LOWER MERION – Diving has been a major part of the lives of Christine Vilardo and Richard McGarvey for many decades.

Now, after 30 years of being in the business of diving, they are looking forward to putting some of that work to the side and getting back to the fun of diving.

Unfortunately for their longtime customers, that means their favorite storefront dive shop, Aqua Hut Dive and Travel, on Rittenhouse Place in Ardmore has closed.

“Now we’ll have time to go diving for fun,” Vilardo said as she tended to a few last-minute customers on the last day the shop was open, Sept. 30. “We’ll have time to get together with divers for happy hours or have cocktails – do the fun part, which was the reason we got into it in the first place – to travel and hang out with fun people. We are looking forward to having time to do that now.”