Wayne Shoemake

“Hey Bubbas! What’s going on?!?” When this guy checked in for his first dive--a night dive--at The Scuba Club, he had a giant PVC tube strapped to his tank. All of the SC staff guys were rolling their eyes and snickering at this weirdo with the giant homemade underwater light strapped to his tank. And they still are ...it was Wayne “King of the Flashlights” Shoemake. (Yes, he still has a lot of lights.) Little did he know back in ‘84 (as in 1984), he would still be working with the same staff guys in 2009. A registered architect, the plan in 1986 was to work for the The Scuba Club for 2 years, and then return to the exciting world of architecture. What happened? Well, it took him over 11 years to find Margaret, his wife of almost ten years. They met when he taught her how to dive--and you know what JD says...

If you cannot locate a great restaurant in Palm Beach County, then you must not be searching from a hand-drawn map by Wayne. It’s true--the reason that we have to wait at local restaurants is because Wayne tells the “damn” tourists about our best eateries. His favorite culinary delight is a little hole in the wall called the Food Shack & Leftovers. It is rumored that Wayne taught Chef Mike everything he knows about cooking, “or so he says”.

Wayne (along with Chip & JD) has an open water card from NASDS (hmm.. that must have been a great agency back in the 60’s). He learned how to dive in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (which is not in the tri-city area). No, we are not kidding, he is from the “Perry County, Mississippi Shoemake’s.” After receiving the coveted “summa cum laude” from Auburn University in Architecture, Wayne began drawing straight lines in Atlanta. It took him 6 years to realize that Atlanta is land locked--so the next step was a move to West Palm Beach. He wanted to practice a little architecture and do a lot of diving. The building stuff lasted for about 2 years, but the diving is still going strong. Wayne’s major interests include cooking Margaret dinner, photography (land and underwater, check out his web site WShoemake.com), raising the most beautiful Australian Shepards in the world, taking Margaret on fantastic third world vacations (she wants to go to places that start with A...Africa, Alaska, Antarctica, Chokoloskee, Florida), and did we mention cooking Margaret dinner? U N B E L I E V A B L E ! ! !