Jack Aaron - Owner & Master Scuba Diver Trainer since 1971 #12273The man behind Aaron's Dive Shop, Jack has owned and operated Aaron's Dive Shop for the past 37 years. He is known as the 'Instructor to the Stars.' After his work on the "LOST" set, Dominic Monaghan (plays Charlie on 'Lost' tv series and was Pipin in Lord of the Rings) and Evangline Lilly (plays Kate on 'Lost' tv series) came in to take their Open Water Course at Aaron's.
Recently Jack worked on the set of Ultimate Survival a popular British tv series. He was the show's water coordinator/producer responsible for water safety, hiring of the boats, hiring of support staff and finding the set locations. They went to the fantastic locations of Lanai Lookout, Blow Hole, Turtle Bay, Shark Cages outside of Haleiwa and the Mokumanu Islands.
Jack is always around the shop or working on a TV/commercial shoot. Otherwise, you'll find him on the tennis courts, handily taking care of most of his challengers (as Ty...one of our DMCs recently discovered).
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 | Larry Grayson - Course Director/Director of TrainingLarry became certified in 1972 in the cold dark waters of La Jolla, California. He came to Hawaii in 1987 with the military and started his professional dive career with Jack and Aaron’s Dive Shop as a Divemaster in 1988 and Instructor in 1990. Larry left Hawaii to explore the world via the military but he couldn’t keep away for long. In 1996, as a Course Director, Larry trained his first Open Water SCUBA Instructor right here at Aaron’s Dive Shop. We are happy that Larry has returned to the Aaron’s ohana, now as our Director of Training…and Head Pooba of all things diving. He is intent on helping divers realize what a precious resource our underwater world is, and teaching them to dive responsibly. Larry gets a little artsy when talking about his love of diving…he loves the colors, the three dimensionality of movement, the whale songs traveling through his body, laughing at dolphins squeaking, and eavesdropping on lobsters gossiping. Topside, Larry is married and a father of 4, with a love for sci-fi and writing his own poetry. |
Kirsty - Manager/IDC Staff InstructorThis is our international gal! She was born in Australia and raised in New Zealand, England, France and Hong Kong. She graduated from Duke University and ended up working for MTV with their strategic planning department in New York. Boy can she tell you some stories. She decided to pack it all in for 'peace of mind' and headed to Honduras for 4 years working as a divemaster. Then Hawaii beckoned. Now she makes sure the shop runs smoothly, and teaches whenever she can. But underwater photography and meditating with the creatures are her passion. |  |
 | Jeff - IDC Staff InstructorBorn and raised in Santa Barbara, Jeff moved to hawaii seeking warm waters to dive in. He started off at Aarons 6 years ago as a Divemaster and has since become a PADI Staff Instructor, Naui and SSI instructor, Technical Diving Instructor and a DanO2 instructor. Whew! His next diving aspiration is to become a Tri-Mix instructor. PLUS he works for the Nature Conservancy in Palmyra getting to go there a couple times a year to guide divers. Jeff lives diving so much he goes diving when he is on vacation, recently spending three weeks in Thailand diving. Besides diving, Jeff is a very accomplished musician and a great cook. His favorite classes to teach are the Wreck Specialty and Technical Diving. This is the man who certified Dominic Monaghan and Evangeline Lilly, as well as former astronaut Buzz Aldrin's son!
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Melanie - MSDT InstructorThis young lady comes all the way from Munich Germany. She did a lot of snorkeling there but decided there must be something better than murky cold water. She came to Hawaii attending school. A lot of her new found friends were divers, so she took a class. From there she met Divemaster (at the time) Jeff - yes the same Jeff listed above - and the rest is history. They are now married, and Melanie is now one of our instructors. She is also a DanO2 & Emergency First Responder Instructor as well as a National Registry First Responder. She is a technical diver and appeared as a Selma Hyak's stunt double in a diving scene for the movie After the Sunset! If that isn't enough, she owns a dance studio teaching Irish Dancing (jigthishawaii@yahoo.com) and is working toward her Tri-Mix Diving, EMT Basic AND Diving Medical Technician certifications. PLUS this gal knows a lot about the unique Hawaiian marine life - the Naturalist Specialty being her favorite class to teach.
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 | Roger - InstructorAfter his Open Water referral certification Roger figured he'd only get to dive once or twice a year on vacation, but wanted to keep in practice. So he started spending one morning a month in a cold, dark, silty, flooded, rock quarry. Then two. Then three. Then every Saturday and Sunday. Instead of keeping in practice he started gathering as much and as many experiences as he possibly could, accumulating over 100 dives in his first year of certification. Now Roger is an instructor and technical diver who enjoys reefs, shipwrecks, caves, shallow, deep, CCR, free diving... as long as it's underwater, he'll go. Being an inexplicably proud New Jersey boy, he maintains that wreck diving there is the best diving in the world...but that the year-round warm water, abundant reef life, and nearly unlimited visibility off Oahu is pretty good, too. His passion for diving is matched only by his passion for education and awareness of ocean biology and ecology. "Diving," he says, "is an appreciation of our bond to the timeless cycle of the all the world's waters." He is also paranoid that octopuses (not "octopi") may be able to take over the world if they join forces instead of simply cannibalizing one another. |
Tim - Dive MasterTim hails from Michigan but now he's all about exotic lands. While living in Panama, about 10 years ago, he started diving. He's been hooked ever since. He's all about the unpopulated, uncharted dive destinations like Timor, Vietnam, and Columbia. Tim, his wife and Sheba, their faithful companion, just returned to Hawaii from a stint in Asia. Some serious diving around Malaysia and the rest of South East Asia. We're happy to have Tim back in the Aaron's fold, leading dives, taking phenomenal pictures (underwater photography being his "thing") and tinkering at the shop work benches...look for Sheba often close by. |  |
 | James - Open Water SCUBA Instructor/SalespersonJames likes to think of himself as, "The Man." Born and raised in Berkeley, he started diving at the tender age of 3. As a second generation diver, James earned his Rescue Diver at 14 and completed his NAUI Instructor course at age 18. In April 2003, James took over his fathers dive shop, Cal School of Diving. For 5 years he managed the store and was head instructor. When an opportunity to move to Hawaii fell in his lap, James jumped at the chance. Fresh on the island with his new wife, James joined the Aaron's team and now, as a PADI Instructor, is one of our more excitable characters:) |
Kit - Instructor/salesperson & talented bakerKit learned to dive while getting her bachelor's degree in 1996, in the cold waters of the Great Lakes in New York. She didn't enjoy it that much, but was preparing to go to the Bahamas to study Marine Biology and needed to know how to dive. When she got to the islands and did her first open-ocean dives in the crystal clear warm waters, she was instantly hooked! She later moved to Florida and worked for a dive operator there for several years and got her Divemaster certification in the Florida Keys. She moved to O'ahu in September 2008 and got her Open Water SCUBA Instructor certification through Aaron's PADI 5-Star training program in December 2008. Kit is passionate about ocean conservation and plans to become a specialist in PADI's Project A.W.A.R.E. program, so that she can help people understand the importance of preserving the world's oceans for our future enjoyment.
oh yeh....and Kit can bake some fierce pies!!! |  |
 | Elizabeth - Sales Staff & DivemasterBorn in Wisconsin, but moved around a lot growing up. So she also calls Nebraska, Minnesota, Colorado and Hawaii home. She came to Hawaii when she was 18 as a vacation.. and well she is still here! Liz completed her undergrad here at HPU and we are so proud of her! She's now in the grad program at HPU for (take a deep breath here because its a mouthful) Masters of Arts in Global Leadership and Sustainable Development... Whew! Then in all her FREE time she is hoping to become a dive instructor. She loves to surf, hang out at the beach, walk her puppy, and logging dives. And, keeping it all in the family, Liz met her beau, Ronen, while he was working with us as an instructor.
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Jana - Open Water SCUBA InstructorThe diver from... IOWA! In Hawaii via route of Colorado, Florida, and California! Jana learned to dive in COLD California waters and now abides by the wetsuits optional policy. Maybe she doesn't have a choice since she burned her hooded 7 ml wetsuit when she left Cali (slight exaggeration, but would've liked to)! You'll find Jana working part time on the boats and full time in the hospital as a nurse (double bonus)! If you're looking for someone who's really energetic about blowing bubbles and preserving Hawaii's aquatic environment... This is your girl! |  |
 | Ryan Cooey - InstructorCooey (as he is affectionaly known), joined us when he strolled into one of our holiday tent sales, not even a diver yet. Since then, he's caught the diving bug BIG TIME! Cooey is now one of our weekend warrior instructors, as his work week is dedicated to the Marines. But when he can he's over here hanging with his Hawaii family and diving, diving, diving! He's always up for a good time and watch out for the fireworks on New Year's Eve. Be weary though, if you call him a mini-Tim (see our other fabulous team member), he might get a little upset. We're enjoying our last few months with Cooey, as when he separates from the marines in the summer of 2010, we're not sure where the wind will take him. |
Cam - InstructorLocal boy, born and bred in Hawaii, obsessed with the ocean....so much so, he's in the water almost every day of the year diving, surfing, freediving, just hanging in the ocean. Cam is a thrill seeker....surfing the big waves, bungee jumping, sky diving....but he's just as happy poking around underwater not moving more than 40 ft on a dive. Cam has been with us since his Advanced Open Water certification....he had the bug...and he hasn't stopped...Now he's getting into underwater photography and who knows where he'll go with that. And, ladies, he is single :) |  |
 | Arnie - Master InstructorBorn and raised in New York City, Arnie eventually moved to Hawaii to retire—again. He has already retired from the US Army and from a US National Laboratory, where he was a staff physicist. Need help with the PADI dive physics questions? (He is currently working on his third retirement.) Arnie began diving for Aaron’s in 1999 as an Assistant Instructor and has since become a PADI Master Instructor, SSI Divecon Specialist Instructor, DAN Instructor (four courses), and UDT Technical Diving Instructor (all levels through Trimix training). He also teaches Emergency First Response as well as the professional-level CPR and First Aid course for the American Red Cross. As you might imagine, Arnie really likes teaching classes—especially scuba diving classes. Like many of the staff, Arnie also takes busman’s holidays, his last being two weeks at Bikini Atoll diving on the wrecks from the U.S. atomic tests in the Pacific. An avid underwater photographer (digital and film) Arnie’s images show up on the Aaron website from time to time. |
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