MS Underwater Divers

As many divers in south MS and surrounding areas know MS Underwater Divers hasn't been open since Katrina. Bill Johnston the owner was fighting congestive heart failure during the last 6 months or so of it being open. Unfortunately, Shortly after Katrina he left us for Clearer waters. Anyone who knew him knows we lost an incredible asset to the diving world.

Now Kristi Motter and myself are taking over the shop to keep it going in memory of "Hoochie Dawg". We are still in the stages of rebuilding and we don't have any facilities as of yet. Soon we will be climbing back from the depths though. Kristi, Bill's Dive Master, is working on her Instructor certification and should be teaching by the first of 2007. I am currently working toward Dive Master. We will still be a NAUI facility. Hopefully by next summer we will be ready to make the jump to an actual facility but at the moment we are going to run it out of Kristi's Garage. I am in the process of renewing our relationships with some of our previous manufacturers.(Sherwood, Riffe, Akona, etc.) If anyone has any suggestions as to what they would like to see in a LDS for the area please feel free to chime in. I ran MUD for Bill for about 7-8 months before he passed but I am assuredly still new to it.

Hopefully we will breathe a little life back into the community of diving in our little piece of the world. Thanks to all.

~Matthew Lomas
M.U.D

Matthew,
I am sorry to hear about Bill's passing. In the days and weeks follwong Katrina, I would pass by the Dive Shop on my way to Camp Shelby and wonder if the shop would re-open. I have since moved back to Huntsville. I don't know when I'll ever get back in the area, but best of luck to you and Kristi.
Howard
aka 2d fastest UW basket weaver on the planet!

Thanks Howard. We were going to make the World Championship Underwater Basket Weaving contest an annual thing however Katrina slowed that. We're going to try to get it in motion again next year as the Annual Bill Johnston Memorial Championship. Keep in touch hopefully we'll be back going strong in no time.

~Matthew Lomas
M.U.D.

I didnt know you guys where opening again.

Will you be doing trips as well as sales?

The other shop has very little in stock besides what you would use for OW cert