Help Support Close Encounters Dive Center

As so many have been devastated by Hurricane Helene and have lost their homes and businesses, we have also lost everything. We are a family owned and family ran dive center based out of Madeira Beach, FL and have been seriously impacted by Hurricane Helene. This store is owned by Trace Molzon & Jim and Ashley Piehl. The store is solely ran by Trace (me) and my fiancé Milena.

This dive shop has been a lifelong

dream of mine. We put our blood, sweat, & tears into getting this shop open for the past 2 years and we were only 2 weeks away from our dreams coming to fruition when the hurricane hit.

We had roughly 5 feet of water throughout the entire shop and were ravaged by the storm surge. The inside of our store is completely destroyed along with our inventory which is either washed away or ruined.

We are not the types to ask for anything. However, we do not know how to recover what we lost or how to move forward from here. This has been absolutely devastating for us. 

All money raised will go directly to Close Encounters to help in the cost of rent as we aren’t able to operate, but still need to pay rent as well as other operating expenses. Money will also be used to replace lost inventory and replacing store equipment and furniture. Any amount will help greatly, and even just sharing this page is helping us tremendously.