OEX Dive and Kayak in La Jolla has been offering the best in scuba, snorkel, and kayak services since 1995. We’ve been fortunate to have some of the best guides and personnel in the business, people who could be making a lot more money working further inland. But we’re rich in many other ways and we recognize that we’re lucky to have the chance to show locals and visitors alike the uniqueness that La Jolla has to offer.

Our guides have more certifications and credentials than we have space here to mention and we take our duties seriously. But it’s important for us to have as much fun as our guests so we figured we’d take some liberties and share with you who you might expect to come across when visiting our shop in La Jolla Shores. We look forward to seeing you at OEX La Jolla. Enjoy!

John Metzger: John went from spaz in his first pool session in 1994 to PADI IDC Staff Instructor in just a few short years.  He went from hovering upside down in the water on accident to hovering upside down on purpose.  He’s certified hundreds of divers since and has made it his quest to find a student who started out as uncoordinated as him.  Good luck, John, there’s one out there.  John played soccer at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA where he met his wife Lissa and has a daughter, Sienna, a son, Joey, who he thinks may be part monkey.

Chris Shordon: Chris has been with OEX La Jolla since we opened our doors in 1995 and all we had to sit on was milk crates.  We still sit on milk crates but Chris has since become an ANDI EAN blender and a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer.  Chris claims to have pet a gray whale once in La Jolla Cove but that was on a solo dive.  Humor him and tell him how great that must have been.

Eric Rouser: Eric got certified at OEX while playing offensive line and tight end at San Diego State.  A great player, he stopped playing because the helmet kept messing up his hair.  Now that's been corrected, he runs daily operations at OEX La Jolla and makes sure that Team OEX has more success than the Aztecs did while he was playing.  Eric claims to have a girlfriend but nobody has ever seen her.

Mike Samer: Mike played soccer at the University of Vermont and brings his competitive nature and hard work to OEX every day. After finishing his Master’s degree in Sydney, Mike came home and we quickly brought him on board to help maximize our sales and marketing goals. He has been innovative and creative while driving our brands success throughout. Mike claims to be a waterman, but also told us he boxed kangaroos to pay his way in Australia.

Raymond James:Yet another collegiate athlete at OEX, Raymond’s coordination skills and leadership are pivotal to our success. Raymond controls our promotional merchandising campaigns and helps with all marketing campaigns. Raymond is famous for winning Best Beach Legs in San Diego 2009.

Sonja Wilson: Nobody's quite sure where Sonja came from.  Tales have been told of her appearing at OEX in a cloud of sparkles and fog one day.  Sonja is the lightest person to ever load an entire truck full of rental kayaks, bring them to the beach, and not cry.  She's on the water most days conducting kayak tours and when she's not paddling, she's trying to figure out why our computers aren't working.  When you come to OEX, check out the paintings of the marine life she's done around the shop.  True hippie genius!

Dylan Holland: Dylan, 17 years old, is OEX's youngest team player.  He thought he was going to have a summer break hanging out in La Jolla, goofing around, talking with girls and surfing all day.  His dad had other plans.  "Work this kid until he comes home and wants to sleep."  Done.  So when you visit us in La Jolla, help us think of some good, hard, honest work for young Dylan.  His back is strong.

Chase Schaeffer: Resident equipment tech and gear head, Chase likes to hole up in the back tool room with the compressor running and the radio on full blast.  He can fix just about any piece of gear and watching him work reminds us of Forest Gump reassembling his rifle in record time.  Chase is a PADI MSDT Instructor with more specialties and credentials than anybody reading this really cares about.

Alexi "Stay Sexy" Shakas: Originally from Nicosia, Cyprus (Greece).  Alexi is a grad student at UCSD and a popular scuba instructor and kayak guide.  Don't let his creepy voicemail message fool you, he's quite harmless.

Karma Crampton: Karma is a Divemaster whose only problem diving is her leaky mask because she smiles the whole dive so her mask won’t seal.  It’s a little creepy but contagious.  Karma will make you smile even if she has to punch you in the neck.  Her husband, Travis, is always tired trying to keep up with Karma.

Iren "Madre” Miklos: The Mother of OEX Bookkeeping, Iren has been around watching over us like a deity since our inception in 1995.  Her husband is one of the head engineers at Scubapro so she knows how to pick ‘em.  Iren makes sure our noses are clean and our books are neat, and if they’re not, it’s a whipping with a wet noodle.

Lissa Metzger and Staci Torgeson: Johnny, excuse me, John, wrote something incredibly funny for our bio as the marketing and publicity team for OEX and more importantly, wives to John and Brent and most importantly, mother's to the future owners of OEX, Sienna, Joey, Riley and Kendall.  We were about to copy it in here word for word and then we remembered, hey, those guys don't know how to make updates on their website, so we can say whatever we want, then we realized that what he wrote is quite true, so here is our favorite part: "Yes, they married John & Brent and we know what you’re thinking, 'Whoa! What’s wrong with them?  They look smarter than that!'  But it really boils down to patience.  Lots of patients.  Really mounds and mounds of patience.  So much patience.  And booze."