Gaughan got his first taste of scuba diving while on a boat trip in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. He was not certified, but the boat captain, a diving instructor, took him on a handful of supervised dives.

“He allowed me to get in and as soon as I did, it changed my world. It is a whole other part of this world that was fascinating and gorgeous to me,” Gaughan said. “The first time I saw, I went down, and saw two guitarfish, a whole bunch of Cortez rays and bullseye rays. There’s not a lot of coral in the Sea of Cortez, but there’s a ton of sea life. … I did three dives with that boat captain, and every dive was like, ‘Oh my God!’”

Gaughan went on to get certified in March 2008 with Lake Norman Scuba in Mooresville, North Carolina. He said the owners spotted someone destined for more than the occasional vacation dive right away.

“The owners are pretty smart guys. They saw a guy who’s a little OCD,” Gaughan said. “When I went to get my open water [certification] … We were at the Blue Grotto, down in [Williston,] Florida, and we came up from a dive and [the instructor] shook my hand and he goes, ‘Congratulations! You’re an open water diver.’ … And then he said, ‘Go grab that tank, you’re starting your advanced [certification], and I go ‘Yeah!’”