With over 15 years of experience in technical and cave diving, JC is a highly accomplished diver whose career spans some of the most challenging and iconic underwater environments on Earth.

He didn’t grow up dreaming of a diving career. He grew up in a small town in central France, knowing one thing: the classroom wasn’t where he learned best. Real life was. So, he left. First to Ireland to learn English, then to Mexico to learn Spanish, working restaurant shifts and hotel desks with no long-term plan other than seeing what the world might offer next.

That offer came quietly on a single discovery dive in Casa Cenote. What hooked him wasn’t just the water. It was what lay just beyond reach: dark tunnels, silent passageways. Places clearly not meant for casual visitors. Instead of rushing in, he did the opposite. He worked more. Saved more. Learned more. He trained as a Divemaster without pay while keeping his day job, then fully committed to cave diving once he understood what real training demanded.

From there, the map gets bigger and bigger.

France. Sardinia. Mallorca. Mexico. The Bahamas. Cuba. Thousands of dives, not collected for bragging rights, but earned through projects, expeditions, guiding, teaching, and long days solving real problems underwater.

Along the way, JC became what Divers League values most: a diver who understands systems, not just skills.

Then COVID hit.
The dive center he built, Zen Diving, collapsed overnight. The shop closed. The staff dispersed. The car was sold. For a while, he worked at a food truck just to survive. No inspirational quotes. Just reality.

What came next is the part that matters. Instead of quitting, he rebuilt. One job at a time. One season at a time. Shark diving. Cold water. CCR training funded dive by dive.

That rebuilding phase opened the door to a new chapter. He dove with great white sharks in Guadalupe. Worked on remote operations in Socorro. Spent seasons guiding in Iceland’s near-freezing water. Later, as Cruise Director and Operations Manager in Bikini Atoll and Truk Lagoon, he developed deep, hands-on knowledge of historic WWII wrecks, including extensive dives on the USS Saratoga.

These weren’t tourist dives. They were logistical, technical, and unforgiving environments where mistakes don’t get edited out later. From there, the path continued to the Philippines and beyond, expanding into deeper caves, legendary wrecks, and long-term expedition work.

Eventually, that journey led to something bigger than a single operation: Axolot Diving Expeditions, a platform for serious divers who wanted more than packaged experiences.

Today, as part of Divers League, JC represents exactly what this community stands for. Not shortcuts. Not inflated resumes. Not safe stories. But earned confidence, hard lessons, and the willingness to keep learning long after the basics feel comfortable.

Discover more about JC

InstagramWebsite
Axolot Diving Expeditions