Curtiss Carter
Training Director and SSI Instructor Trainer
Curtiss was born and raised in a small town outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was certified as an Open Water Diver with SSI in 1994 and has been passionate about the ocean since he took his first breathe underwater. He joined the US Navy after graduating high school and after more than 20 years in the US Navy Nuclear Power Program, he retired and moved to the Florida Keys to pursue his dream of teaching scuba diving.
He has over 25 years of experience teaching and mentoring students both while in the US Navy and as an Adjunct Professor at the College of the Florida Keys. While in the US Navy, he taught at the Nuclear Power Training Unit - Ballston Spa for more than five years providing technical system and operational instruction, preparing junior sailors for the fleet. He served on board the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72) and the USS NIMITZ (CVN-68) and has completed multiple deployments overseas. As an Adjunct Professor, he taught a number of diving related courses including: Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Divemaster, Instructor, Decompression Theory, Recompression Chamber Operations, and Scuba Equipment Repair and Maintenance courses. He is a certified factory repair technician for Oceanic, Mares, TUSA, Sherwood, and many more manufacturers as well as an authorized Mares Horizon repair technician.
Curtiss is actively involved as an instructor with the nonprofit group WAVES Project. This group provides scuba training for disabled veterans and their dive buddies as a therapuetic method of adjusting to their disability and life outside of the service.
As an SSI Instructor Trainer, he is able to provide instruction for all levels of students. His passion is in training and mentoring Divemasters and Instructors so they are equiped to provide the highest quality of training and an exceptional experience to their students.