Hidden Gems: Meet Darin Duffin of Midwest Aquatics Swim and Scuba

Today we’d like to introduce you to Darin Duffin.

Darin, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started by getting certified to scuba dive and travel to warm/sunny destinations. Once I got certified and fell in love with the sport, I decided to continue my education which ultimately led to becoming a scuba instructor eight months later. From there, I started teaching at Midwest Aquatics and helping in the retail. A few years later and the original owners decided to retire and move to Florida. I had my own lawn care company at the time and decided that diving was a lot more fun so I sold that company and purchased MWA. Over time we began to outgrow our little, rented space and the continued need for a pool. This led to the purchase of land at 159th and 69 hwy. In November of 2002, we broke ground on our very own state of the art aquatic facility. We moved into our new building in July 2003.

During this time, I met my future wife who came in to learn to scuba dive. Together we moved in, continuing our Scuba business and added the swim school. Both segments of our business have grown over the years. We have a son and daughter that have grown up in the dive shop and are certified divers. One of my original interests was in international travel. Today that is a very important part of our business. We routinely offer staff-led trips to amazing spots around the world. In 2019 we followed our interest in international travel by investing in an Africa Travel Company that specializes in custom trips to some of Africa’s most amazing sites and destinations.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Owning a small business is really easy. Business and employee management comes with a number of challenges. When we moved in, we had only been in the scuba business but by having our own pool, we were able to add the swim school. It took several years to really get a grip on running a swim school.

As you know, we’re big fans of Midwest Aquatics Swim and Scuba. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We offer Scuba education, Scuba equipment sales and repair, Group and individual travel. Having our own pool allowed us to customize our training and schedule to our customer’s convenience.

We are very serious about high-quality education in Scuba and Swimming! We want every customer to be as safe as possible while loving their sport!

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Consistency in our effort to offer high-quality experiences. Honesty and care of our customers first.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.midwestaquatics.com, www.africatours.us
• Facebook: MidwestAquatics

Image Credits
Cari Duffin