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Homage to the legendary Bill Tewes Bill Tewes (pronounced too-ess) had the life of which many divers can only dream. After being coerced into finishing his diving certification course while working as an engineer for an oil company in Grand Bahama Island, the Bahamas, he fell in love with the underwater world on his first open water dive. He continued his training, began leading divers and eventually in 1979, accepted a position as divemaster on the Yankee Trader for a 300 day, 31,500 mile, around-the-world cruise. This job took him on an adventure scuba diving all over the world. Now with over 10,000 dives in 30 countries, Bill had over 7,000 dives in St.Vincent alone, where he had settled for decades. At the end of the trip Bill did go to Papua New Guinea to start a dive operation that is now Jais Aben Resort near Madang. Bill trained the local men to be divemasters and some of them still work there and remember Bill fondly, even today. After Papua New Guinea, Bill returned to his home town of Corsicana, Texas where he searched for a new place to open a dive shop. He learned of a shop for sale in the small island country St. Vincent, and in 1984, bought it, with its entire six sets of scuba gear. He continued his habit of hiring local people and training them to be the divemasters. Today, many of his staff have been with the operation for 25 years or more. Lots of loyalty!
Bill's dry wit was definitely an asset to his operation -- keeping his customers well entertained. Bill was also something of a famous underwater photographer, he had had the distinction of having five of his underwater photos used on special collectors government issue stamps. Bill was also on the local postage stamp (since 1988), a bit unusual at the time for a "living" person in most countries. One of his hobbies was teaching young people to dive. He taught many junior divers from ages 7 and up. He loved it and considered it a challenge to explain the concepts of diving to those who have not yet mastered some of the basic concepts of life. You would often find Bill working in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines booth at most major dive retail shows all over the world. If you never had a chance to meet Bill - you'll undoubtedly would have made a new friend!
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St. Vincent -- Tips -- Maps -- Scuba Diving -- Dive Sites -- List of Dive Sites -- Dive Packages Critters -- Gallery -- Boats -- Instruction -- Staff -- Rentals -- About Bill -- Reservations -- Sailing -- Home |
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Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent The Critter Capital of the Caribbean! P.O. Box 864 Main Office: 784 457 4948 email: [email protected] |
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PADI's oldest facility in St. Vincent since January 24, 1978 |
Dive St. Vincent is the only dive shop in the country that does critters |
No reproduction without written permission |