CaveDiving.com

Harry Averill

Although largely retired from everything other than Instructor-level training, Harry remains the creative force behind CaveDiving.com. Few dive professionals have a background as diverse and extensive as Harry’s. In a career spaning nearly five decades, Harry has:

  • Operated dive retail and resort operations in the eastern Caribbean, Florida, the Midwest, California and Hawaii.
  • Worked at the international headquarters of NAUI, PADI and SDI/TDI/ERDI.
  • Created diver training materials for NAUI, PADI, SSI, NOAA, NSS-CDS, NASE, SDI, TDI and ERDI.
  • Served on the Boards of Directors of both NSS-CDS and NACD, as well as NSS-CDS Training Chairman.
  • Trained over 1,000 dive instructors and an even greater number of divers.
  • Captained or crewed dive charters for over 10,000 divers.
  • Logged over 8,000 dives — more than half of them in underwater caverns and caves.

If you learned to dive any time in the past 30 years, odds are you did so using materials Harry either contributed to or authored in their entirety. Some examples include:

  • The NAUI dive tables
  • The Equipment section of PADI’s Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
  • All of NASE’s diver training materials, including dozens of videos
  • SSI’s original Underwater Photography and Nitrox manuals
  • SDI’s Open Water Diver eLearning course and videos
  • TDI’s Sidemount and Cavern Diver course materials

A prolific content creator, you can find dozens of articles by Harry either here, on the SDI/TDI/ERDI blog site or his own site at CaveDiverHarry.com. Following in the footsteps of his mentor, master videographer Wes Skiles, Harry has produced as much video content as he has articles, textbooks, photos and illustrations. Be sure to check out his You Tube channel.

Do any of the following names, titles or slogans sound familiar?

  • Discover Scuba
  • The Way the World Learns to Dive
  • Equipment for Serious Divers

These are yet another example of Harry’s handiwork. He also designed the PADI logo. (“I’m so going to Hell for that one,” he says.)

Harry has held Instructor and Instructor Trainer ratings from virtually every major diver training organization, including NAUI, PADI, SSI, NSS-CDS, NACD, NASE, SDI, TDI and FRTI. He is currently an NSS-CDS Instructor Evaluator and serves on the Training Committee. Harry also holds TDI Instructor Trainer or Evaluator ratings for Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures and, of course, Full Cave.

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