Staff Profiles

Our dive team is made up of an electric bunch, with many specialising in a particular area of diving. Below is a quick bio on each one.

Kel Bradley – As owner/operator of St George Underwater (with his wife Sue), Kel’s friendly attitude is one reasons why people choose to dive with us. He holds some kind of fancy instructor rating with SDI, TDI, PADI, ABC, 123… you get the picture – he can teach. He is passionate about diving and is seen around the traps teaching, taking photos and playing with his new toy – a Poseidon  MKVI rebreather. Some say he can hold his breath for 11 min 32 secs, and that during the week he lives in a secret underground aquarium; but all we know is he’s called the boss.

Caitlin Bradley – Caitlin enjoys romantic sunsets, long walks on the beach, and…. Ooopps wrong profile page! Actually, Caitlin studies full-time at UNSW doing a couple of degrees that sound very impressive. She also works in the shop and manages the logistics required for our many dive trips away. Growing up around divers, she’s in the know when it comes to where the hottest destinations are, so if you’ve got a question about travel, she’s the girl to ask. If you want to know what’s in for this season fashion, checkout her closet-confessions.

Alanna Yates – when she’s not abseiling down a waterfall or squeezing through a dark cave, we get the pleasure of her company around the shop. With a constant smile on her face, Alana is the first to chip in and get the job done. Need an air fill, new wetsuit, or pretend friend who cares, she’s your girl. Not content with her adventure queen title, Alana’s well on her way to becoming a dive instructor, so she knows a thing or two about that also.

Briana Doblinger – our youngest member of the team, Briana is there to help out with a variety of things including course, sales, hire gear and air fills. She won’t take any lip though, so watch out or it’ll be “No soup for you!”. Try and cross that orange chain you’ll be in trouble! Seriously though, she often cooks the BBQ so you’d better to nice to her if you want to eat!

Tim Walker – best described as the ultimate all-rounder, Tim is a scuba instructor and actively teaches open water, advanced and adventure courses. Tim’s patience and fortitude in the face of danger were proven in the famous 1997 incident where he spent 53 minutes staring down a clown fish with his “Blue Steel” pose. The incident still brings shivers down our spines.

John McKeon – the original Mr Sydney Water, John controls pumps and valves by day, though by night (and weekend) he transforms into the alter his alter ego. He collects expensive art, so we figure this makes him a sensitive new age guy (aka SNUG) – almost anyway. He’s an instructor, trip leader and photographer to boot. Watch out though, as he once had a single glass of wine in Truk Lagoon, which got equated to a American college kegger and still has the locals talking.

Mark Battams – a fireman by day, Mark is a TDI technical instructor and focuses his efforts teaching people starting out on their technical diving journey. His diligence is world renown, which is what you want when it comes to 100% oxygen and other voodoo gases. With his bionic knees (patent pending), Mark is not faster than a speeding bullet, can’t stop a locomotive, but can run up the stairs at Shiprock in 19.03 seconds flat.

Andrew Trevor-jones – our official weekend wordsmith, Andrew writes the content you see on our blog, website, and other marketing material. Andrew’s a keen underwater photographer and recently started looking at closed-circuit rebreathers to take things to the next level. Checkout his website and photos http://andrewtrevor-jones.com/ 

Peter Aitkin – he used to fight fires for a living, but now teaches diving and installs the occasional wall or door. One of our newest instructors, Peter is putting years of diving and life experience to good use and showing those youngster how it is done. Not content with a 40m no-deco limit (who came up with that anyway?), “No-Fear Peter” is getting into technical diving and keeping that fire alight.

Stan Bow – we’re not sure how, but we seemed to have cornered the market on ex-fire fighters. Stan is also one of our instructors and enjoys teaching open water classes and leading club dives. Stan’s passion for diving is evident, as if he’s not teaching you’ll see him out with the dive club getting in amongst it. We suspect, but can’t confirm, that his hair turned that white after a stressful encounter with a 6.2m Port Jackson shark.

Damien Siviero – he acts like he owns the place and isn’t even a staff member, so we don’t know why he’s even on this page. Since giving up a corporate desk job to be a full-time photographer (we think they actually kicked him out), he hangs around the place and has been hard to get rid of ever since. Difficult to spot in the wild, he’s often diving deep wrecks with camera in tow. In captivity, you’ll find him in a man cave tinkering with rebreathers, building stupidly bright lights or just having a beer. We think he’s pretty good with a camera too. http://damiensiviero.com 

Ring-ins – although we sometimes try, we can’t always do everything. On such occasions we will look outside the immediate team and hire a ring-in. They may not be as attractive to look at as our motley crew, but they’re good at what they do which is why we get them in. Please don’t throw stones at them or point and laugh – it might be funny, but we could get in trouble for workplace bullying.