James Comfort brings extensive professional, recreational, and technical diving experience to Beyond the Buoy Diving.
James began his professional diving journey in 2016 with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Underwater Recovery Team, where he trained and gained experience conducting underwater recovery and investigative operations.
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His work included underwater crime-scene investigations and searches to recover victims, weapons, vehicles, and other evidence. He also participated in specialized searches for underwater explosive devices, frequently working alongside other state and federal agencies. These experiences exposed James to diving in challenging environments where preparation, communication, situational awareness, teamwork, and disciplined adherence to procedures are critical.
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As his diving experience progressed, James continued pursuing advanced training and expanding his skills across a wide range of diving environments. He is currently certified as a Trimix Diver and Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR) Diver, continuing his development in advanced and technical diving. James particularly enjoys deep wreck diving, combining his passion for exploration, history, and technical diving with the unique challenges of deeper environments. His diving interests extend well beyond technical and wreck diving. He frequently participates in blackwater fossil diving in the Cooper River and enjoys offshore spearfishing along the South Carolina coast. These diverse experiences have given him exposure to dramatically different environments, conditions, and diving challenges.
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James believes there is a significant difference between simply learning the skills required to earn a certification and understanding how those skills apply in the real world. His experience has taught him the importance of recognizing changing conditions, managing risk, making sound decisions, and understanding personal limitations. He believes experience should be shared—not simply claimed. His goal is to bring the lessons learned through years of professional, recreational, and technical diving into every course he teaches. James also believes that the best instructors remain students themselves. Diving is a lifelong education, and he remains committed to continuing his training, expanding his experience, and maintaining the highest standards of diving practice.
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For James, diving is more than a recreational activity. It is a discipline, an opportunity to explore places few people ever experience, and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge, skill, and discovery.
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Beyond the Buoy Diving is built around that philosophy: train beyond the minimum, dive with purpose, and never stop learning.
James
Comfort
BTB Founder,
Lead Instructor
Brooks Harvey
Instructor
Brooks Harvey brings over two decades of in-water experience and a strong background in public service and equipment maintenance to the BTB team.
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His path in diving spans more than twenty years, culminating in earning his instructor credential in 2025. Teaching provides him with a platform to share that extensive background, guiding new and advancing divers as they build confidence, refine their skills, and discover what has drawn him back to the water for over two decades.
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His background includes several years as a deputy sheriff, where he developed a pragmatic, hands-on approach to problem-solving and public service. This experience reinforced the value of thorough preparation, equipment reliability, and meticulous attention to detail-principles that apply directly to safe and effective diving.
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Known as a practical problem-solver who enjoys working through technical challenges, he brings a grounded, detail-oriented perspective to both instruction and gear management. In addition to teaching, he owns and operates Blue Line Fills, providing vital equipment support to the local diving community through scuba tank fills, visual inspections, regulator servicing, and hydrostatic testing management.
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He believes that a certification represents a baseline for growth rather than a final destination. Real-world diving requires translating fundamental skills into practical competence underwater, maintaining gear with care, and continually building upon existing knowledge.
He also maintains that diving offers an ongoing opportunity for learning, regardless of experience level. Even after two decades in the sport, he remains dedicated to expanding his understanding, refining his technical approach, and bringing that practical knowledge into every class and service interaction.
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For Brooks, diving is both a technical discipline and a lasting passion- one rooted in thorough preparation, reliable equipment, and helping others safely explore the underwater world.
Rusty Myers
Instructor
Rusty Myers brings decades of operational, public safety, and technical diving experience to Blue Line Scuba and Beyond the Buoy Diving.
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His professional diving journey began in public safety and law enforcement, where he served for approximately seven years as the Commander of the Charleston Police Department Dive Team. During his time leading the team, he conducted and oversaw complex underwater recovery, swiftwater rescue, and public safety operations.
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These high-stakes experiences reinforced foundational principles that extend directly into all forms of diving: thorough preparation, clear communication, unyielding situational awareness, and an unwavering commitment to looking after team members in high-risk environments.
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Over his career, he has accumulated more than 50 certifications across SDI, TDI, and ERDI, earning both SDI and ERDI Instructor credentials and achieving the designation of SDI Elite Instructor. Since founding Blue Line Scuba in 2015, he has dedicated himself to training divers at all levels, helping students build technical competence, confidence, and sound judgment underwater. He also provides advanced diving instruction as part of the team at Beyond the Buoy.
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Beyond his diving career, he brings over three decades of law enforcement experience to his instruction. He currently serves as Deputy Chief of Police at a state university, where he teaches leadership, ethics, and active aggressor response. He is also an author, having written Tattered: When the Blue Line Frays, a memoir on survival and leadership, and Confession of Justus, a historical fiction novel. For him, whether teaching in a classroom, writing a book, or instructing in the water, the goal remains the same: sharing hard-earned lessons so others can succeed safely.
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He believes that earning a certification is merely the beginning of a diver's development rather than the end. Real-world diving requires understanding how core skills translate under changing conditions, managing inherent risks, and respecting personal limitations.
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He also maintains that the best instructors remain dedicated students themselves. Diving is a continuous pursuit, and he remains committed to expanding his own knowledge, refining his skills, and holding both himself and his students to the highest standards.
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Off the water, Rusty is a husband and father of two grown children who views diving not just as a passion, but as a discipline, a platform for mentorship, and a lifelong pursuit of learning.
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Olivia Vernon
DivemasterÂ
For Olivia Vernon, scuba diving quickly developed into more than a hobby; it became a way to escape the noise and demands of everyday life and reconnect with something completely different beneath the surface. What started as a getaway from the craziness of the modern world quickly developed into a passion for exploration, learning, and becoming a better diver.
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Olivia progressed rapidly through her training, continually challenging herself to expand her knowledge, skills, and experience. Her diving journey has taken her into international waters, exploring a variety of underwater environments and destinations while developing a particular passion for wreck diving. She enjoys the history, mystery, and exploration that comes with diving beneath the surface of a shipwreck and experiencing a piece of its story firsthand.
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Her commitment to diving ultimately led her through advanced training and to the Divemaster level, giving her the knowledge, experience, and leadership skills to help others discover the same sense of adventure and escape that first drew her underwater.
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While Olivia has a special appreciation for exploring wrecks, her favorite way to dive is in warm, tropical waters, surrounded by clear blue water, vibrant reefs, marine life, and the opportunity to explore what lies beneath the surface.
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For Olivia, diving is about more than simply going underwater. It is about continuous learning, exploration, and finding that rare place where the outside world disappears and the focus becomes the dive, the environment, and the next breath.
