Welcome to Cave Country Dive Shop. Our 4,000 sqft store has something for everyone, from snorkeling all the way up to the highest levels of instructor development and technical dive training. We offer a full selection of rental equipment, CCR support, and any gas you can imagine. Our staff is great! Each member of our staff is a trained cave diver. New to diving? No worries! Our staff is friendly, and excited to get you started learning to dive. At Cave Country all our customers are important whether you are completely new to diving, or a 'well traveled' tech or cave diver.

Meet our staff:

Store Manager:  Kristi Bernot

Kristi is a highly trained diver and scuba instructor holding many certifications for technical and cave diving as well as being a certified closed circuit rebreather diver.  She has a passion for education and is always interested in learning something new. She firmly believes that even the most experienced can still find benefit in learning something new or perfecting something learned.

Both an underwater adventurer and a talented artist she uses her skills and sharp eye to capture the beauty and emotions behind what it’s like to explore sites underground and underwater that few people ever see. She believes it’s important to share the images of these places and the life they attract in order to educate the general public of the importance of these places while preserving a piece of living history through her lens. Her photo work and her words have been featured in numerous national and local publications.

She greets all of our customers with a friendly smile and positive attitude. To get in touch with Kristi shoot an email to : kristi@cavecountrydiving.com.

Owner: Jon Bernot

Jonathan 'Jon' Bernot is our primary instructor here at Cave Country. He is both an active instructor, explorer, and world record holder. He owns, dives, and trains divers on a number of rebreathers while also being well versed in both backmount and sidemount. More than just a cave and rebreather instructor though, Jon is often found out diving for fun on his own or with buddies. In 2016, Jon Bernot and his exploration partner broke a world record for distance from air in the Falmouth System starting from Cathedral Sink. The current end of line is just shy of 27,000 feet. This project is ongoing and can be followed on facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/CathedralExplorationTeam/ 

In 2015, Jon and Kenny Summers broke into a new section of what was previously thought to be a walled out cave. Ginnie Springs is one of the most well traveled caves in Florida, however, Jon proceeded to add over 6,000 feet to this new section. While this exploration is not done, it has taken a back seat to larger projects like Falmouth and Lineater. You can see some video of the Ginnie exploration below. Jon can be reached by email at ccrcaveinstructor@gmail.com.

Owner: Gene Page

Sixth generation Floridian Gene Page grew up mostly in the Tampa Bay area with one grandfather being the publisher of the local (Bradenton) newspaper and the other an artist and maritime historian (on Anna Maria Island). It was this unique background that got Gene started on his life-long interests in water, (particularly being under it), history, travel and photography.

Gene started learning about photography in the dark room at the Bradenton Herald while being exposed to numerous houseboat trips and Jacques Cousteau shows on television at his maternal grandparent's house on Anna Maria Island. This led Gene to being allowed to use scuba at age 11, (after reading a book about scuba diving and answering enough questions correctly), while on a family camping trip on the Weeki Wachee River. Gene had his first photo published in a newspaper a year later. Having always been interested in diving but never having gone through the classes to get certified, Gene started taking various courses to become a better wreck diver and then of course fell in love with cave diving.

Gene is now a Film industry professional shooting images for many well known movies and shows including AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’. In his spare time he enjoys diving in our great local caves.

Owner: Tom McMillan

Captain Tom McMillan started diving in 1966 straight out of High School. After becoming a PADI Divemaster logging 1000 dives in 1994, he became a certified Cave Diver in 2000. He became an IANTD Instructor in 2007. Tom teaches open water through intro to cave, including nitrox and advanced nitrox. Captain Tom is a resident of Charleston, South Carolina and operates a charter carrying divers for fossil hunting on the Cooper River.