Cedar Grove Divers Head to Bahamas

Doug Gasalberti, owner and instructor of Cedar Grove Divers Supply, has been organizing diving trips since 1977.

An avid diver, Gasalberti has been on more dives than he can count, having started when he was just 10 years old. He began managing the dive shop in 1984 and officially bought the business in 1986.

Cedar Grove Divers Supply is located at 492 Pompton Ave. in Cedar Grove.

Since then, he has been selling equipment, teaching diving classes and giving swimming lessons in their pool, conveniently located right inside the shop. He also teaches a fish identification course.

On May 2, Gasalberti will be bringing 12 divers to Freeport, Bahamas for three days of diving, returning on May 6.

“I've been there 10 times before — it's easy to get to and a nice, short trip,” said Gasalberti. “You get to see a lot of grey reef sharks, bull sharks, wrecks, reefs and lionfish.”

Lionfish, he said, are beautiful to look at but are extremely dangerous.

“Lionfish big problem in Caribbean now,” he said. “No one knows how they got there but they are very ferocious and vivacious and eat everything. If you touch them they inject a very painful poison, even if they are dead.”

“They are beautiful, with big pectoral fins,” he added. “But you have to be very careful.”

Gasalberti organizes three trips a year in May, August and January. In August they will travel to Turks & Caicos and then Bonaire in January.

The trips typically cost around $1,000 and $2,000 per diver, depending on the destination and length of the trip, which includes roundtrip airfare, airport transfers, hotel taxes and gratuities, double occupancy, buffet breakfast and dives.

“You breathe free under water, its a sense of weightlessness and you see things you never seen before,” said Gasalberti. “You are a part of the water world, it's like you are in a big fish tank.”

The trips give him the opportunity to see new things and to bond with new people.

“People came back on trips all the time,” he said. “I have a nucleus of people but always get new people too. This trip we have five new people so my circle of friends just gets bigger and bigger.”

Click here for information on upcoming trips hosted by Cedar Grove Divers Supply.