I Don’t Need Two Legs to Be a Great Diver with ex-Paralympic Swimmer Rosie Bancroft, and How to Save the World’s Coral Reefs in Your Next Shower with Annie Crawley

SPEAKER_04 0:03

Season two of the Deep Blue Podcast is brought to you by Sunto. Finnish engineering, pirating adventure from mountaintop to ocean floor since 1936. Sunto. Welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast, your weekly guide to everything that is happening around the world underwater. My name is Stephen Whelan. I'm the founder of DeeperBlue.com, the world's most popular diving website. Every week, the Deeper Blue Podcast covers everything that's happening in the scuba diving, freediving, diving travel, and ocean advocates world. So join us as we explore the Deeper Blue. Hi, it's episode three of season two of the Deeper Blue Podcast. In this episode, you can look forward to all the latest scuba diving, free diving, ocean, and diving travel news that's happened in the past week from around the world underwater. Then our producer Jisna Leas speaks with Rosie Bancroft, a British zoologist, conservationist, and ex-Paralympic swimmer. Rosie talks about how diving with one leg has shaped so much of her worldview, and an incredible night dive in Thailand that changed her life forever. We then hear from women's Hall of Fame diver Annie Crawley about a simple way to help the world's reefs that started in the shower. And then finally, we hear an incredible best dive ever from Sarah Backville, whose brief story is both beautiful and breathtaking. So, Jason, uh another week of some ocean and diving news to uh to cover. First one, actually, uh have you done anything on TikTok? Do you know what TikTok is?

SPEAKER_06 2:15

I have seen it. I mean, I know my niece tells me about it. She's 16, she talks a lot about TikTok. I've been in a few of her TikTok videos dancing. So yeah, I would call myself an expert. An expert.

SPEAKER_04 2:24

Very good. So there is a marine biologist, Andriana Fragola, who has gone viral this week with a video, which uh I'm a bit torn about. So the video is of her describing how she is interacting with a to quote the the mainstream media, a deadly tiger shark.

SPEAKER_06 2:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

Uh and this went bonkers insane on TikTok viral.

SPEAKER_06 2:50

And it didn't even have dance music behind it.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

No. So she says she's doing her 60-second video about how to how to be safe whilst interacting with a tiger shark.

SPEAKER_06 2:59

Right. The reason the video went viral is because it's a video of her off the coast of Hawaii in deep water, and the tiger shark is swimming up towards her, and she says, here's how you fend off a tiger shark if it starts coming towards you. Now, looking at the video, so it got to something like over four million views as of yesterday on TikTok. One of the the reason it got got viral, of course, it's got a shark in it, a giant tiger shark.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

Which unfortunately, everyone thinks sharks are big, scary, dangerous animals. Which they can be, you know, like any big wild animal or mammal, you have to be respectful of. She's a marine biologist, she knows what she's talking about, and you know, it has a hook for people to, you know, sharks are fascinating for people. The bit I I struggle a little bit with, and it's a constant debate that rages in the shark conservation world, is when you go diving, you shouldn't touch anything. And you know, she is actually touching and interacting with the shark in the video, which I I have a bit of a problem with, to be honest.

SPEAKER_06 3:56

Right. So I can't I don't know that I can blame her for the interaction she had with the shark. I agree with what you're saying that keeping your hands off wildlife as much as possible is probably something that I would ascribe to as well, unless you, of course, you're in danger. Now, the video that she posted does show the shark swimming directly towards her, but in a non-aggressive manner. I mean, I wasn't there, so I I don't know. I've had an interaction with the tiger shark that scared the shit out of me, but I also know that I just might have not had the experience. Now, she's a marine biologist, and I give her all credit for what she was really saying here. She posted in a series of on her videos saying, like, here's what you do if you have a shark coming towards you. Now, the issue comes around that, of course, this went viral on TikTok and it made it to the sun. It's in the sun of in in England, so it's gotten into the kind of the tabloids a little bit because of course it harkens back to the idea that the world is full of scary things, including giant man-eating sharks. And so you can't blame so although you can't blame her for this video, it does call the question why it might have gone viral. And social media is such a complex thing, right?

SPEAKER_04 5:02

It is totally. The big issue I have is we need to stop perpetuating the view that sharks are and it's the wording, I think, of some of the stuff I not in her video, but in the press, the mainstream press, where they talk about deadly tiger shark. It's very inflammatory language. That's something that I really struggle with.

SPEAKER_06 5:18

Again, though, I don't know that she can be blamed for that here, because she posted something, which actually is good information for how to interact with a shark that might be aggressive with you. We weren't in the water with her. We don't know how aggressive the shark actually was from the video. It doesn't appear to be, but then again, that's us judging from our safe. I can see the office behind you, your cavernous office with the with the Florida ceiling. So I don't want to judge her, but I think what ends up happening is that we're all kind of aware of how these things can be picked up and then circulated into media where it becomes a much larger story and plays into kind of the prejudice and biases against wildlife that we're trying to break.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

That being said, interestingly, another news story from this week, Jason, the theme tuned to Jaws seemingly is diminishing. It's the volume's been turned down ever so slightly. This is because uh studies come out and said, What are you most scared of in the water? And for probably the first time, people have said they're more scared of drowning and of jellyfish than they are of sharks.

SPEAKER_06 6:22

Right. Um it's hard to take the news of what's the most terrifying thing in the water as good news, but the fact that it's not sharks is a good sign that maybe people's their view of sharks is somewhat shifting.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

And yeah, there was 400 people that were were polled, and then it was in Australia, University of South Australia that did the poll. Australia has their fair share of interactions with sharks. I I think there's positive stuff to come out of this.

SPEAKER_06 6:47

I think it's good news, and I think it's also speaks to like the community that would listen to this podcast in general, anyways. Because we anyone that listens to this is obviously someone that gets in the water, and most people that actually get in the water with sharks, even if we have a latent fear of sharks, we all understand we've all had interactions with them, and we all understand that they're incredible majestic animals, and we are at the forefront of the conversation around this because we're the ones that have actually been in the water with them, and so there's a sense that we have the obligation to change that narrative around sharks. And it's nice to hear that we're not fighting the movie Jaws anymore.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Well, we are still fighting the movie Jaws, just to the volume's been turned down on the theme music just ever so slightly. It's good news. It's good news, absolutely. Next up, we have a bit of an update. So last week we talked about freediver David Venkel.

SPEAKER_06 7:29

David Venkel.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

So he was going to attempt to break the world record that Stig Severinson, the Danish world champion freediver, had set in 2017 by braving temperatures of three degrees Celsius in only a swimsuit. I have to say, I've seen the video. It's uh calling a very slim speedo a swimsuit. It's making uh out to be more than it is.

SPEAKER_06 7:52

Of course, he also he and I share body types. He is, I would say, about 0.03% body fat, and I'm just just slightly higher than that.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

Just not nudging, but just huge congratulations to David.

SPEAKER_06 8:06

I will say there are some crazy photos of it. There are there's a photo of him underneath the ice, swimming face up just below the surface of the ice. It's a crazy photo.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

This is what these people do. It's insane. It's it's pretty insane. I remember when Stig did his one back in 2017, it went properly viral. So this isn't a formal free diving discipline, it's a Guinness World Records. It's a bit of a stunt, but it's a pretty amazing stunt.

SPEAKER_06 8:28

It's also somewhat insane. I fully respect people that are out there that want to push the boundaries of things. He's pushing the boundary in a way that I just think is absolute crazy. And the best part is the photo of him underneath the ice, it's a flat, glassy piece of ice, and he's underneath it. He looks kind of like Han Solo when he's frozen in the Vampire Strikes back. He's kind of like crawling along the bottom of the ice like that. But the best part is there's someone on the shore off in the distance who looks like they're shrieking in horror that this is happening.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

So that's how most people react to free diving generally.

SPEAKER_06 8:56

Congrats. What's so what's next?

SPEAKER_04 8:58

There's a pretty big movie that some people may have heard about coming out, which is the new Avatar movie. James Cameron's Avatar, highest grossing film of all time, or something along those lines. They're filming and have been filming for the last two years in New Zealand. There's been a principal cast filming out in New Zealand for the next two movies. They're filmed number two and number three back to back. And one of the principal stars is Kate Winslet, British actress of Titanic fame. She learns to free dive as part of it. In fact, all the primary casts did. And Kirk Krock, who we've had on the podcast in season one, he helped train them. And during this, she set a personal best of a seven-minute, 14-second static breath hole. So this is just floating face down in the water holding your breath. And she was reported to have said when she came up from this dive, Am I dead? Yes. I thought I died. Which goes back to the popular mainstream view of what freing is, which is a very dangerous sport, which of course it's it isn't. But this is amazing and just shows that literally anyone can learn to free dive safely with the right tuition.

SPEAKER_06 10:04

Wasn't there a viral video of uh Tom Cruise with Kirk as well? Like there was a viral video of him on standing on some steps and holding his breath for like six and a half minutes or something. He did.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

Kirk has made a bit of a name for himself teaching superstar film stars how to free dive, hold their breath. And Tom Cruise was one of them. So one of the mission possible movies a few years ago, he had learned.

SPEAKER_06 10:24

So that was the um I can't wait for this movie to come out because in a lot of ways it's gonna really hopefully it'll help expand the conversation about being underwater. I mean, I think most of it takes place underwater, which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

So Kirk described it, it is going to be the greatest diving movie ever made. That is the way he describes it. It's predominantly underwater, and it's all free diving, which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 10:43

And Cameron's a huge diver himself. As an aside, I'm a photographer, advertising photographer, and I was on a shoot down in Tahiti a couple years ago, and I was on a little leaky rowboat for my crew to go shoot in, and the dive guides said to us, look over there, you can see this luxury yacht. And I said, Oh, what is that? And they said, That's James Cameron. He's chartered that boat for a month just to dive all the greatest spots in Tahiti. I was like, Oh, must be nice. There's a difference between James Cameron and Jason Elias in terms of when you go diving in Tahiti.

SPEAKER_04 11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:14

Slightly, slight disparity.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

Slight disparity. Okay, fair enough. We'll we'll have to fix that, Jason. Also, interestingly, uh, that's the second time we've done this that you've mentioned you're an advertising photographer. Are you pitching for work whilst we're doing this?

SPEAKER_06 11:26

I'm available. Available. You're available. Call my agent.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Excellent.

SPEAKER_06 11:30

What's the next story?

SPEAKER_04 11:31

It's a British royalty story. We feel it, I feel it's important being British to bring up the royals uh whenever we can. So the late Princess Diana, her brother Earl Spencer, is sending divers on a quest to uncover a famous shipwreck. So there's a royal shipwreck that sank 900 years ago. It's called the White Ship, and it's where the only heir of King Henry I perished.

SPEAKER_06 11:55

So if we brought my wife in here, she's a royalty nerd. If I were to show her like some leather saddle from the 14th century, she'd be like, oh, I think King King Oswald of All Scots rode that into battle against the Battle of Hastings. Like, I don't know, and I know none of this. So she would know who Henry I is. I'm not quite sure. I know he sounds like a king. Is this a very famous story in British history?

SPEAKER_04 12:18

You probably would have required me to spend more time paying attention in school before uh before answering this. So Henry I know about, but I don't know about the specific shipwreck. In uh my understanding is in in royal circles, this is a famous shipwreck. Okay. Uh it was carrying King Henry I's only son at the time, a Prince William. Okay. The bodyguards almost ferried the royal to safety via the only safety longboat on the ship. But however, the prince insisted that they turn back to save his sister, and that unfortunately meant he perished as part of it. So it's in British royal history, it is quite important. The aim of this expedition is to go and see what they can find. There's there's nothing wrong there.

SPEAKER_06 12:58

Next story.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Having done quite a lot of Lego with my daughters this week, I thought this would be quite a cool story. Lego, they put together a competition on a regular basis where you could any anyone, you, me, any of the listeners, can submit a design. It goes to a competition, and if it wins, it becomes an actual thing you can buy. And so in the latest competition, a person submitted a freediving design. This is an absolutely beautiful freediving design. I've seen pictures of it. It's got a boat and a diving platform, and it's got a line coming down, several lines with free divers going down. And there's a reef system. It is, it I mean, it's amazing. Kudos to Thomas Kiwata Kawasi. His inspiration came from the blue hole in Dahab in Egypt and the vertical blue competition in the Dean's blue hole in the Bahamas.

SPEAKER_06 13:50

It is absolutely incredible. There's a couple of things I love about it. First off, the reef that he built is stunning. It is it's it's so, it feels so as if Legos could actually inhabit the spirit of a coral reef. That's actually what it does. There's even a, I don't know if you've clicked through, there's a skeleton sunk underneath one of the caves. All the divers are incredible. The boat itself is incredible. It is so beautifully done. He also has a very crowded dive boat, and we've all been on one of those. So it feels like it's unsafe how many people are on that boat, but we've all done that for sure. So that's also true to life. There's divers going down lines. There's there's a tank being held from a line for the free diver to go down. It's I wish he would put this out himself so I could buy it, so my son could play with it.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

Interestingly, the tank, I think it's a counter ballast system if I'm being technically accurate.

SPEAKER_06 14:41

Oh, I see. Well, I thought it was a tank. I'm not a free diver. I'm a flopsum.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

That's what you are.

SPEAKER_06 14:48

I'm a piece of seaweed floating around in the surge, so I wouldn't know that. All props to the guy who made this. It's very impressive. So what's next?

SPEAKER_04 14:55

Our friends over at Fourth Elements, who are the team that have designed all these really cool dry suits and wetsuits and stuff for scuba diving, they've taken their first foray into free diving and they've just launched their first recreational free diving suit. I mean, this thing looks stunning. You would it makes anyone look like James Bonds, this suit. It really honestly does. Even me.

SPEAKER_06 15:17

What is the difference between a technical freediving suit, I guess that's what you call it, and a recreational freediving suit?

SPEAKER_04 15:22

So the big difference is it's it's recreational versus competitive. Recreational suits tend to be a bit tougher. In scuba diving, you have a lot of flushing that goes through your suit, you get water that comes in and you get little chills going down your back and so on. And in free diving, you don't want that. You want it to be as close fitting to you as possible with minimal or no flushing through the suit to keep you warm. And free diving suits keep you very, very warm for very long periods of time. And they're very, very flexible. They're usually made of these very soft materials because you need flexibility. But a recreational suit versus competitive suit. So competitive suit is a lot more fragile, but it because it's a lot more flexible, it's designed to really enhance the performance of the athlete essentially. And it's the first of a line of free diving suits they're they're going to be looking at. So they've got some competitive stuff coming out later in the year.

SPEAKER_06 16:04

I have to say, uh, Fourth Element is a friend of our pod for sure, but I would also say that they really do great stuff. I mean, we know the two owners of the company, super cool guys, but they also seem to have the good head on their shoulders. They have the right view of how things work, and their stuff is super high quality.

SPEAKER_04 16:21

Paul Strike, one of the co-founders, on season one. So you can go back and have a listen on season one if you haven't heard all.

SPEAKER_06 16:26

There you go. Okay, what's next?

SPEAKER_04 16:28

So now last story.

SPEAKER_06 16:29

Here we go.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Apologies for those people who listen who don't have kids.

SPEAKER_06 16:32

But if you have kids, baby shark, do you do it?

SPEAKER_04 16:41

So and I mean, pretty much in everyone's consciousness, right? They will have heard this god-awful song about a baby shock.

SPEAKER_06 16:49

That prys itself into your brain and particularly your children's brain. I think it has over two billion views on YouTube, I think.

SPEAKER_04 16:57

Yeah, it is definitely one of the most viewed videos on YouTube ever.

SPEAKER_06 17:00

Anyone has a kid who knows baby shark, and now people have discovered there is a real-life baby shock.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

There's a there's a shock that's been discovered. It's a mutant shock with has a distinctly human appearance with two large round eyes underneath its snout. Again, it was discovered. It was uh yeah, yeah. I I we've been scouring the tabloids this week for our story.

SPEAKER_06 17:23

Just so we know, Steve, we both bring news stories to this news section. Steven brings the ones that are relevant and germane to the dive community, and I bring the ones that are inane and weird. And so you can guess who brought this one to this to the story list.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

It's a pretty crazy one.

SPEAKER_06 17:38

It does look like a baby shark, though.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

This this looks look for mutant baby shark online and you'll come across these pictures. And it is totally crazy. Fan Indonesia by Fishman. And all I'll say is look at that picture when you when you see it, and and try not to hear baby shot do do do do baby shot. Just try not to when you do it.

SPEAKER_06 18:02

All right. Well, I think we've rambled on long enough. I think that on that note, that's the news for the week.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

That's the news for the week. Hi, I'm Mark Caney, author of Dolphin Way, Rise of the Guardians. And you're listening to the best 30 minutes about diving. The Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_06 18:27

Hi, this is Jason Olius, producer of the Deeper Blue Podcast. In today's episode, I speak with Rosie Bancroft, zoologist, conservationist, and a woman who trained for the Rio Paralympics with the Teen Grey Britain swim team. Rosie is also fairly well known on Instagram as One Fin Wanderer, where she shares stories about what it is like to dive with one leg. I found Rosie to be delightful to speak with just before she headed off to Indonesia for further scientific training around sharks, rays, and marine biology. And Rosie shared how being in the ocean had in many ways helped reorient her view of having one leg, and also how one magical night dive in Thailand had changed her life forever.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

I'm Rosie Bancroft. I am in Oxford right now in England, but hoping to be in Indonesia diving pretty soon, about to start off on my dive master career. And I was a TMGB paraswimmer.

SPEAKER_06 19:24

You're also a zoologist.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Yeah, so I've graduated with a degree in zoology. I've just always had this draw towards animals and wildlife, and from a child, I can just remember wanting to be near animals, wanting to have pets, just being really fascinated with them, probably preferring them to humans, to be honest with you. And I actually did a work experience with a vet in South Africa and decided I don't want to be a vet, but I wanted to study animals instead of treat them. So that's how I came to do zoology, and then through my zoology degree, I've just been absolutely fascinated in conservation and just feel so strongly about it and really know that's what I want to do with my life after this.

SPEAKER_06 20:01

Now you also mentioned you're a team GB para-swimmer.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Yes, well, I was.

SPEAKER_06 20:07

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 20:08

So I represented GB and I trained with the GB team in paraswimming. So for anyone who doesn't know, that's swimmers with a disability training for the Paralympics. I did that for a long time. Actually had to do my degree part-time to fit in all of the swimming that I was doing. And I just missed out on making the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

SPEAKER_06 20:30

Now, for people that don't know who you are, why would you be competing in the Paralympic Games?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

That's a good question. So I am missing my right leg below the knee, and I wear a prosthetic because just on land. When I swim, I don't wear a prosthetic.

SPEAKER_06 20:44

Most people that swim or go diving have both legs and you have one. And you've mentioned before we started talking here that it's not that big a deal. Yet you also talk about there was an arc for you to get to that place. Can you tell us a little bit about when you first connected to the water and if having one leg was an obstacle for you and what that's led to?

SPEAKER_01 21:04

I don't see my leg as an obstacle to anything, especially now. Mentally, though, it was quite hard when I was a kid and I was growing up. Part of the reason is because I just felt like there wasn't many people I could relate to, like in movies or on magazines. I couldn't relate to many people. I didn't think I looked like them, and I found that hard. And I also did find that that made me very embarrassed of having one leg for a long time. Especially as a kid, I think growing up is hard enough, especially when you're in your early teens, let alone if you've got something that really makes you stand out. Yeah, I did find that hard, but I've always found that my biggest connection to the water was because that was where I felt completely free and I didn't feel like any limitations on me, which I did feel a lot of times walking around or trying to do sport in school. So being in the water, in any water really, has been huge in my life, actually. So I would spend my summers in the lakes. My family has a cottage in Canada and we would spend every summer in the water. I would also spend my my days jumping off a springboard at my local pool. So I was always very connected, and I think being in the ocean was just something that just felt like home to me.

SPEAKER_06 22:16

So for someone that has not had much experience with people that have one leg swimming or scuba diving, how do you do that?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

I just have one fin. I have seen people that have two that have a prosthetic with a fin, but I don't really find it holds me back at all. I I can't imagine having two fins to be honest with you. Obviously, my whole swimming career as well, I've just swum with one leg. So diving with one leg was just normal. Sometimes I do find if I dive a lot, and I'm a bit worried about this with my dive master, that my ankle gets quite sore. But that's the only thing I find. If anything, my one leg that I do have is pretty strong, if I say so myself. It has to be really. So I don't actually feel at all disadvantaged when I'm in the water. That's fascinating.

SPEAKER_06 23:00

You're heading to Indonesia soon. Yes. Where does this all lead to? What kind of career do you see coming from all of this?

SPEAKER_01 23:07

To be honest with you, that's what I'm trying to work out right now. But I am really passionate about conservation. I'm completely fascinated by sharks. So that's a massive thing for me. And I would love to be in shark conservation in some way. I'm going to be getting my dive master and getting qualified in doing research techniques under the water. So that's going to be a first point of call for me and just see where I go from there. I'd just love to be able to base my whole life around conserving the ocean and conserving sharks. That would be my dream. But how I get there from A to B, I'm not entirely sure yet.

SPEAKER_06 23:39

Where are you going in Indonesia and what are you going to do there?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

It's an island just off Bali, New Sapanida, but it's famous for its manta rays and amazing wildlife, really. So I'm really excited about that. And I'd be getting qualified in coral restoration, turtle ecology, shark ecology, ray ecology, conservation, and the data we'll be collecting will be going directly into research. So I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_06 24:04

So with all the experiences in the ocean you've had, is there one moment, one story where you really felt deeply connected to the water in some way?

SPEAKER_01 24:14

I've had a lot of times where I've felt really connected. But there's one time where I feel like I will just never ever forget. Because it was one of my first experiences of diving, it was the new feeling of it and this like amazement. So for me, as I said before, I've always felt so connected to the water and so happy in the water and like more myself when I'm swimming. So when I was in learning to dive, it was Kotao in Thailand. I had finished my open water course. I'd planned to carry on and go to Australia, but I ended up changing my flight so I could stay and do my advanced because I just couldn't get enough of the diving and I just didn't want to stop. So we were doing the advanced course, and I had a whole day of diving, and it was amazing. We were going out on my very first night dive, and I remember being very unsure and a bit nervous. We jumped in the water and felt like I was in space because you're just floating and you're just completely free, and it's pitch black around you. But the amazing things that I saw on that dive, I just felt like I wasn't even on the same planet. I felt like I was in a different world. We saw all of these rays underneath us, and then barracudas hunting, and then we came to the bottom, and my instructor shone his torch, and there was this jellyfish. It's like I've never seen anything like this. It was like a rainbow going all the way up it and then down it. Like it had LED lights to it or something. And so I was just completely in awe of this jellyfish. And then he starts splashing in the water, and there was like a thousand fireflies all around us because it was the bioluminescent plankton was in the water. And I just literally sat on the bottom of the ocean in pitch black, looked around me, I just thought this is just the most amazing thing I've ever experienced, and I just never want to stop diving. I came out of the water and I felt like it changed, it changed my life after that. Because I was just this diving is this is for me, this this is really amazing. And being under the water and being that close to it and feeling that connected to it. Because it was at night and it was peaceful, and it was the most amazing experience. I'll never forget it.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

The world underwater. Every week. I'm Julie Reif, spearfisher, free diver, mom of two, and this is the Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_06 27:34

The Deeper Blue Podcast is brought to you by Cindal. So one of the things we're going to talk about today is how a lot of the Cinto Dive computers now have a PSI bar on the screen, making diving easier as all your information is on one screen. Now, for someone that floats through the water like I do, like a piece of dead seaweed.

SPEAKER_04 28:06

That's an image that I like.

SPEAKER_06 28:07

I float along, I float like a piece of seaweed tangled around a log. That's how I that's my diving skill set. I will have to say that I really do appreciate the idea of taking everything off of my plate because I'm basically just down there surviving. And so if I can have a watch like that that just tells me exactly what I need to know with a quick glance, that's pretty epic. I do like that. Now I know it goes to all kinds of professional level people, like people like you know, down to dead wood like me.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

This stuff is pretty cool. So look, I remember starting my journey in diving where you had your tank pressure gauge that you you had to take a look at, and you know, I was always obsessively checking it. And then as I started becoming dive master and then instructor, and I started checking obsessively all the people who are around me. And the great thing now is you just flick your wrist up, look at your computer, and it has a nice bar across it that tells you how much pressure is left in your tank.

SPEAKER_06 29:02

And then Sunto also has watches for the dive masters so that they can actually see what other people are doing. So if it's someone like you, dive master, that has someone like me, dead wood on the trip, flutsome piece of seaweed drifting in the in the in the surge, then you can also be watching out for me. Basically, I just want to make sure that I'm safe. So I need you to say make sure I'm safe by looking at your watch, which that's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_04 29:28

I think if I remember correctly, some of them connect up to 20 of these little, they've got what they call a pod which attaches to your cylinder and and it can connect to up to so like the Cunto Ian core and the in steel can connect to you know 20 of these things.

SPEAKER_06 29:42

That's pretty awesome. I also like I like the old names that Cunto's chosen, copper, steel. Like I like these names. They're they're exciting to me. I'm obviously very easily influenced by marketing language.

SPEAKER_04 29:55

Well, we'll we'll let we'll let Cunto know that you're easily persuaded around it. So uh they should target some messaging to you.

SPEAKER_06 30:02

That's exactly right. Well, thank you for sponsoring the podcast, Cunto.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 30:06

Cunto Today's top tip comes from Women's Diving Hall of Fame member Annie Crawley. And Annie shares a very important reef-saving hygiene tip.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

So when I go diving in warm water, I love to feel the ocean flowing through my hair. So I don't actually like to bungee it up the way I do when I'm in cold water and I put a hood on and I have to bungee it all my hair all the way down. Put the hood on. I don't like that at all when I go to warm water. So my tip for everybody is to always use shampoo and conditioner that is reef safe. It is so important that we don't put the chemicals in the ocean. We have to think of everything we're doing so that we're not polluting the sea. So that is my top tip for divers.

SPEAKER_05 31:20

Hi, I'm Sarah from Sweden. I'm uh 53 years old and live in the Stockholm area. I'm gonna tell you about my best dive ever. This is like 20 years ago, I turned 35, and my husband surprised me with a ticket to Thingvalier, Iceland, to go diving. We're actually quite comfortable in the water. We've been diving for a long time, and we were diving there, and the visibility was like 200 meters, and it was like, as long as you can see, there's actually no fish, and the water was super cold. And then he dove away from me and he stopped by a rock, and he waved to me and said, Come over, come over. And I came over and he has been written on this thing on your sleeve that you can write on with the pencil. I don't know what it's called in English. He wrote, Do you want to marry me? Do you want to be mine forever? And he has attached two rings on the side of the board that you write on. And I said, Yes, I want to be yours forever. And we kissed on the water, and then we went straight up to the surface and swam ashore to the shore. I wasn't there really that far away. And he had this bottle of champagne in his leg pocket on his dry suit, and we sat there laughing, kissing, and drinking champagne. It was beautiful. And we were happily married for a long time. Unfortunately, he's died. He died in a car accident four years ago. He didn't even have a chance to die in the water. We were super happy, and it was the best dive of my life.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

We'd love to hear your story about diving. So at the end of the show, you'll find out all the info you need to submit your best dive ever. Thanks for listening to the Deeperblue Podcast. Find out more on all the stories you've heard this week, plus connect to the world's largest online dive community at deeperblue.com. And if you like what you've heard, please subscribe, like, and comment wherever you hear your podcasts. These comments and subscribes really make a difference. The Deeperblue Podcast is brought to you by Sunto, Finnish Engineering, Pioneering Adventure from Mountaintop to Ocean Floor since 1936. Sunto. Before we go, I want to give a big shout out to Jason Elias, our producer. In case you didn't know, he has an amazing podcast about people who have a deep connection to our world's oceans. Connections strong enough that they've dedicated some part of their lives to being in or working on Path of the Water. Take a listen when you get a moment to Jason's show, the Big Deep Podcast. Every week, we want to hear your stories and share them with the world. So please record and send in your short story of your best dive ever. Keep it brief, no longer than two minutes, please. And in it, tell us your name and location, where you were on the dive, what happened that make it so great, and why it's meant so much to you. You can get that over to us at bestdiveever at deeperblue.com or head to our website podcast.deeperblue dot com forward slash best dive ever. Join us again next week and explore much more of the Deeper Blue.