Margo Peyton On Bringing Together Dive Families From All Over The World, and The Deepest Spot to Dive

SPEAKER_08 0:03

The Deeper Blue Podcast is brought to you by Sunto, Finnish Engineering Pioneering 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 everyone. Welcome to episode 24 of the Deeper Blue Podcast. Come up today in this episode, we've got the latest news in the last week from around the world underwater. Then co-host Lyndon Walberts talked to the unstoppable and inspiring Margot Patent, who 20 years ago founded Kids Sea Camp that has gone on to certify over 7,500 young divers into our community. We then hear from Stephen Frink, the incredible underwater photographer, and he's got his top tip on how to end a dive successfully. And then we finally hear from Matt Irel on his best dive ever. Let's dive straight in this week with the diving and ocean news. First up this week, the deepest swimming pool in the world, the deep spot in Poland, has now finally opened its doors and is greeting divers. The deep spot, which is situated close to Warsaw, Poland, is 45 metres, that's 148 feet deep, and has stolen the crown of the deepest pool in the world from the Y-40 Deep Joy in Italy, which is 42 metres, that's 138 feet deep. The impressive facility is a kindergarten for divers, and the first videos and photos being posted on social media by the first divers and free divers in the pool are totally making us green with envy. Various different people who've been interviewed have been saying stuff. Premslaw, a 39-year-old diving instructor, could barely contain his excitement. He said, There are no magnificent fish or coral reefs here, so it's no substitute for the sea, but it's definitely a good place to learn and to train in order to dive safely in the open water. And Jersey, a 30-year-old forestry officer and diving novice, said that for their first time went down to five metres, but you can see all the way to the bottom the wrecks and the caves. It's truly magnificent. The facility itself also has some impressive tunnels and features, including one that looks like it's straight out of a tomb raider movie. If you head to deeperblue.com, look at our news post, you'll find some absolutely epic first photos facility, as well as a view from the Associates Press Francais showing scuba diving and free diving at the facility. Freediving news now, as Russian powerhouse Alexei Molchanov has set a new Ada men's world record in the constant weight with byfins discipline, with a 113 meter, that's 371 foot dive. Constant weight with bifins is a discipline where freedivers dive to depth using fins that are not a monofin, and typically dive with a small amount of weight on a weight belt for some buoyancy control. And unlike other disciplines in freediving, the diver keeps this weight on them the whole time, hence the name Constant Weight. This dive improved on Molchinov's previous record, which was 110 metres or 361 feet, set back in August 2019. And the record took place off Sharmel Sheikh in Egypt, one of my favourite diving locations, at the Freediving World COVID-19 special edition competition that's also seen a good number of national records fall. Speaking of Alexei Molchinov, his equipment company, also called Molchinovs, has been tackling the challenge of travelling with freediving equipment and keeping it protected. Lots of equipment these days are made of delicate materials such as fiberglass and carbon fibre. And to that end, Molchinovs have unveiled the hard case, which is a new 100-litre, that's 26-gallon case designed for multiple pieces of freediving equipment that includes a monofin. The new hard shell case can house a monofin, a pair of bifins, a wetsuit, and other freediving accessories all in one place. It also could be used for fin swimming equipment, mermaid tails, or any other equipment you can dream up to fill your fantasy of being a mermaid or a merman. The case itself looks very much like any other normal piece of luggage you might go on holiday with. It's just wider, and it features a telescopy handle, those 360 spinner wheels that allow you to whiz your bag around the airport, an internal compression system for easy transport, whether a freediver is taking a weekend trip to a nearby town or flying internationally, obviously when we can for the next adventure. Comes as a hard shell in either blue or black, and it can be checked in as baggage on flights. It's now available for purchase. It retails for about €380, that's about 450 US dollars. And if you head to deeperblue.com, you can find out a load more about it. Now, Olivia Thomas has been named as the latest recipient of the Xale Perry Scholarship by the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences. That's the organization that gives out what we call the Oscars of the diving world, the nogis, traditionally at the DEMA show every year. The Xale Parry Scholarship is awarded annually to a passionate diver who is enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate program which focuses on marine conservation, undersea exploration, diving equipment, or hyperbaric medical research. Thomas herself is currently studying for a PhD in anthropology with a specialization in nautical archaeology at Texas AM University. She's been a passionate diver all her life, and one of the majors of her bachelor's degree was in underwater archaeology. To be able to actually get this scholarship, she had to have an individualized major program. And to achieve this, she had to create her own curriculum and complete an undergraduate research project. Truly amazing. Congratulations to Olivia and wish her the best of luck. For those interested in supporting sharks, the non-profit Shark Angels has announced a new fundraising effort with its Adopt a Saw Shark campaign. Saw sharks themselves are fairly unique-looking sharks with a long snout that very much looks like a saw with these shark teeth protruding. They are found in many areas around the world, most commonly in the waters around the Indian Ocean to the southern Pacific Ocean. Like all fundraising campaigns, this one will help fund shark angels' efforts to raise awareness of the critical issues facing sharks, and by doing so protect these and other threatened species. The money generated by these kits fund the education programs and help shark angels work on important issues like legislation to combat shark fitting. If you want to take this up, there are two levels of adoption available. The first gets you this really cute cuddly saw shark soft toy, and the second one also includes that toy and a customized certificate and card. If you head to deeperblue.com, loads more information on how to go and get your adoption kit. In a below to conservation groups, as the US government has denied a petition brought by an environmental group to list the giant devil ray as an endangered or threatened species. The NGO Friends of Animals submitted their petition last February, asserting that the species, which is mostly found in the Mediterranean Sea and Northeast Atlantic, is struggling to survive amidst human development, fishing, climate change, water pollution, as well as the onslaught of microplastics. The giant devil ray has a relatively low rate of reproduction and as a result is sensitive to environmental changes and its population trend is decreasing rapidly. It's always hugely disappointing when efforts to help endangered species are knocked back by governments, but Friends of Animals, among other organizations, are continuing to help fight to protect these animals and so many more and help protect our rations. Finally, it's that time of year where everyone starts counting down to Christmas. It's just been Thanksgiving in the US, and you may have received an email from me actually giving thanks to everyone who reads Deeper Blue, subscribes to us on email, listens to this podcast, or looks at this on social media. And like usual, around this time, there's lots of these Christmas guides that get produced. Um it would be a miss of Deeper Blue not to try and help those divers and ocean advocates in your life. So if you head to deeperblue.com, you'll find three different guides. There's the scuba Christmas gift guide, the ocean Christmas gift guide, and finally the free diver Christmas gift guide. Each has somewhere between eight to twelve different gifts for those that love the various types of diving or are an ocean advocate. There's a whole range of different gifts in there, well worth a look, even if it's just to get yourself a little something for being such a good little elf this festive season. That's it for the news this week. Remember, you can catch up on all the latest news and happenings around the world underwater by heading to deeperblue.com and checking us out on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. And finally, if you like what you've heard, please, please let one other person know about this podcast. Every single listener is really important. And don't assume anyone knows about this podcast. Just tell a friends, tell a family member, tell an acquaintance, just let them know about the podcast. We really do appreciate every single comment, subscribe, like, or share that you do.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

You are listening to the World's Only Weekly Podcast for scuba diving, free diving, dive travel, and ocean advocacy. I'm Sofia Gomez Uribe from Colombia. I'm a freediver, and this is the Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Today, an interview done by our co-host, Lyndon Wahbert.

SPEAKER_07 10:23

Today I'm honored to be speaking with the unstoppable and inspiring Margot Payton. Twenty years ago, Margot founded Kids Sea Camp. Inspired by her own children, Jennifer and Robbie, Margot created a different kind of camp, a family-centric nonprofits through which more than 7,500 children have been certified as scuba divers. Margot has been recognized and inducted into so many organizations, including the Dima Hall of Fame, the Reaching Out Awards, Family Travels Person of the Year, and the Patty Award for Excellence in Dive Training, and the Women Divers Hall of Fame. She also contributes to about every dive magazine there is out there as a travel writer. Margot, tell me about the moment when the light bulb blinked on with your children and you realized this is it.

SPEAKER_04 11:14

I think that moment came when Robbie and Jen were eight and ten, and they were in the Patty Seal Team program, and I had my very first underwater experience with the both of them on Scuba Gear. And seeing their eyes so bright, being enamored with everything that was under the sea and everything that they were doing with virtual gravity and the fish, the rays. We were in Curacao at the time, and they were just fearless. They were fearless and they were like little explorers and they were so proud because I had already always talked to them about my dives stories and coming back from dives, and they just felt like big people too. They were so excited to have their own little gear. They were excited to meet other little kids. And just that day, I remember how much joy we all had that we were able to experience that as a family. And as a mom, it was one of the proudest moments for me, just like watching them take their first steps, seeing them blowing bubbles, seeing them just moving around and having fun. And I felt pure joy on that moment. I really did. That was probably the greatest 27 minutes ever, really. Just enjoyed it as a mom, as a parent, as a diver, it was perfect.

SPEAKER_07 12:36

So your kids were the ones who just said, you know, I want a camp like this. I want a fun camp. And so weren't you sitting in the kitchen when that conversation actually occurred?

SPEAKER_04 12:46

Actually, I was a dive travel specialist, and I used to travel on group trips to take adults on group trips. And Jennifer was homesick from school one day. We were at my office and she basically said to me, Mommy, why can't I come with you on one of your trips? And I said, Well, because you're a little person. And she said, Well, why can't little people dive too? And I said, I don't know. You know, that's a really good question. And she said, I want to come be a scuba diver. I want to come travel with you. And, you know, at that time I had been putting them in summer camps and different programs for kids, but there was nothing that was with marine life or scuba diving. And it was an amazing time. Everything in the universe sort of just fell together because I think that was the year that Wayne Hassing had put together the Sassy Unit. SEAL team had just come in. I think SSI was bringing in scuba rangers and kids and diving was starting to catch as an idea of something that could happen. And I remember going to Dima that year and just being so excited about the little tanks and the little BCs and the little regulators and little mouthpieces. And I was like, wow, this is really going to be something. And Carolyn Pascal and I were sitting on a beach. It was Drip that year, a specific party that Neil Watson put together for the dive industry to get together and shop talk and connect with each other. And we sat on that beach and we said, you know what, we should really do something for the children. And then I met Gandra Smouse from Curacao, and everything just sort of came together. And we ran our first trip in Curacao in 2000. And it was one of the most beautiful times of my life to be able to share my passion, not only with my children, but just the thought of being able to bring families from all over the world to migrate to one place from different backgrounds, from different religions, from different cultures, to bring people together for one common activity that everybody enjoyed, and kids could be kids, and it was wonderful.

SPEAKER_08 15:07

Action. Hey everyone. So the Deeper Blue podcast is brought to you by Sunto, the Finnish Dive Computer company. I'm not going to try the Finnish accent, I'm afraid. I won't embarrass anyone.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

This is a perfect, this is a perfect Finnish accent right here.

SPEAKER_08 15:22

So this may be a very short-lived sponsorship, just so you know the way we're we're taking the Mickey out of things. But listen, so one of the things I wanted to say is some of the absolutely most amazing people that we've had on the podcast, both uh yours and mine, Jason, actually. That's true. Uh are sponsored by Cento, they're Cento divers. William Truebridge, the 19 time 18 or 19? 19 time world record free diving champion.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

And very nice guy, I gotta say. I did the interview with him. He was a very nice guy.

SPEAKER_08 15:51

Yeah, I absolutely love Will. Fantastic guy. Had uh had a little baby, which you and I know a lot about earlier in the year. So uh congratulations, Will. Very, very cool.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Did you say Jill Hinearth also is sponsored?

SPEAKER_08 16:07

Jill Hineath is the absolutely amazing cave diver. Incredible. Jill. Incredible. Uh read her book. Absolutely love seeing Jill and talking to her. She has been to places on this planet in caves that less people have been to than have been to the moon.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

That's right. And her book, I gotta say, my wife just started reading her book last night because uh for my other podcast, the Big Deep Podcast, I actually did a two-parter episode with her. And my wife listened to the episode about her, and she said it was such an amazing episode that she wants to read the book. And the book is actually incredible, and she gets the and she's able to do a lot of this because she is sponsored by Cinto.

SPEAKER_08 16:47

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely amazing person, Jill. And very humble down to worth.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

And uh Do you think Cinto does does Cinto have a specific cave diving dive computer? Is that something that is out there in the is there what would be that? Is there something like that?

SPEAKER_08 17:01

It's not specific. Yeah, I mean, cave diving is a very technical, yeah, very precise discipline in in scuba. And yeah, they have products which are geared towards that. So things like the Eon Steel, for example, computer is very geared towards technical diving. It's a lot of mixed gas, especially deep and deep and long cave dives is mixed gas and all that stuff. So that's where the products come in. Whereas someone like a free diver like William will want the smallest computer, yeah. Very does want something bulky on his wrist that's gonna interfere with his dive profile and and his how hydrodynamic he is. Right. How streamlined in the water. So nice, nice wristwatch that he can uh just have on his wrist would be uh fantastic, which is like the D5.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

Right. And do they make a uh do they make a dive computer for someone like me that floats on the surface like a broken surfboard?

SPEAKER_08 17:48

I'm not sure anyone makes anything that's good for you, to be honest, Jason. Uh but uh I think you could, yeah, actually, so uh it's certainly they used to have like the Zoop or whatever it is, which was the big beginner, bright yellow, very big, easy to read, easy for aging eyes, you know, need to need to wear glasses type thing. You know, it's um big buttons. Yeah, so so things like that would be definitely uh I mean, you know, since they have products for for everything from beginners, bits of flotsam in the water like you, all the way up to the Jills and the Williams of the world.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

And I do respect I actually really like the fact that they sponsor kind of really and our podcast, our these divers, and more importantly, our podcast.

SPEAKER_08 18:33

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

For today's top tip, one of our co-hosts, Megan Haney Greer, spoke to Steven Frink, an incredible underwater photographer who also publishes Alert Diver magazine.

SPEAKER_06 19:07

Stephen, do you have a top tip that you could share with our diver listeners?

SPEAKER_00 19:12

My top tip is be able to get back to the boat. It sounds like I'm being facetious, but I'm not really, because I live here in the Keys and it's a really easy place to dive. But in the winter it can get bumpy and people may not have been diving for a while and they're out of shape and you know the seas kick up or they get caught in a current or something like that. And sometimes it's challenging to get back to the boat and get back up on the boat. So I I would encourage people to be fit to do aerobic exercise, even though I think diving is a very sedentary activity because we're weightless, and for the most part, it's not particularly challenging, but there is an expectation that to survive you have to get back to the boat. So that's my top tip. I think it's it's more of a lifestyle tip, but scuba, at some point in the all the time that you go scuba diving, you'll get into a situation that is beyond what you've predicted, and you got to be prepared for it. Does that sound dire? I don't mean for it to be. I just mean keep moving, keep moving.

SPEAKER_06 20:10

I think that is an excellent top tip.

SPEAKER_08 20:19

Finally, every episode we share a story from you, the dive community, where we ask you to tell us about your best dive ever.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Hi, my name's Matt Hyland. I'm from a small town called Sax Mundam in Suffolk on the east coast of England. My best dive ever happened this year in the summer of 2020, off of the Norfolk coast, uh, close to where I live. There's a wreck called the Rosalie, which is in a hole six metres of water. But this particular day, the conditions were absolutely perfect. The sea was flat, calm, the sun was out, the car park was full of divers. It was just it could not be better. I was with a group of good buddies of mine, several I've trained with before, and we just did a dive on the Rosie as it's known. There was plenty of life on there, there was no big ocean Roman species, nothing rare. There's plenty of little bits and pieces. Several of the friends, avid cameramen, and so I acted as an unofficial spotter, and it was just the perfect dive. There was plenty of life, it was with good friends, conditions were perfect, and to me, it just sums up what diving is about. It was an absolutely fantastic day in which I drove home at the end of it with just a massive smile on my face. I've long been a big advocate of UK diving, and that day just summed it up absolutely perfectly to me. And I'd recommend anybody try diving in the UK.

SPEAKER_08 21:43

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. 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 have dedicated some part of their lives to being in or working on behalf 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 best dive ever at deeper blue.com, or head to our website podcast.deeperblue.com forward slash best dive ever. Join us again next week and explore much more of the deeper blue.