Welcome to our Technical Diving paradise !
Ian and Mehdi originally created Tec Monsters to provide Londoners with a technical diving paradise where all divers were welcome to come and play with kit, ask advice, questions and get training with some of the best instructors, regardless of the agency. We wanted to create a platform for like-minded divers to get in touch within our club, participate to Tec oriented talks, like our infamous "Torch-Porn" night, and also get in touch with some of the best instructors that aren't great at communication. All of that in one place, here !
Now Tec Monsters,
is based in Marianna, FL and Denver, CO. Strong from our experience in the UK, keeping the same goals and approach we aim to help the North Florida Diving industry grow.
Ian Clafton
Ian Clafton is Yorkshire born and after many years playing rugby at high level and a brilliant carrer in the publishing industry Ian bought a declining Scuba diving shop in 2008, named Aquanaut Scuba, in Kingston Upon Thames, England.
Being a hairy-ass British Sub-Aqua Club diver and a PADI Divemaster himself, he expanded the little scuba diving shop into a very well stocked shop, a fully accredited service centre and a PADI 5* training centre with a lot of help from his wife Lynne (lots and lots of help such as reminding him that it’s time to leave the pub to go home or reminding him the names of their daughters and so on).
Since then, they have opened a second shop and been involved and dedicated to the scuba diving industry. They support any and all customers walking through the doors of the shop, run a very busy dive club and take part in the local dive clubs community.
Meet your Tec diving instructors :
Mehdi Zinetti
Mehdi Zinetti was born in Paris from multicultural parents and worked his way up in the hospitality industry over 15 years, starting as a kitchen porter and ending up as the general manager of a group of French restaurants in Sydney and London.
Mehdi discovered scuba diving quite randomly while backpacking in South-East Asia (how original) and got hooked straight away. Working in very busy dive centres in Indonesia, Thailand and Australia he realised that a full-time career in diving was all he had been dreaming of. Delivering an unforgettable experience while working outside, being in the sun all day on boat with beautiful suntanned people and sharing his love for the sea, was what made him happy! So, after a year in Bali, Mehdi moved to London in 2015.
From late 2015 to Early 2020 Mehdi has been the manager of Aquanaut Scuba as well as the lead instructor, club treasurer, trimix gas blender instructor and main service technician. While in the UK, he has become a PADI Tec Deep & IANTD Advanced Recreational Trimix Instructor, IANTD Overhead Instructor and a CCR Diver under the mentoring of renown divers such as Ian France and Phil Short.
Unlike many instructors, Mehdi does a lot of diving for himself. Most of his diving has been in the challenging waters of the UK (south coast, flooded mines and deep wreck penetrations) and also abroad during some of the trips he organises (Egypt, Iceland, Ibiza, Malta, Thailand and Indonesia). Most recently Mehdi was part of the M/V Truk Master crew, as Tec Instructor/Cruise Director, leading Technical Divers on the World Famous wrecks of the Japanese Fleet in Chuuk Lagoon, Micronesia. This helps him develop his own style of teaching: straight to the point in a relaxed atmosphere while having fun, but safety is paramount at all times.
Now based in Marianna, FL Mehdi have been working at Cave Adventurers under the mentorship of Cave Diving Legend Edd Sorenson to continue improving and developing his teaching skills. Mehdi is now a KISS CCR Sidewinder Instructor!