TRI-STATE DIVING

Making Diving Safe And Adventurous

ANDI

(Instructor Development Center)

Gary "Seal" Thompson MDEA Instructor Evaluator - IE1650

ANDI Instructor Trainner IT 145

28300 Little Floyd Lake Road
Detroit Lakes MN 56501

1-888-SCUBA DO
1-218-847-4868
Fax 1-218-847-8952

www.tri-statediving.com
seal@tri-statediving.com 

 





LAKES AREA DIVING

The Detroit Lakes area, with its 412 lakes within 20 miles, offers some of the best freshwater diving in the world. Its glacial formed lakes give divers beautiful, clean water that presents an escape into another world. Many of the area lakes contain an array of artifacts from the region's history. Bison skulls and bones that date to 13,000 years old, to items from the late 1800's to present (including tools from the logging era, tools from the icing harvest, old outboard motors, bottles, endless fishing tackle, and more), are there for the divers to relish. Please enjoy these treasures by leaving them on the bottom for other divers to see.
Tri-State Diving offers Discovery dives on weekends, on our 25' Aqua Sport dive boat, to our area lakes where divers can take pleasure in diving new sites and meeting other people with the same interest. Throughout the summer the dive center hosts a bi-weekly evening tailgate dive, where a dive is made in an area lake and then everyone enjoys a cookout on the beach.
Winter finds divers taking a plunge into the icy depths below the ice to seek out visibility that can exceed 100 feet. A14X16 foot heated shelter is placed on the ice for divers to descend through, allowing the divers and tenders to keep warn before and after the dives.

MISSION
Your diving education is very important to us in making you a safe and conscientious diver. All our staff at Tri-State Diving will do everything possible to make your entry into the underwater world a safe and pleasurable transition. We pride ourselves on keeping our staff-to-student ratio the smallest in the area. Our upper level classes have the same quality of professional training to further raise your level of confidence and skill.

INSTRUCTOR STAFF
   seal 1Gary "Seal" Thompson made his first dive in 1967, and has been hooked on the underwater world ever since. Seal has completed over 3,000 career dives in both recreational and commercial diving to date. With a scuba teaching career that started in the early 70's, Seal brings a high quality of experience in all levels of classes offered. An MDEA (Multinational Diving Educators Association) Recreational Instructor Evaluator since the mid 80's, and a MDEA Medical Instructor Evaluator in our commercial division since 1997, he keeps our staff training at the highest level. Seal is an Ocean Reef Instructor Evaluator in full face mask training. In addition he has authored three instructional training manuals; Ice Diving, Solo Diving and a Rescue Diving manual. His thirty-plus years of search and recovery, and twenty-plus years of salvage and commercial diving experience, aid in our commercial diver training.

COMMERCIAL AND SALVAGE

Tri-State Diving has been doing commercial and salvage diving in Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 35 year. We have been in large in ground tanks, sewage lagoons, storm sewers, lakes, and rivers. We do just about any type of work except underwater welding. We do underwater torch cutting and we also have a hydraulic chain saw we use for cutting different types of material underwater. The crew has recovered everything from: vehicles, semi-tractor trailer, excavator, motorhome, enclosed snowmobile trailers, ATVs, and snowmobiles. We have done work for the MN highway Dept., Mn DNR, State of ND Water Commision, USGS, County and townships, Electric power companies, construction companies, and other commercial diving operators.To see photos of our work go to our Photo Gallery and click on Commercial Diving.



DIVE CENTER

Opening in 1987 at its present location, Tri-State Diving has continued to support the divers in the Lakes area by continuing to improve on its services and inventory. Our dive center has stayed on the cutting edge of technology both in equipment and training. Services offered are: a retail display, complete line of rental gear, repair of most brands of dive equipment, compressor and cascade system sales, hydrostatic testing, all levels of instruction, and world wide dive travel.
Tri-State Diving teaches scuba classes in communities from Willmar to the Canadian border in Minnesota, and the border cities in North Dakota. We are one of the few dive centers that hold the distinction of being a full instructor development center, meaning, that we can teach all levels of training through instructors on-site. We teach private scuba diving lessons and weekend courses for those that cannot not work into our regularly scheduled classes.

MDEA commercial division's lightweight commercial dive training allows you to take a hobby and turn it into a vocation. The program includes: Tender One, Tender Two, Surface Supplied Air, Cutting, Welding, Hazmat, and Bridge Inspection. MDEA's commercial classes are modular, so this helps you decide what will work best for the type of work you want to participate in. Please inquire about any of your training needs.
We are open every day during the summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

CHRIS LEE

Chris started his diving career while he was still in high school. Chris took his open water class in 1997 and completed his advanced training also that year. In Recreational diving he holds specialty ratings in; Night, Deep, Ice, Dive First Responder, Dry Suit, Rescue Diver, Scuba Diving Equipment Repair Technician, and Nitrox. Chris is also a dive master and a level one instructor. Chris's commercial dive credentials include; Dive tender 1 and 2, Underwater cutting procedures, Haul Inspection repair technician, basic commercial equipment repair technician, advanced commercial equipment Technician, Haz-Mat Diving specialist, Nitrox gas blender, dive operations supervisor, and basic oxygen Administrator. Chris has been diving for eleven years, being involved in most of the salvage and commercial diving activities Tri-State Diving has worked on.

 


DIVE TRAVEL

For the past 14 years "Seal" has taken dive groups all over the world, including such destinations as the South Pacific, Central America, and the Caribbean. We have ventured into shipwrecks in Chuuk Lagoon, some of the world's best wall diving in Cozumel, to doing liveaboards in the Bahamas and Belize. If traveling with a group or wanting to do a dive vacation on your own, we here at the dive center will help make that trip a positive experience to remember for years to come. Most travel agents don't specialize in dive travel, therefore, they are unable to make your dive vacation safe and fun. We always work hard to get you the best price for your dollar without compromising your enjoyment and safety. We have at our disposal some of the best dive operators in the world to assist you once on site, to help you with any of your vacation needs.

Let us put your next dive vacation together for you.

CLASSES OFFERED

 

OPEN WATER

ADVANCED OPEN WATER

NIGHT DIVER

DEEP DIVER

DRY SUIT DIVER

UNDER WATER SPEAR FISHING

UNDER WATER NAVIGATION

UNDER WATER PHOTOGRAPHY

UNDER WATER VIDEO

BASIC NITROX DIVER

SOLO DIVER

ICE DIVER

SEARCH & RECOVERY

DIVE – FIRST RESPONDER

RESCUE DIVER

DIVE MASTER

ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR       

INSTRUCTOR