About us
Dive more. Dive well.
After many dives, many destinations and a whale’s appetite for all things underwater, we started Aquanaut India in 2014. Aquanaut India is a way of sharing our personal journey of underwater discovery with you.
Our vision is simple. It is to get everyone to fall in love with the ocean, all 70% of it. Our mission is to enrich the experience of SCUBA diving in every way possible so more people can experience a new world, underwater.
In addition to retailing some high quality scuba, snorkelling and swimming gear to the diving community (professional as well as recreational) in India, we also conduct introductory and complete SCUBA certification courses and offer curated diving holidays across the globe. We follow PADI (Globally recognised SCUBA organisation) certifications, and have on board extremely qualified and experienced dive instructors.
Now that you know exactly what we do and why we do it, feel free to call on us for anything from dive gear, dive holidays, dive training, an aqua fix or even a conversation. We’ll be delighted to be of help, that’s if we aren’t lost somewhere, 30 feet underwater.
Abhishek Sukumaran
An ex-Advertising professional, Abhishek discovered his true calling when he discovered SCUBA diving 8 years back. And he hasn’t looked back since. A PADI certified Dive Master, he has dived across the world from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Galapagos, Maldives, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and of course his all time favourite diving destination - Andamans, India. Aquanaut India is the outcome of his desire to share his passion for SCUBA diving and grow the sport in a meaningful manner across the Indian subcontinent. He brings to the team technical and product expertise, and also drives the day to day management of the company.
Ashima Chander
Ashima is co-founder of Aquanaut India and drives the overall business strategy and financial management for the company. She has over 13 years of experience in communication & marketing strategy across some of the best Advertising agencies in India. Prior to Aquanaut, she was a part of the strategy group of a team that drives Data Analytics for Hewlett Packard.
Karthik Iyer
A PADI Master SCUBA Diver Trainer and SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor. He has over 1500 dives, over 500 dive certifications under his belt and has explored dive sites across the world. With his dive experience, we can bet - you name the dive site and Karthik would have surely dived it at some point. Before his collaboration with Aquanaut India, Karthik was a Dive Instructor with DIVE India - Havelock Island, Andaman for over 5 years.
PADI Master SCUBA Instructor. Specialities: PPB | Project AWARE | Deep | Wreck | Enriched Air | EFR primary Care | Search & Recovery
Neha Contractor
Having quit a very lucrative dream job at Apple as Marketing and Advertising Lead for India, she decided to turn her passion into a platform to create unique diving experiences. When she is not teaching diving or somewhere under the ocean making friends with sharks and nudibranchs, you’ll find her in some forest near a river still exploring the waters. She has travelled extensively across the world, including to the North and South Pole, exploring life. She draws upon all her experiences from travel, theatre and life to make your dive adventure as memorable as possible.
A PADI Master SCUBA Diver Trainer + trained to teach Nine Specialities that include:
Deep (upto 40m) | Enriched Air (Nitrox) | Wreck | Peak Performance Buoyancy| Digital Underwater Photography | Project AWARE Coral Reef Conservation| Project AWARE Shark Conservation Diver | DPV | EFR primary care (CPR) & Secondary Care w/ AED