Newsletter

The third quarter 2018 was a very busy one! The WAVES staff moved into our new office and warehouse space and completed the store setup.

We conducted HSA (Handicap SCUBA Association) training for our instructors and Dive Masters to gain the skills to transfer a paralyzed “wheeled” diver onto a dive boat, then into the ocean and back out again.

Our second Mission Oriented Diving (MOD) trip took place in February on the USS Arizona in Honolulu where four WAVES divers worked with the National Park Service to measure the oil leaking from the underwater fuel tanks on the Arizona. It was a full week of hard work doing scientific research as well as a…

Joe Hoffman is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served one tour in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. He is the first in his family to serve our country in the military. Joe was a 0341/ Mortar Man- 0369 Infantry Unit Leader, Security Advisor/Shift Sergeant, Platoon Sergeant/ Personal Security Detachment and a Senior Mortar…

The WAVES Project extends a huge thanks to Leanne Suter and KABC 7 for this great story! In early June 2016 Leanne brought her camera crew to the pool to check out what the WAVES Project is all about. They produced a great video of WAVES Diver Ceasar Rameriz with his buddy Alex Aripez, and…

Marina Inserra, a certified scuba diver from San Diego, was named Scuba Queen USA 2016.  She will represent the U.S. in the International pageant in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia November 2016. But this is not your typical “beauty pageant.” Each contestant must be a certified scuba diver and have a passion to protect our planet. The…

As we begin the new year we are reminded to give thanks for the terrific support we have received in 2015 and wanted to share with you some of the things we have done. To date we have trained over 40 veterans and their dive buddies. Some of the other great things that have happened…

Beautifully choreographed assisted diver entry at Catalina’s Casino Point Dive Park! Timing the challenging surge perfectly, watch how effortlessly these divers enter the water to don their awaiting gear! Thank you to Randy Lung, Waco Merchant, Instructors Steve Rubin, Dennis Nies and Ron Fonstad and congrats to Ceasar on his first ocean dive! We don’t…

We have just returned from the first annual WAVES Project Retreat at CoCo View Resort in Roatan, Honduras. Our group included two scuba instructors and 15 volunteers who all paid their own way to meet and combine vacation with HSA (Handicap Scuba Association) buddy training as well as WAVES Project goal setting and planning for…

One of the very first people I met when I became involved with the WAVES Project was Scott Culbertson. I believe it was in that first contact and conversation with Scott and his wife Cathy that I started to sense the level of dedication to a cause the volunteers at the WAVES Project have. I…

Waco Merchant is one of the many great and motivated volunteers for the WAVES Project.  Currently he is the Military Outreach Liaison with responsibility for connecting the local military community with us.  Considering the concentration of military in the San Diego/Riverside areas this is no small task. Waco grew up in rural Montana on his…

 The day began early as the class met at the Starbucks in Lake Elsinore.   An hour later we all showed up at the dock in Long Beach for a relaxing ride out to Catalina aboard the Catalina Express. Today’s dives included some additional skills to reinforce what’s been taught and learned in class, confined water…

Leo Morales is on a mission to change the perception of divers with disabilities. After a 410 foot dive Leo landed himself the Guinness World Record for the deepest dive by a person with a disability in Dec 2012. Leo is 39 years old and has been disabled for over four years. In September 2008,…