Team
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Ani Ostendorff
Mermaid Instructor Trainer - Freedive InstructorAni is a PADI Mermaid IT, Freedive Instructor, Divemaster, and Underwater Photography Instructor. She's a trip Leader for the Padma Organization & Local Dive Leader. When not diving, she enjoys swimming, cycling, running and exploring the outdoors!
Annie Farasopoulos
IDC Staff Instructor - DAN InstructorAnnie is Dive Utah’s first homegrown instructor from BYU’s scuba program, facilitated by our staff at Dive Utah. She moved from excited student in 2012 to seasoned IDC Staff Instructor in 2016. Annie loves anything technical and deep: if there’s a wreck or a swim-through, you can bet she’s in there with her SeaLife camera. In addition to being an IDCSI, Annie is also a registered Cylinder Inspector, Scubapro Repair Technician, and has been a member of the retail staff at Dive Utah since 2015.
Candace Reno-Bernstein
IDC Staff InstructorBeing from Southern California, Candace has had a passion for the ocean from a very early age. Her first open water dive was in 2002 in La Jolla, CA where a ray gracefully emerged out of the sandy bottom and swam towards her, hooking her into diving immediately! She has dove under ice, in the caves of Bonne Terre mine, in the warm waters of the Caribbean including Cuba!, the cool waters of the Pacific and Northeast, and the underwater park of Dutch Springs, PA where she started her professional training in 2013 as a divemaster with Hamden Scuba. Candace came to Dive Utah in 2015 as an Assistant Instructor and has been an instructor since 2016. In her spare time, she enjoys diving with the sharks and penguins as a volunteer at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.
Casey Simons
Assistant InstructorWhile Casey realizes he works too much, he takes time when he can to backcountry ski and enjoys all things outdoors. He especially appreciates a smokin' Scarlet-Fire.
Dave Mohowski
Course Director - Manager HolladayOriginally from New Jersey, Dave came to Utah to major in skiing at the University of Utah in 1990. He certified at Dive Utah in 1994 and started working at the shop immediately after finishing Advanced Open Water a month later.
Doyle Asay
Master Scuba Diver TrainerThere he was, completely surrounded…that is how most of Doyle’s stories start!! He has been teaching scuba since 2001 and is a retired schoolteacher. Not only that but he has also taught parachuting in the Army, skiing at Sundance and a swim coach for high school and community swim teams. As he likes to say-it would have killed an ordinary man!!!
Elsa Schmidke
Open Water Scuba Instructor - Store StaffElsa loves diving and everything about being underwater. She started her divemaster certification right when she turned 18 and a few years later moved on to becoming an instructor! She spends most of her time working for the aquarium as a jellies/coral specialist. Elsa is an advanced mermaid, scuba instructor, and even has a business creating ocean critter artwork that she sells online and at the shop! She loves to help out with the shop social media and working the front desk. Artseaacrylics.com
Greg Parsons
Master Scuba Diver TrainerI am a Master Scuba Diver Trainer who started out with no intention of going beyond Open Water certification. I made an immediate connection with diving and fell in love with the ocean. There are so many truly amazing things you get to see underwater, so I did just about every training there was including technical diving. I even worked at PADI for a while. I love sharing the joys of scuba and opening new eye's to our scuba world. Let us show you why we love the underwater world!
Jake Sanchez
Open Water Scuba InstructorSome good friends ( Jeremy & Michelle R ) led me into the deep blue. I had never imagined that so much beauty and intrigue were under the water. SCUBA diving falls into the category of things that I enjoy most in life. I love water sports and water in general. Skiing, wakeboarding, surfing, wake surfing, swimming, and sunny beaches. One of the things that I enjoy the most about teaching is when I see the look in peoples eyes when they realize they can breathe underwater. I enjoy diving everywhere, even in Utah.
Jason Llewelyn
Master Scuba Diver TrainerJason loves watching people learn to scuba dive and conquer their fear of the water. He's been diving for more than 30 years all over the world and has never dived anywhere he didn't like (even the West Jordan canal).
Jeremy Robertson
DivemasterJeremy got certified in order to marry Michelle, he has been working as a paramedic for 27 years. Diving is a good thing to do during our time off. Michelle and Jeremy volunteer at the aquarium in order to get their fix of tropical diving in between trips and during the Utah winters.
Jim Crosby
Master Scuba Diver TrainerJim just received his 30 year certificate with PADI! He loves to dive, enjoys teaching and getting more people involved in diving. He is retired and enjoys riding his Harley and all outdoor recreation.
John Blake
IDC Staff InstructorJohn likes doing crazy stuff for fun. For example, diving under the ice with nitro circus or teaching in the zero gravity lab at the Houston Space Center.
John Mullen
Open Water Scuba InstructorA bit about John: While John started helping to instruct at Monterey Bay, CA — a constant 55 degrees, he is a warm water diver. John has dived 19 islands, liveaboards and reefs the Caribbean and Atlantic, and 18 islands, liveaboards and reefs in the Pacific.
Kent Nielsen
Open Water Scuba InstructorKent loves to teach new people and get them certified. He is passionate about seeing the look on their face after they take their first dive! He loves the thrill of diving in new places and seeing new underwater life!
Kevin Godfrey
Master InstructorWhen not back country skiing, Kevin enjoys spending time with grandkids and diving. He loves hunting, mountain biking, playing guitar, golf, tennis, and traveling. He’s been teaching at Dive Utah since 2008.
Michelle Robertson
Specialty InstructorMichelle loves teaching open water classes to share with others what she loves about scuba diving. She also loves to see them fall in love with it too. Sometimes her husband helps out in her Open Water Classes. She also leads trips because traveling is better when you can dive and enjoy paradise !
Mikey Bishop
Assistant InstructorMikey loves to assist with BYU classes and is a pro at teaching our Discover Scuba Class. He also is the auto technician for all of the instructors here at Dive Utah ! He frequently goes to Sand Hollow for Dive alongs.
Pete Middleton
Specialty InstructorPete has been an instructor for Dive Utah since 2018. He is passionate about diving and he loves to teach! He gets so much joy introducing people to the underwater world, and hearing where it takes them.
Rich Judson
Master Scuba Diver TrainerDiving Since- 1976 Favorite Class to Teach/Assist With- Rescue Real Job- retired Favorite Food- key lime pie in bonaire Favorite Music/Band- Journey + Keith urban Favorite Dive Destination- Fiji Favorite Underwater Critter- Cuttlefish
Rob Rider
IDC Staff Instructor - Store StaffRob is very serious about safety and equally serious about fun! If you train with Rob, wear your mask around your neck when it's not on your face. Rob has a keen sense of the obvious and loves to talk about gas narcosis. The quintessential nerd of Dive Utah!
Robert Jensen
Master Scuba Diver TrainerRobert can be found driving his semi-truck, teaching BYU scuba on Thursday nights and boating on Lake Powell. His friendly and fun attitude is always a breath of fresh air and he loves teaching!
Sarah Peterson
Instructor-Store StaffSarah was introduced to diving when her family booked a trip to St. Lucia. She immediately fell in love with it. A few years later, she began to work at Alta Ski Area where she met Dave. Dave invited her to take Advanced Open Water. She joined her original instructor, Kevin who took her all […]
Steve Householder
Master Scuba Diver Trainer- Repair Technician - Store StaffSteve enjoys teaching new students about the magical underwater world. He is also our wonderful repair technician specializing in ScubaPro.
Tania Bashford
DivemasterTania grew up in Australia and loves all activities involving bodies of water, especially the ocean. It made sense that Tania would learn to scuba dive, but ironically it wasn't until she moved to Utah she got certified at Dive Utah, working her way up to Dive Master. Tania also loves cats, mountain biking, golfing, volunteering, reading and watching the World Surf League, so feel free to chat to her about any of these topics!
Tom Quinlin
DivemasterTom has been a diver since 2007, and has been guiding and assisting classes as a Divemaster for over a decade. His passion for diving began growing up in California when he took an Open Water class, and he’s been hooked ever since. Tom plans to get his Instructor certification and wants to share his passion with as many people as possible. He’s also been expanding his knowledge base as of late, and getting into more technical aspects of diving. He hopes to pass that knowledge along to students in the future. When he isn’t diving he’s working as an Advanced EMT on the ambulance or spending time with his family.
Todd Schmidtke
Open Water Scuba Instructor -Store StaffTodd is an Open water Instructor, and he prefers to teach Rescue Diver classes. These classes are great fun and with his airline job keeping him traveling around the world, he enjoys teaching shorter focused classes. He is also proud to fill in as a retail staff member when needed. Overall. between diving and flying it would be fair to say Todd enjoys being in environments he "can't" survive in.