Newport Diving Center

Tom O'Brien - Owner / PADI AI

Tom has been diving Since 1973.
Tom is a Retired Navy Seabee and had dove all over the world, included in his diving credits are, The South Pole, Italy, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Okinawa, Red Sea and many more. Tom was a rescue diver for the Tipton County Volunteer Rescue team in Tennessee. He enjoys night diving the most and loves to hunt lobster and clams. He also has a nice shell collection that he collected himself from the many places he has dove, including right here in Rhode Island.

John Cosgrove (COS) - Staff / PADI OWSI

John was first certified in 1978 as a NASDS (National Association of Scuba Diving Schools) diver. He dove during his early college career. After a long hiatus, John returned to diving in 2004. In 2006, he began working on advancing his skills, taking PADI courses and earning his Divemaster certification in Oct 2008. His specialty certifications include Nitrox and Night Diving.
He dove on the Onodaga, the Olinda, the Heroine, the Idene and the Block Island Pinnacle, locally. He has dove on the Lady of the Lake, Empty Pockets, the Navy Experimental Laser range in Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. He dove with the seals at the Isle of Shoals in ME.
John also dives for Save The Bay as a volunteer, supporting eel grass harvesting and transplanting efforts (6 to 9 times a season) since 2005.
John Cosgrove received Save The Bays Esther B. Small Volunteer of the Year Award 2009

Tom Howarth - Staff / PADI Dive Master

Tom has been scuba diving since 1986 after spending significant time during his youth snorkeling while living in Puerto Rico. He was originally certified in Newport with NASDS for Open Water and Advanced Open Water. In 2004, Tom began diving with the Newport Diving Center as his three sons became PADI Open Water certified and each are now PADI Master Scuba Divers. Tom has continued with his scuba education which includes PADI Master Scuba Diver in 2005 and PADI Dive Master in 2006. Since 2004, he has been completing a hundred dives a year as Tom has been trying to dive all US states, Canada and the seas (and wrecks!) of the world. To date this list includes RI and FL primarily but also logged dives in ME, VT, NH, NY, MA, CT, NJ, PA, MI, OH, IN, KY, TN, AL, WV, VA, NC, SC, TX, CA, OR, HI, AK, Puerto Rico, Vieques, St. Thomas, Canada (ON, BC), Italy (Praiano), Greece (Crete), Grand Turk. In 2007, Tom met fellow Dive Master Christa and together they have been extending their dive adventures and scuba training to include cave diving through NSS-CDS and Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures through IANTD/TDI.

Christa Howarth - Staff / PADI Dive Master

Christa learned to dive in Whittier, AK in 1995. She’s been diving in Alaska (Seward, Whittier, Dutch Harbor, Juneau) and has continued to travel for more varied dives. She’s been diving in a variety of countries and states including; HI-almost all islands; Great Barrier Reef-Australia, Papua New Guinea, CA, ME, Palau, Grenada, Bahamas, RI, Ontario, NY, VT, MA, WV, OH, IN, KY, TN, AL, FL, VA, SC, NC, CT, PA, and OR. After almost 20 years of living in Alaska, she moved to meet Dive Master Tom Howarth in Rhode Island where they have been exploring diving together since 2007.
Her certification history is mostly PADI courses through the level of Dive Master. She’s taken GUE Fundamentals, TDI Gas Blender, and NSS-CDS Apprentice Cave Diver courses. In June, she’ll complete NSS-CDS Full Cave Diver, TDI Decompression and TDI Advanced Nitrox certifications. She enjoys underwater photography and identifying the creatures seen. Her diving goals are to have fun and try to do more dives than last year.

Kristy Zera - Staff / PADI Open Water

This is Kristys second tour at The Newport Diving Center. She has been Scuba Diving for 3 years now and she is hoping to do a semester in Australia when she returns to college in the fall. Kristy is a welcome addition to The Newport Diving Center as when we are not busy she is reading and learning about all the different equipment to be able to answer your questions.

The Mark-5 Helmet

The Gang 2006 - Photo by Gene Page

The Gang 2004 - Photo by Mike Duff