Meet Our Professional Dive Team

   
Steven Millington
PADI MASTER INSTRUCTOR #178690
EFR | CPR : FIRST AID : AED INSTRUCTOR
OWNER | L.A. SCUBA DIVING
GUE TECH 1 Diver

Steve is a PADI & GUE Professional & has been a certified diver since 1996. He has traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean & Mexico, visiting remote locations such as Salt Cay, Turks & Caicos Islands. Steve's favorite dives are deep wall dives & Cenote Diving, with an ongoing interest in u/w photography and Technical Diving. He currently teaches in the Los Angeles area offering small group instruction or private one-on-one training. His favorite classes to teach are Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Underwater Navigation, Drysuit & Enriched Air Nitrox.

As of May 2007 Steve earned the rating of MASTER INSTRUCTOR.
He enjoys helping other dive Professionals earn their Instructor ratings - ultimately to continue the love of our sport.

As of April 2008, Steve completed Technical Diver 1 training from Global Underwater Explorers GUE.com, which is recognized throughout the world as having the highest quality training standards in diver education. Steve has certified over 550 divers at many levels, and looks forward to showing people the beauty of our oceans!

Kyle Miller
PADI INSTRUCTOR

Kyle began diving in 2007 in Andavadoaka, Madagascar. Working for three months as a research volunteer in charge of mapping coral reef systems in the area, Kyle quickly advanced his diving career and became fascinated with the underwater world. Since Madagascar Kyle has dived the some of the best diving destinations on the planet, including the Red Sea in Egypt, Sulawesi in Indonesia, and the Adriatic Sea off Croatia.

Kyle's favorite dives are wrecks, walls, and coral gardens. Kyle is passionate about conservation both above and below the surface, and when he is not underwater he spends his time traveling and working for international nonprofit organizations. Eager to take his skills to the next level, Kyle plans to start his Instructor Development Course in the fall and to get involved with Global Underwater Explorers (GUE.com). Kyle hopes to eventually teach diving internationally, either in the Red Sea or in Latin America.

He is excited to be a part of the LA SCUBA DIVING team and looks forward to further exploring the Southern California coastline.

   
Stephen Mendel
PADI OPEN WATER INSTRUCTOR
NAUI, LA COUNTY, CMAS, YMCA INSTRUCTOR


Stephen began diving in fresh water lakes and rivers in Quebec and upstate New York in 1976. He began his scuba teaching career when he endured the grueling 14 week program of the Los Angeles County Underwater Instructor’s Certification Course, truly boot camp for scuba instructors. He followed that with instructor certifications with NAUI, PADI, YMCA, CMAS (long French acronym which loosely translates as World Underwater Federation) and the Handicapped Scuba Association of America.

Stephen has traveled to the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Belize, Cozumel and Pacific Mexico, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec in Canada, the Florida Keys and Palm Beach area, Hawaii, Vermont and New York in the U.S. and Greece. Stephen teaches all courses from Open Water, Advanced, Rescue, Divemaster through Assistant Instructor. Specialties include Enriched Air, Dry Suit, Deep Diving and others.

   
Jeff Seckendorf
NAUI OPEN WATER INSTRUCTOR
CPR : FIRST AID/02 : AED INSTRUCTOR
TECH 1 DIR DIVER

Jeff learned to dive in 1990 in preparation for assisting on a series of underwater filmmaking workshops in the Caribbean. He went on to dive extensively in the warm waters around the Virgin Islands and the [very] cold waters of upstate New York lakes.

He is now a NAUI instructor and technical diver trained in mixed gas diving and decompression techniques. After relocating to Los Angeles in 2003, Jeff discovered the Southern California ocean and began exploring the Pacific coast. He loves to dive the deep areas of the Channel Islands and Monterey coastlline. He is also a diving volunteer with the Santa Monica Baykeepers working to rebuild our local kelp forests.

Matt Chamberlin
PADI DIVEMASTER
GUE DIVER

Matt is a Certified PADI Divemaster who became certified in the cold waters of Michigan in 1984 after a trip to Hawaii where he fell in love with the underwater world. He's traveled to the Great Barrier Reef and dove Hawaii many times naming Cathedrals off the back side of Lanai as his favorite spot. He also loves the dives off Farnsworth Banks for it's brilliant colors and Catalina for it's abundant sea life, but his ultimate dive trip would be to Truk Lagoon to dive the World War II shipwrecks.

Disney Samutsakorn
PADI DIVEMASTER

Disney became interested in SCUBA from salt water fish tanks and snorkeling in Thailand. He started with Discover SCUBA in July 2007 and earned his Open Water Diver Certification in March 2008 w/L.A. SCUBA DIVING. His Favorite dives are Monterey, Catalina Island, Anacapa Islands, and local beaches. He's looking forward to diving from a liveaboard off the coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea in February 2009, and plans to dive the Red Sea and Great Barrier Reef one day.

Divemaster Candidates - Future Leaders for 2009:


Falk Hentschel
PADI DIVEMASTER CANDIDATE


Chris Gonzales
PADI DIVEMASTER CANDIDATE


Dwight Hutchinson
PADI DIVEMASTER CANDIDATE

* YOUR NAME HERE *

Hey! There's a spot waiting for you - take the challenge and GO PRO! Sign up TODAY and start your new career as a certified PADI DiveMaster - your life will never be the same!

CALL US: 818-749-DIVE

L.A. SCUBA DIVING is a leader in dive training. Not only are new divers introduced to SCUBA, but more Advanced and Professional divers come to us for their Rescue, Divemaster and Specialty training! Come see the difference small group Instruction can have on YOUR dive skills!


Contact Us: (818) 749-DIVE (3483)
Van Nuys, (Los Angeles) California
LA's Premier Scuba Diving & Training Resource