Captain Slate is a member of both the DEMA Hall of Fame and International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame. He learned to dive on his own in rock quarries and lakes without certification inspired by exploits of Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges), star of the hit 1960’s TV show, Sea Hunt. Spencer began formal diving in 1972 with the YMCA Scuba Program later becoming Chairman of its’ Scuba Program Board of Directors and in 1978 opening up his dive operation in Key Largo.

Always community minded, Slate is founder and past president of the Florida Association of Dive Operators and has served various terms on the local Advisory Committee for the Tourism Development Council. As project manager for establishing the Spiegel Grove artificial reef project, he supervised the acquisition and sinking of The Grove in Key Largo on May 2002, at the time the country’s largest ship sunk for diving. In addition to his shop having every imaginable dive program offering including “underwater weddings”, he is infamous for his weekly “Creature Feature” where he pets moray eels, sharks and feeds barracuda holding bait in his mouth, having scars to show when “his pals” have missed their snack. Slate has been featured in television shows, documentaries, and his fish-feeding escapades have graced the covers of virtually every scuba diving magazine in the diving industry.

Captain Slate’s Dive Center is in Tavernier, Florida Keys offering dive, snorkel and glass bottom boat adventures.