“Think mall Santa pictures, but underwater.”
When Anna Clapper sent this description of her latest event, the tagline screamed Keys holiday magic. Truly, what could be more Keysey than trying to tell Santa your Christmas wish list while you’re both scuba diving? Clapper, an event planner extraordinaire, is also a veteran underwater photographer, diver, freediver and professional mermaid. And, she’s the new course coordinator at Amoray Dive Resort in Key Largo.
“I’ve done similar events in the past, and they were a big hit,” Clapper told Keys Weekly of her Scuba Santa idea. “It’s something guests always look forward to, and I thought it would translate well with the resort atmosphere here.”
Guests arrived and were invited to a tropical winter wonderland, with holiday hits playing on the loudspeaker, a tinsel-laden tree and Scuba Santa at the bottom of a heated pool and hot apple cider ready for when they got out.
“This is an opportunity for families and clients to do something just for fun and for us as Amoray Dive Center to build the community with our tagline of ‘Peace, Love and Diving,’” Clapper said as she donned her green-and-red elf-helper outfit for the event.
Families with kids or non-divers had the opportunity to do a Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) course beforehand to familiarize themselves with the basics and to get comfortable breathing underwater.
“We’re following all PADI standards, with minimum ages for DSDs and Bubble Makers (a PADI program for kids to learn to dive),” Clapper said. “And all the staff are dive professionals (and elves today), for supervision.”
Certified divers could skip the lesson and hop right in to meet Santa. Devin Brush and Jen Maranell of Des Moines, Iowa did just that. Then, they adorned themselves with Christmas holly, reindeer antlers and other holiday paraphernalia for their photoshoots.
“We want this to be our Christmas card this year, because we think it will be hilarious,” Brush said as he put on a red velvet robe and readied himself for his shoot. “We might even Photoshop our pets in. I didn’t know this was a thing until we arrived on Thursday and signed right up.”
He added, and Maranell agreed, “I’m going to tell Scuba Santa that Jen’s been a very good girl this year. She should get all the presents.”
Under new management since just before the pandemic, Amoray struggled momentarily to find its sea legs when Monroe County shut down in the spring of 2020. Since then, however, they’ve been busier than ever. Recently, the resort enjoyed the two busiest months the business has ever seen in its long history.
Now, with things stabilizing, the iconic dive shop is ready to reintroduce itself to the dive community with more family events like underwater pumpkin carving, Scuba Santa and more.
Cynthia Gneiser, one of the new owners and the head elf for the day, said, “We want to bring back fun things like this to Amoray ‒ like back in the day. All these fun events.”
Gneiser and her husband, Jeff, live and work to share the joy of diving with others.
“We’ve been blessed. We’re getting recognized for the good things we’re doing, and we get to live out a dream,” Jeff said as he adjusted his Scuba Santa wig (shhh, don’t tell the kids).
Along with their two kids, the Gneisers took a giant stride into the pool holding hands to shoot their own family Christmas photo, with Santa and three elves.
“We’re really lucky,” Gneiser said. “We get to share this joy with the community. Just wait until Valentine’s Day ‒ we’ll have something awesome.”
Until then, Scuba Santa and his merry elves from Key Largo wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season filled with ‒ you guessed it ‒ peace, love and diving.
