Shane Weinreis is at helm of both the business and the volunteer team. Shane’s childhood love of water had him swimming at every chance in the local pool, lake or river and enticed him to take his first SCUBA course in 1986.

“I can still remember one of the first open water dives where I had limited visibility and lost everyone on the dive. I was a little nervous, not knowing where I was, which way to go, or what was beneath or around me,” he said. “But I was still having fun breathing underwater.”

Shane served six years with the Marine Corps. Among his duties were being a Rescue Swimmer, a Helicopter Rope Suspension Training Master, and an EMT. He became a PADI Master SCUBA Diver Trainer, IDC Staff Instructor and eventually a TDI Technical Instructor. While stationed in Japan, Shane operated a dive store and helped others enjoy the beauty of the underwater world. Deep diving quickly became his favorite activity.

After the Marine Corps, Shane joined a Public Safety Dive Team and began his career in law enforcement to include SWAT, Field Training Officer, and Critical Incident Stress Management Team.  He continued to teach recreational diving, but Shane’s interest began to change and he enjoyed Technical Diving more than recreational diving.

“If you’re a tech diver, you understand. Tech diving not only enhances your diving knowledge and skills, it opens the doors to another world” he said.

His focus on dive instruction also changed: After years of training and many certifications, Shane started teaching Public Safety Diving and Technical Diving.

The first PSD team that Shane joined and trained with disbanded, but he and others wanted to continue to serve people in need of water rescues and recoveries. In 1998 Shane formed the Billings Search and Rescue Dive Team. The team responded to calls for assistance in cities and counties around the country.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Shane decided that since the team was already being utilized by outside agencies, it made sense to expand even further and offer water rescue/recovery services to any requesting agency.

In 2002, the name was changed to the U.S. Water Rescue Dive Team. Ultimately, the USWRDT would like to have satellite volunteer teams set up around the nation. Until that time comes, the team is available to travel to provide water rescue and recovery services, including provide extra help when existing teams needing a reprieve during long-term searches.

The team operates without local government funding and with limited financial support from the local community. Shane has used personal funds to keep the team going and growing, but several times the U.S. Water Rescue Dive Team has been in danger of shutting down because there just isn’t enough money to keep it afloat.

“Nearly every time the door was about to close, a recovery call would come in,” Shane said. “My heart would break for the family. The pain and suffering families experience from lack of closure is unbearable.”

Every time the team would have a successful recovery, the families they worked with were gracious and thankful.

“Even though there was still tremendous pain at the loss, there would be tears of joy that their loved one had been found and closure could begin,” he said. “I can’t comprehend the thought of the team not being in existence and these families having no one to turn to.”

To help keep the U.S. Water Rescue Dive Team and other PSD teams around the world vital, Shane opened U.S. Water Rescue. The business provides equipment, instruction and consulting services.