almost immediately upon returning to Northern Virginia Melissa found Sterling Silver Scuba (now Nautilus Aquatics) and continued her diving career. In 2008 she and her husband Jason purchased Sterling Silver Scuba.

Independent Divemaster

Nancy was certified in August 2008 at Dutch Springs Quarry in Pennsylvania. She advanced through other specialties including Wreck Dive, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Under Water Hunter, Under Water Navigator, Deep Diver, Enriched Air Dive, Dry Suit Diver, Aquarium Diver and Search & Recovery. Nancy earned her Advanced Open Water in August 2008, Rescue Diver in July 2014 and Master Scuba Diver in November 2015. She completed the Dive Master Program for PADI and SDI in October 2018.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Rich completed his Open Water certification dives in 2006 on the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns, Australia. After completing his Advanced Open Water certification in 2012, he has not looked back; becoming a Divemaster in 2013, an Assistant Instructor in 2014 and an Instructor in 2015. Rich enjoys everything from relaxing warm water recreational dives to technical hypoxic trimix dives on deep wrecks.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Rob first started scuba diving in 2012. Two years later he attended the Commercial Diving Academy – Technical Institute in Jacksonville, Florida and earned his Open Water Instructor certification, his Unrestricted Air/Mixed Gas Surface Supplied Commercial Diver certification and his Dive Medical Technician certification. Rob’s next goal is to become an Emergency Response Diving Instructor and work with various fire, rescue and law enforcement agencies in and around Northern Virginia.

Independent Assistant Instructor

Rob’s been an Open Water Diver for over 20 years, earning his initial Open Water certification while living in N.C. He’s been a PADI Pro for six of those years. Rob migrated to Northern VA and soon signed up for the PADI Divemaster internship with the original Nautilus Aquatics. Currently, Rob teaches Underwater Digital Photography, Peak Performance Buoyancy and PADI Equipment Specialist.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

During a DSD, Robert discovered that he could feel sounds underwater, and his love for scuba exploded. Robert started working on his professional rating to pay for his scuba habit. He is one of few instructors who can teach in English and sign language (great for those underwater classes) having participated in the first all-ASL (American Sign Language) PADI IDC.

Independent Open Water Diver Instructor

Sherece has been traveling the world, exploring new dive sites in different countries each year. She has covered most of the countries in the Caribbean Sea, several throughout the Atlantic Ocean and is now slowly making her way through the countries spread out across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. Sherece received her Open Water Scuba Instructor certification in the Philippines in 2018 and has several specialty certifications. She is very interested in the safety and physiological aspects of diving and is studying to become a Diver Medical Technician.

Social Media Marketing Strategist
Travel Coordinator and Instructor

Stephanie became enchanted with the underwater world in 1993 while snorkeling with family in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. A year later she obtained her Open Water certification in Grand Cayman and was completely hooked. Stephanie enjoys exploring scuba diving education through social media, generating creative marketing ideas, organizing conservation endeavors and researching, planning and coordinating scuba travel.

Independent Master Diver Trainer

Su started diving by chance. She happened to meet scuba instructors and their students at Oak Marr in August of 2012, just prior to a trip to Costa Rica and decided it would be fun to learn to dive. She completed Open Water certification in September 2012, took her first ocean dive in Costa Rica in November 2012 and was hooked. She became a PADI Divemaster in 2016, an Instructor in 2017 and a Master Scuba Diver Trainer in 2018. She is also cross-certified as an instructor through SDI and is a DAN DEMP Instructor. After diving on three continents (so far!), her favorite dive destinations are in the Philippines. Su crossed an item off her bucket list by diving with a whale shark on Tubbataha Reef. She is also something of an ‘eel whisperer,’ so if you want to know where the eels are, just follow her!

Store Manager

Willie began his journey as a scuba student at Iowa State University in 2000. He is currently a PADI MSDT working on a crossover to SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor. Prior to joining Diventures, he managed a PADI Five Star IDC store in St Petersburg, FL, and owned a dive center in Ames, IA. Willie has experienced diving in Iowa, Florida, Australia, Hawaii, and many islands in the Caribbean. One of his favorite classes was teaching scuba as part of the Spaceflight Operations course at Iowa State University for six years. Willie takes great pride in customer service and satisfaction. He chose to work at Diventures because it aligns with his core values, which include being friendly and providing high customer service and satisfaction.