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At Reef Seekers, we pride ourselves on having some of the most talented, patient, and caring instructors you'll find. Since we are a dual NAUI and PADI facility, we offer certification through either agency. Although we are not offering group classes any more (since we lost our lease - logistics are just too difficult), we can still set you up with private classes through any of the individuals below. Many of our instructors have been diving and teaching for over 20 years. They dive Southern California regularly, travel all over the world to exotic locales, are on a first-name basis with many denizens of the deep, and have a love and respect for the ocean that they pass on to their students. Scroll down to learn a little more about these people who are waiting to share their knowledge with you. |
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R.A. Buck (PADI) "Buck", as he is known to all, started diving in 1960. He has been teaching since 1980 and has certified over 1700 open water divers. He loves southern California diving and frequently does beach dives near Venice. His favorite dive site is anywhere in the South Pacific (especially if he can get someone else to pay for it). |
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Hal Greenberg (PADI) Hal joined our instructional staff after having spent time divermastering for us. In fact, most of Hal's training (once he got past that pesky Open Water class) was done through Reef Seekers. Hal brings a great love of the ocean and a respect for the environment to the classroom and imparts that passion to his students. He's also the guy teaching our "Sea Signs" classes. So when you see him waving his arms at you, he might actually be saying something. |
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Matt Levinson (PADI) Attorney by day, dive instructor by night (and weekends). Matt loves taking off his coat and tie and teaching diving (although if he ever saw a wetsuit with a tie painted on, he might just buy it). Matt's also fascinated by some of the legal aspects of our sport, and can also give you some interesting perspectives on diving from that point of view. |
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John Lumb (PADI) John is a PADI Course Director, which means John can teach any course, including his favorite thing - UW photography. He's been diving since 1975 and teaching since 1982. John has logged over 2500 dives in that time. His favorite dive sites are the Red Sea, Cocos Island, Truk Lagoon, the Sea of Cortez, and our local islands. John also spent time working and diving with Jean Michel Cousteau. |
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Stephen Mendel
(LA County, NAUI, YMCA) Stephen was originally certified in a 38ºF freshwater lake in Quebec (so don’t complain to him about being cold). In the warmer waters of SoCal, he became an instructor with Los Angeles County, NAUI, and the YMCA. He’s is still looking forward to diving the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea, and the South Pacific but for now will content himself with the Channel Islands (although he did manage to get to Kona last year to dive with the resident manta rays there.) |
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Tom Wetzel (NAUI,
PADI, LA COUNTY, YMCA) Although not one of our "official" staff instructors, Tom has been using Reef Seekers as his home base for many years. Tom first started diving in 1969 in Okinawa, became an instructor in 1976, and has logged thousands of dives. He is a regular at Veteran's Park in Redondo, where he conducts many of his class training sessions, thus earning him the affectionate nickname of "Beach Master." |
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