Staff

Donald VanNispen

Don has owned and operated Lake Superior Divers Supply for over 50 years. He still continues to manage the business every day. Don is a founding member of PADI, Professional Association of Diving Instructors. Don is a Master Instructor, He has certified thousands of area divers. Also was involved with Douglas and St. Louis County Rescue Teams. Don is a Master Repair Technician for Scubapro and Aqualung. He has worked on most brands. From early double hose systems, to the latest regulators on the market today.

Don also has an extensive amount of experience in commercial diving. From working on tugboats to ore boats, underwater construction and demolition. If you have a question about diving, Don knows the answer or can find it for you.

Joe Cheetham

Master Scuba Diver, Trainer, Instructor, Master Repair Technician 

for Scuba Pro and Aqualung

Joe's got over 25 years of diving experience. For the last 21 years, he has spent time teaching students from open water divers through Divemaster. Also, he's trained in instructing the specialties such as ice diving, nitrox, deep water, search and recovery, navigation, night diving, underwater photography, and wreck diving. Joe loves diving Lake Superior at any time of the year, but he occasionally takes his diving to the warmer waters as well including: Roatan, Honduras; Mexico; Washington, and Florida.

Nancy Rochon

Nancy has worked for LSDS for 6 years. She is a certified diver, and a Repair Technician for Scubapro equipment. Most of Nancy's time is spent selling equipment, waiting on customers, and keeping things running smoothly. Little known fact: Nancy enjoys swimming with sharks in Rotan's warm water!

Paul Makynen

Quality Reassurance:

"I did all my training through Lake Superior Divers and was amazed at the wide knowledge base, low student to instructor ratio, and large amount of patience they exhibit to ensure you understand the process and the skill. Once out in the open water dives, the advanced dives, and even into the rescue diving is where the real fun began. I got to take my skill levels to new heights and while being challenged along the way, we always had fun. The instructors got right out there in the water with us and made things simple to understand. One of my highlights involves a dive to  the Madeira Shipwreck along Lake Superior's North Shore. We descended to the top of boat's stern which is vertical to the bottom of the lake. Just as we went over the edge to descend along the ruins of the large vessel frozen in history, my new underwater MP3 player started playing mission impossible. Slightly neutrally buoyant, but just enough to slightly descend, I floated weightlessly past rusty portholes and gigantic plates of galvanized steel to the bottom of a 110 foot deep dive. It's something I will never forget. Don't wait to get to experience the joys of diving, get certified now, I'm sure happy I did." - Julie Pearce, Certified Rescue Diver