Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival

Presented by the Ford Seahorses in conjunction with the Dossin Great Lakes Museum

April 20, 2009

Programs & Presenters: Tom Rhoad

Tom earned his Open Water Diver certification in November of 1991 during a snow storm at Gilboa Quarry. Since then he has participated in scuba excursions in mostly better conditions.

Tom has dived in all of the Great Lakes plus Lake St. Claire, the St. Claire and Cooper Rivers, the Florida Keys, the Florida caves, various Caribbean locations, and exotic locations such as Hawaii, French Polynesia, Truk Lagoon, Palau, the Galapagos Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Maldives. For some reason he always comes back to Michigan to explore the shipwrecks of the Great Lakes.

Tom began his career as a PADI Professional in 1998, and has been a Master Scuba Diver Trainer since 2000. Along the way he also achieved accreditation as an instructor with NAUI, IANTD and DAN, while maintaining a full-time job as an engineer. In 2007, after almost 35 years as a mechanical engineer in manufacturing plants and laboratories, Tom 'retired' to work full-time at Aquatic Adventures of MI. He is putting his education and experience as an engineer to good use as the manager and head technician in the Service Department.

Tom is a certified technician for most brands of scuba equipment, including Oceanic, Mares, TUSA, Zeagle, Sherwood, Genesis, Poseidon, Interspiro (AGA), and Spare Air. In addition he is a PSI certified tank inspector and valve repair technician, and a nitrox and trimix blender.

We hope to see you there next year, The Ford Seahorses.