Aquatic Cowboy of the Ozarks

A Commercial Diving Team Finds Lost Treasures.

It was a chilly November day in 2025 on the powerful and unpredictable Missouri River near the small town of Brunswick, located in central Missouri. A 40-foot-long, 36-inch diameter pipe had accidentally rolled off a barge and sank to the riverbed, creating a massive, immobile underwater obstacle, a snag in the river that could easily gouge a passing barge hull or destroy propellers in the narrow channel. A large dropped pipe moving into a rapidly moving sandy reach of the Missouri River could trigger localized sediment redistribution within days, potentially creating scour holes and downstream sandbars depending on the current and channel conditions. Within a week, it could catch drifting timber and create a large debris raft, posing dangers to recreational boaters. Without swift action, the pipe could damage underwater structures and pose an immense risk to vessels and people.

The Missouri River is a fast-moving navigable river. This is especially true at this part of the Big Muddy, where levees, wing dams, and rock dikes have created a high-velocity channel with currents averaging three to five miles per hour, which can create strong, hazardous undertows. And the river is loaded with hidden dangers for divers beneath its swirling boils and ripples—shifting sandbars, sunken logs, hooked trotlines, and submerged wing dams.

Booker DeRousse, an expert commercial diver, has been called on by the barge company to save the day. Booker owns a dive recovery service at the Lake of the Ozarks called the Aquatic Cowboy. Booker’s task is to secure the dropped pipe underwater so that the barge company can lift and place it back on the barge. This is a preventative measure since no damage has been done yet by the pipe, but it is time sensitive.

He dons full scuba gear, including a wet suit, oxygen, and a regulator. The gear is strapped onto him primarily through a buoyancy control device, a backpack-style harness that holds the tank, regulator, and accessories securely in place. Before adding around 30 pounds of lead to his gear—double his normal weight for a dive—to ensure he sinks to the riverbed without being swept away, Booker sits on a barge and does something he rarely does: He writes a goodbye note to his loved ones in case something goes wrong and he doesn’t make it back. If the current would pin him against the pipe or any other obstacle, the crushing water pressure could instantly trap him, turning his own safety tether into a lethal snare.

Plunging 30 feet below the zero-visibility water, Booker navigates by touch, relying on his safety tether. He lands within two feet of the pipe and finds it in the darkness while fighting the rushing current. While he struggles to get his arms around the pipe, he is able to secure it with straps and shackles, and the pipe is now ready for the barge company to lift. He uses his own rigging to pull himself safely to the surface.

This is coming from a guy who has a chunk of his right leg missing due to a bull shark bite he sustained while spearfishing.

TANGLED ANCHOR

Booker has been obsessed with the water and diving since childhood. “My first time diving was at Lake of the Ozarks when I was about 12,” he says. “A buddy’s dad got me into it, and I fell in love with it.”

Later, while working in the Florida Keys, a boat’s anchor became snagged on a reef. While his colleague was suiting up in scuba gear to go clear it, Booker—who had trained himself with breath-holding exercises and could hold his breath underwater up to two minutes and 45 seconds—tossed his signature cowboy hat onto the boat and free dove nearly 50 feet without fins to pull the anchor loose.

When he surfaced, his stunned coworker exclaimed, “Yeehaw, it’s the damn aquatic cowboy!” That nickname stuck and later inspired the name of his dive recovery business.

Before opening the Aquatic Cowboy, Booker was a union carpenter for 17 years, designing and building custom houses in Missouri and Tennessee. At the same time, he was gaining maritime and swift water rescue experience in Tennessee, where he piloted jet boats and earned a US Coast Guard master captain’s license that allows him to carry passengers and operate commercial vessels up to 100 gross tons.

In 2018, Booker downsized after a divorce, liquidated all his assets, and moved into an RV, traveling to Panama City Beach to obtain his dive master and scuba instructor certifications. Booker now has over 30 years of diving experience, has logged over 10,000 dives, and is certified as a search and recovery specialist, swiftwater rescue diver, and technical and extended range diver.

Booker returned to Missouri in 2023 to be closer to friends and family before starting his next venture, a seasonal position traveling with a high-end yacht company. When it was time to leave, “something didn’t feel right,” he says. His gut told him to stay home. Two months later, in May 2024, his father unexpectedly died.

“I could have been anywhere,” Booker says. “Coming home and staying here was by far the best decision I’ve made.”

After watching his father “struggle with happiness” throughout his life, Booker decided to focus his own life on the pursuit of happiness above all else. He embraces a relentlessly positive outlook on life. “I believe in ‘no bad days.’ I’m extremely happy, day in, day out, and I make it a priority.”

On a whim, Booker decided to run boat charters. But then he accidentally dropped his phone off a dock while attending a bachelor party. He didn’t have his diving gear with him and had to play a gig that night—Booker is also a singer and a self-proclaimed “happy campfire guitar player”—so he went back to dive for the phone the next morning. He posted the successful retrieval on social media and was bombarded with local requests to retrieve lost items. He ended up completing 115 recoveries that year.

“I found something I love to do and found a way to make a living doing it,” Booker says. “Never in a million years did I suspect that I would be back home where it all started over 30 years ago.”

He set a goal to execute 200 recoveries his second summer and blew that number out of the water, reaching more than 370. Now in his third year, he has already recovered more than 430. The team has expanded their recovery operations to being available 24/7, 365 days a year.

NO-FIND, NO-FEE GUARANTEE

Most of Booker’s work is far less harrowing than the recovery of the pipe in the swift Missouri River. The company’s primary offering is a 24/7 lost item recovery service to retrieve everything from boat parts to irreplaceable heirlooms. There is a “no-find, no- fee” guarantee for items lost off docks or in finite search areas with a high likelihood of recovery, especially if the owner knows where the item was dropped.

“I’ve found dentures and hearing aids for people. Last year I found a glass eyeball for a guy,” he says. “I really love finding stuff that can’t be replaced, no matter how big or small. If it means something to somebody, it means something to us.”

Booker has been known not to charge for recovering sentimental items, like a custom-built fishing pole that had been passed down to a great-granddaughter or a great-grandfather’s ring that was lost when a man accidentally threw it into a lake while tossing a catfish back in the water. Booker quickly found the ring, and instead of charging him, he gave him a hat and shirt with the Aquatic Cowboy Dive logo, which features an image of a bull shark like the one that bit his leg. He also discounts services or completely waives fees for firefighters, law enforcement, nurses, and veterans. “They take care of us; we take care of them,” he says.

Aquatic Cowboy divers perform safety inspections around swimming docks for real estate agents and homebuyers. While doing these, he has discovered sunken boats, steel metal barrels, crappie beds, Christmas trees, and a metal barstool protruding just six feet below a jump platform. “You’d be surprised what’s down there,” he says. “PVC structures, debris, lots of things people could get hurt on.”

Booker also does “treasure hunts” for fun, noting that he likes to dive “especially after big float trips,” just to see what was dropped. When he finds abandoned vehicles or firearms, he reports them to the authorities, and after they investigate the items, he sometimes gets to hear the story behind them.

The team performs extensive commercial dive operations for cable replacements, hull cleaning, underwater infrastructure repair, and setting massive anchors weighing up to 3,600 pounds that are used to secure and stabilize docks or other structures. Often this kind of diving support is a more efficient and affordable solution for businesses than pulling entire structures out of the water for repair.

While Aquatic Cowboy officially operates in 10 areas surrounding the Lake of the Ozarks, it has partnered with statewide dive and recovery services to serve all of Missouri. This means those seeking a recovery diver or any other diving service can reach out to Aquatic Cowboy, and if the job is outside their typical operational area, they will coordinate support through their extended dive team.

Above water, Aquatic Cowboy operates a fleet of tritoons—pontoon boats equipped with three tubes—and other large vessels, often hired for parties, corporate retreats, and family charters. Already this season, nearly 150 charters have been booked, and Booker plans to expand his team of captains to accommodate more charters.

Nearly half of Aquatic Cowboys recoveries happen while they are already out on the water with customers. When a call comes in, they make a detour, complete the dive in 20 to 30 minutes, and finish the charter. They treat the unexpected dive as entertainment, giving guests a unique show while performing a service.

This year, Booker is sending staff to an underwater welding school so he can expand the scope of his structural repair services. He plans to invest in new technologies, such as underwater metal detectors and GoPro-equipped diving masks with internal communication systems so divers can not only communicate with those on the boat and at shore but also narrate their recoveries in real time. His company is also launching Sober Captain Services to combat the high rates of boating under the influence. This niche service enables clients to have a professional captain return a vessel safely back to the dock.

ZERO VISIBILITY DIVES

Once underwater in murky conditions, divers seeking lost items face a psychological challenge. There is a mental toll of operating in the dark, sediment-filled water. “It’s easier on our minds to shut our eyes,” Booker explains, because when you are in the dark with your eyes open, your brain struggles to process the lack of input and “plays tricks on you.”

To combat the challenge of working in zero-visibility waters, divers use weighted drop lines with specific knots tied at intervals so they can calculate their depth strictly by feel and adjust their buoyancy so as not to stir up mud. Searching by means of a grid is another methodical technique they use; divers use a weighted line as a central anchor, first searching the immediate area with their hands and then “creeping out and doing circles.” The team also uses an underwater metal detector that relies on audio frequencies to locate items buried deep in the mud.

Because of hidden hazards and the inherent dangers of scuba diving, strict safety protocols are essential. “Diving is a buddy sport,” Booker emphasizes. “Somebody knows where I am and when I should be back,” he says. If no one hears from a diver within 30 minutes, they will know their whereabouts and can call for help.

Booker operates in a constant state of readiness, seamlessly blending the charter business with around-the-clock recovery services. His team always carries their dive gear while working charter jobs. They are uniquely positioned to drop what they are doing to assist with emergencies, like boat crashes or people stranded in the water, often arriving on scene before official emergency responders.

Last year, the company partnered with UpStream Towing, a veteran and locally owned towing and vessel response service, to extract a massive two-inch thick rope that was floating across the main channel at Chimney Point and stopping boats and destroying propellers.

Booker loves the unpredictable nature of his job and takes joy in helping people. “It doesn’t matter what time that phone rings, I get a smile on my face,” he says. “We get to go do something, be a part of somebody’s vacation, be a story to somebody, give people something back that can’t replaced.”

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This article was orginally printed in the July/August 2026 issue of Missouri Life.