Local Diving Pro Opening Up Shop

Jim Kupper has always been a water person–through Boy Scouts, lifeguarding and on into adulthood, he’s always been the first one in the pool and the last one out.

But he took it to another level a little more than a decade ago, when he was working at the then-New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden. The first day he went down to the main tank and watched scuba divers swimming with sharks, he was hooked.

“I thought that was pretty cool–I had to do that,” Kupper said.

He got his initial certification as an open-water scuba diver in November 1997, but didn’t stop there, though–he quickly progressed through more advanced certifications, eventually working his way from the amateur side to become a professional dive instructor.

Now, Kupper has the mark of being a Course Director, which is the highest level of certification offered by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), and has made over 800 ocean dives in the last 14 years.

“It’s a nice accomplishment,” he said.

Kupper started teaching novice scuba divers locally at RiverWinds back in 2005, after being let go from the aquarium, and spent the past five years turning a passion into a full-time job.

That’s led him to open Ocean Spirit Aquatics in West Deptford’s Crown Point Plaza, with his grand opening set for Saturday.

“I told my wife, either we sell the house and move to the Keys so I can teach full time, or we open a dive shop,” Kupper joked.

He was still in the midst of setting up on Thursday, with diving suits hung in plastic bags and swim fins and goggles painting a rainbow of accessories across one wall. The store will carry a full line of Aqua Lung gear, and will offer rentals, service and travel arrangements for dive trips.

The store’s already generating interest in the diving community–Kupper said he’s already heard from some local divers who had gotten away from the sport because of a lack of opportunities, and thinks between his store and the connection with RiverWinds, he can fill a niche.

“The things you’re going to find here on the shelf, you’re not going to find at Sports Authority,” he said. “You’re not going to find any of this stuff in the mainstream.”

Everything in the store is geared toward scuba and snorkeling, but there’s a certain amount of crossover, as well: Kupper sells wetsuits that surfers could use, and while he’ll focus on servicing and refilling scuba tanks, he said he also works with paintball players to refill their tanks.

He also offers flat-rate fees for scuba certification–something that sets him apart from some dive shops.

“I’m not going to nickel-and-dime you to death,” he said.

The average person could get certified to be an open-water diver in a matter of just a few weeks, Kupper said–typically, his classes run over the course of three weekends, and then all that remains is a series of open-water test dives, which he usually schedules for a weekend soon after the in-class training.

And since diving off the coast of New Jersey is tough, due to frequently rough conditions and reduced visibility in the water, Kupper said he’s aiming to get the travel arrangement side of the business up soon, so he can share some of the joys of open-water diving in places like Key Largo.

Some of his favorites dives there aren’t even in the daytime–heading underwater at night, with a full moon shining through the water, is a unique experience, Kupper said. He’ll go down to a reef and watch the interplay of sea life; lobsters and crabs scuttling among the coral, octopi hunting the crabs and eels hunting the octopi, as bioluminescent creatures glow.

“It’s a totally different environment,” he said.