Gaynor Pook
Owner – England

After traveling the world for many years searching for the right place to call home, Gay finally found her little piece of paradise on Roatan.  In 1996 she learned to dive on Roatan's reef and in 2001 became one of the owners of Coconut Tree Divers. Gay, who generally handles customer service  at Coconut Tree's reception desk, diveshop operations and pretty much anything that isn't mechanical, is always good for a delicious cup of tea and a solid laugh.  As one of the founding directors of the Roatan Marine Park, Gay juggles her time between addressing environmental issues, handling her kids social life, dealing with the shop boys and girls and keeping fresh on the latest Roatan gossip.

Monty Graham
Owner – Canada
IDC Staff Instructor
TDI / SDI Advanced Trimix Instructor
DSAT Trimix Instructor
TDI / DSAT Sidemount Instructor

Monty's diving career began in 2001 when he was trained as a deep sea/commercial diver in Seattle, Washington.  His diving adventures have carried him to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Martin, St. Thomas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Isles, Antigua, Cozumel, Curacoa, Aruba, Venezuela, St. Lucia, and Canada.  Monty is the Technical Deep and Trimix Instructor, one of only two on Roatan.

Monty is also the owner and operator of www.roatanteccenter.com that is affiliated with Coconut tree dive center.  Recently Monty married his far too beautiful wife Alexandra Harper Graham the talented underwater photographer.

ALEX HARPER-GRAHAM
OWNER - ENGLAND
MASTER SCUBA DIVER TRAINER

Alex is one of the most talented underwater photographers that Roatan has to offer. She offers photography courses and personal photography underwater shoots. Since completing her TDI sidemount course and extended range Tec diving course, her focus is to go deeper with her camera and capture images only tec divers can do. Alex sells her prints online at www.alexandrahbphotography.com and they can be purchased at the dive center or at Bay Island Hotel. When not diving Alex enjoys traveling and hanging out with her husband Monty.  Alex is working hard on becoming the next diesel and compressor mechanic.

Fred Hamilton
Boat Captain – Roatan, Honduras

Fred left his island when he was 21 years old to work on a cruise ship.  After 15 years he left for the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico and then to Italy to help build a new port.  After 7 years of running inter-island freighters he has returned to his native island to take the helm of Potlicker.  Fred loves fishing and his 17 grandchildren.  True, buddy!

Carl Wagner
Boat Captain – Roatan, Honduras

Captain Carl is a true Roatan icon.  Born and raised on the island, his boat captain career kicked off at age sixteen while ferrying visitors to and from Anthony's Key Resort.  By eighteen he was working full-time as a boat captain for various dive shops around West End.  Over the last thirty years he has captained many different kinds of dive boats under all sorts of weather conditions.  To quote the man himself, "almost all of my life has been spent on the water."  Captain Carl has worked at Coconut Tree Divers since the shop's inception.  Taking the helm of Potlicker or Wish U Were Here, he will drive you to all the sites in the Roatan Marine Park.  Carl will also assist divers with equipment setup, entering and exiting the water, and making certain that everything about your dives goes as smoothly as possible.  He loves to snack on chicken and tell crazy stories of yester years on Roatan.

Will Welbourn
Course Director – London, England

Roatan's longest serving Course Director Will Welbourn started diving in 1989.  Will explored the waters of Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Crete, Sri Lanka, Bocas del Toro, and the Corn Islands.  Tired of his job as an accountant, he left sunny England in 2003 and completed his PADI Divemaster and Open Water Scuba Instructor certifications in Roatan. 

Will serves as a Coconut Tree Diver's PADI Course Director, PADI/DSAT Tec Deep and Trimix Instructor Trainer, and Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer.  He is currently a PADI Instructor Trainer in the following specialties: Deep, Night, Wreck, Enriched Air Nitrox, Digital Underwater Photography, Emergency O2 Provider, Boat, Drift, Multilievel, Naturalist, Underwater Navigation, Search and Recovery, Equipment, and Gas Blender. 

When not teaching PADI Instructor Development Courses or exploring the depths through Tec Diving, Will also works as Coconut Tree Diver's Retail Manager.  Will loves his wife Loren's cooking, sailing, skiing, snowboarding and Chelsea FC.

Ted Anger
Master Instructor – Calgary, Canada

After first learning how to dive in the cold water lakes of Canada back in '94, Ted arrived in Roatan 15 years later to complete his Divemaster program.  Since then, he has received the IDC Staff Instructor rating, as well as completing the PADI Tec Deep course with Monty.  Ted has enjoyed spending the last three years photographing Roatan’s littlest species of fish and creatures whenever he has had the opportunity to take his camera down with him. He also has nice hair.

Rachael sorochan
master scuba diver trainer - canada

Originally certified with her Open Water in Honduras Rachael had always dreamed of returning and becoming an instructor. 5 years later she came to us for her Dive Master and IDC and never looked back. She's come a long way from chilly Saskatchewan but for her trading snow for sand was easy. Rachael enjoys riding Moose down the West End road, driving tractors and showing the DMT's how it's done. 

Rudy Trejo
open water scuba instructor  - Honduras

Born in San Pedro, Honduras Rudy (aka Chino) grew up in Los Angeles, California before heading to Roatan in 2009.  He completed all courses here at Coconut Tree Divers (our zero to hero program) from Open Water through Instructor and has been a valued member of the crew since 2010.  Rudy has great knowledge of many of Roatan dive sites. He loves swim thrus and has a gift for finding pipefish and pipehorses.

SAMMY ROWNTREE
oPEN WATER SCUBA INSTRUCTOR - HONDURAS

Sammy is the newest and youngest scuba dive instructor working for Coconut Tree Divers. Being the son of the owner Gaynor Pook he has been lucky enough to be scuba diving as young as eight years old on Roatan's reefs. He already has completed his sidemount and tech diving courses as you can see from his cool photo. Way to go Sammy!!!

CRUZ CHURRE
master scuba diver trainer - USA

My passion is the 6 minute ab workout and the magic bullet veggie shakes, this is when I am not teaching my wonderful students to scuba dive in the Caribbean.  On a serious note Cruz is an avid sidemount and tec diver too. It's all about looking cool!

Josefina Draga
Master Scuba Diver Trainer - canada

JoJo is our French Canadian instructor who has been teaching on the island for the last 3 years in the busy season. She loves her music and dancing. 

Shane Grooby
master scuba diver trainer - england

All the way from England, Shane decided to escape the cold waters of the North Sea and is now enjoying instructor life in the Caribbean. Although you can't always hear his deep english accent over the motors of the boat, when you can hear, it's clear he knows what he is on about. He first learned to dive with his father at age 12 never knowing he would go on to become an Instructor and has a number of teaching specialties. He would like long walks on the beach if he wasn't scared of sand on his toes, and romantic dinners of Dr. Pepper and fried chicken.

Rolando Puerto
Divemaster – Roatan, Honduras

A native Roatan islander, Rolando completed his Divemaster certification at Coconut Tree in 2005 and now leads visiting divers around his favorite dive sites.  Rolando loves driving his skiff, drinking rum, and impressing the ladies by diving headfirst into the reef.  When not in the water, he can be found managing the Coconut Tree Resort.

Denver Mann
Divemaster – Roatan, Honduras

Born and raised on Roatan, Denver got certified as an Open Water Diver in 2013 at Coconut Tree and has had a passion for diving ever since. He was trained as a divemaster in 2015 and stuck around for freelance work. Denver loves looking for small and rare critters like nudi's, seahorses, and mermaids.

Steve Vincent
Coffee Manager – Green Bay, Wisconsin - United States

When Steve Vincent first arrived to Roatan aboard a cruise ship, he knew he had found somewhere special.  Years later, he officially left the frozen tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin, driving his RV thousands of miles south to the Roatan's Caribbean shores. 

Steve is responsible for making the delicious pots of hot coffee in the morning, which keeps the dive shop functioning at 8am!  In his spare time, Steve loves diving, playing with his dogs Boomer and Fido, taking people out on jungle hikes and pulling for the Green Bay Packers.

Chucky
Rescue Victim – Kazakhstan

Chucky washed ashore one fateful morning in 2007.  His algae-encrusted hair, sulfuric stench, and hideous face made him the perfect fit for Coconut Tree's shop mascot. 
Chucky is a notoriously poor diver who constantly gets lost on Rescue courses.  When he's not lounging around on the ocean floor with his custom-made weight belt, he lurks around the side of the dive shop awaiting his next chance to go diving (or frighten new customers).

Chucky is a bit of a celebrity, you might have seen him recently on CNN.