Under the sea

Three hundred and twenty nine dollars. \nFor years, that's all that stood between Mark Brooks and his dream of exploring the underwater wonderland of coral reefs, sea animals and abandoned overgrown shipwrecks. But now, thanks in large part to a life-changing birthday present, Brooks owns and manages Southern Indiana Scuba, 1023 S. Walnut Street, helping others realize the same dream.\nBefore 1989, scuba diving was something Brooks had contemplated, considered and craved, but never something he'd dared to try. He needed to take classes to get an open water certificate and somehow the $329 price tag always held him back. That year, however, Brooks' wife surprised him with something special.\n"It was a birthday gift," Brooks said. "I'd always wanted to get certified and she said, 'Here, go do it.' That's how it all got started."\nFor a man who worked in the computer industry and spent most of his time sitting in an office typing at a bright screen, Brooks was suddenly turned on to a whole new world of underwater landscapes and adventures 80 feet below the surface. He quickly ascended the diving certification ranks, first reaching advanced open water status, then rescue diver and dive master. As a dive master, Brooks began working at SIS, assisting at the store and repairing equipment.\nBrooks continued scuba as a part-time hobby until 1998, when the owner of SIS decided to sell the shop. Brooks faced an exciting possibility: He could give up his job and buy the store, melding his career and his hobby into one. It didn't take long before he reached a decision.\n"At the time, I was in the computer industry and it was a dying industry because there were so many companies and so many people getting laid off," he said. "So, I knew my time with that company was coming to an end and my love of diving was here and exciting. So I talked to my wife and I said 'Let's try it' and she said OK. And we're here seven years later."\nAnd, despite Indiana being a landlocked state without any major bodies of water, Brooks' store appears to be here to stay. He estimates it nets between $5-10,000 a month before expenses. While expenses mount quickly at a specialty store like SIS, including rent ($1,800 a month, plus utilities), liability insurance ($8,000 a year) and replacing inventory ($10-12,000 a year), Brooks said he has never had a problem operating the store in the black. Of course, he said he values the experience his job provides as much as the money it makes. Brooks runs classes through the store that regularly take him to locales like Belize, the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Keys.\n"It's not a problem to stay profitable in a term," Brooks said. "Scuba is not a high-profit industry -- you do it for the love of the sport and the perks. As an example, here I am working in the Grand Canyon -- leading people in the Grand Canyon. Here I am in Belize, leading people in Belize. So there are perks, it's not necessarily dollars that makes it so profitable."\nBrooks' business is split four different ways -- between new divers, those in continuing education classes and courses through IU, those going on the trips Brooks runs and those setting up their own diving excursions. Mostly, though, Brooks said it is a core group of veteran divers, a tightly knit social group, who come back again and again for trips, supplies and conversation. Brooks plays host to gatherings in the store every few months where divers bring food and swap stories, and runs free trips to local diving spots during the summer. The point: Keep people excited about their hobby and make sure those core customers keep coming back. \n"Twenty percent of my business does 80 percent of my business," Brooks said. "But I realize that core 20 percent changes. Somebody has kids, they realize they won't be able to do it as much. So in comes the new guy from college who's excited to do this. I keep about a core 20 of active divers doing things and 80 percent that dive a little bit, hang out there and do some things."\nBrooks recruits new divers through the 'Discover Scuba' program -- a basic introduction to scuba diving. The hour-long course is free for IU students the first Friday of every month at HPER pool 194. That's how Bill Cain, an IU graduate and divemaster in training at SIS discovered his love for the sport.\n"I told (Mark) I couldn't swim very well and he told me he was going to teach me how to scuba dive, not to swim," said Cain, who works part-time at SIS. "... Now I love it. You can't imagine the beauty of the underwater world. Seeing sharks at a coral head as opposed to Shark Week is just night and day."\nOf course, it hasn't always been smooth sailing for SIS. Brooks said the store hit hard times post-9-11 and is still recovering. He reasons that hobbies are the first thing to go when hard times strike financially, and scuba diving is rarely a necessity. \nThe Internet also poses a small threat, though Brooks can't imagine why someone would trust a computer screen with something like a regulator, which could mean life or death down under. \n"It's life support equipment -- do you want to know the person selling it to you?" Brooks said. "When you're at 60 or 80 feet, take the regulator out of your mouth and take a deep breath. Why not? You're going to drown."\nBrooks estimates his store has taken a small hit on people who turn to the web, but those customers usually come back when whatever they ordered breaks. \nMainly, his competition isn't the Internet. It isn't the dive store in Indianapolis and it isn't Wal-Mart or the Dick's Sporting Goods opening at College Mall.\n"It's bowling, sailing, tennis, golf. It's all the rest," Brooks said. "You as a consumer have X amount of dollars to spend on your hobby. If you choose to spend it sailing, then you're not going to spend it on diving. And so my whole thing is I want to keep my people active and excited."\nAnd, for diving enthusiasts, a visit to SIS can mean just that. In addition to the exotic trips Brooks offers, a stroll through SIS is a virtual walk through a smorgasbord of diving necessities and toys. Walking into its front room, with its old-fashioned diver statue, large bay windows, glass cases of scuba gear, fish tank, plants and underwater netting hung from the ceiling, it already echoes of a descent beneath the waves. Inside the small main room, the sales floor is packed with mannequins in wet suits, masks, snorkels, T-shirts, mugs, regulators and computer screens sliding through the hundreds and hundreds of blue-tinted digital pictures Brooks has taken or accumulated beneath the surface. \nFor Cheryl Snooks, a visit to the store and a training session with Brooks turned her on to scuba. In the three years since she's been certified, Snooks has wrangled a shark ("The more docile ones -- you rub their belly just like a dog"), pet a sting ray ("It felt like velvet gliding over you") and witnessed a rare bright orange, 10-inch seahorse ("That picture I will hold in my mind forever"). She's also amassed three wet suits, two sets of boots and a slew of extras which have, all in all, cost about $4,000. \n"We were very impressed with the friendliness and the family (at SIS), we liked the atmosphere," she said. "And, just after that first trip with them and certification, I felt at home there and continued further studies with them. Scuba diving is what I truly love to do. When I go on vacation, I laughed and told my friend the other day, if I can't go stick my head in the water, I find myself not wanting to go."\nSnooks credits Brooks' teaching with helping her to develop as a diver and his store with helping her build a large repertoire of diving gear. She's not the only one -- the Professional Association of Diving Instructors gives SIS its top rating and walls at SIS are plastered with framed certificates from the organization recognizing Brooks for his teaching skills. \nBetween those, the trips and the stores, that's been enough to keep a stand-alone scuba store in business -- even in landlocked Indiana. \n"It sounds weird, but Indiana is a great place to be from as a diver," Brooks said. "We have ATA and we have the airport in Indianapolis, so it's a nice easy way to get on trips. People have heard about the Caribbean, they've heard about the ocean and now they want to go see it. It's very exciting. To me, I still love teaching open water class where people go 'I can swim, but I don't know anything else,' and then at the end of the class I give them their card and I'm going congratulations, now you can go do all of this and see them get excited about it."\nFor more information, visit www.southernindianascuba.com.\n-- Contact managing editor Gavin Lesnick at glesnick@indiana.edu.