305.743.7255

Introducing...
THE CREW

Our captains, our crew and our instructors await your arrival. Their combined efforts and experience will ensure that you will have the best time possible while aboard the D/V Leisure Lee & D/V Island Diver.

Tilden Billiter
Tilden has been diving professionally for over 40 years in a variety of related areas that include salvage, commercial, search and rescue, recovery, stunts and special effects in the motion picture industry. For the last 15 years, he has been an "Angel" for the rescue helicopters of the offshore powerboat racing teams of Drambuie on Ice, Restore Marine, Nemschoff Racing, Tommy Bahama, and Zerodefect.
Tilden is a Vietnam Veteran and served our country in the United States Air Force.
Currently, he is an active volunteer with the Marathon Fire and Rescue in our Middle Florida Keys Community.
In his 30 years of teaching scuba classes, Tilden has personally taught over 3000 students to learn to dive or become scuba diving instructors.
Tilden and Sally, his wife of 28 years, opened their first dive shop in 1982 and still enjoy showing the beautiful Florida Keys' coral reef to their guests that book trips from Tilden's Scuba Center.
Tilden has two children, Tilden & Joy-Del, two dogs, Petey & Gina, and two cats, Sandi & Lucki!

Sally Billiter
Sally has been a certified dive master for over 30 years and an instructor for 20 years. She also was certified as a Scuba Ranger instructor for children when this program began. Along with 35 years of experience in the scuba diving and hospitality industry, Sally is your best choice for personalized assistance with arranging your dive trips, accommodations or customized packages.

Scott Fryer
Scott was born, raised and learned to dive on the central coast of California. He received his PADI Instructor Certification in San Diego in 1982, then went to work in the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Fiji and the Cayman Islands. He spent 8 years as a commercial hardhat oilfield diver and has now made the Florida Keys his home for the last several years. He has worked all aspects of the dive business, from the shop to certification classes, dive master, equipment repair and is a certified hydrostatic technician, plus Cressi Sub pneumatic speargun repair technician. Scott is a cylinder visual instructor. He spends most of his days off either spear fishing, fishing or just cruising the wonderful reefs off the Keys. Scott is approaching his 10th year working with Tilden's.

Captain Billy DeSilver, Jr.
Billy's diving experience has included Cape Cod, Southern California and Catalina Island; as well as the Bahamas and throughout the Caribbean. Billy's diving experience and education include: PADI Junior Basic Certification at age 14, PADI Master Instructor in 1997; PADI International College Gold Curriculum Graduate 1986 (OWSI), Staff Member of Aquarius Diving Center 1987 to 2002; Dive Manager for Premier Cruise Lines 1990 to 1992; Owner/Operator of Lil Squirt Dive Charters from 1996 to 2002; Staff Member of Buzzards Bay Dive Center 2003 to 2005; and has held a 25 Ton Masters Coast Guard License since 1995. This is Billy's 5th year working with Tilden's Scuba Center and enjoying showing off the Florida Keys wonderful reef eco-system.

Mike Pullis
Mike moved to the Key's from the Great Lake State of Michigan. He has been with the Tilden's family since 2007. He is a NAUI, SSI, SDI, and TDI instructor. He is currently managing store operations but still loves to teach SCUBA. "There is nothing a few years in the tropics can't fix".

Frank Westerband
Frank grew up in Miami and has always loved the outdoors. While in the Army he was offered a Scuba class, and that is where he got hooked on diving. Even though he has only been diving since 2006 he has enjoyed every moment of it. When he got out of the Army he moved here to Marathon, and is soon getting married. Currently he is going through our Dive Master course, but his aspirations are to become one of our great instructors, and a boat Captain.

Justin Raper
Justin is from North Carolina where he attended East Carolina University and received his NAUI Instructor certification as well as a B.S. in Geology. He found his passion diving off the coast of N.C. and decided to move south for warmer weather. Justin enjoys spear fishing and the clear blue water of the American Caribbean. Since joining Tilden's, Justin has become an SDI Instructor, and an avid Snuba and Snuba-doo Instructor.

Olly Adams
Originally from Southampton, England, Olly learned to dive and begun his career diving around England and Scapa Flow. With 7 years teaching and diving experience in the UK, Egypt, Australia, Puerto Rico and the Midwest, he has many exciting stories to share. When living in the midwest Olly was also a commercial diver, doing anything and everything underwater, including salvage and recovery for the local fire and police departments. Olly is a PADI Master Instructor with over 15 specialties, including Semi closed rebreather. He has been living in the Keys for 2 years, and plans on spending a good amount of time here.

Patrick Daniels
Patrick began freediving in the cold waters of Rhode Island, with his father and brother. He worked for many years in the construction industry, eventually becoming a welder building rock climbing walls, which allowed him to make enough money to go through instructor school. Going from 100 feet up to 100 feet down, he now lives in Marathon, Fl. with his dog Mariko, both enjoying the Florida Keys' sunshine. Patrick holds certifications with PADI, NAUI and SSI as an Instructor and is happy to be following his passion in the dive industry - Livin' the dream!