About Kaimana Divers

Aloha from beautiful Oahu!

GABE

My name is Gabe and I'm the founder of Kaimana Divers. While working here on Oahu as a divemaster and instructor I always had a dream of someday owning my own company, doing what I love. That dream came to reality in the summer of 2006 when Kaimana Divers was born.

The name was taken to honor the ocean, which has been a source of fascination and awe since I was a boy growing up in California and Oregon. Mana is a Hawaiian word which conveys respect, power responsibility and balance while Kai refers to the ocean.

I'm a PADI Open Water Instructor and I teach top-notch programs in small group settings or private lessons. I offer a variety of services, from dive charters and courses to intro dives and refreshers, but I pride myself on safe, fun and entertaining courses that will help you get the most out of your time underwater.

I am excited that a day at the office means taking folks out to explore the power and beauty of the Pacific Ocean. Taking certified divers out is almost as rewarding as taking intro divers out. I can never forget my first experience underwater and think that yours should be equally as rewarding and otherworldly!

Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. If you are planning a vacation to paradise, let me know and I may be able to help with some insider info. Oh, and don’t forget to bring your dive gear, because no matter when you visit, we have world class diving year round!

Aloha and Mahalo,
Gabe Scotti,
Kaimana Divers

DREW

I learned how to dive in deepest winter 1994. My first dives were packaged with accommodations in sunny Hoodsport, Oregon. It was cold, dark, slightly terrifying, and incredible. I knew I would dive for the rest of my life.. But diving was just a hobby. Then in 2004 Gabe called and, one could say, set me on the path that would become my life’s true passion. 

Or, one could say he monkeywrenched the heck out of my life and got me properly hooked on having adventures and living in places near the sea. Places with mangrove swamps and cobras, skull cracking coconuts, dengue, a somewhat flexible moral code, and sunshine that has actually ignited lesser redheads. Adventures that have taken me thousands of miles from friends and family. I cant believe my mother likes
him.

Doing my Divemaster course with Gabe and Kevin in Honduras I realized that I wanted to share my love of the underwater world with people who were unfamiliar with it. After gaining some experience, I also discovered that we were really good divers. If you are really good at something, you should get paid for it.

Gabe began building Kaimana Divers and I toiled in the South China Sea. There were some amazing wrecks near my island, my boss and a Swede introduced me to tech diving. A battleship above water is an impressive sight up-close. To watch one rise towards you, a gaping torpedo hole in its side, while you descend through dark blue water, silent except for your breath, knowing that very few people will ever see what you are looking at, that is called something…but I don’t know what. I was swimming where Churchill had walked. 

Now I am a technical instructor, wreck diver and PADI instructor. In 2010 I came to Hawaii...I moved to Oahu. It's awesome...gonna help raise a baby...got a dive shop...living in the hills...playing in the ocean...

Drew,
Kaimana Divers

LIV

I'm Liv. I'm just a country bumpkin from West Marin, CA. My first dive in the states was in Fort Brag, Mendocino. There I found the color in silence, my own breath and the Pacific Ocean. She always looked so green and chilly from the surface. But under the waves and the kelp there is a whole forest full of crabs, fish and other creatures. Things are never what you expect. And I get to look forward to that every day when I go diving.

I was going to Humboldt State University when I discovered how awesome diving was. I joined the dive club there and started diving every weekend. Since I was diving so much I went ahead and got a minor in Scientific Diving. When I graduated, my boyfriend and I wanted to move somewhere we could both find our niche. Hawaii was perfect. My first choice for a job was to work with monk seals on the North Western Hawaiian Islands. Little did I know this was a very competitive job. My second choice was to work as a SCUBA instructor. Three days after moving here, I scored a job at a local dive shop. My interview consisted of one question, “ can you drive that van?” when the answer was, “yes” that sealed the deal, and I have been an instructor ever since.

I have been working on Oahu for the past three years or so. I've had the pleasure of exploring most of the South East shore, some of the West side and North shore. I have done diving off Molokini crater, Niihou and Lehua rock. I've also worked in Belize and Cozumel, and I've got to say that some of my favorite dives have been right here in Oahu in my own back yard.

For me my favorite part of diving is opening someones eyes to a world that they never knew existed. To take that one step forward, I would like to educate those who are interested in reefs and their ecology. I believe that differences are made on an individual level, and if we take responsibility for our actions, and how they effect the environment, then it will cause a ripple that will spread to others causing them to question their impact on the environment.

Mahalo for learning about my experiences in diving. I look forward to sharing some with you soon.

Liv Wheeler,
Kaimana Divers

CHRISTINE

Hello! I'm Christine. I've been travelling the world since 2003 when I gave away my things and left Eugene, Oregon. I started in the Mediterranean where I had a fantastic time teaching English in Istanbul for two years, then decided that I had had enough of the indoor career and moved to Thailand to learn how to scuba dive. Since that first Open Water Course, scuba diving has completely changed my life.

Until I started diving, I had no idea that I could be a person who stepped into the water and felt as comfortable at 100 feet as standing on the beach admiring the surface of the ocean. However, I had an incredible instructor that took time to show me my own strength and ability. It still surprises me how much I changed during those couple of days. I was inspired. I did it! And I LOVED it! I was a scuba diver. As I kept taking courses, my confidence soared, and by 2006, I was a scuba instructor! Unbelievable.

Becoming an instructor has seeped into every part of my life, from the excitement I get watching students taking their first breaths underwater to being part of adventures outside of work that used to only exist on my dream list. “Risk taking, trust, and serendipity are key ingredients of joy” is the quote that's truth and continuously unveils itself before me. I want to show people what I've learned, that the boundaries we see are surpassable, that we can do things today that we had never even contemplated.

I have loved working on boats throughout the world, showing people all sorts of the unexpected from hammers to humpbacks in a variety of areas such as Mexico, Fiji, Cayman, Honduras, the BVIs, Costa Rica, and most recently, Puerto Rico. However, my favorite part of the job is still the beautiful bond that forms between divers during that unique 40 minutes underwater, bringing people with very different lives together for one common passion.

See you underwater!
Christine
Kaimana Divers