JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — “The ocean has been a significant part of my family’s life, and my brother was also passionate about diving,” Emily Leone recalled, thinking of her brother, John Leone from Jacksonville. He was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 20 in 2015.

Following John’s passing, his father, sister, and friend—along with artificial reef creator Joe Kistel—worked together to submerge a statue of Jesus, establishing a memorial dive site in his honor.

“The Leones are a Catholic family,” Kistel noted. He said the goal was to make the Jesus statue the center of the John C. Leone Memorial Reef.

Within a year, the statue was covered with marine life and fish were all around it.

The reef is 70 deep, 20 miles from the Jacksonville Inlet and 20 miles from the St. Augustine inlet and about 12 miles east of Mickler’s Landing.

In 2016, Hurricane Matthew knocked it over. The Leones and Kistel set the Jesus statue upright.

In 2018, the area around the statue was enhanced with thousands of pounds of concrete spheres and leftover materials from construction sites, expanding the reef. This development transformed it into a vibrant location for both marine life and divers.

Later, it was discovered that the Jesus statue in 2018 had fallen for the second time, and it’s been that way since.

Jack Leone, John’s father, told First Coast News, “The one thing that was bugging me was he (the statue) was face down. I just…it was driving me crazy.”

So earlier this summer, Leone’s father, sister, Kistel and other friends dived to upright the statue.

“This thing weighs 1,000 pounds,” Kistel noted, “so you need something that can lift more than that. We had had this giant lift bag that could lift over 1,000 pounds.”

Jack Leone said, “And so they walked him 50 feet while I’m pulling them.”

The team of divers walked the statue that distance in order to put it into a culvert, or a stand, so it won’t fall over again.

The Jesus statue, with all the other concrete around it, has beckoned wildlife. It’s a favorite for local divers.

“Diving in Jacksonville is phenomenal, but the problem is it’s actually a really big secret,” Kistel said. “So a lot of people don’t know about it.”

Diving in South Florida is much more known.

“I’m personally trying to do outreach to promote what reefs we do have here to share all these really neat sites to encourage diving,” Kistel said.

As for the recent resurrection of the Jesus statue, Jack Leone smiled, “I think John was helping us. I’ve just got a chill actually. It was crazy. He’s crazy about it. I know that for sure.”

“You know it’s serving its purpose as a memorial site and the reef is a fully functioning ecosystem…which is just amazing to see through my brother’s death, there’s still life,” Emily Leone said. “Everything is thriving and just growing every daywhich is really amazing.”

For more information about this reef and others, check out Kistel Media by clicking here.