More Scuba World Record Controversies & Celebrating Birthdays in the Artic

SPEAKER_04 0:13

Welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast, your weekly guides to everything that is happening around the world underwater. My name is Stephen Wheeler. 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 12 of the Deeper Blue Podcast. Coming up today in this episode, we've got all the latest news in the last week from around the world underwater. I then speak to Alex Rose, founder of Blue Ring and science editor at the Ocean Geographic magazine. I've personally known Alex for many years, and that's mainly from around the trade show circuit. And I've wanted to delve deeper into a close relationship with her deepness, that iconic marine biologist and explorer that is Dr. Sylvia Earl. We find out what it's like helping such a famous scientist celebrate her birthday on the ice flows of the Arctic. We then go back and hear from our very first guest on the show, Hugh Pearson. He's one of the most successful underwater filmmakers working today, and he gives us a mini masterclass on the underwater filmmaking for his top tip. And then finally, we have Darn Verhoven on his best dive ever. Let's catch up with this week's underwater happenings. So first off, I wanted to kick off this week's podcast with a revisit to a story that I covered last week as a top story. It's the emerging scandal around the discrepancies on Ahmed Gabir's 332-meter that's a thousand and ninety-feet Guinness World Record of the world's deepest scuba dive back in 2014. We covered it last week on the podcast, and we've published since then two articles on Deeper Loo that delved into the details of the six emails that have been sent out to a select group of diving insiders from a mysterious collective called Scuba Sam. Each of these emails had offered an analysis of a critical aspect of Gabir's dive based on information that had been kept largely private until now. The information included a continuous headcam video taken by Gabir's lead support diver, part of the actual runtime, Gabir's initial planned gas switches and decompression stops, and a detailed report of the chain of custody of the special Guinness World Record depth tags that were being used to help validate the record. Now, none of the content that we've covered is conclusive in any way, but as a whole does raise some real questions in my mind about what is going on. You can go to dpw.com and read all the details. The article is by Michael Menduno. And when I read it and look at it, the most worrying things for me were a fewfold. So the fact that he was running eight minutes ahead of his dive time schedule by 15 minutes into the dive on his ascent, and this was without a working dive computer. He can be seen calmly breathing the wrong gas as he apparently had run out of the gas mix he needed for the depth he was at when the first support diver had met him. And the mix of gas he needed to have early in the dive was apparently untouched. He himself was diving a specific type of mixed gas called trimix that deep technical divers use to reduce the sort of complications they get from diving at such great depths. I think the final worry for me was that Guinness themselves sent an adjudicator, that's the expert witness who is supposed to validate the record, and that person was not even a diver and relied on Gabir and his whole team to manage the whole process. Michael, the staff writer who did the investigation, also managed to spend 90 minutes talking to Ahmed and published a second piece with details from that interview. I'll be honest, the majority of the answers Gabir gave seemed evasive, incomplete, and in some cases nonsense. To me, if you just completed a 330-meter plus dive, lost the dive computer, and run out of decodas prior to your 90-meter stop while you're facing another 14 hours of decompression, would you give your safety diver who's carrying up Bacho deco gas the okay sign very calmly? Again, according to Guinness and other news reports, Gabir said that the dive went as planned, which is very clearly not the case. It's not been our job to pass judgments, and all we've done is present the facts as best we can. But I have to say, on a personal level, I'm concerned by what I know and have read during the course of this week. The global reaction to the news has also been somewhat mixed. A lot of people are quite troubled at the fact of why the news is only coming out now. That's six years after the record. And the fact that Scuba Sam, the collective, is continuing to remain anonymous. I know it's a hard one, and we have spoken at length to the collective, and we do know who these people are, and they do know a lot about the dive and have intimate knowledge around a lot of the things that went on, why there's anonymous stuff coming forward, and how reputable are these people, and is there some sort of foul play involved? The story itself is still playing out, and it will still continue to play out for the next few weeks. So I'm sure more will come to light, and this probably won't be the last time you'll hear about it on this podcast. Two new shipwrecks have been discovered off the coast of Baja, California. These wrecks are a World War I era submarine, which surprised me a little bit because I wasn't actually aware that subs were being actively used around that time. And the wreckage of the steamship Independence, which was lost in 1853 en route from San Juan del Sud to San Francisco. The new wrecks are located near Magdalena Bay Rocks, which is not too far away from Carbot St. Lucas. So if you've got a hankering to move into technical diving and want to go bubble free, then you're going to probably need to start looking at investing in a rebreather. It's certainly on my bucket list as I'm going to have to get trained at some point on a rebreather if I'm ever going to go diving on one of my bucket list destinations, which is Bikini Atoll, the place where all the nuclear weapons were tested after World War II by the Allies. And there's some amazing reps there. And I want to go and do that before I'm too old and haggard. So luckily, the team at Rebreathers UK have got in touch to tell us that they are expanding the distribution of the Hollis rebreathers, that I know a lot of my friends do dive. And that's been expanded to 10 new European countries. This means that Hollis Rebreathers will now be available in places such as Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. My inbox every week fills up with yet another crowdfunding campaign. And we already have covered a few on this podcast over the last few weeks. This week a new underwater scooter caught my attention called the AMPI. It caught my attention because it looks a little bit like a Frankenstein monofin. That's those single whale-like dolphin-like fins used by free divers with some sort of rocket attached. It's going to allow you to use both self-propulsion using your own muscles as well as using the scooter, or even doing a bit of both. It looks a bit and sounds a bit like those electric bike scooters that I personally see even today, people zooming around on outside. The device itself is a brainchild of Dr. Marek Swoboda, who seems to be a bit of a perpetual inventor, although he does seem to have the chops to design these things, as he has a PhD in biomedical engineering and a master's degree in physics. Still a prototype. So, like a lot of these crowdfunding things, you are contributing towards the development of the design, not buying a final working product. So bear that in mind before you start investing. It's not like going down to your local Best Buy or DiveSaw and buying something off the shelf. Finally, another shark conservation story has popped up. Shark advocates in the UK have started a petition calling on the British Parliament to ban the importation of shark fins. Unbelievably, individuals are allowed to bring up to 20 kilograms of shark fins into the UK for personal consumption, which is how you might end up finding shark fin soup in your local Chinese restaurant if you live in the UK. I personally, as I live in the UK, always remember refusing to eat at a number of restaurants in central London that a lot of my non-diving friends like to eat at because they had shark fin soup on the menu. I know sharks aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they really are being fished out of existence. In the time you've been listening to this podcast so far, about 1,500 sharks have been killed just for their fins. This equates to a mind-boggling 73 million sharks a year. The petition itself only requires a quick signature, electronic signature from yourself. They need 100,000 by the 11th of September, and this is to allow it to be debated by Parliament. Currently, when I looked at this and recorded this episode, they were at about 78,000. So still a little bit of a way to go, but uh hopefully they can get over the line. So if you're in the UK, head to sharkguardian.org and get details of how you can sign the petition. That's it for the news this week. Remember, you can catch up on all the latest news and happenings from around the world underwater by heading to steeperblue.com or checking us out on all our social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And finally, remember, if you like what you've heard, subscribe, like and comment wherever you hear your podcasts. And importantly, tell your friends about us because we really want more and more people to listen in and gain more by listening to this podcast. So every one of those shares and likes is really, really appreciated.

SPEAKER_05 9:55

Hi, I'm Tanya Streeter, freediver and ocean lover. And you're listening to the best diving 30 minutes. I forgot it, I didn't. And you're listening to the best 30 minutes about free diving, the Deeper Blue podcast.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Hi, this is Jason Leis, producer of the podcast. In today's interview, Steven speaks with Alex Rose, founder of Blue Ring and science editor for the awesome underwater magazine Ocean Geographic. Alex tells Stephen a story of how her inspiration as a young girl meeting the iconic Sylvia Earl came full circle one day on the ice flows of the Arctic.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

So welcome to the podcast, Alex.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

So to start with, why don't you tell us where you are at the moment?

SPEAKER_01 10:43

I'm in the western suburbs of Chicago, at home, as I suspect most people currently are at home.

SPEAKER_04 10:49

For our listeners who don't know who you are, why don't you tell us a little bit about what Blue Ring is and Ocean Geographic?

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Blue Ring is a membership-based company that's meant to provide people with a really fun and inexpensive way to get involved in ocean conservation. So it's a $25 annual membership, and people get to marry the ocean. Every year, I donate 71% of my profits to a different ocean conservation nonprofit, 71% because 71% of our planet is covered by the sea. So seemed an appropriate number. Between the memberships and a sustainable product line, I've been donating about $10,000 annually to different organizations. So the first year went to Deep Hope, which is Dr. Sylvia Earl's nonprofit that is raising funds to build citizen submarines. And then last year, the same amount went to the Wildlife Conservation Association in Costa Rica to help them protect sea turtles and their nesting beaches. And then I also work for Ocean Geographic Magazine. I'm their science editor and I write articles and do underwater photography for them. We are a quarterly ocean conservation publication focused on bringing important stories to people all over the world through really beautiful images and other forms of media.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

How did you get into doing diving and charity and conservation work?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Well, luckily for the ocean, I've been a fish nerd for my entire life. So that helped. I've always been obsessed with aquatic life in general, but fish in particular. And growing up in the Midwest, I'm sort of in the middle of the country. So the closest thing I have to a coastline is Lake Michigan, which is definitely not an ocean. Last time we had oceans around here was 100 million years ago. So no saltwater to speak of. So I spent a lot of my time as a kid exploring the Shed Aquarium, which is our aquarium in Chicago, that really helped grow my love for the underwater world. And when I was nine, Dr. Sylvie Earl's book, Sea Change, came out. And I read it immediately, loved it. And she came to do a talk in Chicago. So I went to go meet her. And my picture with her from that day is still on my wall and reminds me all the time of how important it is to have mentors like that in your life. So as I got older, did undergraduate and graduate degrees in aquatic biology and then started diving when I was 20 and started going to the dive shows. And I attended Beneath the Sea in New Jersey. I also met my now boss, Michael, at the same place at Beneath the Sea. And everything is, I guess, sort of history, as they say.

SPEAKER_04 13:08

What a well, two very, very impressive people. You know, as as mentors.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

They're not bad people to spend time around, I'll say that.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

In your career, you must have some amazing stories to tell about meeting these people and going diving and doing all these things. Is there one story in particular that resonates for you?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

There are probably a zillion of them, but one of them is definitely Sylvia related. Like I said, I've been with Ocean Geographic for about seven years and we run expeditions. Some are just your standard dive expeditions to take people to places and take photos underwater and experience everything, but others are a bit more involved in a bit larger scale. So in 2010, we started a series called Elysium expeditions, and the first one that I was involved with was to the Arctic in 2015. So I was their project manager for that expedition, and we took 66 people to the European Arctic for three weeks. And the whole purpose was to bring people a wide variety of backgrounds. So we had scientists, naturalists, photographers, videographers, artists, dancers, musicians, everybody. Because the point of these is to come back from somewhere with a body of word that can speak to anyone anywhere on the planet and resonate with whoever it might be shown to. And our lead scientist on all of these actually is Dr. Sylvia Earl, which is pretty fantastic. And in 2015, it was her 80th birthday. So we actually had her on our trip on her 80th birthday. And to be able to walk out on the pack ice with Sylvia on her 80th birthday after she had just gotten out of her first dive in the Arctic Ocean and be like, this lady is just she's unstoppable. Like, and I knew this when I met her when I was nine, and it has not changed at all. And she's just gotten more determined and more committed. And man, if anybody even had 5% of the energy that Sylvia does, I think the world would be a lot different of a place.

SPEAKER_04 15:01

What did she do on her birthday apart from walk out on the pack of ice?

SPEAKER_01 15:04

She looked at algae as she always does. She went on her first Arctic dive, and the whole time it didn't matter what it was gonna take, she was getting in the water. Finally got down there, and it's so cold outside, but two minutes underwater. It was like everything just melted away. And you see her just picking through the grasses and like looking at algae. Because I mean she's a marine botanist, like that's her background. She's a plant lady. And then they spent the rest of the day talking about seaweed. It's like, oh my god, she's so awesome. But just seeing her out there that day and being able to be part of an 80th birthday celebration where she was doing things for the first time. I was doing things for the first time. We were all having these first-time experiences together, just really solidified for me that this is absolutely what I'm supposed to be doing and the importance of mentorship and collaboration.

SPEAKER_06 15:59

My name is Mary Amal Fay. I'm one of the first women to ever own a dive company in Kuwait. And you're listening to the best 30 Minutes About Diving. The Deeper Blue podcast.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Today's top tip comes from Hugh Pearson, one of the most successful underwater filmmakers working today. Hugh's directing and credits include Blue Planet and most of the underwater episodes of Netflix's Our Planet. And today, Hugh gives an essential underwater filmmaking class in less than four minutes.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

I think I've got a few top tips really. I think first of all, if you're filming underwater, being in the water and diving has to be second nature. You can't be worrying about your buoyancy or your kiss. That's got to be a given. You're just working in the environment. So get your underwater comfort right up there. And I think the main thing about it is it's capturing images to tell stories. So it doesn't matter what camera you have, I don't care if it's 4K, 8K, or a GoPro. Just tell stories. Now, if you're filming a dive as you go, that's not telling a story, that's filming a dive. Anyone can do that. And I get people sending me show reels. I'm an underwater cameraman, show me this site. No, no, no, you've just recorded a dive. That isn't telling a story. So I would find a subject that does something and get the way in there and tell a story. And a story has a start, a middle, and an end. So figure out what's the start, what's the middle, what's the end, and what's your character and where is it? And a lot of divers go on tours and they go out and the wildlife just disappears as they go over the reef and as they go past, the wildlife reappears again. So don't do that. Sit on a reef, sit on a rock, sit on a bit of kelp, and watch, observe, and find a bleni, a shrimp, a turtle, and just see what it does. And the more time you spend with something, the more you'll think, ah, I can tell a little story about this. And different shot sizes. Don't just go wide angle, you know, get close-up shots, get wide angle shots to put it in the environment. Change the angles, you can get above it, you can move around it, get below it. So always think different angles, different shot sizes. Always try and keep the camera as steady as you can. First thing to do with that is trim the housing. Once you let go of the housing, it should sit in the water, it shouldn't sink or float, flop forward, roll back or whatever. If it does that, you're always going to be fighting it. Trim the housing and then use that to get really steady shots and see if you can get on the level of the animal. We use tripods, we under sling cameras, so if it's on the bottom, you want to get the camera as eye-level as possible, not just looking down on it. I've got a few personal dislikes. I don't like fisheye lenses. I can see why people use them because everything's in frame and everything's in focus. But I find it makes the animals distant and small. Like if filming whales, film a blue whale, somehow you can make a blue whale look small and distant with a fisheye lens. So I prefer rectilinear lenses myself. Also, I'm not a great fan of putting lights on the housing because that gives you front lighting, which is not the most creative. It picks up all the scatter in the water and it just isn't very nice. What we try to do is use ambient light as much as possible. So we try and find subjects that are shallow enough. We do a lot of effort to find shallow animals, shallow stories so that we can use ambient light. If you do have to use light, see if you can get a buddy to light for you, so you have backlighted. The classic filmmaking is three-quarter backlit. Get them to get the light behind the subject so you're not front lighting it. And you know, the cameras you can get now are amazing. Shoot in raw underwater. The grading tools are fantastic to be able to enhance the images. But ultimately it comes back to using images to tell a story. So what I would encourage you to do is once you've got your subject, once you've got your story, get up, get dry, think about it, and think okay, what images do I need to tell this story? It might need to three images, but work out the images and then have a plan for each dive to get them. And quite often we're after one image a dive. That's the level we are work at. You might only have three dives, but work out, okay, on this dive, I'm going to really target the close-up shots or the wide shots, or I'm going to wait for the behavior. So go in with a really clear plan of the images you want to get to tell the story you want to tell.

SPEAKER_04 20:25

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 20:33

My name is Darverhooven. I'm in Cornwall in the UK, and my best dive ever was in Dahub in the blue hole there. I was diving down to see if I could finally learn how to equalize. I was getting stuck at like 45 meters. So I was relaxing, free falling, kept on going, kept on going, and at a certain point I realized, oh, I'm I'm a bit deeper than I usually am. But um, I just relaxed into it, kept free falling, and then all of a sudden the air in my mouth ran out. So I stopped myself on the line, and as I turned to my left, I saw this blue light. So I turned to face it, and it was the arch. So in the blue hole, there's this big connection to the sea called the arch. It faces east, and we were there in the morning, so it was illuminated from behind by the rising sun. So it was this illuminated blue radiating at me as I was the deepest I'd ever been up to that point, and I was just hanging there being mesmerized by that blue, and thinking, like, oh I could stay here forever. I wanna I wanna go there. And then I thought maybe if I unclip, I can swim into the arch. And as soon as I had that thought, I thought, ah no, no, better get back to the surface because that's insanity. And I have buddies waiting for me at the surface, so but it was my best dive ever because it's one of those views that you only get to see if you earn it. Like you have to dive to about 50 meters to be able to see that view. And it was totally worth it. It was the most beautiful view I've ever seen underwater.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

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 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 dot 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