Fred Drake’s love for the water began when he was about 4 years old. Growing up in Connecticut, summer days were spent at the Fairfield County Hunt Club in Westport, CT. That is where he learned to swim and right from the start, he was a fish. The pool had a swim team, but Fred wasn’t the fastest of swimmers. He preferred diving to the bottom of the pool and holding his breath or seeing how far he could swim underwater on a breath of air. A favorite pool game was Sharks and Minnow which Fred quickly mastered and often won. The Hunt Club offered a snorkeling course which Fred and his brother Obie enrolled in and learned the basics of snorkeling in the pool and then in nearby Lake Mohegan. The bottom of the lake was littered with golf balls which the brothers learned to freedive for and return the owner of the golf balls. Fred’s mom Joan worked at the Hunt Club for many years in the Horse Show industry, so Fred and his brother got to spend virtually every summer day at the pool. And if they weren’t at the pool, they were exploring local lakes and ponds. A favorite activity was “moon walking” where they would pick up a big rock and walk along the bottom of the lake until they couldn’t hold their breath any longer.
Next up was a family trip to Bermuda where friends of the family had a house right on the water in Grape Bay not far from Hamilton. This where Fred first snorkeled in the ocean and was immediately amazed by the coral reefs and all the tropical colored fish. Fred and his brother spent countless hours on that reef snorkeling and freediving during their two-week visits to Bermuda each year.
The brothers next adventure was a Discover SCUBA dive with Bermuda diving legend Dave McCleod’s Skin Diving Adventures. Fred’s father Burtch and Stepmother Debbie also joined in on the fun. They took a boat some 7 miles offshore to the site of the shipwreck Constellation was which was a pharmaceutical supply ship that fell victim to Bermuda’s many shallow water reefs. The wreck was also featured in the movie The Deep which starred Jacqueline Bisset and Nick Nolte. Their SCUBA Instructor was an English gentleman named Ian. He presented some of the basics on the ride out to the site and then conducted some necessary lifesaving skills on the sandy bottom in 20 to 30 feet of water. The group then explored the wreck with Ian as their guide. Just as soon as Fred hit the surface he turned to his father and said “Dad! I am going to become a SCUBA Instructor!” The family returned to Bermuda annually and when Fred was old enough, they enrolled in the PADI Open Water Diver Course with Dave McCleod teaching the course. In 1980, at the age of 15, Fred and his family were all certified PADI Open Water Divers. On subsequent visits to Bermuda the family went SCUBA diving on the numerous shipwrecks that surround Bermuda. Fred also had a high school friend who worked at Orbit Marine Dive Shop in Bridgeport. Mike and Fred explored the waters off Rhode Island on a few occasions, and this is where he first donned at 7mm wetsuit.
After graduating from Roger Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, CT in 1983, Fred was accepted to attend Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. HSU is located on the rugged Northern California coastline amidst the Redwood forests. Much to Fred’s surprise Humboldt had a SCUBA diving program. He immediately enrolled in their PADI Advanced Open Water Diver class and passed with flying colors. Humboldt was a true outdoorsman paradise and Fred dabbled in many other activities besides SCUBA diving. Armed with a whitewater kayak given to him by his Uncle Boris he also enrolled in the University’s whitewater kayaking classes. He already knew how to roll a kayak and had some basic river running skills thanks to his uncle. It was in the kayak class that Fred met a lifelong friend named Eric and they paddled every creak, stream and river all across Humboldt and Trinity Counties. The forest behind Humboldt State was also a mountain bikers paradise. Fred promptly bought his first mountain bike and spent countless hours riding the forest trails with friends made at school. Some of those same friends created the Disc Golf course known as the Redwood Curtain. It’s one of the most challenging frisbee golf courses in the country. Fred and his buddies of the club Par Infinity spent countless hours perfecting the art of disc golf in the forest behind HSU. Fred still packs his discs wherever he travels to and has played courses around the world. He also pioneered the disc golf course in Ketchikan located at Point Higgins Elementary School.
Fred spent a few years trying to figure out what to major in at HSU when his friend steered him toward the Recreation Administration degree. His buddy Robert was like, “Fred this is you” and just like that Fred had chosen his major. The HSU SCUBA program was more geared to the Scientific Diving side of things until Fred came along. He approached his Professors and the University Diving Safety Officer, Phillip Buttolph, with the idea to have his internship with the SCUBA program. This was after completing his PADI Rescue and Divemaster certifications. The University Recreation Administration Department required a minimum of 400 hours of either volunteer or paid work with some form of Recreation Agency. What better place to give his time to than the dive program at Humboldt State. Fred attended each and every classroom and pool session of all the courses offered by the HSU SCUBA program. He was also paid to be a certified Divemaster on the weekend open water dives. Most of those dives took place in Ft. Bragg on the Mendocino County coast. This is where Fred had his first taste of abalone and he was hooked. He still proclaims it to be the best seafood he’s ever tasted. Every weekend the dive classes went to Ft. Bragg he was there and after the school dives he and his buddies would go freediving for abalone to bring back home. There was many an abalone feast at Fred’s home at the Lanphere / Christiansen Dune Preserve where he was also a “Dune Patrolman”.
Shortly after Fred graduated from HSU, he headed down to San Diego to take a PADI SCUBA Instructor Development Course with Mark Rainbolt at Ocean Enterprises in La Jolla. The course was 5 days long with a 2-day Instructor Exam conducted at PADI Headquarters and in the open ocean nearby. He then returned to Humboldt a newly certified PADI Open Water SCUBA Instructor but since school was out, he was also unemployed. Fred was hired on by a group of friends and divers to raise an old logging era anchor out of the Trinidad Bay. It wasn’t a paid position, but it was a great learning experience in commercial diving. The group did successfully raise that anchor and it is currently on display at the United States Coast Guard Base near the Arcata / Eureka airport. Fred returned to HSU when classes resumed, hired on as the University’s Support SCUBA Instructor. Fred earned $200 per weekend to assist with the HSU SCUBA classes in addition to working a bunch of odd jobs and patrolling the dunes. Over the years Fred has continued his education as a PADI SCUBA Instructor and is currently a PADI Master SCUBA Diver Trainer and is able to certify divers in 10 different Specialty Ratings.
Eventually, the desire to explore the underwater water further led Fred to take a job with Norwegian Cruise Line’s Dive In Snorkeling Program. Shallow Water Development and NCL pioneered cruise ship based snorkeling tours by hiring PADI Dive Instructors to lead snorkeling tours in all the ports of call. The interview consisted of sailing on the M/S Sunward II for one week and another week spent on the NCL private island, Great Stirrup Cay located in the Berry Island chain of the Bahamas. Fred was scooped up by Shallow Water Development and he joined his first ship in September of 1989 and was immediately dropped off at Great Stirrup Cay. He spent about 4 months on GSC where he learned the NCL way of leading cruise ship passengers into the water. The island was a true Robinson Caruso style paradise with the six Dive Instructors as the castaways. The NCL ships stopped in 4 days per week, so the other 3 days were spent exploring the surrounding islands by sailboat, speedboat and enjoying many diving and fishing adventures.
After a 3-week vacation Fred landed back on the Sunward II with one his greatest mentors, Mike Murphy, a Brooklyn born east coaster like Fred. Mike’s job was to teach Fred some public speaking and sale skills, how to function as a member of the Cruise Directors Staff and all things ship life. As Cruise Staff Members the Divers also had to be social hosts. They ran spotlights for the shows, attended the Captain’s Cocktail party, participated in and hosted various theme nights like Caribbean Night, Country Western Night and 50 / 60’s Night. Pretty soon Fred had learned how to line dance, host a limbo contest, do a sock hop and perform in the weekly Cruise Staff show The Roaring 20’s Review.
It was short 3 weeks on the Sunward II before Fred was shipped off to the M/S Skyward based out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. His next mentor Kurt Elias took it from there and continued to groom Fred for role of Dive In Manager which Fred eventually obtained after having first served on every ship in the NCL fleet. From the Bahamas, to Bermuda, the Caribbean to Southern California and Baja Mexico Fred cruised to many a fabulous destination while leading snorkeling tours, SCUBA diving and mountain biking in his free time.
When NCL was planning on sending a ship to Alaska Fred and two other divers jumped at the opportunity to explore the possibility of snorkeling in Alaska. The corporate office however was not too keen on the idea. After much research and a tweak of the Dive In Program the Dive In to Adventure Program was born. Michael Landis and Rob Beaty along with Fred spearheaded the new program and convinced the corporate office that the 3 of them could lead a snorkeling tour in Ketchikan. But they had to do something in the other ports as well. Michael obtained Forest Service permit to offer hiking tours. Fred got a sea kayak onboard for pool demonstrations which was on loan from Alaska Travel Adventures. And Fred and Rob also got a mountain bike tour together in Skagway. Gray Line of Alaska provided the bikes and van with a trailer and Rob and Fred led the tour out to the historic Gold Rush town of Dyea two times per day. In addition, the team supported other local adventure tour operators by functioning as assistant guides. Companies like Sockeye Cycle and Packer Expeditions in Skagway, Alaska Travel Adventures and Alaska Discovery in Junea and Southeast Exposure in Ketchikan were all happy to have the extra help and a dedicated sales force on the ship. The M/S Windward headed to Alaska in Apil of 1994 after transiting the Panama Canal and the team was ecstatic to be heading somewhere new.
The guys got to experience Alaska like very few before them. Leading hiking, biking, sea kayaking and snorkeling tours in The Last Frontier. The newly formed Dive In to Adventure Program was a huge success. The passengers responded very well to the Adventure Guides being out on tour with them and the bookings came rolling in. Fred held a weekly sea kayaking demonstration at the pool. The team conducted a marine life presentation on sea days and days in port were spent leading adventure tours. When time allowed the team also got to enjoy all the other Shore Excursions from the train in Skagway to helicopters in Juneau and floatplane rides in Ketchikan. During his 3 summers cruising Alaska Fred made some great friends with those tour operators he was supporting. They started whispering in his ear that he should quit the ship and start his own snorkeling tour in Ketchikan. Well Fred listened and after a whole lot of dreaming and planning Snorkel Alaska was born in May of 2001.