Staff
Sandra Widdows, Principal Instructor
Sandra was first certified as a SCUBA Instructor in 1984 while working for New England Divers in Beverly, Massachusetts and attending Salem State College. A lot has happened since then! Salem State is now a University, Sandra is married to Tomas, has two grown children, Gabi and Trevor (all divers) and retired as a commercial airline pilot for Frontier Airlines.
In some form or another Sandra has been an instructor since those early days in the 80's. In addition to teaching SCUBA, Sandra is a flight instructor and has spent a considerable amount of time teaching Human Factors, Crew Resource Management and Basic Indoctrination at the airlines as well as teaching at Embry Riddle Aeronautical Univeristy as an Adjunct Instructor.
These days Sandra is the owner of Planet SCUBA and you can find her working the retail floor as well as instructing. She is a Master Scuba Diver Trainer certified to teach a number of specialties in addition to Emergency First Response/Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation/Automated External Defibrillator.
Jeremiah Minner, Director of Training
Jeremiah was certified as an Open Water diver in 1996 while attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Following graduation he was commissioned as a submarine officer and assigned to both Fast Attack and Balistic Missile submarines. Throughout a long career in the Navy, he retained a passion for the ocean and scuba diving. Jeremiah is married to the lovely Tracy and has two children, Marshall and Aurelia. As the kids have grown up they have both become divers, with Marshall currently pursuing his Divemaster certification.
Jeremiah is a lifelong teacher, beginning at the Colorado Academy of Martial Arts teaching Seizan Ryu Kempo Jujutsu. He later founded and owned the Connecticut Academy of Martial Arts in Stonington, Connecticut and was formally a naval instructor at the Submarine School in Groton, CT. Within the last 5 years, Jeremiah broadened his teaching to Information Technology and Cybersecurity.
Jeremiah is a Master Scuba Diver Trainer certified to teach 13 dive specialties as well as Emergency First Resonse (Primary and Secondary Care) and today, nearly all of this time is spent teaching either scuba diving or computer technology.