The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team is a voluntary unit currently consisting of 4 members. All Dive Team Members hold nationally recognized diving certifications with a minimum of Advanced Open Water Diver to Dive Master. In order to better assist our community the Dive Team is an aggressive and pro-active unit continually researching and implementing new recovery and rescue procedures.

The current Dive Team Members are:

There will be tryouts for the remaining 3 positions open on the team later this year. In order to make the team a member must be a certified diver and has to pass a physical test including a 400 yard timed swim, 800 yard mask and fin timed swim, tread water for 15 minutes and find small objects on the water floor without using vision.

The Dive Team meets once a month for a 12 hour training session. During our training sessions we train for all of the contingencies listed above along with many classroom hours discussing the waterborne tactics. The Dive Team is mobile though land, air and sea and trains for entering the water from shore side, boat side and helicopters. There are constant certifications that we continually have to update our physical and mental skills to remain a state of the art team. If you see us in your canals please give us our space and allow us to continue our mission, we will be happy to discuss diving after we are done!

We love having opportunities to show off our equipment, abilities and some stories. If you have an event and would like to have one of our members speak about our exciting line of duty please contact the Sheriff’s Office at (941) 639-2101 and request to speak with Lieutenant Norman Wilson Jr. Lt. Wilson will be happy to schedule your event and the team will contact you for any further information about your event and how we can help make it successful.