Saba Deep Dive Center
The Team
The Saba Deep Team
Tony Waterfield
Tony's love for the water began at a young age, growing up playing and working on the waters of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. As the son of a retired US Coast Guard Master Chief "safety while enjoying the water" was engrained into Tony very early on!
Now on Saba and owning Saba Deep Dive Center, that passion for the sea is still as strong.
On any given day you will find him at the wheel as boat captain or leading a dive unless the office duties pin him down.
Tony is not only a diver but also an avid fisherman who loves nothing more than when Cheri sends him out deep sea fishing to get that "catch of the day" for the Deep End Bar & Grill.
Cheri Waterfield
Cheri was a PADI OWSI way before she became a "Corporate Runaway".
When teaching and diving on weekends and vacations was not enough anymore she decided to go full time.
The idea of owning a dive shop became reality when visiting Saba on a dive trip with husband Tony. There, the wonderful world class diving the island offers blew their minds away.
Now, the best part of her job is meeting people, taking them diving and showing them why she loves Saba diving so much. Beats the corporate world any day.
One of Cheri's main goals is to remain a dive shop owner that actually dives and proves the saying "once you own a dive shop, you never dive" wrong. So she tries to get out, teach and dive just for the fun of it as much as possible.
"Big" Mike Austin
Big Mike lives and breathes diving and have been doing so for as long as anyone can remember on Saba.
His reputation of dive instructor extraordinaire is well established in the Saba diving world, this is probably due to the fact that Big Mike has the largest number of logged dives on Saba within the diving community. Guests just love the personal attention, the slow diving pace, the experience and diving technique tips that he is always ready to share.
Not much else to be said about Big Mike other than so many people come back year after year to Saba and request to dive with him only. There must be a reason for that... Could it be that Big Mike is a living legend?
Kayla Riley
Growing up in a small town of Pennsylvania, Kayla was always around the water as she was a state swimmer, a water-skiing fanatic and on her family's boats throughout each summer.
Attending college in California she found the bottom of the ocean was more fascinating than skimming the surface and traveled to the Seychelles to study and help conserve the Coral Reef. Always with a smile on her face, she maintains an active lifestyle with a positive outlook and sense of fun. She has taken her love for the ocean and dived all over the world.
At Saba Deep, Kayla's passion is contagious. Oh and ladies she has one thousand and one hair care tips for pre, during and post dives being torn between a girly girl and a tom boy!
Gary Johnson
Originally from England, Gary has dove the cold waters of Scotland to the warm waters of the Seychelles drawn into the deep due to his love of fishing, he would rather be on or under the water than on dry land.
With a life mission to turn his bones into salt and be the crazy old man at the end of the bar with stories of how a whale swallowed him whole, every next dive could be the best dive of your life in his opinion.
Gary looks forward to shareing his love for diving with you at Saba Deep and wants to give you the quality that he would expect if he were a customer himself.
Evan Wirt
Evan came to Saba in 2008, he took the plunge, learned to dive and that was it. He almost instantly decided to turn this underwater hobby into a profession and successfully completed his PADI Dive master training with Saba Deep.
His natural good humor and outgoing personality combined with his love of diving earned him a position as a full time member of the Saba Deep team.
Since then he has logged and led hundreds of dives on Saba and still feels as passionate about our beautiful underwater world as on day one.