Wildlife Photographer Paul Nicklen on a frozen moment with Narwhals in the Arctic, and Tom Ingram with a great way to stay connected to your gear

Stephan Whelan:

Season four of the DeeperBlue Podcast is brought to you by Suunto. Finish engineering, pioneering adventure from mountaintop to ocean floor since 1936. Suunto

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

Welcome to the DeeperBlue Podcast, your weekly guide to everything that's happening around the world underwater. My name is Mehgan Heany-Grier. I'm a freediver, ocean explorer, and the imperfect conservationist, also co-host of the DeeperBlue Podcast, the podcast or deeperblue.com, the world's most popular diving website. Every week the DeeperBlue 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.

Stephan Whelan:

And we're back.

Linden Wolbert:

And we're back.

Stephan Whelan:

We have Linden Wolbert.

Linden Wolbert:

Hello there. Hello. Hello.

Stephan Whelan:

Linden, it's always good to see you my friend. Thank you for being co-host on the podcast and we've given Jason a day off today. Lovely to have you on.

Linden Wolbert:

Well, I'm sure he's just scrounging all of the most highly rated news sources for tabloids that are of the aquatic persuasion.

Stephan Whelan:

Absolutely. We have actually spent 45 minutes trying to draw through some suggestions that Jason had and we spent quite bit time cutting them down. The bit I'm disappointed in Linds I have to say is normally Jason finds some sort of crazy mansion to talk about with a massive pool, lake in the garden with like Mayan temples or something like that in the sunken temples, whatever it is. But I'm disappointed.

Linden Wolbert:

No private islands, no crazy millionaire mansions. Not this week folks, not this week.

Stephan Whelan:

No, not this week. Well, let's not keep our listeners waiting. Let's start off with a story, comes from one of our mutual friends actually. So Paul Toomer, who was a guest on season one of the podcast. His agency RAID have just announced something that's pretty groundbreaking in the agency world. So they've just announced that they are removing all membership fees permanently for their recreational and professional divers. Most agencies, for those that don't know, you get charged with annual fee to be a member of one of these agencies. And it's a small amount of your recreational person and it can be a big amount if you're a professional person. Really interesting that Paul and his team have made this decision, which is really interesting, really brave move I think on the part of RAID.

Linden Wolbert:

It is a brave move. I agree with you. But I also think it's an extremely appealing way to garner new membership and encourage people to train with an agency that really is just profiting strictly off of their materials and coursework.

Stephan Whelan:

Huge applause to Toomer and team. And I mean, it's a hoot, you should go and listen to the episode with Paul. He's an absolute hoot and yeah, one of the loonies in our industry, normally perched the bar somewhere I have to say. He's a really interesting character, so definitely worth a listen, I think.

Linden Wolbert:

Yeah. And you can't see him on the podcast, so if you want to a face to match that name, you're going to see a bunch of crazy little tattoos and piercings and spikes and fun that accompany the fun voice and personality you'll hear on that podcast episode.

Stephan Whelan:

Let's talk about the next thing. So the next thing we saw a great video, and I've really got into my kind of documentary videos on YouTube. This is really interesting documentary that's been done by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. They have been sifting through the muddy waters of deep sea mining. One of the last unexplored areas of the world in the deep sea.

Linden Wolbert:

This documentary is called, In Too Deep: Blue Heart of the Planet. And yes, it's about 18 and a half minutes long and it's on YouTube and-

Stephan Whelan:

Yeah, I mean we focus a lot on plastic in the ocean. That tends to be something that recent times. I remember Hugh Pearson, first guest on the podcast ever. We had episode one, pulled me up on it. He said, remember, it's actually probably isn't the biggest thing is overfishing is a really massive issue. And the other thing that's coming to the for now is this deep sea mining. We're industrializing the ocean depths and it's a real problem and a real threat to this delicate place, the deep ocean. And there's incredible biodiversity down there, which we need to make sure we protect. So, well worth a watch. As ocean ambassadors, we should be banging the drum about protecting our beautiful 70% of this planet.

Linden Wolbert:

And the parts that have truly yet to be touched down there in the fathoms. That's where all those thermal vents are. That's where everything that dies falls gravitationally and becomes all of the decomposition that helps that ecosystem thrive. So, it's really important to see and understand that. So a really neat piece to watch. Check it out, In Too Deep.

Stephan Whelan:

Talking about biodiversity, another thing came to our attention. So there are two teachers who have this organization called, Coral Vita in The Bahamas. And it's really about cultivating coral on lands from collected fragments and replants them in the sea to help revive the dying ecosystems. And obviously, coral bleaching and dying coral is a massive issue for the oceans right now. And amazingly, they've won one of the earth shop prizes. So these are a million pounds, $1.3 million dollar-ish prizes that are being given out. And it's the inaugural one. It was in October, they gave out the inaugural five prizes of million pounds each to help support and scale these innovations around things. So I mean, what a fantastic story.

Linden Wolbert:

It is great. And the founders, Sam and Gator are saying that the corals that they are cultivating underwater can grow up to 50 times faster using the methods that they have created and are using versus traditional restoration methods. So this is really exciting thing, given all of this coral bleaching that we've been seeing happening all over the planet. These bleaching events are getting closer and closer together and more dramatic over time. So this is an encouraging thing to see such a good quantity of funding going toward an organization that really does seem to be making a difference and putting a dent in re-cultivating that coral.

Stephan Whelan:

I have to say, now I've reread their names. Sam could be British. Gator, definitely not British.

Linden Wolbert:

You don't think so?

Stephan Whelan:

Not no traditional British name though I'm afraid. Now, this is a great story. This one, I love this one, Linden. I think you should do this one. This is more up your alley I think.

Linden Wolbert:

I'm already giggling about it. So interestingly, there is a place in the world, Eastern Jalisco. I'm not sure exactly where Jalisco is. I believe it is in Mexico. Tequila has killed some 60 tons of fish in a reservoir and Eastern Jalisco, Jalisco. And apparently not only did those fish become intoxicated before they perished, this tequila runoff caused a deprivation of oxygen in their water. So they were not only hypoxic, they were intoxicated.

Stephan Whelan:

This sounds just like a big frat party going on in this lake in Mexico. I think also the, so not only do the fish get a bit drunk or very drunk, also the waters uses irrigation, but also as a water source for cattle. So you've probably got all these drunk cows walking around as well. We make jokes about it, obviously terrible, terrible news and you shouldn't be dumping anything into these sorts of lakes and reservoirs. But I suppose if you're going to go death by tequila is definitely a way to go.

Linden Wolbert:

Hopefully it was good tequila. And if we dive there, what happened? Do you just pull your regulator out and occasionally take a sip? I don't know.

Stephan Whelan:

It's difficult one, isn't it? And to be honest, it's probably wouldn't be on my bucket list because I just don't like tequila I'm afraid. Sorry.

Linden Wolbert:

I don't either.

Stephan Whelan:

And I've just been to Mexico and I did get forced to drink some margaritas, which were just about palatable because they didn't taste of tequila. So the next bit of news, little bit more somber, what quite our attention. So the headline is, divers tried to smuggle rebreathers into Libya.

Linden Wolbert:

Keyword in here, tried.

Stephan Whelan:

This is definitely a Jason story because he loves these sort of story to where someone tries to do something and fails spectacularly. The interesting thing that I picked up here. So there was a scheme back in 2016 about exporting close circuit rebreathers to Libya. And rebreathers are considered potentially controlled equipment, which you can't export to certain countries because they can be used for both as civilian and military usage.

Linden Wolbert:

Yeah. It requires licensing, special licensing too.

Stephan Whelan:

The interesting thing about this is who was involved with it. So there's a chap called Peter Sotis, who was based in Florida and he is a rebreather instructor. And why he is really interesting is he was actually involved when Rob Stewart, the Director and maker of Sharkwater film, he died in a rebreather accident back in 2017. And Peter Sotis was his buddy and instructor at the time. And there was a lot of controversy around how he was involved in Rob's death and so on. Still not fully... That instance still isn't fully resolved, being honest. So having him involved just sparked our interest as a story because A, people exporting equipment to Libya may not be the most interesting story, but the fact that's Peter Sotis who already has a bit of a shady reputation being involved in this isn't great.

Linden Wolbert:

It isn't and interestingly this happened in 2016 before the incident occurred in Florida with Rob Stewart. So yeah. Wow. He has quite the track record.

Stephan Whelan:

The reason that's come up now is, Sotis and his partner have been facing sentencing by a federal district court judge on January the sixth next year, 2022, and could potentially get a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in jail and a million dollar fine for attempting to violate the protocols that harm to commerce do to make sure these things can't happen. And you know, there's also additional fines of 250,000 additional five years for a conspiracy, and there's another one for smuggling. I mean there's three different charges being involved here so they could actually have very, very long things. So, we'll watch this one with interest. We revisit it. We want to finish the season by time to starts. So maybe we can come back to it in a later episode to find out what's going on.

Linden Wolbert:

Yeah. It will be interesting to watch this and follow this story.

Stephan Whelan:

Now the next story is going back in time a little bit as well. So the rescue of the Thai school soccer team. That's football to any non-American by the way. The Brits listening to the show that's that's football. Thai school boys that were rescued from a flooding cave in Thailand back in 2018.

Linden Wolbert:

Yeah, everyone remembers this story. It was riveting and the really exciting news is drum roll.

Stephan Whelan:

Well, the fantastic thing is the documentary that is called, The Rescue has been released on Disney+. So you do need a subscription to Disney+, National Geographic Documentary. And I actually started, I haven't finished yet. I actually started the first half it before coming to record this new session with you Linden. And this thing is amazing. So it combines real footage from the rescue with these staged underwater scenes where they've replicated and recreated, some of the rescue stuff with interviews with people, both Thai generals, Thai rescuers and the UK and international volunteer dive team that was there. And so absolutely amazing. So I haven't finished it yet, but the trailer is on YouTube or on deeperblue.com. Jason will be upset if I didn't say this. You can go and watch the trailer on deeperblue.com. And if you have Disney+ you can go and watch it on there. Next one's really interesting. So there's a new product out, which launched the Athema this year a talent show in Las Vegas, it's called Avelo. So what's that all about Linden?

Linden Wolbert:

It's actually, it's slightly mysterious. From what I understand, it is a hydro tank that features an inner bladder for holding air and is positively buoyant on the surface, but then a diver will use a battery operated pump to let water into the tank around the bladder and it makes you become negatively buoyant. So what this essentially does is it eliminates the need for a BCD or buoyancy control device, which is a crazy concept. It's kind of hard to wrap your head around because it's so innovative and it's just very unlike anything we've ever seen technology wise before, at least I've ever seen before in the dive industry.

Stephan Whelan:

So I've seen this in videos again on deeperblue.com. You go and have a look at the video, read about it. It does look absolutely amazing. So we're so used to having these kind of bulky jackets, buoyancy control devices. You might prefer a wing kind of a new more modern invention coming from the tech world into recreational world. But this really, you can see the divers that's it's almost going back to old school diving, you just put this tank on your back-

Linden Wolbert:

Little harness.

Stephan Whelan:

And little harness and regulation in your mouth and off you go. And these divers are truly neutrally buoyant when you look at them go around and swim around and stuff and-

Linden Wolbert:

Super streamlined.

Stephan Whelan:

So I'm really interested. This is not hitting the market till 2023. So we got another year and a bit to go before it's going to come out, but something we're going to really watch. The other interesting thing is one again, one of our previous guests, Jennifer Idol, the underwater designer. She's been involved in a lot of the designer marketing around this as well I know. So in the photography around it, she's fantastic photographer. So very proud of her and being involved in this project.

Linden Wolbert:

Yeah, it's really going to be exciting to see where this goes. I mean, imagine just not needing to carry your weights around or rent weights anymore. It's kind of a neat concept. Moving along into even more streamlined diving matters.

Stephan Whelan:

In more streamline. Notable freedivers, Umberto Pelizzari and Pipin Ferreras, two phenomenal freedivers in their own rights. Been around freediving scene for a little while. They are back together. So about 21 years ago, they appeared in a documentary called Oceanmen.

Linden Wolbert:

I can't believe it's been that long.

Stephan Whelan:

Been a long, long time. In fact, Bob Talbot, who is a fabulous director, he's actually guests in this season of the podcast.

Linden Wolbert:

A forthcoming episode.

Stephan Whelan:

Yeah, absolutely. So he did the filming of Oceanmen, which followed the life story of Umberto and Pipin. And they have been arch rivals for a long time and they actually came together back three, four years ago they appeared at the UDI show in Italy, in Bologna, and they just announced that they're going to be appearing again next year on the 27th of February next year in Bologna in Italy. Once again, which will be fabulous. I might actually try and make a trip to Italy and go and see the Salo.

Linden Wolbert:

Oh, I mean there's something about Italian freedivers. I realize only one of the two are Italian, just Umberto. But in my opinion, such a gracefulness in how a lot of the Italian freedivers move through the water. So anyway, I'm excited to hear how that all goes, what they do exactly. I'm imagining they'll do some talks and chats and maybe sign and autograph, some books, posters and other memorabilia. Do you think if I showed up with my blueray Oceanmen DVD, they would sign it?

Stephan Whelan:

Wow. That might be worth it. I don't think, oh, I think I've got a copy somewhere as well. We should do this. This sounds like a plan even. And I have to say Italian men freedivers, well, male and female freedivers beautiful underwater and so on. This coming from a professional mermaid folks so that's high esteem for sure.

Linden Wolbert:

It's true though. But I will say though too, Gilm Narry which Gilm if you're out there listening, email me.

Stephan Whelan:

We're trying get you on the podcast.

Linden Wolbert:

I've sent every possible correspondence. Anyway.

Stephan Whelan:

Well, I think Linden on that note before our poor producer Jason, although a given time off, we've done a very long news recording, so we're going to give him indigestion and heartburn I think. So Linden as always, thank you very much for being an absolutely beautiful and wonderful co-host on this podcast. Thank you so much.

Linden Wolbert:

It's my joy and yeah, till next time.

Stephan Whelan:

On with the rest of the show.

Tom Ingram:

The world underwater every week. I'm Tom Ingram, President and CEO of DEMA, and you're listening to the DeeperBlue Podcast.

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

Hi guys, it's Mehgan Heany-Grier, co-host of the DeeperBlue Podcast. And today it is so wonderful to be speaking with the legendary conservation photographer and SeaLegacy co-founder Paul Nicklen. It's likely you've seen Paul's incredible images over the last few decades in the pages of National Geographic Magazine. And today he shares some with us about his obsession for the Arctic and when nearly hypothermic dives spent hiding behind some ice that left him feeling the happiest he's ever been in his whole life. Paul, so lovely to have you on the show today. Where are you today?

Paul Nicklen:

Thanks Mehgan. It's a real pleasure to be here. I am at home in British Columbia on the east side of Vancouver Island, and we're just getting prepared to head to our boat, the SeaLegacy one, which is in Panama right after the UN event in New York. And then we'll be at sea for about eight months straight filming in around the Pacific.

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

Wow, that's amazing. Can we start off with just an introduction of who you are and what you do?

Paul Nicklen:

My name is Paul Nicklen. I'm a conservation filmmaker, the co-founder of the nonprofit SeaLegacy and only one. A contributor to National Geographic and just a concern and passionate citizen of this planet.

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

You've obviously spent a lot of time in the water, then you continue lead the ocean expeditions for SeaLegacy and so many other things. But how did you begin? How did diving start for you?

Paul Nicklen:

It's very funny. I mean, I grew up in Buchanan as a young kid and I lived on the sea ice with the inuit and we would travel for great distances. And I think when you grew up in a community with 190 inuit people and you don't have a telephone or a radio or a television, you become extremely connected to the world around you. We spent all of our time outside playing under the Aurora Borealis, listening to folklore like Kadlopilu the sea monsters who would take us down and eat us if we got too close to the water's edge. And so it just filled my mind full of visuals and I became very obsessed with the ocean. And this is way back in the seventies .and all we had were books and we had all the Jacque Cousteau books.

Paul Nicklen:

So I would just sit day after day, pouring through those as a kid with just time to read these books and become obsessed. But when you live as a minority in such a small world, you don't think that there's any opportunity for you. And then when I finally ended up going to University of Victoria, that's where I was walking by onto class one night and I'm 18 years old and it said diving lessons. For four months of diving lessons, $120. And so I like, what do you mean I can go diving? I actually can become a diver? And it's just sort of an epiphany, an incredibly exciting moment that took me on this journey.

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

What keeps you coming back?

Paul Nicklen:

I just think that it is an absolutely other world down there. It's another planet. From a conservation point of view, I think most people stand on the beach and they stare out across the water and think that all is perfect and beautiful in the world. And I realize that very few people are going to get to see the underwater world and it's my job as a conservationist, as a journalist to bring that world to everyone, to just show them the beauty, but also show them what's at stake and what we've lost and what we continue to lose. And that's a big role for me. That's sort of what inspires me to get in the water every day. I also would say in this world of telephones and DMs and texts and emails and Zoom calls that you, I think I have ADD, but maybe I don't.

Paul Nicklen:

But I am like Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, that just get me underwater, get me away from the noise of life and let me meditate and be lost in the ocean or a lake or a river with salmon or no animals. It doesn't matter. You think of the amount of money and time and effort we're putting into going to space and this talk of moving to Mars. I mean, you get it, divers get it. But when you float there weightless in the ocean and you're surrounded by a whale or dolphins or an octopus or a school of fish, I mean, is there anything more beautiful on this planet?

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

You know, on the note of conservation with the incredible images that you've captured over your lifetime, being a visual storyteller and working to convey that conservation message, can you tell us more about SeaLegacy and how that came to be?

Paul Nicklen:

Absolutely. From a young age, I fell in love with the Arctic and I knew I had to do something to protect it. And so the logical thing after university, even though I was obsessed with diving, I went back north and became a biologist. And I was working on links, no shoe hairs, wolves, caribou, but the highlight for me was working on polar bears. Being out on the sea ice and doing the science. And then I thought if I could bridge the gap between the work that my peers are doing, and by becoming a journalist for something like National Geographic, then that would be a great job for me to translate and educate and inform. And then after 20 years with National Geographic, which was the highlight of my life and professionally, it was 2014 and I was taking some people around the Arctic to film and photograph polar bears.

Paul Nicklen:

Well in a place that was only 500 miles from the north pole, we never found very many live bears. It was a disastrous trip. There was no sea ice to be found anywhere in a place that is historically covered in sea ice year round. But we, on one day we found two bears that had starved to death. And that was when I'm like, National Geographic is amazing. It's the best of the best, but that was at the same time that my Instagram account was growing quickly. National Geographic Instagram account was growing quickly. And I thought we need to take a serious look at this. And if we can build our own over the top communication platform to get the world involved on these issues, if I can then instead of shooting for a year or two on a big assignment for National Geographic and putting it up for one month and then it's there for one month and then go on forever, what if we can beat this drum every day? Through just little soundbites.

Paul Nicklen:

In this sort of ADD world that we've come to live in and just to keep reminding people and all of a sudden before you know it, I have several million followers. National Geographic has a hundred million followers. And then Christina, my partner in life and my boss at SeaLegacy and only one. We launched SeaLegacy back in 2014 is when we said, let's do this. For me, it's just that thin molecular curtain of the surface that you're standing on a beach staring out over this perfect beautiful sea, it's calm and the light's reflecting and it's just taking your mask and going from an inch above the surface to an inch below the surface, and you see a very different world, where you see ocean acidification, the coral are dying. The fish just aren't there. The salmon returns aren't coming back.

Paul Nicklen:

And it's to find a way, find a rhythm that allows people into this world without making it too depressing. And in our channels that we have built, it's kind of like boxing, a boxing metaphor jab, jab, jab punch. And that is jab is beautiful, it's interesting. Here's a beautiful animal, isn't this gorgeous? Look how cool these creatures are and you keep jabbing, jabbing, and then finally, boom. By then, they care, they're involved, they're invested and then they're ready and open to receive terrible news of a starving polar bear or what have you overfishing or the tragedies that are taking place in our oceans. And that's that rhythm that we're finding works really well.

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

Through SeaLegacy and the other work that you do, how are you getting people involved? What can we do as divers and citizens?

Paul Nicklen:

Absolutely Mehgan. Great question and I mean, the beautiful thing about what we have built, it just started with social media. We started posting and sharing and all of a sudden people were invested in us. And then in 2017, we put up that starving polar bear video, became the most viral video in the history of National Geographic on their feed as well. 2.5 Billion people saw that video around the world so over a quarter of the planet saw it. People were stopping us in Rwanda, I mean, telling us in airports that they had seen it and they were touched and moved. And that's when we realized the power of a single visual put in front of the international court of public opinion can really wake up the world. But where do people go? Where do they put their energy? So then that's when we started planning like SeaLegacy is the expedition visual storytelling branch of our organization.

Paul Nicklen:

Then we co-founded an organization based out of New York called only.one. And this is a platform where now people who care, concerned citizens of the planet or people who want to just follow along and see the content. But all of a sudden they can get involved and actually take an action. And then whether it's through a donation, whether it's through a signature, whether it's through getting involved, then their action becomes trackable. Everybody who joins only.one, it's like a Patreon account but for conservation. Whenever we have a win, like keeping big oil out of Litholtin region of Norway, or when we are able to ban these big mile long death nets off the coast of California that have a nine to one by catch ratio, they get to share in that victory.

Paul Nicklen:

And what we are doing, what I love the most about SeaLegacy and Only One is, almost all of the tide funding. People go and they join the tide right there on the SeaLegacy site, or the only.one site. You can join the tide. We take the majority of that money and we are using it to grow and how help amplify the work of every other organization that we meet along the way. We just gave $20,000 in Panama to help the people patrol the beaches, to keep poachers off the beaches, to protect the turtle populations. Whatever we can do to help grow other ocean conservation groups. And that's where I think we're going to have the most success is when we all rise up and work together.

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

With all of your world travels and diving and the amazing experiences you've had I think this is probably going to be a extremely difficult question. But I would love to hear from you if there's one particular dive and experience underwater that really rises to the top for you, that's kind of a touchstone in your life.

Paul Nicklen:

You know, I mean there's a million answers. But I think that I have, for the amount of diving, we have thousands of dives and we've been underwater on scuba ton and I dive rebreathers and they're amazing. I think my best dives have been on my snorkel. And when I've been able to just float on the surface and not even have to freedive, but not move. But when you get to slowly drift up to a pot of narwhals. There are 20 male narwhals coming towards you with their 10 foot long ivory tusk. And you're using the ice to hide behind so they can't echo locate you. And then to see the males come underneath you and all their tusks point towards you, and they start to click and echo locate you and they get more curious and you have all these ivory tusk coming towards you.

Paul Nicklen:

And then to see them disappear into the depths knowing they can dive to 5,000 feet. Those moments are like, are you kidding me? Am I seeing this? Where you sort of crawl back onto the sea ice frozen, you can't feel anything. You can't feel your face, your feet, your borderline hypothermic, but you're just the happiest you've ever been in your life. I mean, just these gifts from the sea. I always say that on my deathbed, I'm not going to be surrounded by money or any awards or any covers of magazines or posters. I'm going to be surrounded by hopefully some friends and family and just a whole lifetime of these, just life changing incredible moments that have come from the sea. And that's the greatest gift of all.

Sophie Morgan:

You are listening to the world's only weekly podcast for scuba diving, freediving, dive travel, and ocean advocacy. I'm Sophie Morgan. I'm a wildlife underwater film producer, and this is the DeeperBlue Podcast.

Jason Elias:

And action.

Stephan Whelan:

Hey everyone. So the DeeperBlue Podcast is brought to you by Suunto, the dive watch and dive computer manufacturer.

Jason Elias:

Suunto 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?

Stephan Whelan:

It is three of their dive computers. And I know that as we've mentioned before on the podcast, you're a bit of a novice when it comes to this stuff. You're a bit of flotsam in the water when it comes to things like-

Jason Elias:

I'm not going to log on the surface of the ocean that gets thrown around by the waves. But I love it. I love it.

Stephan Whelan:

Yeah. So the D5 is one of the risks, where in fact, all three of them. The EON Core, EON Steel and D5 are all wrists dive computers from Suunto. And one looks like a watch, which is a D5 and the other two look like little square rectangular computers on your wrists.

Jason Elias:

That's pretty cool. I think the thing I like about this, so it says here, the copy say 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 going to 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 I'm not. I don't log any of my dives, ever. I'm a big picture guy. So I don't care about the detail. And people, I know this is sacrilegious to say this-

Stephan Whelan:

I know that's true from doing this podcast to you for a while. Jason, you're a big picture guy. Someone has to do the details though.

Jason Elias:

Someone does have to do 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 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.

Stephan Whelan:

You know, there's a little bit of a narcist in all of us, right? So we all like to see what goes on around the world, what are we doing and stuff. And look, it's the modern day thing. We've got apps, a tracker is doing everything whether we want to or not. I think I love being able to 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 and so the app, you go and log it, connects to your computer, downloads everything, put some extra information in, you can do it on the app or you can do it on the website. It's very, very cool.

Jason Elias:

Yeah, 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.

Stephan Whelan:

It's because we don't trust you. So how do we know you've gone diving, if you haven't logged it?

Jason Elias:

As a piece of flotsam on the surface of the ocean, you actually would be right to question if I've actually done all of those dives. Okay. So the Suunto app. That's pretty cool. I like-

Stephan Whelan:

Very, very cool. Go and check it out guys. Suunto

Jason Elias:

Hi everyone. Welcome to the DeeperBlue Podcast. This is Jason Elias producer. And today we have Tom Ingram, President and CEO DMA, who's going to give us a top tip. Tom, do you have a top tip for us?

Tom Ingram:

Sure. Just as a caveat, there are plenty of divers out there smarter than I am. So listen to them first. But as a long time underwater photographer, one of the things that I'm normally using for this is, I usually attach a D-ring to my weight belt and I use a weight belt rather than easy weight pockets most of the time. And that ding is there because as I climb in the water and the camera's handed down to me from the boat, I always want to snap that off, got a snap clip that I attach to my camera or to my housing.

Tom Ingram:

And then I take that and attach it to the weight belt. Then the reason that I do it that way is because if I need my hands free, my hands are free because everything's clipped off to the weight belt, and if I get into trouble and I have to drop my weight belt or get rid of some excess, like the camera, I can drop it straight to the bottom and I'll know where it is. There's nothing worse than a neutral camera floating up, going up north through the gulf stream and you'll never see it again.

Jason Elias:

Now that is a top tip people can use. Great top tip. Thanks Tom.

Tom Ingram:

You bet.

Linden Wolbert:

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.

Nick Lyon:

Hello, my name Nick Lyon. I am a diver, writer, explorer and I'd like to tell you about my best dive. It is a site that's not often visited and it's a site I'd wanted to do for an awful long time. And when I did dive it, it totally met all my expectations, and in fact exceeded them. It's the wreck of the E49. This is a British submarine that was sunk having struck a mine in 1917 in Baltasound, in the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland.

Nick Lyon:

It's a site as I say, not visited very often, but if you can get on a boat that goes there, I thoroughly recommend it. I personally did it from the MV Ahala, lovely boat. The conditions around the wreck are what make it special. She sunk in about 30 meters, a 100 feet of water on a sea bed. Of course, white sand so the light is beautiful. Visibility is always stunning on it, excess of 20 meters. And it's just a very serene, calm and beautiful wreck. Half buried in the sand, that doesn't matter. What you see is intact a still glass of the periscope, covered in Marine life and just a peaceful, calm, serene place to be. If ever there's anything sums up the best of British diving and indeed diving in general, I can't recommend the wreck of the E49 highly enough. Give it a go. Thank you.

Linden Wolbert:

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

Mehgan Heany-Grier:

Thanks for listening to the DeeperBlue 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 a like and rate our show wherever you get your podcast. These share and likes really do make a difference. Thanks so much. We'll see you next week. MHG out.