AJ Powell (USA, Ret.) - DOO / DTO
AJ is the Dive Operations Officer, Dive Training Officer, and Primary Instructor for Pinnacle Diving Company. He is a Christian, a retired United States Army NonCommissioned Officer who served in both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, and he is a world-traveled American combat veteran. His professional career started in 2001, where for 20+ years he worked in the fields of both aviation and diving simultaneously. He first first learned to dive in 2002, and since that time, has been blessed (or cursed) with assignments and opportunities to dive in some of the most challenging and demanding environments and conditions around the world.
Today, AJ is a professional occupational surface-supplied diver to the mixed-gas level, occupational dive supervisor, technical closed-circuit rebreather diver to the hypoxic-trimix level (100m), and certified NAUI and IANTD dive instructor, CCR instructor, and occupational diving instructor. He has over 1,500+ logged dives and more than 1000+ logged hours of accumulative underwater dive time, mostly in cold, open-ocean waters, using both open and closed-circuit systems, as well as surface-supplied systems.
AJ has been teaching professionally as a qualified educator, specialized skills trainer, and certified instructor across a multitude of expertise, for most of his career. AJ chooses NAUI and IANTD to teach with for their policies of academic freedom and reputation as the highest training standards in the world. As an instructor, he draws extensively on his career-long training and experience, both military and civilian, while incorporating many overlapping aspects from the world of aviation into the world of diving, to mentor and grow his students into highly skilled divers far above the standards. As a result, AJ has developed a reputation for teaching and training both military service members and civilians alike to become well-educated, highly competent, confident, capable, and safe divers, who are passionate about diving and growing in their diver KSA’s.
Website: https://www.armyveteranaj.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armyveteranaj
Kurt Wagner - Instructor
Kurt is a NAUI instructor with Pinnacle Diving Company. He is certified to teach through many agencies at both the recreational and technical levels, and will soon cross over to IANTD as a technical instructor. He began his diving journey in 2001 as a NAUI-certified diver, and has been professionally active in the diving industry since 2006, earning his NAUI Instructor certification in 2012.
Growing up exploring the wrecks of the Graveyard of the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast, Kurt developed a lifelong passion for the underwater world. In 2013, he moved to Key Largo, Florida, where he worked full-time as a scuba instructor, earned his U.S. Coast Guard Master Captain’s License, and advanced his technical training through TDI. Today, he is a certified TDI Technical Diving Instructor, trained on multiple closed-circuit rebreather (CCR) units, and brings expertise in both open circuit and CCR diving to his students and fellow divers.
In 2025, Kurt relocated to Japan, and continues to share his knowledge and passion with Pinnacle Diving Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Geology, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Environmental Management at UMGC. Kurt brings a scientific perspective to diving and marine conservation, which makes him a perfect fit for PDC. Outside of instruction, Kurt enjoys underwater hockey, and connecting with the global diving community.
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