Retired Green Beret opens diving business

By LINDA CHION KENNEY

What started as a childhood fascination with his father’s scuba gear turned into a lifelong career for Steve “Deadpool” Grewell, a retired Green Beret and combat diver for 26 years, who opened Compressed Adventures in November.

Steve “Deadpool” Grewell, second from left in red jacket, owner of Compressed Adventures and a retired Green Beret, at the fourth annual Gasp-Our Beads Tampa Bay water cleanup, Feb. 2. With him, from left, Jeremiah Eckert, Brittany Wright, Andrew Patterson, Seth Travis and Ford Turner.
LINDA CHION KENNEY PHOTOS

After retiring from the U.S. Army Special Forces in February, Grewell, 50, sets his own diving-related missions as a small-business owner, with dive instructor certification through the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) and the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), headquartered in Riverview at 9030 Camden Field Parkway.

Compressed Adventures offers scuba training and guided dive trips to a market, Grewell said, that is poised to grow. “I remember there used to be tomato farms in Ruskin,” said Grewell, who grew up in Sarasota and lives in Brandon. “Now there’s 15-year-old subdivisions and a growing population. It’s the next step, as the area matures and grows, that dive shops will start springing up in the area.”

Steve “Deadpool” Grewell, owner of Compressed Adventures, pretends to make a call with a trashed cell phone recovered at the Feb. 2 Gasp-Our Beads Tampa Bay water cleanup. In all, volunteer divers collected some 1,500 pounds of debris. The annual dive since its launching four years ago is a Hillsborough 100 Conservation Challenge action project.

It’s a good thing, too, he added, because as Floridians, “we live so close to so many world-class dive spots it’s not even funny.” He noted the coral reefs along the east coast, artificial reefs along the west coast and springs to the north, less than two hours from Riverview, including Devil’s Den, Blue Grotto and Rainbow River.

Grewell said his go-to places for providing diving instruction are the Brandon Sports and Aquatic Center and Lake Denton in Highlands County, between Avon Park and Sebring, roughly 90 minutes from Riverview.

“You have to start in a very controlled environment because breathing underwater is a very unnatural act,” he said. “People have to become comfortable doing it, taking into account tides, waves and currents,” which is where book and online studies come to bear as well.

With customers “from Sarasota up through Pennsylvania,” Grewell said his ultimate aim is to spread the love of diving, which was passed on to him by his father, “who had me blowing bubbles in a pool when I was a kid.”

“After watching 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I was hooked,” he added. “I wanted to be Captain Nemo and walk on the bottom of the ocean.”

A diver with the Green Berets, the most elite branch of the U.S. Army, Grewell said he has dived “pretty much in every body of water outside of the Arctic and Antarctic oceans.”

For a soldier, he said, diving is a means of infiltration.

“We jumped out of an aircraft with our dive gear, hit the water and swam with our gear for two or three miles until we reached our destination,” he added. “Then we pitched our dive gear and got to work.”

After five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 1,000 dives under his belt, Grewell said he had no idea what to do next with six months left to go before retirement.

He answered a Facebook ad for a dive instructor, and he used his G.I. Bill to get diving instruction training in Key Largo, after which he came back and decided to open his own business.

“I liked the idea of giving myself my own missions and my own schedule,” Grewell said. “I want to help people find the joy and peace I find underwater. When you get down to about 100 feet, colors fade out and the only thing you’re seeing are those deep blues. It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Grewell likened the experience of diving to “flying through water.” Diving “makes you a part of the environment and not just a witness to it,” he added.

His respect for the underwater environment led him to volunteer this year for the fourth annual Gasp-Our Beads Tampa Bay, a Hillsborough 100 Conservation Challenge action project, launched in 2016 by the NAUI Green Diver Initiative.

Organized this year by Mica Neal of Brandon, founder of the Next Level Dive Club, the Feb. 2 dive drew 18 boats and 180 volunteers, who reportedly recovered some 1,500 pounds of debris, including 250 pounds of discarded Gasparilla beads. Trash included also a laptop, cell phone, scooter, fold-up mini-bike, collection of baseballs and a gun (which was turned over to law enforcement officials).

Grewell said he put together a crew of eight divers who collected more than 100 pounds of trash, an amount that surprised — and concerned — the seasoned diver.

“Gasparilla is a great celebration, but sometimes people overlook the important parts, like the cleanup,” he said. “Plastics are a big problem in our waters. Just remember, that’s the water you drink.”

As for life after military service, Grewell said his best advice is to “Find your passion; find what you love.” Retirement “is not a sprint; it’s a marathon,” he added. “I’d rather find something I like doing than something I do to get by.”

Follow Grewell on Instagram and Twitter, at @deadpooldives. On Facebook, visit Compressed Adventures, or visit www.compressedadventures.com.