Chris grew up in the suburbs on the south side of Chicago until he was 17, when he moved about 15 miles west of where he had grown up. He started diving when he was 15, because throughout his earlier years, he had developed a love of and fascination with underwater animals from his experiences with the zoo and a family vacation to the Bahamas, where he got to pet sharks and stingrays. His favorite  SCUBA courses to date were his sidemount and wreck courses. He loves learning new techniques that help him to stay underwater longer and explore more complicated and complex dive sites. As he has begun to explore these new sites, he has developed a dive-site bucket list, and his biggest goal on this list is to dive with great whites.