My name is Ross McPhee, I am a PADI Divemaster, AMSA Coxswain, TQS Service Technician and Bauer Compressor technician.
A few years ago I was doing my Divemaster in Exmouth, WA and noticed that there was a distinct lack of availability to get scuba gear worked on. After a bit of asking around it became apparent just how little availability there was for this, some dive shops may have had someone on hand to service their rental gear not all of these staff were fully qualified, experienced but not qualified. Doing the job out of necessity and not necessarily out of a love for the intricacies of not just how something worked, but why.
Upon the completion of my Divemaster, I had booked myself onto a technicians course in Sydney with First Stage Service and Training to learn as much as I could about the hows, whys and whats of regulators and their workings. How to diagnose various faults, how to properly disassemble, reassemble and most importantly tune the equipment back to correct manufacturer specifications. During the service course I was lucky enough that I impressed the owner and was offered a place of employment and was able to continue my learning during my time there as Hydrostatic technician and Service Technician.
Over the years since my time with First Stage I have continued to learn more about varieties of regulators and the different styles and designs that various manufacturers have come up with through service seminars offered by each manufacturer now enabling me to service a large range of the major brands being
Scubapro
Halcyon
Cressi
Mares
Aqualung
Apeks
Oceanic
Atomic
Hollis
Zeagle
Bauer Compressors
Most recently I have been the head scuba servicing technician at Manta Lodge Scuba Centre on the amazing North Stradbroke Island, Brisbane for the last few seasons of servicing, diving and occasionally skippering. This has given me an amazing amount of opportunity to continue learning and improving my skills up to the present day.
Remote Area Scuba Services was the original business I created which was to be a mobile service station that is able to go to any host dive centre and service their rental equipment, staff gear and test their cylinders on site. A number of scuba diving centres that I have spoken to over the past years of planning have to send their equipment away to be tested, cleaned and serviced. This adds expense through the obvious testing/servicing costs, but also through the freight required to get that equipment to the facility doing the work but also through the downtime that they may have due to the lack of equipment during that time. By offering mobile servicing and testing we can help these dive centres by negating some of these operating costs, hopefully enabling them to continue showing this amazing underwater world we all love to the next set of happy, safe divers.
QLD Scuba Services was created as your local workshop designed to be a home base and a safe haven for scuba gear and scuba divers alike. I love Brisbane and the Gold Coast, what better way to be involved in my local diving community.
Ross McPhee