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Mladen

Mladen Škapul

Founder of the diving centre

"It is hard to make a living from the sea, but believe me, it is even harder to live without it."

If you grow up by the sea, you can never truly leave it.

Mladen's diving journey began back in 1985, when he became one of the youngest combat divers in the military. During that period he mastered numerous advanced diving techniques, such as submarine egress diving and closed-circuit rebreather diving. Parachute jumps and daily rowing stretches of up to twenty miles were nothing out of the ordinary.

Mladen - vojni ronilac, 1985.

Restless by nature and eager for new experiences, in 1988 he moved to Sweden where he spent nearly ten years. Scandinavia welcomed him with some of the most demanding diving conditions in the world – it was there that he earned instructor certifications now respected throughout the globe.

After returning to Croatia, together with his family he built what he had dreamed of for years: his own diving centre in his native Lopar. He constructed the centre and adapted two boats for diving purposes.

For over 25 years the centre has successfully welcomed divers from all corners of Europe, and Mladen also served as long-standing president of the county diving association and a representative of nautical tourism at international trade fairs.

The most famous diver of our time, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, once said that the Adriatic is the clearest sea in the world. Drawing on his own life experience, Mladen can only confirm that claim – and that is precisely why he feels a responsibility to preserve the sea as we know it today and pass it on to future generations.

Luka Leon

Luka Leon Škapul

The next generation

After his father spent years building the diving centre and laying the foundations of Moby Dick, Luka Leon Škapul carries the family story forward.

He grew up surrounded by diving, boats and the daily life of the centre – his childhood was spent on the boat, watching divers return from the sea full of excitement and stories. While other children were learning to swim in a pool, Luka was already getting to know the sea first-hand. That closeness to the underwater world awakened a love of the sea from an early age and naturally steered him towards what he does today.

At eighteen he began working professionally at the family diving centre, first as an assistant and soon as an independent instructor. Today he is an SSI diving instructor who teaches fifteen diving specialities – from beginner courses for those putting on a mask for the first time, to advanced specialisations for experienced divers.

He regularly builds on his knowledge through new courses and training, because he believes a good instructor never stops learning. It is precisely this approach that enables him to offer students modern teaching methods and high safety standards.

Beyond practical experience, Luka graduated in Underwater Science and Technology and earned the title of engineer in sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems. This scientific foundation allows him to view the sea not only as a diver and instructor, but also through the lens of conservation and sustainability.

Throughout his career he has taken part in numerous marine protection and underwater research projects, and inspired by those experiences he has launched his own initiatives – from organising seabed clean-ups to educational workshops for local children and the community. For Luka, caring for the sea is inseparable from diving – one without the other simply makes no sense.

Today Luka runs the Moby Dick diving centre and is actively working on its development. His approach is straightforward: to ensure every guest, from beginner to experienced diver, feels safe and at ease.

Diving for him is not just technique and equipment – it is an opportunity for people to disconnect from everyday life, reconnect with nature and emerge from the water with a smile. And it is precisely that combination of safety, knowledge and enjoyment that he aims to pass on to everyone who dives with Moby Dick.

SSI Certifications

SSI Profile

Qualifications

  • Open Water Instructor
  • Divemaster Instructor
  • Explorer Instructor
  • Assistant Instructor
  • Divemaster
  • Snorkel Instructor

Scuba Diving - Beginner

  • Try Scuba
  • Referral Diver (Academics & Pool only)
  • Basic Diver
  • Scuba Diver
  • Indoor Diver
  • Open Water Diver
  • Scuba Skills Update
  • Blue Oceans Explorer
  • Snorkel Explorer
  • Scuba Explorer

Scuba Diving - Professional

  • Divemaster
  • Specialty Instructor Deep Diving
  • Specialty Instructor Perfect Buoyancy

Freediving

  • Snorkel Diver
  • Snorkel Instructor

Environment

  • Marine Ecology

Scuba Diving - Advanced

  • Advanced Open Water Diver
  • Cavern & Cenote Diving
  • Computer Diving
  • Decompression Diving
  • Deep Diving
  • Dive Guide / Divemaster
  • DPV Diving
  • DPV Diving (technical)
  • Dry Suit Diving
  • Enriched Air Nitrox (32%)
  • Enriched Air Nitrox (40%)
  • Independent Diving
  • Navigation
  • Night Diving & Limited Visibility
  • Perfect Buoyancy
  • Science of Diving
  • Search & Recovery
  • Stress & Rescue
  • React Right (FA, CPR, AED, O2)

Why Moby Dick?

There is a question our guests often ask – still on the shore, before their first dive. "Why Moby Dick?"

The answer is both simple and complex – just like the sea.

Herman Melville wrote the novel Moby Dick back in 1851. The story of Captain Ahab and his obsessive quest for the white whale entered world literature as one of the greatest metaphors ever written – about man's struggle with nature, with his own limits, with something we cannot conquer yet cannot stop seeking.

The whale. An oceanic giant. A creature that lives in depths man can barely reach.

And that is exactly what set us alight.

Diving is both a sport and a hobby – but when you dive and everything falls silent, it becomes something that is hard to put into words.

Every dive is a new quest. You never know what you will find. Perhaps an old anchor covered in coral. Perhaps a shoal of fish watching you with curiosity. Perhaps simply the blue sea – boundless and serene.

Moby Dick was not just a whale. He was a symbol of everything the sea is – unconquerable, mysterious, eternal.

That moment of silence when you dive and everything stops. No noise, no rush, no screens. Just you and the sea.

Moby Dick is a symbol. A symbol of everything the sea conceals. Of everything that draws us towards the deep, even when we do not know what we will find there. A symbol of respect for the sea – because the sea is older than us, greater than us and immeasurably more beautiful than anything we can imagine – and we live it every day, here on Rab.

When we founded our diving centre, we wanted a name that carries weight. That invites people to dive – literally and metaphorically.

Moby Dick was the only real choice.

Welcome to the depths. The white whale awaits you – this one is friendly.