Panit by: Ron G. Stevens

He traded the suit for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. His ever-exposed hairy legs now daily proclaim his escape from the corporate world and his engaging personality woos thousands to share his love of the ocean.

Ron Stevens, AKA Rogest, is an artist, a humourist, a bon vivant, and we think he has had something to do with Mike Ball's liveaboards for the last 14 years. One of Australasia's most prolific public speakers on issues pertaining to diving, Ron is a curious mixture of up-front dynamism and laid back sincerity. He also paints a mean picture.

Ron decided to start painting relatively late in life, inspired to capture some of the beauty of the "vivid images I have experienced that have burned a vibrant seascape into my imagination". Ron's art is an offshoot of the Australian 'Dot-Style', colourful, rich and resplendent tapestries of marine life that incorporate elements of the sea both aesthetically and physically - he uses seawater and sand in some of his pieces, for example over the years, Ron has lost a lot of his hair (but not from his legs) and gained tremendous insight into the ocean environment.

An irreverent conversationalist with a cutting wit, when the topic of underwater conservation crops up, Ron suddenly becomes serious and passionate. Actually, from tales we have heard, Ron can be quite passionate when certain other subjects come up, but that's another story… Ron learned to dive in the frigid waters of Lac Beauvert in the Canadian Rockies - hardly the most inspiring of sites really, you might get to see a couple of nervous trout, possibly a couple of minute freshwater shrimp, before the talcum powder fine glacial mud on the bottom gets stirred up and masks any further discoveries behind an impenetrable wall of silt. He soon graduated to the equally cold but far more rewarding sites around the west coast of British Columbia, and it was probably at around this time that the hair on his exposed head decided to migrate to the slightly warmer regions of his 7mm wetsuit encased legs. Eventually, Ron made some trips to Mexico, the Caribbean and Tahiti, where he found that tropical diving was a far more pleasant way to enjoy the underwater world. He finally moved to Australia where he discovered the Great Barrier Reef, the Coral Sea and Papua New Guinea, and immediately gave up the stress, headaches, poor health and chain-smoking that accompanied his former corporate life for that of a professional diver. He has no plans to put the suit back on any time soon. He can frequently be found on Mike Ball Liveaboards when he isn't slopping paint on canvass or regaling audiences around the region with his irrepressible wit and dynamic presentations. His artwork is widely sought after around the world, his work graces covers of international magazines, hangs in dive shops throughout the US and in private collections everywhere. He does exclusive commissions as well. But Ron is first and foremost and environmentalist, and he is always looking for ways to use his art to benefit environmental issues. He has donated his work to many environmental concerns and is constantly looking for new avenues to promote awareness of the need to conserve and protect his beloved marine environment. You can find out more about Ron/Rogest, the man, the artist, the diver, the environmentalist and the hairy legs at www.rogest.com.