Brand Ambassador
OrcaTorch ambassador Gus Gonzalez

Gus Gonzalez

Gus Gonzalez is a CCR Cave Diver, Trimix Diver, and Instructor based in Atlanta.

He is the co-host and producer of the popular DIVE TALK Podcast and YouTube channel, and the creator of the “CAVE DIVER REACTS” series.

As an instructor for IANTD and SSI, Gus is passionate about sharing his love for diving with his students, whether they are starting their journey as a brand new diver,  or they are seasoned divers, and this passion spreads through his podcast and videos.

His favorite dives typically include a powerful DPV (Diver Propulsion Vehicle) and a Cave, or a beautiful deep wreck filled with Lionfish as he’s an avid Lionfish Tracker and loves to help in the efforts to eradicate this invasive species from the Atlantic ocean.  


OrcaTorch ambassador Kurt Storms

Kurt Storms

Kurt Storms is a Belgium Military, underwater cave explorer, and active Technical/rebreather/cave diving instructor for IANTD. He started his diving carreer in Egypt when he was on vacation. And the passion never ended.

Kurt is also founder and CEO of Descent Technical diving. He’s diving on several CCR’s like AP, SF2, Divesoft Liberty SM.

Kurt is also one of the pushdivers that are documentary a new slatmine in Belgium (Laplet).This project was news on Nationale TV.

Most of his dives are mine and cave dives. In his own personal diving, Kurt’s true passions are deep extendend-range cave dives.His wife (caroline) is also a passionated cave diver.

In his free time he explore the Belgium slatemine’s. When he is not exploring, he take’s his camera with him, for documentary the dives.


OrcaTorch ambassador

WOODY ALPERN

SSI Instructor Trainer | Classified Diving Instructor | Platinum Pro 5000 Instructor | Basic Freediver Instructor | Tech Diving Instructor | IANTD Normoxic Closed Circuit Rebreather Instructor | certified CCR cave diver and certified CCR DPV cave diver | Founder of Dive Talk

Scuba diving has been an integral part of his life for as long as he can remember. For almost 45 years, he has been drawn to breathing underwater. The connection to the underwater world is so powerful and healing that even when he is away from it for 24 hours, he is craving his next dive. When he is diving in the ocean in particular (although cave diving has its own magical powers as well), he is often heard referring to its unbelievable powerful energy as Ocean Soul. He loves the connection to nothing but his breath and the marine life world around him.


OrcaTorch ambassador

Mike Young

Mike is a member of the Advance Diver Magazine Exploration team as well as the US Deep Caving Team.

Recently Mike discovered a Mayan vase that dates back 1300 years while exploring and mapping cenotes (caves) in the Yucatan peninsula area. In 2010, Mike was on the J2 expedition, exploring a system in southern Mexico that is 1200 meters deep, and took 2 days of caving just to reach the water.

In 2011, Mike and the deep caving team mapped an underground river system in Puerto Rico that totaled over 23 kilometers in length, making it the world's longest underground river. Some of the area surveyed had never been seen by human eyes before.

Most recently Mike is leading an exploration team into Roaring River State park’s underwater cave system. They have now recorded dives to 472’ deep placing it as the deepest cave in the USA. (Using Orcatorch lights).


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Karen van den Oever

Karen van den Oever is a Cave and Trimix Diver and Instructor based in South Africa. Karen along with her husband (Francois) are owners and founders of "Somewhere Out There Diving". "Somewhere Out There Diving" was created for the purposes of out of the ordinary, expedition and exploration type diving trips.

Karen is very passionate about technical diving and cave diving and in March 2021 set a new Woman’s World Record for the deepest Scuba dive with a depth of 236.04m, in Boesmansgat Cave in South Africa and in October 2022 bettered that record with a depth of 246.56m. Karen has a passion for exploration and also enjoys teaching others and sharing her knowledge and passion for technical diving.


OrcaTorch ambassador Peter Reid

Peter Reid

Peter Reid is a deep Trimix Rebreather diver and Instructor from South Africa. Peter has been diving for over two decades, mostly deep dives in caves, and enjoys exploring and dives that are technically challenging. Peter started diving just out of school and discovered he had a passion for the sport, especially the challenges of mixed gas, decompression, and exploratory dives.

In 2017 he moved on to rebreathers and has been enjoying the freedom of diving these extraordinary machines to extreme depths. Peter was the deep support diver (at over 200m) for both of Karen van den Oever’s World Record dives. He has a wonderful wife and child who support his diving madness through thick and thin.