About Us | The Dive Team

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What We Do

With over 100 years of scuba diving experience, The Dive Team has extensive knowledge of the underwater world. Our goal is to bring this amazing underwater world to those who may not have the opportunity to see it in person and to show how incredible this world can be. We promote safe and respectful use of dive sites and heritage areas. We believe in the preservation of these special places and are trained to dive respectfully and in accordance with conservation dive standards.

All of The Dive Team members have a great reverence for the underwater world. We document each new place with zero impact to wildlife and integrity of heritage sites. We have in-house photographers, videographers, video and photo editors, scuba instructors, and dive masters. We film and edit our short films from start to finish, including music and narration. Our dream is that more people will have the opportunity to discover and appreciate the underwater world and gain an interest in the vital historic sites and immeasurable biodiversity that make up our planet.

Who We Are

The team members that make it all happen

David Gilchrist

David Gilchrist

Photographer

David Gilchrist has been scuba diving for 45 year, Over that period he has earned Instructor ratings with ACUC, CMAS and a Master Scuba Diver Trainer rating with PADI.

He attended Brock University, majoring in Biological Studies. With an interest in biology, scuba diving and photography, it was a natural step to pursue all 3 interests. He has taken underwater photographs in the Great Lakes, the East and West coast of Canada and, with support and funding through the Canada Council and the Arctic Awareness Program, in the High Arctic at Resolute Bay. He has also explored and photographed the beautiful coral reefs of the Caribbean , Hawaii and Micronesia as well as the Meditteranean Sea in the south of France.

Read More about David Here

Jimmy Lockard

Jimmy Lockard

Photographer, Videographer

A long time resident of Niagara, Jim (Jimmy) Lockard grew up in Queenston. The Niagara River was a favorite playground. Jim’s passion is diving and underwater photography along with underwater archaeology. Jim contributed to Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship & Culture as a avocational archaeologist for many years. He continues to work at and monitor underwater archaeological projects in the province. This diving career has taken Jim to Canada’s North Magnetic Pole, Resolute Bay, Barrow Strait and Lancaster Sound.
SOS, Save Ontario Shipwrecks, was a part of Jim’s life. Serving as President, of SOS in the 1980’s, he helped Rick Jackson, the founder of SOS, promote Diver Awareness of Wreck Preservation. A member of OMHC, Ontario Marine Heritage Committee, for the past 35 years, Jim has participated and continues to be active in many of the group’s historical projects.

Read More about Jimmy Here

Elaine Edwards

Elaine Edwards

Dive Leader

Elaine was first introduced to scuba diving at 6 years old in the family pool. Under the water felt like a natural place to be ever since. She got her PADI Open Water Certification in 2000 and eventually became an SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor in 2011. Diving has taken her throughout the Caribbean, Great Lakes region and British Columbia. While she loves diving the deep, cold waters of southern Ontario, there is nothing like drifting effortlessly over a beautiful Caribbean reef. Elaine’s role in the Dive Team is to lead the dives and ensure the safety of the other team members so they can focus on capturing the great images and video footage the Dive Team is known for.

Jaia Konik

Jaia Konik

Webmaster, Videographer and Narrator

A native to the Niagara Region, Jaia Konik first began scuba diving in 2008 and hasn‘t looked back. She earned Divemaster status with PADI before shifting her focus primarily to underwater videography and is the video editor of The Dive Team. Her voice is also the narration you will hear in many of the videos. Jaia loves to explore and share the underwater world with those who can’t join her in the water. She has been concentrating most of her video documentation on dive sites local to her Ontario home, this includes the vast network of wrecks in the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, Niagara River and the world renowned wrecks of Tobermory. Jaia owns a videography and webdesign business which can be found at www.jaiakonik.com.

Bud Symons

Bud Symons

Technical Safety Advisor

Bud has been diving for 20 years, teaching for 15 of those years as a registered ACUC Instructor. He has travelled to Mexico, Tobermory, Cuba and Brockville diving wrecks, coral reefs and drift diving. With over 2000 dives under his belt, Bud enjoys the challenge of building confidence in new divers and helping them to grow into safe scuba divers. The Forest City in Tobermory is one of Bud’s favorite wrecks.

Bud is The Dive Team’s technical safety advisor. He works hard to keep the team safe while exploring the underwater world.

Dan Malleck

Divemaster

Dan has been diving for eight years. He is a certified dive master with PADI and the Handicapped Scuba Association. His favourite dive location is in the Pacific Ocean around Vancouver, with a special place in his heart for night diving in Kelvin Grove, just outside of Horseshoe Bay, BC. He has also dove off the coasts of Great Britain, Cuba, and Hawaii. His diving bucket list has one item: Scapa Flow, and he plans to dive it soon.

David Gilchrist

David Gilchrist

Photographer

David Gilchrist has been scuba diving for 45 year, Over that period he has earned Instructor ratings with ACUC, CMAS and a Master Scuba Diver Trainer rating with PADI.

He attended Brock University, majoring in Biological Studies. With an interest in biology, scuba diving and photography, it was a natural step to pursue all 3 interests. He has taken underwater photographs in the Great Lakes, the East and West coast of Canada and, with support and funding through the Canada Council and the Arctic Awareness Program, in the High Arctic at Resolute Bay. He has also explored and photographed the beautiful coral reefs of the Caribbean , Hawaii and Micronesia as well as the Meditteranean Sea in the south of France.

His photography has been displayed at Underwater Canada, several galleries and libraries, the Vancouver Aquarium and, most recently he donated a collection to Heartland Forest an Outdoor Education Centre. A collection of his photos were displayed at the Ontario Science Centre for 15 years. He has produced photographs for interpretive display for Fathom Five National Marine Park and Pukaskwa National Park on Lake Superior and written articles for several magazines, including Diver, Immersed, Scuba Press, The Undersea Journal, Photo Digest and Seasons. He has recently been accepted as a contributing photographer for the Florida Museum of Natural Sciences online Aquatic Image Gallery.

As a member and Past Chair of the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee(OMHC), he has been involved in numerous underwater archaeology projects. Avocational training through the former Archaelogical Conservation Program, POW/ SOS and the Parks Canada Marine Archaeological Unit and NAS Level 1,2,3 programs has allowed him to develop skills and an interest in recording and helping to preserve a variety of underwater archaeological sites throughout the province. Currently, he partners with Jimmy Lockard to assist professional archaeologists, on a volunteer basis, to record, photograph and report on underwater sites.

Dave Gilchrist - The Dive Team

Dave Gilchrist – The Dive Team

Jimmy "Deepsea" Lockard

Jimmy Lockard

Photographer

A long time resident of Niagara, Jim (Jimmy) Lockard grew up in Queenston, the Niagara River, a favourite playground. Jim’s passion is diving and underwater photography along with underwater archaeology. Jim participated with Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship & Culture as a avocational archaeologist for many years. He continues to work at and monitor underwater archaeological projects in the province. This diving career has taken Jim to Canada’s North Magnetic Pole, Resolute Bay, Barrow Strait and Lancaster Sound. First in 1987 with Dr. Mike Dickman, Brock University for limnological studies.Then again in 1989, with David Gilchrist, participated in the Arctic Awareness Program, part of the Polar Continental Shelf Project. This underwater photographic project took place in the very,very cold waters off Resolute, Cornwallis Island.

SOS, Save Ontario Shipwrecks, was a part of Jim’s life. Serving as President, of SOS in the 1980’s, he helped Rick Jackson, the founder of SOS, promote Diver Awareness of Wreck Preservation. A member of OMHC, Ontario Marine Heritage Committee, for the past 35 years, Jim has participated and continues participation in many of the group’s historical projects.

Jim keeps active in travel with his wife Sylvia around the globe. Always exploring and documenting with cameras. Adventures in diving and underwater photography worldwide have been, to name but a few places, Antibes, France, Almalfi, Italy, Truk Lagoon, Micronesia, Korea, Hawaii, Haida Gwaii, BC’s coastal inland passage waters, many US and Caribbean destinations.

David Gilchrist - The Dive Team

David Gilchrist – The Dive Team

Jaia Konik

Jaia Konik

Webmaster and Videographer

A native to the Niagara Region, Jaia Konik first began scuba diving in 2008 and hasn‘t looked backed. She earned Divemaster status with PADI before shifting her focus primarily to underwater videography and is the video editor of The Dive Team. Her voice is also the narration you will hear in many of the videos. Jaia loves to explore and share the underwater world with those who can’t join her in the water. As a registered Handicapped Scuba Association divemaster she assists those with special challenges who wish to dive. Jaia has been concentrating most of her video documentation on dive sites local to her Ontario home, this includes the vast network of shipping lane wrecks in the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, Niagara River and the world renowned wrecks of Tobermory.

Jaia has travelled and lived across Canada and participates in a variety of outdoor sports including snowboarding, mountain climbing, hiking, running and personal fitness. She currently studies New Media and Web Design in her final year at Niagara College. Her sense of adventure leads her to capture a new perspective in all of her multimedia. Jaia is also the webmaster for The Dive Team website.