About Us
Welcome to Seal Sports!
Live the Experience…
Scuba diving provides the amazing feeling of descending into turquoise colored waters to swim with the sea turtles, dolphins, manta rays, whale sharks and other majestic creatures is often a life changing experience that creates a yearning for more. It's these experiences that Seal Sports provides; we have the pleasure of introducing and providing the resources for other human beings to experience the underwater realm both close and abroad.
Why Seal Sports…
Seal Sports is a well established, full service, PADI 5-Star Instructor Development Center IDC located in the heart of Mandeville, Louisiana just 2-minutes from I-12 and the Causeway toll bridge. We offer the areas largest selection of retail and on-line sales of new scuba diving gear and snorkel equipment, swim gear, dive certification training, adventure dive travel, and service and repair for your dive gear. Our friendly, experienced and professional diving staff will ensure that you’re buying and learning experience is provided to you with exceptional customer service.
Meet our team…
Rob Kohl
Master Instructor/Owner – 28 years experience
 Rob’s passion for scuba diving dates back to his early childhood. Rob's father owned Kohl's Dive Shop, a successful dive center located in Helena, Montana (1980-1987), where Rob worked by his father’s side since its inception. Rob was certified as a PADI Open Water Diver in August of 1984 by his father.
Upon graduating from high school in 1989, Rob attended and graduated in the top four of his class from the Diver's Institute of Technology in Seattle, Washington. Two weeks after receiving his diploma as a commercial diver, Rob was hired by Sub Sea International in Louisiana where he spent five years and then Global Industries in Louisiana for an additional five years. During his ten year commercial dive career, Rob achieved saturation bell diving by the early age of 22 and boasts a personal depth record of 720'.
In October 2000 Rob attended a PADI Instructor Development Course and earned his PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor certification. He has been the primary instructor for Seal Sports since it's inception and quickly earned the Master Scuba Diver Trainer rating from PADI. His dive management and leadership experience has proven to be valuable assets for Seal Sports. Rob has since trained over 600 louisiana and surrounding residents and has been a referring instructor for over a hundred others. His professionalism and thoroughness has earned Seal Sports strong customer loyalty.
Andre Paille
Master Scuba Diver Trainer – 9 years experience
 Andre’ has been associated with Seal Sports since its inception (customer # 8), and has been a diver since July 2000 and an instructor since March 2005. He decided that he wanted to be a diver when he was 8 years old and on a sailing cruise with his grand parents to Destin Florida. Since that first skin dive on the Destin Jetties he knew he had to be a diver. His passions include Diving, introducing new divers to the sport and anything that’s an adventure. His favorite dive site is anywhere with water. “Life is an adventure; live it!”
Having been deployed to Afghanistan for the majority of 2011, we are excited and look forward to his return to Louisiana this October.
Desiree Bell
Master Scuba Diver Trainer - 15 years experience
 Desiree has been instructing with Seal Sports since summer of ’07. Her passion for diving began at the early age of 12 years old. Her mother was a dive instructor. As a result, she went on many instructional dives in the lakes of New Mexico and west Texas. Desiree’s original interest in diving was spurred when she read a book on sea life at the age of nine. She has continued this interest throughout her life. She loves to share this passion and help spread the word about the importance of our oceans and how to protect their well being.
“Being underwater is almost second nature to me. Despite that, I am acutely aware of the importance of safety and knowing one’s limits. I always want my students to be safe and feel safe with the knowledge that diving is a safe, enjoyable and enriching sport.”
Desiree has certifications to teach the following specialties: Underwater Photographer; Underwater Naturalist; Night Diver; Wreck Diver; Deep Diver; AWARE Fish ID; Boat Diver; Drift Diver; Enriched Air Diver; Equipment Specialist; Multi-level Diver; Peak Performance Buoyancy; Underwater Navigation; Search and Recovery Diver and others. She is also a certified gas blender.
Besides observing the natural ecology, she really enjoys wreck diving, night diving and deep diving. She has been diving in many places including Cozumel, Roatan in the Honduras, and the Flower Gardens.
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