Meet Our Staff

Dive Qualifications: PADI MSDT, DAN DEMP Instructor Diving Since: 2006 From: Born & raised in Hawthorne, FL followed by Tallahassee, FL for 7 years Favorite Upper Keys Dive Site: The Duane, Bibb, & Snapper Ledge Favorite Underwater Activity: Hunting, enjoying the little things, wreck diving Favorite Keys Restaurant: So many to choose from! I love food! Ok - Num Thai Sushi Bar or Dillon’s Irish Pub Favorite Keys Hangout: Anywhere in, on, or near the water « View All Staff

Toni Hyde

I’ve always been in the water since the second day I was brought home from the hospital when my mom took me in the lake at our house. Since I knew what SCUBA was, I wanted to learn to dive, but due to lack of money and time I was never able to. When I graduated from Florida State in 2006, my graduation present from my mom was a trip to Grand Cayman with the huge surprise being to get certified!! I was hooked from the first breath. I remember my instructor asked me what I was planning to do now that I had a college degree. My mom quickly answered for me: “She wants your job.”

I immediately knew I wanted to be an instructor, so I spent the next few years working in Tallahassee daydreaming about diving while going on mini diving vacations to work my way up the PADI ladder. My mom booked us a vacation in the Keys - staying at Ocean Pointe Suites & diving with Florida Keys Dive Center, where I decided on a whim to take my Rescue course. I loved the shop & the level of instruction they provided, so I came back a few months later to take my divemaster class. When I finished, I planned to do an internship for the next summer while living at the Keys Motel, take my IDC in July 2008, and return to Tallahassee to teach privately. After the first few weeks I realized that idea of moving home was long gone as I had fallen in love with the Keys, the bright blue & warm water! I couldn’t imagine going back up “north” (because even Miami is north to us!) and leaving the Keys. When I was offered a position at one of the busiest and best shops in the Keys, I decided to make it official, pack up my apartment in Tallahassee, and move on down!