Jarrod Naberhaus

REMEMBERING JARROD NABERHAUS

A dive shop poster led to his devotion to conservation

BY AMANDA MARTIN

Jarrod Naberhaus was drawn to the ocean at a very young age. His mother, Angela, recounts that he could swim before he could walk and started freediving and entering shing tournaments when he was 10 years old.

On his family’s rst trip to the Florida Keys, a young Naberhaus saw a poster of the Christ of the Abyss in a dive shop. He asked an instructor about the poster and learned that the underwater sculpture was located in John Pennekamp State Park, just around the corner from where they were staying. Inspired by the poster, he enthusiastically told his father that his goal was to get certi ed as a diver.

Jarrod shared his dream with his grandmother, Sara Heckman. At Christmas she gifted Jarrod and his father, Mark Naberhaus, a scuba certi cation course. It just so happened that one of their open-water checkout dives was at the Christ of the Abyss.

At the impressionable age of 12, Naberhaus could barely contain his excitement as he tried to describe to his grandmother the amazing sights he had seen. She was ghting terminal colon cancer, and Jarrod decided that the best way to share the reef with her and other cancer patients in treatment was to photograph the underwater world. He worked mowing lawns and saved the money for his rst underwater camera.

Shortly after his dive at Pennekamp, Naberhaus met Emmy-award-winning cinematographer Frazier Nivens, who is now the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation’s director of production. Nivens was working on a piece for National Geographic at the time. Naberhaus, with his extremely outgoing personality, asked if he could shadow Nivens and learn more about underwater photography. is mentorship lasted several years, and Naberhaus learned valuable lessons about editing and enhancing his images.

In support of Naberhaus’ passion, his family purchased a boat, computer and professional camera equipment, thereby launching his dive career. His photos gathered a lot of local attention, and his story was picked up by several newspapers. He was interviewed by Kelly Ring, a reporter for Fox television, and was featured on What’s Right with Tampa Bay. He was invited to participate in multiple art shows, and his work began selling. He founded a nonpro t and donated the money from the sale of his pictures to the American Cancer Society, donating more than $5,000 in honor of his grandmother.

Naberhaus graduated high school with honors and three days later started classes at Florida Atlantic University. After his freshman year, Naberhaus completed his certi cation as an open-water scuba instructor. He then added his emergency rst responder and rst responder instructor certi cations and was hired by Sea Dwellers

Dive Center in Key Largo. He nished his education in the Instructor Development Course program and received his master scuba diver teacher certi cation. He then added 14 more independent certi cations, which gave him one of the largest portfolios in the Florida Keys. He was able to work full time as an open-water instructor, emergency responder and reef guide by his 19th birthday.

An adventurer, Naberhaus climbed glaciers in Alaska, zip lined the rainforest of Jamaica, rode ATVs up the side of volcanoes in Costa Rica, surfed the North Shore of Maui, bungee jumped, whitewater rafted and canyoneered waterfalls.

His passion for adventure was matched by his desire for giving back. He volunteered as a reef conservationist and taught for the Wounded Warrior program. He was a rm believer that veterans learning to work with prosthetics could gain self-con dence and dexterity by scuba diving and learning to take control of their bodies in zero gravity. Along the way, Jarrod picked up awards for his photography and young entrepreneurship. He dedicated himself totally to the ocean and inspired people to push their own boundaries. His passion for the reefs was infectious, and Naberhaus was humble, appreciative, loved by all and always gave his students whatever time they needed.

In September 2019, when Naberhaus was just 24, he was a victim of a fatal motorcycle crash when a driver failed to yield the right of way. e diving community lost one of its most passionate ocean advocates and someone who was shaping up to be a future leader in marine conservation. After the incident, his family began pursuing legislative changes in Florida. ey immediately began to promote the Vulnerable User Act, designed to make roads safer in Florida.

Most recently, the family held a memorial ride for Naberhaus along with an awareness rally in Polk County. e turnout was overwhelming, and it turned his family’s grief into a desire to continue Jarrod’s work and ensure that our reefs continue to receive the protection they need for future generations.

Naberhaus’ legacy lives on in his students, his co-workers, his friends and his family. His celebration of life was held in the auditorium of his elementary school. For four hours, people spoke about their relationships with Naberhaus and noted his service as an emergency responder and as a coach for people struggling with depression.

“It is hard to go anywhere without being stopped and reminded by our community that Jarrod’s light remains,” said his mother Angela Naberhaus. “He had a way of lling a room with his presence — humble man with a huge heart. We loved our son unconditionally, validated him constantly, supported his dreams and, in return, Jarrod took us on the ride of a lifetime. Make sure you love them hard and tell them often because, in the end, your legacy is intertwined with your children’s legacy. Make that important!”