Private Scuba Lessons dotcom - PADI Instructor Laura Parke

Laura LaPlante Parke, born on Miami Beach, Florida. Chairwoman of the Board of Private Scuba Lessons. Ms. Parke is a PADI/SDI Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT), a RN, (Registered Nurse) and CPR- First Aid Instructor.

Laura instructs scuba lessons on a daily basis for busy professionals and time sensitive travelers in Miami, Ft. Lauderale and all of southeast Florida.

Since 2002, on the World Wide Web, newspaper, blog posts and word of mouth Laura has provided SCUBA lessons to people from all over the world. Her clients come from Austria, Australia, Germany, Japan, New York, New England, California to Colorado and most of the 50 states.

Scuba Diving was always Laura’s hobby and she has her Dad to thank for giving her an interest. Diving is not hard living in Florida which is the dive capital of North America and Florida's state sport. Laura put on her first scuba equipment at the age of 9 years old and has been hooked ever since.

An accomplished diver with 15 years plus of experience under the water before becoming a Scuba Instructor having more dive experiences than most trainers put together.

Laura has instructed and certified over 400 people to date and introduced scuba to over another 200 individuals in the resort diver course. She trained people who have had swimming issues, a bad instructor or any bad dive experience. Many people come back to Laura for advanced instruction or specialty courses and they refer many of their friends and family as well.

She has worked with handicap individuals, near drowning victims and the elderly as well as very young children. Laura’s guarantee is that if she can’t get you under the water, no one else can either.

Laura is experienced in many facets of diving such as: Treasure hunting, Shell collecting, Photography/Video, Night Diving, Underwater navigation diving, Search and Recovery and a retired spearfisherman. In addition, she is an award winning Underwater Photographer. She attends all the major Dive Equipment shows yearly, a factory trained scuba technician for the Dive Equipment brands of Aqualung, Sherwood, Zeagle, Aeris, Seaquest, Genesis and Scuba Pro. Laura has alliances with many distinguished hotels such as Vacation Village Marriott, The Westin Diplomat in Hollywood and The Hyatt on Ft. Lauderdale Beach.

Laura Parke was a former member of the North Miami Senior High School and AAU Swimming and Water Polo teams. In 1975 she was selected to the Women National All-American Water Polo Team. In college, she studied at Palm Beach Community College and graduated in 1981and became an RN. (Registered Nurse)

After three years practicing in medicine she found that nursing was not her calling in life and that she favored advertising and LOVED diving more than nursing. Her Nursing background gave her a great foundation to be able to communicate the physical and physiological factors that affect one while scuba diving and she clearly communicates it. Laura’s educational background along with her exceptionally strong watermanship skills make for a PROFESSIONAL SCUBA INSTRUCTOR unlike any other in the nation.

From 1984 through 1996 Laura owned and operated her own Advertising Agency in North Miami with her brother. For over 12 years Laura provided advertising, marketing and promotions to many of her distinguished clients such as: Del Monte, Eastern Financial Credit Union, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Citibank, Phillip Morris and many other medium and small businesses in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale areas.

Laura is a savvy business marketer and promotions manager and during her tenure in advertising acquired many community service awards and recognitions as follows:

1989 & 1992 Nominated in Advertising for Price Waterhouse and South Florida Business Journals "UP and COMERS" award.

1992-1993 she served as President of the Miami Chapter of the American Marketing Association. Under her leadership, The Miami AMA received the Chapter Excellence Award which was in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. Laura was a AMA Officer on the AMA Board since 1987.

Board of Directors/Officer as Programming Chair for the Miami Advertising Federation 1999-2000

Board of Directors as Membership Chair for the Florida Direct Marketing Association. Serving in 1997/98 and again 2007-present

Graduate of Leadership Miami, Miami Chamber of Commerce 1991.

Member of Hollywood/Dania Beach Chamber of Commerce

Member of South Florida Interactive Marketing Association
So who is Laura Parke? Besides her professional life she is:

A daughter to Jack Parke and Lorraine LaPlante. Her Father, a native of Miami and Mother from Tennessee. A grand daughter to Florence Saunders Parke,from Nassau Bahamas and Ida Edwards,from Maine.

A sister to three older brothers John Robert Parke, Stephen B. Parke, and David C. Parke. An Aunt to four nephews Matthew, Daniel, Jeremy, David and two nieces Christy and Emily. In addition, a Great Aunt to Gabriel, Zachary, Jordan and Abrianna.

A mother at one time of four cats, now only two. Gyspy, a beautiful Russian Blue and Goldie, a handsome Red Tabby as well as three parakeets.

A person that has a passion for life, for people, animals and places always in the Spirit of fun, love, adventure, appreciation and enthusiasm.

Laura’s motto is: "Your life is your time and your time is your life. Choose wisely what you do with your life and your time, so you can have the time of your life.”

Laura supports the Humane Society of Broward County, Make a Wish Foundation, the Susan Komen Foundation, the ASPCA, Switchboard of Miami as well as many other Non-profit associations that have any pledge to help Animals, Children, Elderly, Environmental Concerns, or Medical Causes.