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 Dive center located in the heart of Mandeville 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
IDC Staff Instructor/Owner – 23 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 where he spent five years and then Global Industries 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 450 local 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 – 7 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!”

Scott Mayeux
Master Scuba Diver Trainer - 15 years experience

Scott Mayeux has been a PADI Scuba Instructor for eight (8) years.  Scott is a 1988 graduate of Louisiana State University with a B.S. in Secondary Education.  Scott has served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps for over 20 years including 4 years of active duty immediately following college.  In 2003 as well as 2007, Scott was recalled to active duty where he served in Iraq and as the Reserve Site Commander in Baton Rouge. 

Scott has taught scuba diving at almost every level and lists wreck diving, enriched air diving, night diving, underwater navigation, search and recovery, and boat diving as some of his specialty instructor ratings. 

Scott’s love of history and ship wrecks have taken him on diving expeditions to the world’s premier wreck diving locations including Truk Lagoon in Micronesia as well as Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.  Other great locations on Scott’s diving resume include the Hawaiian Islands, California, the Florida Keys, Cozumel, Bonaire,  Honduras, Okinawa, and North Carolina.  Scott is also an avid spear fisherman with over 300 dives logged on the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scott joined Seal Sports in early 2007 as a staff instructor and plans to devote more time to underwater instruction in 2008 when he retires from the Marine Corps Reserves and returns to his civilian profession as a Pharmaceutical Sales Consultant.  Scott lives in Prairieville with his wife of 18 years, Jacqueline and their five year old daughter, Sara Grace.

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.

Graham Himel
Sales Rep./Master Scuba Diver – 2 years experience

Graham is very enthusiastic and passionate about all aspects of scuba diving. Coming to us as a certified skydiver with over 4-years experience and 300 plus jumps, Graham’s first underwater experience was all it took to convert him to scuba diving.

“For me… when I’m in the water or in the sky nothing else in the world matters except what surrounds me. It’s a chance for me to appreciate the little things in life while also allowing me to be free and live life to its fullest. In the end, it’s not the years of your life that matters, it’s the life of your years!”

Having gone through extensive training from Rob he is now Seal Sports’ top sales representative. He’s certified as an advanced technician for various manufactures, which gives him the equipment knowledge necessary to help customers make educated buying decisions. Currently holding the Rescue Diver Certification along with the Deep Diver, Night Diver, U/W Digital Photography Level 2, National Geographic Diver, Boat Diver, and Enriched Air; Graham is well on his way to becoming a Divemaster. You’ll have an opportunity to meet Graham with a visit to Seal Sports!