Dr. A. Jose' Jones' childhood fascination with the ocean and marine
animals was realized when he volunteered for a combat swimming course while in the
military at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Thus began a lifelong association with scuba diving
and oceanography. After continuing this diving in Oakland, California, Jones, now a
decorated combat veteran, returned to his native Washington, DC to attend college.
The Atlantic Skin Diving Council in which Jose' was an instructor included no black dive
clubs and few, if any, black divers. Jose' realized that if he did not organize a club and
train blacks to dive, probably no one would. During his senior year as an undergraduate,
Jose' formed the Underwater Adventure Seekers Scuba Diving Club (UAS). This was the
beginning of the club’s illustrious history. USA soon became the club to beat in
scuba rodeos and spearfishing tournaments. The club took first place in its first scuba
rodeo, and they dominated the competition for nearly a decade until the competitions were
discontinued.
While in the Atlantic Skin Diving Council, Jose' served as senior vice-president, senior
training officer, spearfishing chairperson, rodeo chairperson, and chief instructor for
the Council's Instructor course. In scuba competition, Jose' has made a name for himself
by twice winning the Mid-Atlantic Scuba Diving Championship as well as the Middle Atlantic
Spearfishing Championship. In his first championship win, he was not only the sole black
competitor, but he was also the only spearfisherman to dive without a tank. Jose' beat
them all!
He continues to compete and place in spearfishing competitions today. Jose' holds a PhD in
marine biology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He studied marine
invertebrate biology as a National Science Foundation Fellow at the Duke University Marine
Station in North Carolina. He also studied marine science for nearly two years at the
University of Queensland, Australia as a Fulbright Scholar. He spent many days on the
Great Barrier Reef studying, diving, and photographing marine life.
Jose' has written many publications in his field and holds over a dozen copyrights on his
underwater slide and video series. He has produced several underwater videos, including
one entitled "Dive and Tour Morocco" which was shown at the Paris Scuba Show.
Dr. Jones is a pioneer in sports diving. Because of their similarities in experiences and
training in the military, oceanographic research, exploration, underwater photography and
videography, scuba diving, and education, Dr. Jones is often referred to as The Black
Jacques Cousteau. He, like many other men, has applied the skills he acquired in the
military to civilian life and taught others. He holds three instructor’s
certificates: The Atlantic Skin Diving Council, CMAS, and PADI. He has been a PADI
Instructor for twenty years, and his personal training includes military, British Subaqua
(in Australia), CMAS, and PADI. He has logged over 5000 dives worldwide and certified over
2000 divers from Africa to Australia without charging a cent. Many of the hundreds of
students certified by Dr. Jones have traveled the world with him to dive.
In addition to his scuba interests, Dr. Jones is a sixth degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do
and the former U.S. Heavyweight Tae Kwon Do champion. The club he founded and trains, the
Wheel Kickers Tae Kwon Do Club, was featured in "Ripley’s Believe It or
Not" as The Winningest Martial Arts Club in America. Jose' is an avid skier, tumbler,
and sky diver. He has been featured in every major martial arts magazine in the United
States, in Ebony and Ebony Man, in Underwater USA, among other publications, and twice in
The Washington Post. It was the articles in Ebony, Ebony Man, Underseas Journal and
Underwater USA that alerted other black divers to the presence of the Underwater Adventure
Seekers and Dr. Jones. After receiving over a hundred letters and phone calls, Dr. Jones
decided that the time was ripe to organize black divers nationally. Through his efforts
and those of his friend, Ric Powell, in Miami, the National Association of Black Scuba
Divers (NABS) became a reality in January of 1991.