Szilvia Gogh on the wonder at-risk-youth have on their first ever dive, and Jim Ritterhoff on why recreational diving is now dead

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Season three of the Deeper Blue Podcast is brought to you by Sunto. Finnish engineering, piloting adventure from mountaintop to ocean floor since 1936. Sunto.

SPEAKER_05 0:24

Welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast, your weekly guide to everything that's happening around the world underwater. My name is Megan Haney Greer. I'm a free diver, ocean explorer, and the imperfect conservationist. Also co-host of the Deeper Blue Podcast, the podcast for DeeperBlue.com, the world's most popular diving website. Every week, the Deeper Blue Podcast covers everything that is happening in the scuba, free diving, dive travel, and ocean advocacy world. So join us as we explore the deeper blue.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Welcome back to the Deeper Blue Podcast, everyone. Hey Linden.

SPEAKER_08 1:13

Hey Steven.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

This is Linden. This is the last episode of season three.

SPEAKER_08 1:18

Well, holy seacal.

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Holy Seacal mermaids.

SPEAKER_08 1:22

Yes, we should really celebrate in some way, shouldn't we?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

So joining me, I'm Steven Whelan. I'm the host of the podcast and founder of DeeperBlue.com and Mermaid Linden.

SPEAKER_08 1:32

I'm Mermaid Linden. Hey Sea Fans. Let's talk news.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Ah, I like it. Bit of Mermaid Minute. Those of you that don't know, Linden has a fantastic children's web series on YouTube. You can hear us say, hey, Sea Fans. My kids are obsessed with it, to be honest.

SPEAKER_08 1:46

And I'm obsessed with your kids, so it's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So listen, Lyndon, should we get on with the news for this week? Should we go and have a look at some of the diving news and travel news for the world?

SPEAKER_08 1:53

As a matter of fact, I think that segueing from a YouTube series into a TV series bit of news. It was a segue right into this dive club TV. It's a new Netflix series that's out of Australia. And it is a scripted series that features a bunch of sprightly teenagers who are of the diving persuasion, who I imagine get into all sorts of shenanigans above and under the waves.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

So Maddie, Lauren, Anna, and Stevie apparently are the names of the characters. And they navigate life, friendship, and romance above the waves. And then below the waves, they're also skilled divers. And but this is great because it's obviously introducing diving to very, you know, tween and teenage audience, which is absolutely fantastic. More people we get interested in diving in the underwater worlds is fantastic. Although I didn't probably introduce my kids to uh to this because it'll be just yet another. I mean, there's a lot of mermaid y type stuff that I watch in addition to Mermaid Minute. There's lots of Mako mermaids.

SPEAKER_08 2:49

Well, that's the thing. All of all of the really good kind of tween shows that are ocean-themed or water-related, mermaid or dive-related, have mostly been out of Australia. So I have to commend the Australian television and film world for really embracing the aquatic environment and putting it in the forefront of their media. I mean, there was one back in the 90s called Ocean Girl that was so cool, and then H2O Just Add Water, and then the spinoff of Mago Mermaids. And now we have Dive Club. So bravo. I I love this. This is great for our industry.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So let's take away a little bit to some ocean conservation. You've heard us talk a little bit before about how endangered a lot of species in the oceans are, and it's usually a lot of bad news. But whilst the latest World Conservation Congress in Marseille and France was reporting a lot about shocks, they did have a bit of good news, which is fantastic. Apparently, tuna population numbers are significantly up, and conservation efforts are putting the global population on, and I quote, on the path to recovery, which is fantastic. I think this is really great. Such a great thing to be able to give some good news about stocks of fish in the oceans.

SPEAKER_08 3:58

Yeah, it is. And on the flip side of this, while it's so exciting, it makes me want to also put that caveat out there of this doesn't mean you should run out and eat a ton of tuna now. Let's let this positive trajectory keep going and let it get ahead of itself so that we can create sustainability again. You know, they're talking about the Atlantic bluefin tuna has moved from endangered to least concern. Albacore and yellowfin have been downgraded from near threatened to least concern, which is amazing to me, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, you're right. Don't rush out to your local sushi restaurant and order a whole bunch of stuff. That's probably not the right uh thing to do, but I'm dead chuffed that this is uh happening. So it's good to be able to give some good conservation news for once.

SPEAKER_08 4:43

Yes, it is. It's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

A little bit of diving news. Zoo Blue, which is a diving travel related website. They've just launched a new digital library of free scuba diving guides.

SPEAKER_08 4:54

It's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

It's pretty awesome. Can't be as good as Deeper Blue's beginner's guide to scuba diving, may I point out.

SPEAKER_06 4:59

But they can try. They can try.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

They can try. They can try. No, I'm kidding. So it's really good. The guides cover best diving destinations across the globe, as well as much loved species, helping dive zoo choose when and where to take the next trip no matter what they're interested in. So places like the Maldives, Red Sea, Indonesia, Rajah Umput, one of my bucket list destinations. I want to go and dive Rajah Umpat. Oh, I'll go with you. That's on mine too.

SPEAKER_08 5:21

I've heard that the prog fish are unparalleled and the manta feeding stations are off the hook. So that's pretty cool. And it's just fun to say zoo blue.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Absolutely. Now, talking about some scuba travel, Agressa, who Aggressor Adventures, who are a very well-known liverboard company, do some fantastic liveboards around the world. They've just acquired uh a fleet of liverboard dive yachts in the Red Sea, one of my favorite destinations, obviously near near me. And they have uh acquired the yachts from the Royal Evolution Company, three dive yachts, which are now under the Red Sea RE aggressor, is what it's called. Awesome.

SPEAKER_08 5:56

Oh, that's exciting.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

I love this. I've done a good number of liverboards in the Red Sea, and you can do all sorts of different itineraries. Yeah, North Red Sea, yeah, Sinai, you can do Southern Red Sea, you can do all sorts of things, and it's always this absolutely stunning, stunning diving out there. So, more options to go diving and do liverboards. I again am all for it. You ever done a liverboard, Linda?

SPEAKER_08 6:17

I I've done liverboards, but I've never been to the Red Sea.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

So I mean that is that's disgraceful. We uh we we should get our listeners to write a strongly worded petition in to uh to to do this and and get this fixed, I think.

SPEAKER_08 6:33

Well, there's uh a crew over there called the Mermaid Alliance, and uh I have an open invitation to go and mermaid and swim with them, and it's very exciting. So their their videos are tremendous, and they they have a really cool mermaid training program that they're doing, and they're using the mermaid Linden monofins. So I I get all these beautiful videos and see all the things that they're doing.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

We need to convert your you being the roving poop reporter for Deeper Blue to the roving the roving mermaids reporter. Um, you know, spoiler alert for everyone listening, by the way, there's no poop stories in this uh episode, which I know you'll all be disappointed about.

SPEAKER_08 7:08

But there are no fecal matters. No fecal matters.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah. But yeah, definitely. Let's let's when when we can travel a bit more, we should get you over and you can go and do a bit of roving reporting from the Red Sea.

SPEAKER_08 7:20

Oh, I'd love to. I would be stoked. So send me over.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

So, next story about the ocean floor.

SPEAKER_08 7:27

Yeah. And I cannot drive to the Red Sea, but if I could somehow drive over water and I chose to do it in an electric car, it seems that the ocean possesses very specific metals and minerals in its ocean rocks that our cars may be used in the future, or or the batteries and components of cars may be using these rocks from the ocean floor to be created. And scientists are in cahoots over if this is good or not.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, what a lot of people don't realize is these fantastic devices that allow us not only to talk to each other over the airwaves, but also look up excellent websites like Deeper Blue, download apps like the Deeper Blue app. So our mobile phones and batteries in particular are made of a lot of rare metals, things like copper, nickel, manganese, cobalts, and so on. And in particular, as we scaled up and put these really big batteries in cars like Teslas, and they require vast amounts of these, you know, very rare minerals. So they're looking for where they can find additional ones. So great, they found them on the ocean floor. The difficulty is then, you know, obviously mining operations have to start. And this is where you know mining is typically pretty destructive. So this is where scientists are a little bit concerned about great, we found these deposits potentially bad, because mining companies generally don't give a damn about what they're doing.

SPEAKER_08 8:50

The habitat.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_08 8:52

Yeah, and that's a tough thing. And so in this article, there is a visualization of the deep sea mining, and you can see this video that they have created sort of a simulation of what that looks like. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering created this, and it is, it's it doesn't look delicate or gentle. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

No, not at all. It looks like it's strip mining the bottom of the ocean. But we'll see. You know, it's an important thing. So we're gonna need to balance, being able to provide some of the modern stuff that we have, and also we need to look at recycling these minerals from existing rather than just throwing your phone away, gonna be recycled, those sorts of things. Well, maybe we need someone like Thor to come along from the Marvel universe and use this big, whatever it's the hammer's call, to get lightning down from the sky to you know recharge the batteries.

SPEAKER_08 9:39

Between Thor and Poseidon, we've got this.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Absolutely. Well, talking of Hollywood, I mean this probably won't come as a shock, especially to those like you and me, Lyndon, they're very passionate uh and involved in diving conservation, the ocean silence. There's been a study that's analyzed 109 shark-related films from Hollywood since 1958 to 2019, and has found that in 96% of them, sharks have been overtly portrayed, I point out, as potentially threatening to humans. Which isn't surprising, right? We see lots of films, you know, everything from the fantastic sharknado, everything from Jaws, a seminal 1975 film, all the way up to Sharknado 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, where however many Sharknado films are. Laser shooting sharks with zombies on the back, I think was one of them that I saw. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_08 10:28

I mean, there's so many, but it's true, they're always the bad guys, even in The Little Mermaid, but there is one exception. One of these 109 films that was reviewed for the study of Hollywood and its impact on how the public views sharks, painted sharks in a positive light. And that film was drumroll.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Steven Finding Dory.

SPEAKER_08 10:54

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming sharks. You just keep swimming because finding Dory makes you look like friendly little creatures.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And that's a kids' movie, right? So fantastic that that's thing the co-author of the study says, and completely agree with this, is you know, this kind of constant negative portrayal of sharks, you know, gets into people's psyche. You know, I I I think about my mum, for example. She has a very negative view of sharks, and a lot of it is based on what she's heard and read and seen in the media. And she thinks they're big, you know, scary things. And when I told her that two years ago I was going to Fiji to go and dive with uh up to 60 sharks in the water at the same time, I actually didn't tell her till I was on the pl uh at the airport on the way to the destination what I was going to go and do. So uh mainly because she was get so scared about what I was doing.

SPEAKER_08 11:36

I mean, that's a mom's job. I mean, my mother equally was I mean, she hit it well. And then after the fact, when she knew I was unscathed, she was relieved after I had been swimming surrounded by 20 some odd reef sharks without a mask on, holding my breath with a giant fishtail on while they were actively swimming around and thinking there was food. And I've I've never had anything happen. If I can swim around looking like half of a fish without a mask, everything's blurry. I'm not saying nothing can ever happen, but it's so rare.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

You're more likely to die from eating cheese than dying from a shark attack. You're more likely to die from a vending machine form of cheese.

SPEAKER_08 12:13

A vending you took mine. Yes. I love that one.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

I love that. How many people I but you can imagine you get angry with a vending machine and you rock it backwards and forwards and it falls on top of you, you know? But more people die from from that from shocks. And one of the great things is there's lots of charities and organizations out there that are helping trying to change portrayal of sharks, not you know, and our perception of sharks, not just in the media, but just generally in organizations like back here in the in the UK.

SPEAKER_08 12:38

Shark Allies.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Shark Allies, absolutely sharks, trust. Well, shark allies, King of Phillips, one of our uh former guests on season one. She's uh involved in Shark Allies. So um, it's great. You know, these sorts of things is fantastic, and we need to keep supporting organizations that are trying to help change perception of sharks.

SPEAKER_08 12:57

We can't forget our friend Topher Chin, Christopher Chin, who has made incredible leads and bounds through core, his organization based out of Northern California. There are so many people in our realm who are making incredible efforts and boots on the ground, you know, the people who are really doing the work. They're not just making a post and saying, save the sharks. They actually go in and speak to decision makers and policy makers about these matters and make the changes.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

It's not easy, right? So if we take, you know, Core, Christopher Chin, he goes in at the legislative part of things and trying to get governments to make significant change. And that's hard. Same for Biteback. They they do, whilst they do public campaigns, they also were instrumental, for example, reported on a month or so ago that the UK has now banned personal imports of Shockfin or shock products, not just Shockvin, which was a loophole that allowed Shockvin products to get into the country. And again, they did that through legislative and political lobbying to do it, which is a very unique skill. It's not just about trying to raise the awareness in the public psyche, it's also about raising it in the political and government circles as well, which is really hard. So hats off to them. They have a hard job and they do it all very well. So hats off to you all. Talking about hats off, something we covered last year. I absolutely love these things, is our friends over at Oceanographic magazine do the 2021 Ocean Photography Awards, which have these absolutely stunning, stunning ocean images. They have announced the finalists for this year's awards. Everything from multicolored squids, translucent deep sea creatures to rainbow-covered waves and split shots of sharks at sunsets and free diving journeys with humpbacks. I mean, I just want to go diving, just just reading about these things and seeing these images. They're beautiful.

SPEAKER_08 14:44

Sea wolves, paper nautilus, gosh, the jellyfish in the kelp forests. It it really does. It transports you. And when you see these awards given and also just see where these people have gone, and you see it from their perspective, it's such a spectacular thing and a privilege to travel to these places and experience these moments through these photographers' lenses.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

By the time the this episode comes out, because spoiler alerts, again to listeners, we don't record this in real time before it goes out. There's actually a series of films being released on the Ocean Photography Awards Instagram page from September 10 to September the 16th. So this episode comes out on the 14th. Go to their uh Instagram page. You can go and see all the winners being announced. And if you happen to be in London, obviously come and say hello to me, give me a wave. But there is a free outdoor public exhibition alongside the River Thames, it's scheduled for September 17th to October 17th on Queen's Walk near Towerbridge.

SPEAKER_08 15:41

Oh, that sounds lovely. Sounds lovely.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So I shall go and have a look at that.

SPEAKER_08 15:44

Will you please do an Instagram live on the deeper blue grams so we can watch and see?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Sure. Why not? That would be cool. Let's do that. That sounds like a good idea. Last but no means least, and this is definitely one for Jason. But there's always got to be one sort of tabloid type story, just for Jason, just to make sure he feels happy.

SPEAKER_08 16:02

But I feel like this is less tabloid and more just real estate news.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

It is, but it's on Fox 13. So there is a private island up for sale in Scotland. Bonnie, Scotland. Bonnie, Bunny Scott. And it is going for around about $70,000.

SPEAKER_08 16:19

The Isle of Carnes?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Diaz.

SPEAKER_08 16:24

Carn D's Diaz Diaz.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Carmen Diaz. The Isle of Carmen Diaz. Is that the Well, it's a 22 and a half acre island.

SPEAKER_08 16:35

It's off the western coast of Scotland within the summer isles. It's an archipelago that sits on the mouth of Loch Broom. So it it's uninhabited. It's beautiful. I mean, it looks gorgeous. I don't know how you get power out there. I guess you do some solar, but it's stunning.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

And also the wildlife around here. So I mean, you can do a lot of sailing, you can do scuba diving, fishing, sort of thing. Interestingly, around the area, you know, things like porpoises, dolphins, whales, basking sharks, and otters all prevalence there, which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_08 17:07

But most importantly, Stephen, Goldcrest describes the small island as being, quote, rugged and romantic as an investment opportunity. So there is that. If you want to be rugged and romantic, it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

I thought they were describing me for a second. Rugged and romantic. You know, perfect investment opportunity. That sounds like me, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_08 17:28

And it's only a 25-minute boat ride away from the here. I'm gonna butcher this one too. Baden but Baden Tarbut.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Baden Tarbat's Pier or Old Dorney Harbour.

SPEAKER_08 17:41

That's easier to say.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

In Northern Scotland. Interesting.

SPEAKER_08 17:44

It looks beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Maybe we can do the next co-host uh get together for the podcast. We can uh do a whip round and see if we can rustle up some cash to buy this. Because obviously there's a lot of money in podcasting.

SPEAKER_08 17:55

Pod podcasting.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Maybe we don't buy the super yacht and we go for the small islands instead. Does that sound uh second?

SPEAKER_08 18:01

I'll be right over. I'll be right over.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Well, Lyndon, that is the news of the week. The final news for series three, uh season three, should I say, uh, I will say, as I always do, you know, for all the diving, ocean and travel related news, deeperblue.com, by all means go and do that. Download our app as well. And season three, whilst it is the end of this 10-episode run, we'll take a short break and then we'll be back with season four. And I must give a huge thank you to obviously Jason, producer, Lyndon Yu, and Megan as co-hosts. Absolutely fantastic. All our guests for season three.

SPEAKER_08 18:38

Yes, all of our amazing guests. But also a big, huge thank you to Sunto.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Sunto uh for being sponsors of this season, and they're very kindly back to be sponsors of next season as well. So they will see out the year with our friends over at Sunto. So by all means, please go and take a look at Sunto.com. That's it for the news this week. So, Linden, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_08 18:58

Oh, thank you very much. It's as always been a pleasure. Everyone, have fun out there, be safe, and get in the water.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

With that, on with the rest of the show.

SPEAKER_08 19:07

Toodles.

SPEAKER_07 19:12

Hello, I'm Betty Scuba, the Dive Nanny, and you're listening to the best 30 minutes about diving, the deeper blue podcast.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Today, co-host Lynn Wolpert speaks with Women's Hall of Fame diver Sylvia Goh, scuba diver, stunt woman, and photojournalist.

SPEAKER_08 19:33

I am interviewing the beautiful, talented, and effervescent Sylvia Goh. Sylvia, thank you so much for being here with us today on the Deeper Blue podcast.

SPEAKER_04 19:44

My pleasure. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_08 19:45

I'm so curious to know, as a woman who has transcended so many obstacles in your life through your work, through your health, with your family in so many ways, you're a very intelligent, dynamic, multilingual woman. How did you end up becoming so connected to the oceans?

SPEAKER_04 20:06

It is a very interesting question, especially that I grew up in a landlocked country in Hungary. I started doing a sport called orienteering diving, which is kind of like a treasure hunt where you have to find different objects underwater using a timing device and a compass. Really, the military sponsored it because they wanted people to find things in zero visibility waters. And I did that when I was a kid, since I was 13, and I had about 500 dives until I actually ventured to see the ocean in Greece with my team. I grew up in a country that was ex-communist, so we had to wait until that iron curtain fell in 1990 to go to Greece. And when I dove in the ocean and I actually could see and I could see creatures and turtles and octopus, I just had this realization that I'm going to go and live somewhere where there is no winter, where there are palm trees, sunshine all year round, and I'm gonna make a living of scuba diving. You can imagine the skepticism that I received when I declared this at home. And my grandpa said, Sissy, why don't you just watch the Jacques Cousin movies? And you don't have to worry about getting bit by sharks and get lost in the ocean. And I looked at my grandpa and I said, I don't want to live my life through other people's stories. I don't want to make my own stories. I want to go and swim in the ocean. I want to be with the turtles and the sharks. The more people told me that you can't do this, the more I just said, you know, watch me. So in college, I studied marketing and management, and I went to the Mediterranean Sea to Malta, where I became a dive master and instructor. And as college. We have to spend the last six months working somewhere and write our thesis. So I decided I'm gonna write my thesis, how to write some financial planning for seasonable markets, such as gibber diving. So basically, I used college and I played by their rules. I went to spend six months to become a dive master and instructor at an internship because I had no money. I just walked into a dive shop and said, Can I please work off the price of this training? I'm gonna be free labor for you. There was this female dive resort owner who looked at me and said, I've never done this, but sure. And from there, it's rest is history. I traveled the world. I lived in Thailand, went through Australia. I came to California for two weeks 20 years ago. And I became a course director in California.

SPEAKER_08 22:51

And how did you get involved in the film industry? I know you do a lot of underwater stunt work and all kinds of safety diving and many things on big films and television shows.

SPEAKER_04 23:03

I believe in fate, and I was in the right place at the right time. I know certain types of diving that not too many women can do who is my size and can double actresses. For example, ice diving. I doubled Drew Barrymore for the Big Miracle movie when we save the whales up in Alaska. And luckily, my size is the size of a typical women actress. So I can do all the rack diving, cave diving. I did double Dina Meyer for the Piranha movie when I go into the caves and get eaten by piranhas. That was a fun movie to work on for sure. When we were filming that, in movies they don't always film things in the sequence that is gonna be in the movie. So that actress who ended up dying eaten by piranhas was a little dummy when we filmed the dead scene. They didn't have a scuba gear on. So when it was my turn to do my scene, not only did I get to be torn by piranhas in a cave, I also had to take off all my scuba gear and throw it away in a postdoc cave. That was just one of the craziest things I've ever had to do.

SPEAKER_08 24:13

I hope they paid you well. So, Sylvia, your career has spanned so many different facets from creating beautiful ocean-inspired jewelry with gemstones to overcoming breast cancer like a boss. You have done so many things and been an inspiration to so many. You're in the Women Divers Hall of Fame. You are a Patty Ambassadiver. What I'd love to know about is a dive that you have gone on that had a really profound impact on you. Take us underwater with you.

SPEAKER_04 24:51

This is not gonna be one of your usual dives for what I find to me super empowering. You know, I've been from Antarctica to South Africa to Thailand to the Red Sea in Sudan. I mean, I dove the seven seas. But the one dive that I really look forward to every year is what I do with At Risk Youth, the A Chance for Children Foundation. I work with inner city kids down here in Los Angeles who literally live 20 minutes from the ocean and have never been there. They don't even have bathing suits. And once a year I gather all my water-loving friends, instructors, dive masters, or anyone who just loves diving. And we take 30 to 50 of these inner city kids underwater. These kids are terrified of the water, yet want to do something super exciting. So when we have them come into the water, you see this excitement and fear mixed in their eyes while I'm explaining what we're gonna do, how we're gonna breathe underwater, the signals we're gonna use. And I have this community of scuba diver friends who have put fins on these kids, comfort them, show them how to fit those masks on their face, and then we work with them one-on-one. We take them underwater and swim, and then they always within like three seconds do that up signal to let's go up, and then we take them up right away, and they just see that we listen to them, pay attention to what they want to do, and then they go back with the biggest smile on their face, and this changes their lives. I hope, in a way where it impacts them to believe that they can make a living of something that they are passionate about. We do career days, and I go talk with these kids, and sometimes I see them year after year, and I see that it makes a difference to give back to the community. So to me, it might not be your most exciting dive, but that's one that I look forward to every year.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

I'm Don Carnegus, Dive Medicine Researcher and Nemo21 Aquinaut. And this is the Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

And action. Hey everyone. So the Deeper Blue Podcast is brought to you by Sunto, the dive watch and dive computer manufacturer. Sunto.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Sunto has an app. Sunto has an app which logs your dives and other activities with Bluetooth connection to D5, I don't know what that is, Eon Core, don't know what that is, and Eon Steel. Are those three of their dive computers?

SPEAKER_01 28:14

It is three of their dive computers, and I know that as we've mentioned before on the podcast, you're you're a bit of a novice when it comes to this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Uh you're a bit of flotsam in the water when it comes to uh I like a log on the surface of the ocean that gets thrown around by the waves. But I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yeah, so the D5 is uh one of their wrists. Well, in fact, all three of them, the the Eon Core, Eon Steel, and D5 are all wrist dive computers from Cunto. Um one looks like a watch, which is a D5, and the other two look like little square rectangular computers on your wrists.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. I I think the thing I like about this, so it says here, the copy says it allows you to use a map to post and then share and show off. And so here's the deal. Here's something that I'm gonna say that is sacrilegious, at least for scuba divers. For the free divers out there, I don't know what they do because you're a free diver and I'm not. I don't log any of my dives ever. I've never been, I'm a big picture guy, so I don't care about the details. And people, I know this is sacrilege to say this.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

That's true from doing this podcast with you for a while, uh Jason. You're a big picture guy. Someone has to do the details though.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Someone does have to do the details. So I don't log any of my dives. I basically just remember what I just did. I mean, I've done hundreds of dives, but I still just I just kind of experience it. So the fact that this thing can actually log all the dives for me, put them on a map around the world, that's pretty cool. I do like that.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

You know, there's a little bit of a narcissist in all of us, right? So we all like to see what goes on around the world, you know, what are we doing and stuff. And uh look, it's the it's the modern day thing. Yeah, we've got apps we that track us doing everything, whether we want to or not. And I think, you know, I love being able to you know show off where I've gone diving. I don't really log dives anymore. I've done God knows how many now, 1500, 2000, something like that over my career. So when I log a dive, I want to do it because I want to show off. So it's really cool in the Centro app. You know, you go and log it, it look connects to your computer, downloads everything, puts some extra information in. You can do it on the app or you can do it on the website. It's very, very cool.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Yeah, that I actually I do like that. I don't know. I honestly still am confused why I need to have logs of my dives, because what do I need to like show people for? I mean, other than show off on Facebook, but I don't go there anymore.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

It's because we don't trust you. So how do we know you've gone diving if you uh haven't looked at it as a as a piece of flotsam on the surface of the ocean?

SPEAKER_02 30:33

You actually would be right to question if I've actually done all of those dives. Uh okay, so the Cunto app. That's pretty cool. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah, I do very, very cool. Go go and check it out, guys. Cunto.

SPEAKER_05 30:52

Hey everyone, this is Megan Heaney Greer. Coming up now is a top tip, or maybe more like a mission, from the executive director and co-founder of Force Blue, Jim Ritterhoff, on why the days of being a recreational diver are a thing of the past.

SPEAKER_06 31:07

You know, it's funny, I gave this this talk a Dima, and it was about you know, recreational diving in my mind is over. I get, you know, folks at Nowie and Patty get mad at me when I say that, but I don't mean it like don't be a recreational diver. My point is if you have the ability and you have the blessing, honestly, to be a diver, if you have that opportunity, you have the responsibility now to be a part of this fight. Every time you jump in the water, think about what you can be doing, whether it's from a citizen science perspective or it's just learning to help educate others. How can you be moving the ball forward? How can you be part of the process that turns this around? Congratulations, you're a scuba diver. Now get to work. You know what I mean? That's kind of that's kind of my tip anyway.

SPEAKER_08 32:12

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

SPEAKER_00 32:21

My name is Steve Weaver, owner of Weaver's Dive and Travel Center and Dreamweaver Travel, located in Boulder, Colorado. My best dive ever, I think, was in the Solomon Islands on a trip aboard the Bilatiki. We did a dive site called the Devil's Highway, which was described as having several mana rays on the dive. The dive masters on the boat did a great job prepping us for the dive, telling us there would be a lot of current at the beginning of the dive, and the man rays were a 50-50 shot of being able to see them. We jumped in the water, the current was riproaring, and we just flew with it, and it was a lot of fun. And then there's this little ledge that dropped off to about 100 feet. As we went over, everybody sort of grabbed on to the lip of the ledge and hung on for dear life, and the current was just ripping. And at one point I considered aborting the dive, but then all of a sudden it happened. The man rays came, about 20 of them, and they stayed with us for the rest of the dive. It was mesmerizing. Best dive ever.

SPEAKER_08 33:26

We'd love to hear about your best dive. So please head over to deeperblue.com/slash best dive ever to share your story about your best dive ever.

SPEAKER_05 33:40

Thanks for listening to the Deeper Blue Podcast. Find out more about all the stories you've heard today, plus connect with the world's largest dive community at deeperblue.com. If you like what you've heard, please share, like, and rate our show wherever you get your podcasts. These shares and likes really do make a difference. Thanks so much. We'll see you next week. MHG Out.