Blue Water Hunter

Santa Barbara Harbor's diving roots run deep. The city is recognized as the birthplace of deepwater commercial diving: on November 3, 1962, Santa Barbara abalone diver Dan "Hugh" Wilson dove more than 400 feet off the east end of Santa Cruz Island in the Santa Barbara Channel, launching from the harbor on the fishing vessel Rio Janeiro. That same year Wilson and three other Santa Barbarans, Lad Handelman, Whitey Stefens, and Ken Elmes, each put in $10,000 to form General Offshore Divers, quickly landing major contracts starting with Phillips Petroleum.

Around the same time, Bev Morgan and Bob Kirby formed Kirby Morgan Dive Systems in Santa Barbara, designing the mixed-gas diving helmets that became the international standard for military and deepwater diving. Since 1964, well over 90 percent of the deepwater helmets used by working divers worldwide have been made in Santa Barbara. Several of these pioneers, including Kirby, Morgan, Handelman, and Bob Ratcliffe, stayed in the area and mentored younger generations of divers, and the harbor now carries a bronze monument at its entrance honoring this legacy. That commercial diving lineage runs alongside the recreational shop history that follows.

In 1970, Bob Guthrie, who had spent time as a commercial abalone diver, saw an opportunity: commercial wetsuits at the time were neither comfortable nor warm. Bob started making wetsuits in Goleta under the name Deep Thought Wetsuits, marketed as "tailor made," the first true form-fitting wetsuit patterns, with improved neck and wrist seals. Those suits are still used today by commercial divers up and down the West Coast.

Brian Bradley purchased Bob's dive locker in 1992 and changed the name to Blue Water Hunter. He later spun off Deep Thought Wetsuits, which was purchased and run by Antonio, who had helped Bob and Brian make wetsuits, until Antonio retired in 2024. Brian hired a manager, Andy Taylor, to run the full-service dive shop, and for several years also ran a second Blue Water Hunter location in Kona, Hawaii. Through the 1990s the shop was located in Goleta, down the street from Aquatics in Old Town Goleta.

Jethro started freediving at age 12, was scuba certified in 1987 at 16, and graduated from Dos Pueblos High School in 1991. After a career as a wholesaler of financial products, worn out by constant travel and rule changes, he was ready to switch careers. With a long history of freediving and scuba diving and a love for the harbor scene, he purchased Blue Water Hunter in October 2019, with zero retail experience.

It quickly became clear that the shop needed a full transformation, top to bottom. Since then, Blue Water Hunter has brought in the best and most innovative products in the dive industry, alongside a curated collection of ocean-oriented gifts, work from local artists, and jewelry. The dive compressor and air banks were completely revamped: where there was previously no way to track when filters or maintenance were due, there is now an hour meter and regular testing to ensure the air meets quality standards. The revamp is, in Jethro's words, "finished never, always evolving."