Roseville High School senior James Jones and his brother, sophomore Donovan Jones, have grown up with a love for the sea, inspiring them to explore deeper. They began their scuba diving careers around seven years ago and have been passionate about it ever since.

Both James and Donovan learned how to dive in Monterey Bay at very young ages. James became a certified scuba diver at the youngest possible age to be certified.

“I first learned how to scuba dive in Monterey, it wasn’t too hard of a course but at ten years old it’s kind of hard to learn all of that information, but you get used to the terminology pretty quickly,” James said.

According to James, various training, tests, and classes are required to become a certified scuba diver.

“There’s a whole lot of training you have to go through in order to become certified and then once you get certified, it’s a relief to just go out there and be able to experience it all,” James said.

According to Donovan, the experience progressively became more enjoyable as time went on, as they steadily gained  more knowledge and confidence along the way.

“It was scary at first but then over time we started to visit more places and it got really fun,” Donovan said.

 To Donovan, scuba diving allows him to explore, see, and experience an environment not accessible to anybody outside of the scuba diving community.

 “My favorite part about scuba diving is just the fun in exploring the places where you can’t walk around,” Donovan said.

 According to Lisa Jones, the mother of James and Donovan, the brothers transformed their love for the ocean to a determination to scuba dive at a young age.

“When they were little we used to watch my sister and her husband scuba dive all the time,” Lisa said. “We all would go down to the beach while they were diving, and both my boys love the ocean and so when they found out that at age ten they could get certified they wanted to do it.”

According to Lisa, scuba diving has strengthened the family’s connection and bond and they take every opportunity to dive and unite as a family.

“We do all of our family vacations based around scuba diving,” Lisa said. “James has actually gotten way closer with [his aunt] and [uncle] because she does a lot more diving than I do, and I don’t feel comfortable with him diving with anybody except me and my sister.”

Both brothers have noticed a change in their family dynamic due to their constant interaction when traveling together.  Scuba diving has helped strengthen the bond between between these two brothers and their mother as well.  According to Donovan, traveling and diving together has brought him and his brother closer than ever.

“We used to fight a lot,” Donovan said. “Now that we travel, we have to be in cars together so we have fun together now.”

The Jones brothers enjoy exploring the depths of the world below and and being able to experience all the different creatures that come with it.  

“It’s a whole different environment compared to on land because under water there’s fish everywhere compared to on land, looking around there isn’t as many like living animals there’s more plants or just nothing,” James said.