Tom Loveday

Tom was born and raised in a farming and ranching community in the Texas Panhandle. Growing up watching Lloyd Bridges on Sea Hunt, he always aspired to be a Scuba Diver. He was first certified as an Open Water Diver in 1974 at Possum Kingdon Lake in Central Texas. Over the years, he managed dive trips, the most memorable being in the Red Sea while working for Baker Oil Tools in Egypt. Moving to the Florida Keys in the early 90s, he pursued his dream of becoming a dive instructor and was certified as a YMCA Instructor, often doing four to five dives daily, seven days a week. He transitioned to an IT with NAUI and managed the dive shop at Ocean Reef for eight years, during which time he earned his 100-ton Captain’s License and is now on his fifth issue. While in the Florida Keys, he met his wife Lena (AKA Bean). They were married underwater in 2004 and held the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest underwater wedding; it was also Halloween, so everyone was in costume. After several years, they moved back to Texas to be closer to their grandchildren. When the grandchildren were old enough to get on a plane, Tom and Lena found their way back to Florida, landed in North Port on the West Coast, and made almost weekly trips to the Keys to run a dive boat. After being an NAUI instructor and IT for over twenty years, Tom crossed over to SEI two years ago, rejoining his YMCA roots.