Scuba Program Director Bio / Cliff Cammert / PADI MSDT / IANTD Trimix / Technical Diver

Our Directors Bio

Name:	Cliff Cammert
Date of Birth:	02/22/70
Certification Agency:	PADI and IANTD
Certification Level:	Master Scuba Diver Trainer - Trimix Diver - Technical Dive Supervisor
Professional Since:	1994
Specialties:	Wreck, Deep, Enriched Air, Search and Recovery, Underwater Navigation, U/W Photography, U/W Video, Night, Boat, Altitude, Dry Suit, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Project Aware, Puget Sound Marine Life, and Underwater Naturalist.

Other Instructional Certifications:

Emergency First Response Instructor, Primary Care (CPR), Secondary Care (First Aid), Automated External Defibrillator (AED), EFR for Children (including infants) and AED for children.

Divers Alert Network (DAN) Instructor for the following: Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries, Remote Emergency Medical Oxygen, First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life, Basic Life Support for Dive Professionals (BLSPRO), and Oxygen First Aid for Aquatic Emergencies

National Registry Emergency Medical Technician

Wilderness Medical Associates: Wilderness EMT

DRI (Dive Rescue International): Public Safety Diver / Tender

SWORD (Southern Washington Organization of Rescue Divers): Team Member

ACA Swift Water Rescue Certified

IANTD Certified: Nitrox and Trimix Gas Blender

Diving History and Experience:

Cliff has been a diver since 1987, he was officially certified in California in 1988. His first picture taken of him diving is in his High School yearbook at age 17. He then went into the NAVY, and dove all over the world for 6 years. When he came back he decided to become an instructor, and has been involved with the SCUBA teaching process since 1994. He received his PADI Instructor rating in 1995.

He has led many SCUBA excursions both as an Instructor and as a Dive Master all over the world (Guam, Siapan, Truk, Palau, Yap, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Australia, the Red Sea, the Persian gulf, Kenya, Grand Cayman, and the Mediterranean Sea to name a few). He has logged over 1900 dives since he was certified in 1987.

His true area of expertise however, is NW cold water diving, including leading many different trips to Canada over the last 10 years. He also specializes in search and recovery operations, if its been lost underwater, he can usually find it! This includes planning and executing trips to find wrecks.

He was a collection diver for the Seattle Aquarium for 5 years. In that capacity he worked at collecting live specimens from all over the NW for the Aquarium. He was involved in collection trips, and assisted the Seattle Aquarium marine biologists in many different areas such as collecting, counting, feeding, cleaning, and care for a variety of different NW species.

Cliff was a member of the Aquarium Docent Program, and was trained as a Pacific NW marine life Docent, during this time he was specially trained and took part in the Sea Otter Watch program in which a trained team of volunteers successfully assisted the recovery and rehabilitation of Sea Otters. During this same time Cliff was part of the dive team used to film the Discovery Channel program "Ultimate Guide to the Octopus". The teams mission was finding and filming the Pacific Giant Octopus. They were very successful, and the show aired back in 2000. Part of his job was to help locate the animals, and then more importantly to get them out in the open gently, and in front of the camera.

In more recent news Cliff has elevated in the ranks of Technical Diving. He now conducts Deep Mixed Gas Dives to 300ft (give or take) and documents via HD Video what he finds there. In his words, he finds that managing multiple deco bottles, a video camera, wreck penetration reels, low visibility, cold water, and perfect buoyancy at the same time is, "a bit of a challenge".