Geronimo Rath

  • PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer

  • SDI Instructor - 26 Specialties

  • TDI Technical and CCR Instructor

  • CCR Mixed Gas Diver

  • USCG Captain

My Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is just as much a skill as diving. Every single class I teach I learn something about teaching or diving or both. As complex as it is, I try to keep three primary objectives in the fore-front of every course I teach:

Safety above all - Beyond the basics of knowing what to do in an emergency underwater, safety in diving extends into all parts of our life. Being in good health to decrease decompression risk, Being in a good state of mind and not bringing stress underwater with us and having a good understanding of the physics involved are just a few of the ways we can improve safety before ever even entering the water.

Have fun - It may sound dumb, but the only point of doing any of this is for enjoyment. Some people get pleasure out of pushing new limits, some people just want to see a pufferfish. Whatever motivates you, maintain that at the forefront of all your training, and don’t accidentally turn this into work. A good mental state is also a large part of safety underwater.

Continue to Learn - I try my best to learn every single class and every single dive. No amount of courses will teach you everything there is to know, and learning to properly debrief dives, analyze mistakes and watch and learn from others is massively important in both safety and enjoyment of your diving.

My History

I began my diving career about 7 years ago going to a commercial dive school in Washington after getting out of the military. From the first time I spent underwater hanging out with a fish in a 40 degree lake, I knew diving was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

I worked as a commercial diver on and off for about 4 years, even becoming certified as a commercial dive medic. Throughout this time I was diving for fun as much as possible, eventually picking up my advanced open water and rescue diver certifications in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

In 2021 I decided I wanted to make diving my career, and moved to South Florida to become a PADI Instructor! I worked as a mate on a local dive boat for about a year balancing work on the boats with teaching scuba full time. at the end of 2022 I decided to get my US Coast Guard Captains license, and continue to teach full time and drive dive boats to this day.

I received my first level of Technical diving certification in January of 2022, and became certified on the O2ptima Rebreather shortly after. since then, I have switched to the O2ptima Chest-mounted rebreather and have performed close to 150 technical dives to depths of up to 200 feet. I continue to progress my personal diving, hoping to reach the final level of certification of 330 feet TDI Advanced Mixed Gas CCR by November.

My passion is teaching SCUBA, and as much as I am working on my personal diving I am just as focused on teaching everything from entry level to Technical diving, and hopefully soon the Chest-mounted O2ptima rebreather as well.