Meet Aida "Idee" Belau

Seaduction.com's newest contributor explores the social side of dive training.

Aida "Idee" Belau

Seaduction’s resident video journalist has an impressive dive resume and one of the most interesting day jobs of all our contributors. She was recently appointed to the position of Chief Operation Officer for Out There Expeditions, an innovative firm that helps fund scientific expeditions while also providing opportunities for qualified non-scientists to join in the adventure. We’re not talking about run of the mill vacations here, folks, we’re talking about the kind of projects that end up in the pages of National Geographic and on Discovery Channel. For example: One of the projects on the company’s radar for 2012 is a dive expedition to Mexico to survey the possible site of WWII submarine USS Dorado. (Editor’s note: Explorer Alan Crews wrote about his long-running search for the missing sub in an earlier article for Seaduction.com. Read it here.)

Idee’s “Alive 2 Dive” video series offers sound instructional advice and a healthy dose of the dive lifestyle. They are a labor of love and grounded in her experience as a diver and dive guide, most recently with Diving Solutions in West Palm Beach, Fla.

She made her first dives during a trip to the Bahamas in her mid-twenties, and became fascinated with the undersea world. Now an expedition diver and dive emergency specialist, her interests lie in underwater archaeology, primarily the discovery and preservation of our underwater cultural heritage sites and artifacts. During her time as a charter dive guide, Idee mapped the extensive reef system along West Palm Beach, as well as various shipwrecks. We got to know her during a September 2010 archeological survey of Warm Mineral Springs, a Florida karst system thought to hold numerous Paleo-Indian artifacts and the fossilized remains of extinct animals.

Idee is conversant in four languages and studied Political Science at the University of North Dakota. She now studies Anthropology at the University of Central Florida, with a focus on Archaeology of the Caribbean region, and travels extensively throughout the Caribbean.

Memberships & Associations

• The Explorers Club
• Florida Oceanographic Society
• Archaeological Institute of America
• Oceans for Youth Presenter
• Association for Configuration and Data Management

Passions

• Caving
• Photography
• Field Science
• Non-fiction Writing
• Wilderness Survival
• Expedition Scuba Diving

For more information about Idee and her many dive interests, visit her blog at www.alive2dive.org. Or you can e-mail her at alive2dive@yahoo.com. 

Note: The Alive 2 Dive video segments are an entertainment series and are not intended to replace formal scuba diving instruction from licensed instructors. Idee encourages viewers to always seek out scuba diving instruction from licensed professionals.