SCUBA STAFF

As the proud owners of Deep Blue, Jacquie and Jonathan bring their passion to their business. Their Long Beach roots go back four generations and they are proud to foster a new generation of swimmers and scuba divers. As parents of two young children, the swim school is critical to promote water safety for all ages and Deep Blue opens the door to further aquatic journeys. Jacquie's love of water, adventure and all things family makes a perfect "family feel" recipe at Deep Blue. After spending nearly 15 years working in Labor Relations at the port areas of the West Coast, Jacquie used her business degree and background to open Deep Blue.

Jonathan has had an interesting career in diving. He started his diving adventures at the age of 18 as a U.S. Navy Deep Sea Diver and traveled the world in that capacity with many interesting diving missions. Jonathan became a PADI Instructor in 1989 and has enjoyed sharing his enthusiasm with his students throughout the years. Jonathan also spent over 10 years as a public safety diver conducting searches, recoveries, and underwater crime scene investigations. Jonathan led a specialized public safety dive team with a unique Homeland Security mission. He also had the privilege of being one of a select handful of original Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific divers. More recently, he has pursued his interest in rebreather diving and has found an even more amazing way to interact with the aquatic world. 

Jodie earned her Open Water scuba certification at the age of 12 at Camp CIMI on Catalina Island. From her first breath off of a regulator, she was hooked. In 2019 she became a PADI instructor and worked to certify boy scouts at Camp Emerald Bay, fulfilling her childhood dream of inspiring new divers while exploring the Catalina kelp forest. She is a medical student at the California University of Science and Medicine.

- MSDT Scuba Instructor

Martin got his dive certification back in 2014. He spent his youth in Croatia always on the water, either fishing with his grandpa or swimming. He has six specialties under his belt. When he is not helping with classes, he is being a divemaster on a boat or just diving for fun. He is looking forward to sharing his love and knowledge of diving with other people.

-Divemaster

For the first fourteen years of his life, Jung was born and raised in the Taipei, Taiwan.  He spent his teenage and college years in Long Beach, California.  At a very young age aquatic sports and ocean activities were part of his life, such as swimming, water polo, surfing, fishing or simply lying face down in the water with a mask and a snorkel looking at fish.  While attending California State University, Long Beach, he was certified as an open water scuba diver, and what started out as a hobby has evolved into an undying passion and curiosity for the underwater world.  He began his career as an engineer in aeronautical industry after receiving Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Long Beach, but that did not stop his passion to explore the world below sea level.  As a PADI Divemaster since 2016, he continued to educate himself and refine the fundamental skills with goal to lead many great adventures into the deep blue. 

-Divemaster

Lori was born with a twin and raised in Californian with two older brothers. She's been an educator for most of her adult life - after graduating from Whittier College she taught middle school for 38 years. Lori worked as a Divemaster on the local boats for three years before becoming and working as an Open Water Scuba Instructor for 21 years throughout California. Taking her love for teaching to the next level, she became a PADI Course Director, completing the course in 2005 in Newport Beach - and making her the first female Course Director with the “old” Sport Chalet chain. She's also an HSA Scuba Instructor!

Between classes Lori loves to travel with friends to places where the adventure of scuba diving (and other experiences) call! Trips to Galapagos, Cocos Island, Indonesia, Palau, Hawaii and Costa Rica are some of her favorites. During a Cruise trip to Alaska she landed in Juno, rented dive gear, and then dove in 42-degree water for 50 minutes. "The shop wanted to give us two tanks! We took one. Great adventure!"

Lori is involved with Catalina Avalon Underwater Cleanup, Chamber Day, and the Bolsa Chica Conservancy cleaning and weeding the wetlands. “Save our Oceans and Land for the next generation!”

-Course Director

Maaike is a native Dutchy, who never dove the cold waters of the Netherlands. After her study to become a RN she traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand - picking up scuba diving during her travels. After working as a RN in the Netherlands for a few years she longed for a new adventure and signed up to work on a hospital ship in Africa. She led the general surgery ward, joined the dive team that cleaned the ship and worked as a deck hand when the ship needed all hands on deck. She met her husband on board the Africa Mercy and after a long distance relationship she came over to the U.S., got married and made her husband learn how to scuba dive. The two have been buddies and encouraging each other to continue their dive education. Maaike became an open water scuba instructor in 2016. They started a little family and are hoping their offspring will love the ocean as much as they do.

Besides scuba diving Maaike loves to walk with her dog, grow her own veggies, travel and spend quality time with friends and family.

-Open Water Scuba Instructor

Sheldon got certified to dive back in 2012. His passion for the sea extends beyond just diving though - for his day job you can find him out fixing yachts during the week and being a divemaster or captain on boats on the weekends. But it is teaching his passion for scuba diving that he loves the most. "So let's go diving!"

-Open Water Scuba Instructor

Kevin's love for the ocean started when he watched Jacques Cousteau’s Underwater World. By the time he was 6 he knew more about the ocean and its creatures than most adults. His father was a police diver in Seattle and sometimes he’d get to go to work with him and see him decked out in SCUBA gear. He’d jump into the water and would be gone for an hour, and he’d always come back with something so cool. That’s when Kevin knew he wanted to be a diver. At 17, he completed his PADI Open Water Diver cert and spent all of his time diving in the chilly waters of Puget Sound. He took a bit of a break from diving, but in 2010 he came back to it here in Southern California. After completing his Rescue Diver cert with Deep Blue he knew he wanted to go pro. He's very happy that he's been given the opportunity to share with others the joy of being in a new kind of wilderness - a wilderness that many people don’t get to see.

-Open Water Scuba Instructor

Jaclyn has been drawn to the ocean ever since a memorable field trip in the first grade. As she got older, she pursued that passion at Cal Poly, SLO where she majored in Marine Biology as well Environmental Studies. She capped off her graduation by getting her Open Water SCUBA certification before moving to Long Beach to attend graduate school at CSULB for Marine Ecology. She has been a PADI Instructor since August 2014 and loves being able to introduce her students to an environment she finds so captivating. She especially enjoys working with kids (they’re fearless!) and watching them master skills that are challenging even for adults. She is also a certified Boy Scout of America Merit Badge Counselor.

-Master Scuba Diver Trainer

Eric started diving because his wife and some friends of were going on a cruise. So in June of 2003, he got scuba certified. After the cruise and some great diving; he was hooked! He started taking more and more classes. He had to figure out how to get to dive for free - so in 2004 he became a Divemaster.  Shortly thereafter, he became a PADI instructor and has been actively teaching ever since! He likes to teach young people (or young at heart) the most; it's that look in their eyes after the first open water dive when they've seen something cool that he loves the most.

When not teaching he spends a lot of time with his family; he has two kids that swim like fish and love the water.

-IDC Staff Instructor