Forrest Phillips is the President of Southern Skin Divers Supply and has been for over two decades.  He focuses on running the business, customer service and assisting Spencer and Mark with all the various students that they are training.  For nearly 30 years, he has held an Openwater Instructor to Instructor Trainer Certification with TDI, SDI, NAUI, SSI and IDEA.  Forrest was also a member of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Dept Dive Team for nearly 20 years and was a recipient of the SSI Platinum Pro 5000 Instructor Award in 2008.  He has certified thousands of divers at many levels since the mid 1990’s.  Along with Mark and Spencer, they run between 50 and 60 group dive trips all over the world, taking thousands of our divers on adventures, year round! 

Forrest is passionate about teaching Spearfishing from entry level to advanced.  He developed the Gulf Coast Spearfishing Course for Scuba Diving International (SDI).  For over 20 years he has been one of the top Spearfishing Tournament Competitors in Alabama and the Florida Gulf Coast.  From 2012-2020, Forrest won 11 Lionfish Events including the Alabama Open 5 years in a row, Lionfish World Championship, Gulf Coast Lionfish Coalition and in 2014 he had the largest Lionfish in Alabama and Florida at the same time.

He has won multiple Master Spearfisher and King Spearfisher Awards in Alabama and Florida.  In 2019 and 2022, Forrest was the Alabama State Spearfishing Champion (Spearfisher of the Year) SOTY.  He also has held a Commercial Spearfishing License for 10 years and sold fish to some of the top Chefs and Seafood Markets in Florida and Alabama.