Gordon "Buddy" Quattlebaum

Corrupted at an early age by Seahunt (the first TV series about scuba diving, for the benefit of those of us from my generation or my side of the pond!), Gordon “Buddy” Quattlebaum knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up. Having now retired from diving and at the tender age of fifty-four, however, he is no longer sure that he wants to grow up after all!

Salvaging a compressor from an old Coke vending machine, an engine from a lawn mower and a hose from his poor, long-suffering mother’s garden, the quirky young Buddy built his first diving rig at the age of fourteen in the small town of Winterhaven, Florida. He soon progressed to tanks and, with no proper equipment or training, began exploring the caves of North Florida. Several close calls later, he arrived at the decision that proper training and equipment were actually necessary for cave diving and began seeking other occupations to engage his spirited imagination.

Upon graduating high school at the age of seventeen, Buddy became a salt water tropical fish collector in the Florida Keys; a career move that introduced him to the exotic shores of Haiti, Columbia and Mexico. By the age of nineteen he had designed and built the first public aquarium in Mexico, on a then barely known little island called Cozumel.

Returning to the United States for fifteen years, Buddy trained and qualified as a PADI instructor, in between working in the construction industry, researching micro-algae and artemia…Oh, and living in an ashram!

A series of events brought him back down to Mexico in the late 80s where he camped on the beach and became very involved in sea turtle conservation. Upon discovering the incredible beauty
of the cenote system, Buddy started a small dive operation, which was ultimately to become Hidden Worlds Cenotes Park. In 1996 our very own Mr. Q headed up the biggest cave exploration project ever undertaken, breaking the record for the discovery of the longest underwater cave system in the world.

These days, having retired from cave exploration and literally moved up in the world (to a tree-house!), Buddy dedicates his efforts to helping people discover their inner peace and to conceiving and building such novel contraptions as the patented Skycycle. Driven, as ever, by three little words “It’ll never work!” his latest mission is to create a truck that runs on water… Watch this space!