Meet Bill Tewes

Bill Tewes (pronounced too-ess) has the life of which many divers can only dream. After being coerced into finishing his diving certification course while working as an engineer for an oil company in Grand Bahama Island, the Bahamas, he fell in love with the underwater world on his first open water dive. He continued his training, began leading divers and eventually in 1979, accepted a position as divemaster on the Yankee Trader for a 300 day, 31,500 mile, around-the-world cruise.

This job took him on an adventure scuba diving all over the world. At the end of the trip he decided to go to Papua New Guinea to start a dive operation that is now Jais Aben Resort near Madang. Bill trained the local men to be divemasters and some of them still work there and remember Bill fondly, even today.

After Papua New Guinea, Bill returned to his home town of Dallas, Texas where he searched for a new place to open a dive shop. He learned of a shop for sale in the small island country St. Vincent, and in 1984, bought it, with its entire six sets of scuba gear. He continued his habit of hiring local people and training them to be the divemasters. Today, many of his staff have been with him for 10 years or more. Lots of loyalty!

People who dive with Bill become better divers. It never fails as you can always learn something new from him. Bill was one of the first operations to use a dive computer, and some of his staff still use their original Edge computers today. He taught buoyancy control before it was fashionable. He teaches his divers about the creatures and about protecting the underwater world. At the end of a dive his slate used to be full. Now with the magnetic slates that can easily be erased you can't stop him!

Bill's dry wit is definitely an asset to his operation - he keeps his customers well entertained. Bill is also something of a famous underwater photographer, he has had the distinction of having five of his underwater photos used on special collectors government issue stamps. Bill is also on the local postage stamp (since 1988), a bit unusual for a "living" person in most countries.

One of his hobbies is teaching young people to dive. He has taught many junior divers from ages 7 and up. He loves it and considers it a challenge to explain the concepts of diving to those who have not yet mastered some of the basic concepts of life.

You will find Bill working in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines booth at most major dive retail shows all over the world. If you haven't had a chance to meet Bill yet, stop by and introduce yourself - you'll probably make a newfriend!

Click on the photos to see a bigger version.