Scuba-diving enthusiasts help others take the plunge

With scuba shops in Kalispell and Helena, Glen and Karen McKinnon are spreading their love of the underwater world throughout Montana.

And here in the Flathead Valley, the couple’s Flathead Scuba shop, located in the Business Center Loop between Kalispell and Whitefish, is helping to certify as many divers as they can in an area that used to be served by as many as three such shops.

After owning their shop in Helena since 2006, the McKinnons jumped at the opportunity to keep the only remaining scuba store in the Flathead open when its owners were looking to sell the business in 2018.

“We came over to look at the shop and decided it would be just another adventure for us, so why not take it on?” Glen recalled. “We enjoy diving so much that we wanted to make sure there continued to be a diving shop around Kalispell for those divers who live in the area.”

Born in Eastern Montana, where he says the only water to be found is the water you bring with you, Glen became a certified diver in 2000 during a vacation to Tahiti. Surrounded by the same beautiful terrain that greeted Clark Gable during the filming of “Mutiny on the Bounty” in 1935 and Marlon Brando when the movie was remade in 1962, Glen took to the water quickly and has enjoyed it ever since.

“I never would have thought that I would enjoy scuba diving,” Glen said with a laugh. “We were looking for somewhere to visit and spun the globe and picked Tahiti. Karen suggested that I should learn how to scuba dive and the rest is history.”

Glen’s love for the sport grew so quickly that he called up his fellow divers to get in as many dives as he could after his Tahiti trip, including one dive in late December of 2000, just three days before all of the area lakes froze for the season.

“It was amazing. By the end of the year, I had 250 dives. It’s just peaceful under the water and I loved it. Once you leave the surface, all your problems seem to go away,” he said.

Glen finally became an instructor in 2004 and is now a master scuba diver trainer and has more than 4,000 dives.

For Karen, it took an additional three years to overcome her fear of the water to earn her dive certification on a trip to Grand Cayman in 2003, but it wasn’t until after she took a photography class in Bonaire that she really became enamored with the underwater world. Now, with thousands of dives and photos behind her, she said she really enjoys the diving world.

“You bring something back with you from every place that you dive, but I really enjoyed photographing the critters in Indonesia the most,” she said. “There are animals there that you can’t see anywhere else.”

While the couple has enjoyed leading divers on trips to exotic locations all over the world, including Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, Indonesia, the Maldives, India, the Caribbean and more, they say there are plenty of great places to do some underwater exploration right here in Montana. Glen said he has enjoyed dives in Lake McDonald and the Hungry Horse Reservoir, as well as several locations in Flathead Lake. He says he has done dives off Bird Island, Wild Horse Island, Finley Point and more, and has even explored the wrecks of five boats at the bottom of Blue Bay.

No matter where the sport takes them, both Glen and Karen say they are in it for the fun and they want to share that feeling with others.

“We are not out on the ocean and we are not located on a tropical island, so we are not going to make a million dollars having a shop in Kalispell, but we have fun and enjoy teaching and putting trips together,” Karen said.

“It’s one of those sports that just gets in your blood. It’s exciting and different. You are in an environment that you could not survive in without your equipment, like being in space,” Glen added. “Seventy-five percent of the Earth is water, so now I get to explore a lot more of the planet than I ever could before.”

For more information about Flathead Scuba, visit them on Facebook or call 406-253-8320.

Reporter Jeremy Weber may be reached at 758-4446 or jweber@dailyinterlake.com.