Dive Experience celebrates 40 years in St. Croix waters

Dive Experience owner Michelle Pugh is passionate about diving. Growing up in Los Angeles, she learned to dive at age 16 and hasn't stopped since.

Dive Experience, located at King's Alley Hotel in Christiansted, St. Croix, celebrated its 40th anniversary over the weekend with a big party and a raffle for a lifetime dive pass.

Owner Michelle Pugh is passionate about diving. Growing up in Los Angeles, Pugh learned to dive at age 16 at the local YMCA and hasn't stopped since. She came to St. Croix in 1977 at the age of 22.

"I was at San Diego State and I happened to have a friend coming down to St. Croix to work for three months at V.I. Divers, so I came along with him and I stayed," she said. "That was in 1977. It grows on you."

Her passion for diving has led to a number of significant accomplishments since. In 1978, Pugh was the first woman photographer to film killer whales underwater in the wilds in Canada. She has dived five continents, including Antarctica.

Pugh continued with V.I. Divers until the age of 28. She started her own dive business in 1983, Dive Experience, from a little shack in Salt River Marina with a boat and a phone. Now located in King's Alley Hotel, Dive Experience is the oldest originally-owned dive business on St. Croix, and the first dive operator on St. Croix to achieve the PADI 5 Star IDC rating.

Pugh didn't stop there. In 1989, she spearheaded "Project Anchors Away," a 75 mooring buoy system surrounding St. Croix to protect the coral reefs from anchor damage. Since the late 1980s she has been a board member of the St. Croix Fisheries Advisory, which advises the commissioner of Planning and Natural Resources on fish and game regulations. She is also a board member for the East End Marine Park.

In 1997, Pugh was asked to teach at the Moscow Sea School in Moscow, Russia, the first American woman to do so. In Moscow, she started a recreational dive center and trained open water divers as well as instructors. And in 2004, she was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

After 40 years, her love of diving continues to be a steady force in her life. Even on her days off, she meets other female divers at Cane Bay Beach for an early morning dive.

"It's so serene under water," she said. "It's quiet and I just love the beauty of it."

Of course, there have been challenges over the years, but Dive Experience remained in business.

"When I opened Dive Experience, I was 28 at the time and probably didn't know any better, but I just loved the diving and I have a great staff that are all passionate about diving and the environment," Pugh said. "There were a lot of ups and downs, hurricanes, 9/11, tourism in general, and let's not forget COVID, but we just kept on going. I still love diving every day. That's a big part of keeping the business going. It's not really like a job."

Pugh still has just the one boat to keep it more personalized.

"I didn't want to be a cattle boat," she said. "I don't deal with the cruise ships. I keep it for the real deal divers."

Currently, Dive Experience has eight employees, some seasonal. She has added a large retail space with "pretty hardcore dive stuff," but also offers T-shirts, Reef Brazil sandals, sunscreen, snorkel equipment and more. One of the instructors, Sam Halverson, also shows his watercolor paintings in the shop and there are marine sculptures available from another local artist.

On the diving side, Dive Experience offers everything from beginner's introductory dives to PADI instruction to dive instructor courses. They typically do three dives a day with up to 15 people on the boat. If there are more than eight divers, two dive guides are provided. Aids to navigation out of the harbor haven't been repaired, so there are no night dives available at this time because of safety issues. Dive Experience has more than 100 dive sites to choose from on the north shore, from the Scotch Bank area to Cane Bay.

"We have a lot of repeat customers and what's really cool is that we are now diving with the third generation for some families," Pugh said. "We dove with the parents, then the kids and now we are diving with the grandchildren."

For more information, 340-773-3307 or visit www.divexp.com.