Shark Attack Survivor Paul De Gelder on how a Bull Shark took an arm and a leg but gave him something back, and TV Host Kinga Philipps on why she is hot for Shark Snot

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast, your weekly guide 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 10 of the Deeper Blue Podcast. Coming from this episode, we'll have the latest weekly news from around the world underwater. Then we'll have the first of our fabulous co-host interviews. This week we'll have Lyndon Walbert, or Mermaid Linden, as a lot of us know her, with an interview with Paul DeGelder, someone who has an incredible life story. Paul's story started with the Australian Army Airborne before becoming a Navy bomb disposal expert. And then an encounter with a bull shark in 2009 changed his life forever as he lost an arm and a leg in a shark attack. Now, you'd think that losing an arm and a leg might generate some animosity towards sharks, but since then he's become an author, motivational speaker, regularly appears as a host of the annual Shark Week on Discovery, and one of the foremost shark advocates in the world. Then we hear from writer, producer, and TV host Kinga Phillips. She tells us why she's hot for sharks, not and then finally we have Chantelle Taylor Newman with her best dive ever. So let's catch up with been going on around the world underwater this week. There's a new book for those of you interested in taking up diving as a career. It's written by Nick Durutter, who's a paddy platinum course director, which is pretty much the highest level qualification you get as a paddy professional. The book is aimed at aspiring dive masters and instructors who want to establish themselves in the diving industry. It's a common problem that I hear that instructor candidates come unprepared or with false expectation that it's going to be easy to become an instructor, that you end up like James Bonds, sitting on a beach, teaching eager students in far-flung places all over the planet. There's also been a perception that there's no money in being professional and diving, which means that we're really struggling to attract the right candidates. So on top of all that, 2020 is a tough year for the industry. So getting young, enthusiastic, prepared professionals ready to join and grow the industry is really critical. Overall, it's a great book covering all sorts of things you need to know as an aspiring professional, including what agency to choose, writing a resume, landing that dream job, and probably quite importantly, what is the niche that you're going to be focusing on? Well it's not going to tell you is how to pass your instructor exam, but it does cover all the broad topics you need that they won't teach you on your course. It's a great investment at $8.99, available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online. If you head to dfaluo.com, find out more and get the links on where to buy that. Talking about diving professionals, the diving agency RAID has announced some relief for their members as everyone deals with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Actually, to be honest, I'm taking bets to my team on when we can get through another whole episode of this podcast without mentioning the pandemic at all. Oh well, not this week, by the looks of things. Anyway, this is going to allow any member of Raid whose current membership ends on September the 30th this year, and they will see their membership extended through the end of the year, December 31st, for free. Now that's a gesture that's bound to be gratefully received by all Raid members. More serious and rather depressing news on the state of the oceans this week. Scientists are warning that the amount of plastic pollution in the oceans could likely be a lot more than we think. This doesn't include any microplastics or anything deeper than that 200 meters, where there will also be plastics. All in all, authors concluded that both the amount of plastic being thrown into the oceans and currently found there is much higher than we expected. It's rather depressing news. And as I've said before on this podcast, we need to find a way to change our relationship with plastic. Stopping use of single-use plastic like plastic bags and bottles is definitely a start, but we have to fundamentally redefine and shift our relationship with plastic if we're going to look after our oceans and this planet properly. Another new book out this week called The Diver Who Fell from the Sky. This is from acclaimed author Simon Pridmore. The story is truly astonishing. It's the biography of the life of Francis Toribong, the driving force behind the diving tourism in Palau. In fact, not just diving tourism, the growth of the whole tourist industry in Palau. He's pretty much credited with arguably doing more than anyone else to build the small island nation's economy. And it is today a proud, independent, and forward-looking nation, very much on the efforts of Francis. The title itself refers to the fact he qualified as a parachutist in Palau, which is the first person to do that, which led him to be known as the Man Who Fell from the Sky. A rather cool nickname, to be honest. Way cooler and better than what I'm normally called. Anyway, the book is available in all major online bookstores in both ebook and paperback editions. Some kit news now with Oceanic launching a new range of coloured masts called the Oceanic Duo and Discovery. Seems to be a trend at the moment of appealing to the more fashion conscious diver with multiple colour combinations out there. So in this case, they're doing things like blue, pink, red, and yellow. The duo is an entry-level mask, while the Discovery is aimed at a more mid-level price point with a few extra bells and whistles. It's always pleasing to see a splash of colour in diving equipment. I have to look back on my diving career and gone are the days of the all-black colour combination seen around dive sites, or in fact, I remember the rather fashionable yellow toilet seat cover style ABLJ that I learnt to dive with many, many moons to go. So always good to see new colour combinations coming out. As a diving tribe, us divers really do love to travel. And we've mentioned it before on this podcast that we love going thousands of miles away to tropical climates and enjoying the adventure and the silence that awaits us in tropical destinations. However, what we haven't really looked at is what's in our own backyard. There are avid local divers, or whether you are starting to test out your local waters, doing local diving in search of fresh challenges, to be honest, there's no better time to consider the benefits of not getting on that plane and instead diving in what is locally available to fuel your underwater passion. Now, to help with your thinking around local diving, one of our staff writers, Victoria Brown, has written a feature last week about the advantages of diving locally, which to be honest, in the current situation where no one is getting on any long haul travel unless absolutely necessary, is how we're going to get our gills wet and keep our skills current for the foreseeable future. I know that looking at the social feeds for both myself and DeeperBlue, they're filled with stunning pictures of people enjoying local diving that up until now they've probably never experienced. So if you're looking to enjoy diving locally, and why not, to be honest, take a look at the article 10 Important Advantages of Diving Locally on deeperblue.com and let's get your inspiration going for getting in the water safely in your local dive site. Finally, a little bit of a shameless plug on our side. As you may know, as well as launching this podcast during lockdown, we also launched a way you can help support our journalism and help keep you informed and inspired about everything diving and ocean related. We launched the official Deeper Blue clothing store back in May, and it features 10 unique designs available in 100% organic cotton t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and tote bags, as well as some cool accessories like beach towels, notebooks, and those big comfy poncho style towels that allow you to get changed on the beach or dive site without showing everyone your private parts. The whole store has got a sustainable focus with orders printed on demand when you place your order. That is done in a renewable, energy-powered factory. All the t-shirts and hoodies and so on are recyclable as well. So when they wear out, you can send them back to the factory and they get recycled into new t-shirt products. This is a great way of supporting us. So if you fancy it, take a look at deeperblue.com forward slash clothing and check out the range. 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 or checking us out on our social. And finally, if you like what you heard, remember subscribe, like and comment wherever you get your podcasts. They really do make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Hi, I'm Sofia Gomez, and I'm a free diver from Colombia. You're listening to the best 30 minutes about diving, the deeper blue podcast.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Hi, this is Jason Elias, producer of the podcast, and in today's episode, we're excited to welcome Lyndon Walbert as one of the Deeper Blue co-hosts. For her first interview, she spoke with Paul DeGelder, a man with a very well-known and incredible life story. Paul's story started in the Australian Army Airborne before becoming a Navy bomb disposal expert. Then his life was irrevocably changed by a bull shark attack that took one of his arms and one of his legs. From that, Paul's life then took on new dimensions as he became a speaker, author, and eventually a TV host, including multiple years of Shark Week on Discovery Channel.

SPEAKER_06 10:36

Paul, welcome to the podcast today.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Thank you, Mike.

SPEAKER_06 10:40

So what what I know about your story, which I'd love to hear more about, is that you had a lifestyle working in the military. You were doing all kinds of different work there, and then there was a day when things changed for you when you had an encounter with a nine-foot bull shark in the Sydney harbor. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Yeah. Yeah. I was basically living my dream, riding a big black Italian sports bike. I lived at Bondi Beach, traveling the world with my mates, blowing stuff up, shooting guns, jumping out of aircraft. Like it's just kind of every big kid's dream. And then I turned up to work one day and a shark decided wanted to eat me for breakfast. So pretty terrible day at work as far as things go.

SPEAKER_06 11:22

Doesn't really sound like an ideal situation, but it seems that you have really taken this experience and made it into a superpower.

SPEAKER_04 11:30

Well, it's that it's exactly what you just said. You know, it's people choose. So if that is the power that you have, why wouldn't you use that power for good? You get to choose, do you want a good life or do you want a bad life? Choose everyone wants a good life. Why would you choose a bad one? And then you work out, okay, what is a good life to me? And then how do I get there? And so in such a complicated situation, I made very simple choices to improve the quality of my life. And it worked. If you just keep doing it again and again and again and asking yourself those simple questions and choosing the right direction, and it's it really isn't that hard. And it's so worthwhile. It's your life. So why wouldn't you make it good? So it's really not even a question.

SPEAKER_06 12:12

And when you you came out of the water and you lost an arm and a leg to this bull shark, and now you have these technological devices that help you not just function on land, but also underwater, because I know you still dive. You are a huge advocate of the protection of sharks and their welfare. Tell me more about your connection with the water. Did that start before you were a navy diver, or was that something that just kind of began as a result of that involvement?

SPEAKER_04 12:43

For the first 10 years of my life, uh, we lived near a beach. And my dad was a cop and a swimming instructor. And so swimming was huge in my family. So I had my first dip in the ocean at two weeks old. I was in swimming training from the time I was like four years old. My grandfather was a scuba diver, my uncle was a spearfisher, my grandfather was a merchant navy sailor. So yeah, so there's all these ties to the ocean. But then when I was 10, we moved away from the ocean, and that's where things started to go downhill. Uh, you know, I hit 14, 15 and I started doing like smoking, and we we didn't have a lot of money, six people on a policeman's wage, and so we didn't have all the cool stuff, and so I just started stealing. And so this whole period away from the ocean wasn't very good for my psyche. And and then I joined the army, not a lot of ocean in the army either, it's always bush. And then when I finally made it into the Navy Clearance Divers, it was like this reconnection of a lost love. And I don't think there's anything better than being totally immersed in the ocean and surrounded, encompassed by nature. It has such an incredible way to wipe away stresses and you know, it's it's like going to space. It's so calming. There's no sound, you see all these alien creatures. It's just one of the best places in the world. I love it under the surface. I prefer it than the top.

SPEAKER_06 14:06

I think that there's a sentiment among a lot of divers that we we prefer the the subaquatic world to terra firma. And and nowadays you you live by the sea. In fact, can you see the ocean right now from where you sit in your home?

SPEAKER_04 14:22

I I consider ocean right now. And uh waking up every morning to see that is why I decided to pay so much ridiculous money for renting a tiny studio apartment because I I wake up and I see the ocean, and that's my piece right there. Uh, and I live a couple of blocks. It's not really the ocean, it's kind of like the marina, but I live a couple of blocks from the actual ocean, which you know, it's it's no Bondi Beach, but it's it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_06 14:50

Well, it it looks lovely to me. And you know, I am wondering, Paul, is there is there a moment that in your memory you recall a true magical connection to the sea that stands out from the rest of the experiences you've had?

SPEAKER_04 15:07

Not really. I've had so many. And uh I you know, I never even had scuba dove until I joined the Navy. And then that diving is not what you would uh want to take tourists on. I'm talking muddy water so thick, like soup, so you cannot even see the hand in front of your face. Meanwhile, you've got a pack full of detonators, another satchel full of black stiff explosives, some firing cord, and you're trying to put together six, 500-pound bombs that you can't see. And so I love that experience because it's terrifying, and that's what I love about I love feeling things, and I think there's a there's not much to be afraid of in this world anymore. We're like, we're pretty damn safe, and so I love that feeling of fear, and then overcoming it and being able to close my eyes, steady my breathing. It's so dark, I don't even need to open my eyes because I can't see anything, and then just working my way through the problem in an in doing well, doing something that could kill me. And I love that feeling, like really challenging yourself. So the ocean does that for me so much of the time, whether it was bombs or now it's you know diving with gray whites or hand feeding bull sharks, all that sort of stuff. So uh every experience is incredible.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

Hi, this is Bobby Skoly, retired Navy deep sea diver. And you're listening to the Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Today's top tip comes from writer, producer, and television host King of Phillips.

SPEAKER_07 16:54

To me, this tip is an absolute game changer for anyone trying to squeeze themselves into an open self-free diving wetsuit and be nice and lubed up in a way that is good for your skin and good for the ocean. And for years since I started free diving, I was always told to use shampoos and conditioners and anything that just lubes you up so that you can slide right into the suit. But the problem for me in particular is that I have incredibly sensitive skin. And it always made me feel awful to be dumping that juicy stuff out of your wetsuit into the ocean. And recently I found something called shark snot, which A has a phenomenal name, and B, it is simply three ingredients, and the main one of which is seaweed. And this stuff is slimy, it is non-toxic, it will get you into that open wetsuit. And when you come out, you your skin actually feels quite good and you don't feel bad about what you're putting into the ocean. So for me, that has been an absolute game changer, and I recommend it to all of my diving friends. Sharksnot, not a name you're gonna forget.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

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 18:09

Hi, I'm Chantal Newman, and I am from Southwest London, United Kingdom. My most memorable dive was in Bon Air, where I went with Nautical Adventures scuba, who are actually from Oklahoma, and they took me to this most amazing place in Bon Air. I preferred the reefs. The reefs were really, really good because all you needed to do was just get out of your hotel rooms and just walk down and just dive off the pier, which was absolutely amazing. Now, the most memorable dive that happened to me was such an amazing experience. I I just uh So it was a night dive with a Gobi night sea light from Lightmotion, which is helping you to be able to look at the reef through different eyes. And how I explain that is that it is bioluminescence. It's the most incredible experience you can ever have, where it actually illuminates everything from the actual reef itself to the fish that are swimming around to the little fireworms. But I'd wish that my dive buddy would stop bumping into me, only to realize that he wasn't around. He was the one deeper than me. The thing that kept on bumping into me was actually a huge jackfish because he or she was not happy with the light that I was using. Coming out of that dive, I just sat on my bed in awe of how beautiful the ocean can be in the dark. So I would suggest anybody who has the opportunity to be able to go and dive using a Gobi night sea light and to be able to change your world from being switched on in the daytime to be switched off and having a absolute experience in just beautiful light. So you've got to do it.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

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 Deeper Blue 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've dedicated some part of their lives to being and 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