"Captain" Billy Deans is a pioneering
wreck and
technical diver
Technical diving (also referred to as tec diving or tech diving) is scuba diving that exceeds the agency-specified limits of recreational diving for non-professional purposes. Technical diving may expose the diver to hazards beyond those normally ...
. "Captain" is the
nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
which is widely applied to Billy Deans, however he is a
US Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and maritime law enforcement, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
-rated
captain up to 100 tons.
Deans is a former member of the
board of directors of
International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD). He was an instructor for the
, and taught
Special forces divers for the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
and the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. He is also a
Professional Association of Diving Instructors
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) is a recreational diving membership and diver training organization founded in 1966 by John Cronin and Ralph Erickson. Cronin was originally a NAUI instructor who decided to form his ...
(PADI) and
National Association of Underwater Instructors
The National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI Worldwide) is a non-profit association of scuba instructors. It primarily serves as a recreational dive certification and membership organization established to provide international div ...
(NAUI)
recreational diving
Recreational diving or sport diving is diving for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment, usually when using scuba equipment. The term "recreational diving" may also be used in contradistinction to "technical diving", a more demanding aspect of ...
instructor.
In Kevin McMurray's book, ''Deep Descent'', he refers to an unspecified third party publication describing Billy Deans as "the world's best diver".
[ McMurray does not use this description himself, but cites a third party publication which he does not identify.]
Billy Deans was one of the early pioneers in the use of
trimix for
deep diving
Deep diving is underwater diving to a depth beyond the norm accepted by the associated community. In some cases this is a prescribed limit established by an authority, while in others it is associated with a level of certification or training, an ...
. During the exploration of
U-869 chronicled in the best selling book, ''
Shadow Divers
''Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II'' is a 2004 non-fiction book by Robert Kurson recounting of the discovery of a World War II German U-boat off the coast ...
'',
John Chatterton
John Chatterton (born 1951) is an American wreck diver. Together with Richie Kohler, he was one of the co-hosts for the History Channel’s ''Deep Sea Detectives'', for 57 episodes of the series. He is also a consultant to the film and televis ...
and
Richie Kohler
Richie Kohler is an American Technical diving, technical wreck diving, wreck diver and shipwreck historian who has been diving and exploring shipwrecks since 1980. Together with John Chatterton, Kohler was one of the co-hosts of the television se ...
sought instruction from Billy Deans in the use of trimix (which had, until then, largely been restricted to
cave exploration diving in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
). These presaged a number of North Eastern wreck divers to seek trimix training from Billy Deans, leading to its popularity as a deep diving breathing gas.
Billy Deans has been involved in a number of high-profile shipwreck expeditions over the years, including
Gary Gentile
Gary Gentile (born 1946) is an American author and pioneering technical diver.
Diving
Gary Gentile is a wreck diver. It has been suggested that Gary Gentile may be the most experienced wreck diver in the world. He has dived on the wreck of the ...
's expedition to the ''
USS Monitor'', various exploration dives on the ''
SS Andrea Doria
SS ''Andrea Doria'' , was an ocean liner for the Italian Line (Società di navigazione Italia) home-ported in Genoa, Italy, known for its sinking in 1956, where of the 1,706 passengers and crew, 1,660 were rescued, while 46 passengers and crew ...
'',
[ Billy Deans was one of the diving team involving in the recovery of the body of John Ormsby after his fatal accident on the ''Andrea Doria''. Coincidentally, so was Gary Gentile.] the ''
USS Wilkes-Barre'' and
U-2513. In late 1993, Billy Deans served as Dive Operations Officer for an expedition recovering treasure and artifacts from a Spanish
brigantine which sank in the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
off
.
Billy Deans ran a dive shop (known as Key West Diver) in Key West, FL for many years prior to retiring from diving in 1998.
He qualified as an
ICU nurse
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...
.
External links
IANTD board of directors
Footnotes
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American underwater divers
People from Key West, Florida
Place of birth missing (living people)
{{US-bio-stub