The Coral Reef
Diving With a Purpose
Diving With a Purpose (DWP) offers a range of immersive, skill-building experiences that combine underwater exploration with meaningful conservation and historical work. These programs are designed to educate, empower, and engage divers of different backgrounds and skill levels in ocean stewardship, maritime archaeology, coral ecosystem restoration, and youth leadership.
Take the Helm
Training the Next Generation
Our unique program structure is designed to convert passion into professional purpose. We focus on boutique experiences with small student-to-instructor ratios to ensure participants receive focused, high-quality training and deep ecological understanding.
Maritime Archaeology Training Program
Diving With a Purpose (DWP) offers a new adventure and a different challenge for veteran divers – maritime archaeology. The field of archaeology received fame with the movie Raiders of Lost Ark and its swashbuckling hero Indiana Jones. But that was mostly glamour! Archaeology is a precise science that requires painstaking patience and precision.
The DWP maritime archaeology course is an intense week-long program that teaches the basics of underwater archaeology, including underwater mapping and trilateration. (Trilateration is the method archaeologists use to map and measure various sections of the wreck.) During the course, you can spend up to 1½ hours surveying a 6’x 6’ section of a site, not moving from that area. The work includes fanning the seafloor to expose the wreck and documenting the site using a ruler, pencil and slate with Mylar paper.
This type of diving is not for everyone. It takes diligence and concentration. However, the work is very rewarding when you know that you are responsible for preserving and cataloging history. As divers, we should always look for ways to increase our knowledge and thirst for the sport through advanced training and specialty diving courses like underwater archaeology.
- A SCUBA setting
- Learning underwater investigative and research techniques
- Discovering and analyzing with other experienced divers
- Diving a wreck site at 15 – 25 feet depth
- Developing skills and techniques employed in underwater cartography
- Gaining trilateration mapping skills
- Contributing to In Situ drawings
- Drafting planimetric site plans
- Certification as a scuba diver from an internationally recognized certification agency
- 30 logged dives minimally, ten (10) of which must be ocean dives and six (6) of which must have been logged in the last year
- Dive accident insurance (i.e. DAN)
- Your own dive gear (minus tank & weights); note you can rent or own your gear
- Thirst for new underwater experiences
- Appropriate thermal wear for 70º water temps
- Peak Buoyancy Skills (verification required if under 50 dives)
- Confidence with long-term bottom time dives (60-90)
- Good verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to make accurate measurements on land and underwater
- Proficiency with the Imperial and Metric measurement system and knowledge on how to convert from one to the other
DWP:
- Program Dates May 31 – June 6, 2026
- Registration Deadline April 1, 2026
DWP
- Registration Fee – $200 (All Participants)
- New DWP Participants (Includes DWP Manual – soft copy)- $1300
- Returning DWP Participants & Instructor Candidates – $750
- Instructors – $300
- PADI C-Card (Optional)- $125
Collective Approach to Restoring Our Ecosystems (CARES)
Our Mission: To research and restore the coral ecosystem and to educate and empower traditionally disenfranchised people and coastal communities using outreach, data collection, and scientific study.
DWP-CARES is working in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuaries (NOAA-FKNMS), Mote marine lab/I.CARE located in Islamorada, Green Island Challenge, Guanaja Honduras. Our program encompasses a long-term
reef monitoring initiative and prepares participants for the following:
● Climate change awareness and climate leadership training
● Comprehensive reef ecology knowledge development
● Key reef species identification skills
● Reef monitoring & survey diving techniques
● Data collection, analytics, reporting & visualization skills
● Restorative coral and sponge outplanting
This program is committed to providing a foundation for participants to be able to identify key coral reef species, communicating to the public the effect of climate change on our coastal and reef ecosystems, facilitating and communicating findings (data) from reef monitoring surveys and developing participants as leaders in conservation.
This year’s DWP-CARES program is focused on building proficiency in the area of ecosystem data collection protocols. Our program will be divided into two sections — a virtual module scheduled periodically over the next 5 months to prepare participants for the subsequent in-water training module that will build on the skills we studied virtually.
- Module 1: Virtual training (6 recorded sessions)
- Module 2: in-water field research
- Restorative ocean healing/outplanting
- Learning about the environmental impact of climate change on the coral ecosystem
- Learning techniques for facilitating reef monitoring surveys & establishing and maintaining a coral nursery
- Learning the techniques for coral nursery maintenance and out-planting
- 40+ contact hours for the duration of the course
- Certification as a scuba diver from an internationally recognized certification agency
- Peak buoyancy certification or affirmation/confirmation from dive instructor
- 25 logged dives at minimum and at least (6) dives within the ocean in the last year
- Confidence with long-term dives (30 to 90 minutes)
- Your own dive gear, including appropriate thermal wear for 70-degree water temps (*note
that you can rent gear near the dive site) - *Essay required for registration of Youth candidates
CARES Trash Derby Key Largo Florida - April 30 - May 6th
Barbados CARES - May 31st to June 7th
Bonaire February 20-27th
Reclamation Panama - June 23rd to July 3rd
YDWP CARES
YDWP-CARES Honduras - July 10-17 2026
Adult CARES Honduras - October 4 - 11th
- Florida Keys Dive Against Debris/Coral outplanting $1100
- Barbados CARES Adult New participant $3600, Returning participants $3300
- Panama Coiba Adult New participant $4750, Returning participants $4350
- Guanaja Honduras New participant $2650, Returning participants $2450
Youth Diving With a Purpose
Youth Diving With A Purpose (YDWP) participants gather at different diving locations and learn underwater archaeology with DWP instructors. This program mirrors the adult program listed above for DWP. But the mission of YDWP goes beyond underwater archaeological education. We will always look for ways to challenge interests and broaden knowledge related to our vast aquatic environment, but we also look for ways to empower our youth.
The youth spend their downtime interviewing, journaling and studying, and they are expected to share their YDWP journey with other youth in their communities once they graduate and return home. This outreach has the potential to reach diverse youth in communities across the country with the expectation of stimulating interest in scuba diving, marine science, history, journalism and technology.
The YDWP program is also committed to empowering minority coastal communities by providing them with opportunities. Many of the youth from these communities do not swim and have taken little advantage of the water-related “wonders” in their backyard. By establishing relationships in these communities, YDWP members, as part of their training, are required to share their experience with schools and community groups. The YDWP participant, who is invaluable in advancing the goals of the program, is encouraged to speak to media outlets in their schools or other approved media outlets, as well as related clubs and activities as deemed appropriate. YDWP participants who demonstrate initiative and commitment to the marine science community are considered for training as a DWP instructor. Ultimately, we hope to inspire local youth to become environmentally conscious and take advantage of the many opportunities at their disposal.
Upon completion of the program, youth trainees become certified Underwater Advocates, hopefully, intrigued by history, respectful of marine life, and buoyed with the interest to become new storytellers of their great experience with the sea.
- A SCUBA setting
- Learning underwater investigative and research techniques
- Discovering and analyzing with other experienced divers
- Diving a wreck site at 15 – 25 feet depth
- Developing skills and techniques employed in underwater cartography
- Gaining trilateration mapping skills
- Contributing to In Situ drawings
- Drafting planimetric site plans
- Certification as a scuba diver from an internationally recognized certification agency
- 30 logged dives minimally, ten (10) of which must be ocean dives and six (6) of which must have been logged in the last year
- Dive accident insurance (i.e. DAN)
- Your own dive gear (minus tank & weights); note you can rent or own your gear
- Thirst for new underwater experiences
- Appropriate thermal wear for 70º water temps
- Peak Buoyancy Skills (verification required if under 50 dives)
- Confidence with long-term bottom time dives (60-90)
- Good verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to make accurate measurements on land and underwater
- Proficiency with the Imperial and Metric measurement system and knowledge on how to convert from one to the other
DWP
- Registration Fee – $200 (All Participants)
- New DWP Participants (Includes DWP Manual – soft copy)- $1300
- Returning DWP Participants & Instructor Candidates – $750
- Instructors – $300
- PADI C-Card (Optional)- $125
Take the Helm
Training the Next Generation
Our unique program structure is designed to convert passion into professional purpose. We focus on boutique experiences with small student-to-instructor ratios to ensure participants receive focused, high-quality training and deep ecological understanding.
PADI/SDI Certification Levels: Mastery is Advocacy
The journey begins with the Open Water Diver certification, your first step into the interconnected world beneath the waves. However, we strongly encourage divers to proceed straight through to Rescue Diver.
It is at the Rescue Diver level that you truly master your personal dive skills, enabling you to look outward with empathy, identify potential problems in others, and proactively assist in preventing unnecessary issues. This mastery is the foundation of becoming a responsible advocate and a good dive buddy.
The Distinctive Specialty: Coral Ecosystem Monitoring
Developed by Kramer Wimberley, this specialized course is our cornerstone. It trains divers not just to look, but to measure, record, and report critical data, turning certified divers into essential field scientists.
Our Lead Trainer: Kramer Wimberley
Kramer Wimberley is the Founder of the DWP-CARES Initiative and a respected leader in global dive education and scientific methodology.
Certified Master Scuba Diver Trainer:
PADI, Scuba Diving International (SDI)
Scientific Trainer:
Reef Check Eco Diver Trainer
Holds a wealth of specialized certifications, emphasizing safety and scientific rigor.
"The goal of diving is not depth, but the understanding of the complex world you enter."