Name:
Ron Fancher
Position:
- Shop Manager
- GUE Instructor
- PADI MSDT Instructor
- PADI & SSI Freediving Instructor
- Repair Technician
- Shop Staff
Bio: 
Ron Fancher is a failed investment banker and resident hobo at Dive Alaska. He learned to dive when he was 12-year old, and only ever had one dream job: yak tender.
It took that 12-year-old-Ron almost two decades, an undergraduate degree in International Finance, and a soul-crushing stint with a large investment finance firm based in Germany to realize that all he wanted to do was “give people the SCUBA.” He was a changed man.
After a couple intentionally-ambiguous years traveling the world with his wife, Kristie, Ron ended up in Alaska, and then at Dive Alaska. Ron enjoys his job these days, and loves the people he works with and spends time around.
Ron spent most of his adult life either abroad, or in Los Angeles, CA, and moved to Alaska specifically for the diving. He is regarded as having a fanatical love of exploring Alaskan waters. If you ever feel that you are being watched while near a body of water in the state, it might be Ron.
In his own words: “the three pillars that hold up my life are: Kristie, professional football, and diving in Alaska.” Whether that’s Dutch Harbor, Whittier, Resurrection Bay; if it’s Alaskan diving, it’s for Ron.
Diving Experience:
- 1,800+ logged dives in the last 15 years
- Instructor since 2016
- PADI MSDT Instructor
- GUE Fundamentals & Tech 1 Instructor
- RAID Instructor
- PADI & SSI Freediving Instructor
- GUE Technical Diver 2
- GUE Cave Diver 2
Specialties:
- Sidemount Diver Instructor
- Monkey Diver Instructor
- Running in fins
- Impulse-buying used drysuits
- Looking deranged at all hours of the day
- Tall
- Beard
- Puffy vests
- Disturbingly comfortable with his lack of self-awareness
- Questionable solutions to high-pressure breathing air “problems (or, as he describes them, “fun possibilities that might rupture and kill you.”)
Fun Facts:
- Ron has a large collection of headscarves that he will match to his clothing, despite his insistence that he does not intentionally do this. He does.
- Ron is huge fan of the NFL, specifically the Philadelphia Eagles, to the point that their success (or lack thereof) will have an effect on his mood. Despite his claim that “Dive Alaska is the world’s only ‘Eagles Dive Shop'”, we have never officially made any such declaration, and Ron’s words are his own.
- If you circle an ice hole in a lake and chant “scuba, scuba, scuba” Ron will emerge wearing only fins, a double-hose regulator, and a speedo, complaining about how cold the water is.
- Bruce (shop dog) loves Ron more than anyone else.