The Sea Specialist: An Interview With Bret Gilliam

Most people learn to crawl before they walk, but there is a man who learned to swim before taking his first steps. Diver, entrepreneur, writer, athlete, maritime specialist – Bret Gilliam is the complete package. Just add water.

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Captain Bret Gilliam is a master of many trades. With a career spanning almost five decades in all the different areas of professional diving, water sports, maritime and shipping, underwater filming, and emergency hyperbaric medical operations. He is considered to be one of the pioneers in diving, and led the industry’s evolution and growth from 1971 into the new millennium. Bret is one America’s most experienced deep divers and holds the world depth record for compressed air diving at 149 metres, set in 1993. Since beginning diving in 1959, Bret has logged over 19,000 dives around the world. His background includes scientific expeditions, military and commercial projects, operating hyperbaric diving treatment medical facilities, liveaboard dive vessels and luxury yachts, retail dive stores and Caribbean resort operation and ownership.