PADI Course Director:
Tom Witmer

Tom was born in Indianapolis and grew up in the inner city. After high school he started his career in plastic injection molding design then moved into various other injection molding and product design before he settled at General Motors.

In 1995, while still working for General Motors as the Service Engineering Manager, Tom started and owned Scuba Quest Dive Center in Noblesville, IN, a suburb of northeast Indianapolis. While growing his career at General Motors, he moved up to the Process Integration Manager position where he was responsible for making the corporation common in systems and processes and was an Auditor for the corporation. That project took 350 plus systems and processes down to a little over 80. He was developing common software, directing teams in every field from; vehicle development to final build, service and marketing, and internal operations. He also was training the trainers in their processes so they could train their employees.

While working his “real job” and traveling all over the United States, Tom also co-managed Scuba Quest with the help of a great crew. Tom says, “if it wasn’t for the crew at Scuba Quest, the store would have not been as successful.” Scuba Quest grew 10 to 20% every year until he sold it in 2002.

Tom left General Motors and sold Scuba Quest to pursue his dream of living in paradise on a boat, teaching scuba, captaining, and flying! He has logged more than 6,000 dives (more than 1⁄2 of these in a drysuit), has more than 150 Instructor Trainer, Instructor and Diver certifications, certified more than 2,000 recreational and technical scuba divers, and has had scores of Instructor Candidates be successful at the Instructor Examination. Many of these students have gone on to fabulous careers in the Scuba Diving Industry. Tom is one of less than 65 Platinum PADI Course Directors in the world and the only one in the Florida Keys.