Board Member
PADI Master Instructor #95297
SDI/TDI Instructor #6075
Divers Alert Network Instructor #11274
SCUBA for KIDS Instructor
Chip became interested in the ocean environment shortly after being certified as a scuba diver in 1987. Fully bitten by the bug, Chip founded a local travel and dive club, SeaDevil Divers, in 1997 and subsequently in 1998 opened Dive Connections, a PADI 5 Star scuba facility serving the Central Virginia area.
He is a PADI Master Instructor, both a Scuba Diving International and Technical Diving International Instructor, and a “way cool” Scuba for KIDS Instructor. He is probably the most proud of the last designation because he thoroughly enjoys introducing people, especially young folks, to the world of scuba diving. Chip teaches and leads trips through out the Caribbean and logged his 1000th dive this past year. His PADI specialty designations are: Emergency First Responder Instructor, Altitude, Boat, Coral Reef Conservation, Deep Diver, Equipment Specialist, Fish Identification, Multilevel, Naturalist, Photography, Project Aware, Search & Recovery, Wreck Diver, Dry Suit, Drift Diving, Enriched Air, Navigation, Night Diver and Peak Buoyancy. In addition, he is also an SDI/TDI Draeger Rebreather and Solo Diving scuba instruction; and a DAN Oxygen First Aid (Scuba) and Advanced 02 (Scuba) Hazardous Marine Life instructor.
Chip serves on the Board of Directors of Lake Rawlings and the Earth Echo International, formerly the Philippe Cousteau Foundation. On the latter organization, Chip is the Chairman of the IT Committee and also serves on the Membership & Dive Team Committee, thus helping the foundation reach out to the community and particularly to divers.