title: Episode 20: TWENTY SCUBA MYTHS
author: DIVE TALK
contenttype: podcast
publication: DIVE TALK
published: 2020-10-02T12:00:00-04:00
sourceurl: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/divetalk/Episode_20.mp3?dest-id=1756346
word_count: 10014
Welcome everyone to dive talk episode number 20. This is 20 20 already awesome That's how that's how quick we went through that and for today's episode We were thinking about a theme and what we want to do is cover 20 scuba myths Right that are out there now. This is not the ones for people that are trying to learn how to scuba dive like oh It's claustrophobic or you know sharks are gonna attack me This is not those types of myths because I think that everyone listening to this show Probably have seen those I've heard those those myths before and that's not what we're going to focus on today These are myths for people that are already divers Things that you hear out there things that I've heard you know Just since I learned how to dive and I just want to kind of bring some clarity to some of these myths Great and I think for the most part most people here If I go through them and I say uh-oh, that's not a myth. That's not well Maybe but we're gonna go through about to this costume Yeah, and again, I think that people listening to this I've heard these before some of them will know the answer But some of them are like I wonder I always wonder that myself. So okay, let's go ahead and get started by the way This would be one that to get good comments back from our listeners as well right after we discuss Our opinion on the myth or not myth. I would love to get some feedback for sure and the other thing is You know if if we go too long maybe we'll split this into two every day after you get We'll see how it was 20 myths. So we'll see how it goes But we're gonna try to cover the mallet so number one is there's a myth out there that I heard this when I was I got started Scooba diving and I was trying to buy my own gear which is don't mix and match your gear like All right, so if you're gonna get the BC from whatever Mara Scooba Pro insert brand here Just get the regulator get everything from them don't mix and match your stuff Especially for things that are meant to work together like a regulator you cannot use First stage Mara's with a second stage Scooba Pro that would never work would it? Well, all right I this could be a whole show just this one particular item on gear, okay now I want to set the stage on this question. I thought about this one a lot first. I do want to say we teach an An entire part of our open water class just as it relates to equipment Do you know what the number one contributor is to dive safety now? It's not necessarily Your abilities. I'll just take that one off the table the number one single attribute is Having good maintained equipment that you're familiar with absolutely all right So there's the stage right so now with that said This says you should always use gear from the same manufacturer don't mix and match We don't do that we're instructors our instructor uniform is not the same gear from the same manufacturer across the board Is it no, but we I mean a lot of it is okay a lot of it is but not all of it right But we use aqua long right aqua long regulators aqua long wetsuits bcd's and and they're really good and good quality Of course, but that doesn't mean that if we were using another bcd or another regulator or whatever it wouldn't work well I'll go even one step further Do you want to pick up your kiss rebreather right now? Yeah, that is just the is There How many pieces of that gear when it's all on you is from the same manufacturer? Yeah, it's like the wing is from dive ride the the regulators from Hollis the yeah, okay So with that thing is a combination okay, and what is one of the most highly rated safety Rebrithers that's right kids re-breathers, which is that does not have a lot of the same from the same in your Factor so what I would say is it's a myth But what I would add to that is listen you need to be extremely familiar with your gear and so does your buddy So does your buddy this one goes into Making sure we understand each other's gear and then it's properly maintained So you are increasing complexity if you have lots of different pieces of gear Who's gonna service this one is my local dealer able to service all of my gear or only some of my gear That's right because then you're gonna get lazy and be like I don't feel like sending it to one place or another That's right, so when I I thought about this one really on the drive here And I was like let me just use some logic of You know, it's easier If it's all from the same manufacturer. It's just more convenient, but it is a myth because I just brought up the rebreather Situation so I hope that kind of yeah answers it I will say though that depending on the equipment it might be true for example We dive shearwater computers Sheerwater happens to use transmitters that work in a standard Which means that we can use aqua long transmitters we can use Other manufacturer transmitters they don't have to be from shearwater They all work with shearwater computers So you can mix and match transmitters from other manufacturers with shearwater computers And you can use shearwater transmitters with other computers too as long as they're all in the same standard However, Sunto has their own standard so their transmitters don't work with any computer and other Manufacturer transmitters don't work with Sunto's so depending on what you have you may You may have to dive all you know within the same brand The same happened with with Poseidon Poseidon regulators They tell you like on the website you can not use a Poseidon second stage regulator on a first stage from another brand You just can do it because the Poseidon regulators Push a lot of pressure like they there's what about on our rebreather for you as it back up reg and react it to a quick So they are they are set up so you can have I think something like aid people breathing out of a first stage a Poseidon first stage And he has enough air volume to maintain a divers at the same time Going at it. So the volume of gas from those things is insane So they tell you that the the the second stage the extreme. Let's just use like the example the one I use They say that you have to use it with a first stage But I kept pushing them on it because I'm like but in terms of pressure like PSI pressure Yeah, the IP pressure. Yeah, pressure In terms of pressure it looks like it should work with anything and they caved in and said well Here's the thing like you have to get this part from Omni swivel that if you install that part It will come it will essentially make it work with any second stage. Okay, so right now mine is working with an apex First stage rather And it works just fine. It works perfectly fine So you may have to tweak and do some things to make different parts work But they definitely work. Okay, so that's always do this after each one of these sure So it's a myth. It's a myth no matter what you say on number one we put a lot of caveats around it. It's a myth. Yeah That's right. You don't have to dive with it. You don't have to always use the same. Okay, so it's and I will say it looks good though Like if you're if you're if everything is the same gear And I think and I think that's part of why our instructor You know uniform is all one brand because it looks good Everything you have is one brand. It looks like a uniform Writing instead of having one of each of of everything But if you had one of each of everything like your gloves were one brand your boots were another one Wed suit BCD regularly everything. It's the works. So it's a myth. Yeah, it's a myth. All right number two All right number two. It's cheaper to buy online than just to get on your local live show I mean this is probably the most widely accepted. Okay You know fact taught which I think we have a we have a saying at our dive shop, which is when is a deal a deal Okay, so if you go online and you buy scuba gear Are they gonna be there for you? Are they gonna give you the extras? Are they gonna service it? Are they gonna like you buy hoses? Are there host protectors on it? Did they set it up for you? Did they orientate you on that gear? Um If it doesn't work do they have backups that they're ready to immediately supply you during a trip while you're there so You know Our dive shop I have to speak from our experience. They go online And they look at authorized dealers Right, and that's who they want to be in Agreement with in terms of their pricing and then they typically beat them We teach out of sea ventures. I'm proud of that in alpharetta sure here in in the Atlanta area And they do this homework. I don't know maybe once a quarter or something like that. They also though Are regulated by the manufacturer. That's right. You can't automatically Discount this gear and they want to compete against authorized dealers because that's who's gonna be there for you if something goes wrong with the gear Right and in a lot of cases the manufacturer will only honor warrant easy if you bought it at an actual Yeah, so if you find it off of some Unauthorized dealer or dropped off the back of a truck type of website. Could you find it cheaper? Probably but no one's going to back it including the local dive shop They're gonna be like and this is true in in a lot of industries for example one thing happened to me I have obviously a lot of camera gear and recording gear and all of that And I had this man Frodo tripod the broke and I thought he had like three year warranty or something And he lasted like six months So I reach out to man Frodo and I'm like, hey man I got a tripod and it just broke within like a few months and they're like where do you buy it? And I'm like Amazon and they're like I'm sorry We don't we don't cover warranties if you bought through Amazon not not an authorized dealer If you bought an authorized dealer we would cover it And it was like basically the same price. It's just the convenience of Amazon and showing up by your door like the next day It kind of makes you buy it So I didn't buy it to save money on Amazon. It was mainly a convenience thing And but this is life saving gear right? This is life support systems stuff underwater But when he comes to scuba you're right like manufacturers say this is the price You go by the sheer water paragraph and it's the exact same 450 bucks everywhere or you lose the right to sell it Yeah, the manufacturer sees that you discounted it below a MSRP then that you're out exactly so I would I would tell you that It's not way cheaper to buy online now. I'm gonna call it a myth because I don't think authorized dealers so I'm gonna add a word in the near It's way cheaper to buy from an authorized dealer online. No, that is not true at all Right, but um and it's hard to generalize like if you're if you're obviously if your local dive shop is in I don't know the maldives or something It's probably gonna be more expensive than stuff that you can find online Because they have to add for operational cost and stuff before the most part it just doesn't make sense Like the same thing with scuba tanks like people you know Aspins like oh, you know my local dive shop is selling this tank for $200 But I can find it for 150 online Yeah, but then you have to have a vipt and filled and whatnot and is the same exact $200 Whereas the shop was already given it to you for $200 like you just doesn't make any sense I agree so that's a myth so for sure a myth Yeah, so for those of you listening in thinking that you're gonna save a ton of money by just going online He just doesn't work out at least in my situation that hasn't been the case agree Um, all right myth number three you should stick to one dive agency just patty all the way SSI all the way whatever agency all the way What do you think myth? All right on it's easy for me because listen um Typically a dive shop is going to be affiliated with one or two different agencies And the reason for that is number one consistency of training We want to have all the instructors from one particular dive shop or dive resort teaching pretty much With a consistent quality they have their own style, but they're following a format sure and number two They're able to get volume discounts from the agencies that they can pass on right? So you could potentially save some money this way however There comes a point in time in your diving where a particular agency may not Teach a class that you want to take or allow your particular type of gear To be taught by them and I have to go back to technical diving again It's probably not the case with anything related to recreational diving But in technical diving re-breather is in particular Not every agency authorizes every re-breather So in my case for example, I happen to teach re-breather diving Not inside of SSI even though I'm an instructor trainer for SSI Everything else I teach is SSI as an instructor trainer for them and their programs are phenomenal and frankly if they did Or when they bring kiss re-breather into their world I'll teach it from SSI that's right for right now. I don't so You but the word here is you should stick to one dive agency I kind of like that Gus you said the word should So I have some leadway here. I if I was you Divers I would try to move up one dive agencies ladder Especially if you want to ultimately become a professional in that dive agency Because then you have the experience of what their classes are really like So I'm going to have to say yes, that's not a meh I think you should stick to one dive agency For the most part well, and I think it removes a lot of complexity right because if you are let's say with patty And then you take some specialties from SSI patty may not recognize those specialties You have to take the patty ones and but then with SSI maybe only one of your specialties is recognized Not all of them like depending on the agency It can get pretty complicated But if you stick to the same one and you do want to make it to pro instructor for example And all of your specialties and all your history essentially is without one agency Then you're good to go But at the same time you know and we talked about this on episode one about agencies The agency doesn't really matter that much what matters is the shop and the instructors that you Go with so for me for example I feel that with the instructors that I've had the agency didn't matter like when we went to train re-breather And you said this is a patty course. I'm like who cares like doesn't matter. I want to learn from you I don't he could have been anything could have been the FBI That's bad. Cool the FBI then So it didn't really matter at that point so yes Yeah, try to stick to one agency But you don't have to it you don't is the keyword is not you must is not must You didn't put must right but should so I'm I'm gonna say that's not a myth all right So number four I've he at man. I hear this a lot And I'm sure you've heard it a bunch of times too when you're on a dive boat and we're out on a re-breather trip Oh, you're gonna be surprised by my answer. I would never do re-breathes because they're dangerous. Okay. It says re-breathes are dangerous That's right. Are you ready for my answer? Let's do it. I'm going to tell you that We make re-breathes not dangerous with proper training proper maintenance proper servicing by following procedures every single time But are they inherently dangerous? Well diving's inherently dangerous diving is dangerous. Yeah, we talked about this in the show So re-breathes in themselves Are dangerous. Yeah, they're not more dangerous. You didn't have this and they're then Open circuit if you're properly trained The re-breathes that we train on are I think in fact safer than diving on open circuit for sure Because of the redundancy built into the re-breather the fact that I could in fact be on open circuit on that re-breather at the In a moment Because of the procedures of the way they're built their mechanical very little failure points I could go on and on so This is a tough one re-breathes. I mean some I would not touch. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna say which ones, but you know you would never see me on them I've seen them fail too many times our re-breathes kiss re-breather. I can speak from experience are incredibly safe based upon the data But just as a category just like diving well You gotta say they're dangerous so people learn to respect and follow the procedures and then they're not You can you make them not dangerous, right? That's how I have to honestly which I'll always be Answer the question. I mean just the fact that just by flipping that switch to go bail out and you go into open circuit May said You know at least equal to open circuit it does but but but but but but then safer I agree for but but remember If somebody this is technically I don't want to go off on a tangent, but how about this Hipoxic that's right you can go hypoxic on a re-breather. You can't go hypoxic breathing open circuit air No, it's hypoxic You never knew you were hypoxic the urge to breathe is not triggered by the lack of oxygen Yes, it's triggered by the build-up of carbon dioxide which your re-breather is removing That's the problem actually so what happens is your re-breather did its job perfectly in removing the carbon dioxide So your body your reflux to breathe is like I'm fine I'm not starving even though you have very little oxygen So this is what makes re-breather's quote-unquote more dangerous and why you have to constantly monitor your partial pressure I just had this entire Conversation with one of my mentors dug ever saw so anyway with that said I don't think it's a myth with proper training in comfort through repetition They're super safe. Yes, but As it's worded re-breaters are dangerous. Well, so is diving exactly Um, all right, so number five is an interesting one because I'm looking forward to Getting a train on this and and we've talked about this before on the show I feel that it is widely accepted that when he comes to diving like if diving was martial arts cave diving would be black belt like you Cave diving certified agree like getting a black belt and diving I agree But you know a lot of people you talk to again. They think that cave diving is suicidal. It's just nuts. That's a myth Okay, no that is I don't know cave diving is not suicidal the I gotta be careful here some of the best divers that I know And that I respect the most in the world are it seems for me it seems to keep falling Into the fact that they're also cave divers and they're incredibly Safety conscious you want to talk about following a tight set of protocol every Single time you dive every single time I dive open circuit recreational Uh, I don't see people do estrials said the safety drills at the beginning I never ever don't see that being done with cave diving trained cave divers boy, they are super safe Now that's cave divers that aren't going out and exploring Uncharted territory brand new caves that no man has ever been to because that cave could collapse on you You know what's ever been there? I'm not that type of cave diver either as my Cave dive mentor Doug ever saw my cave dive instructor world class Brian kick up. He's an explorer But his his job in the military was dive safety officer. I he Drills safety into you. Yeah, so it's not suicidal, but it's and matter of fact It's become my favorite kind of diving because I love all the thinking and the protocols But without that training and without following the five rules we have five golden rules of cave diving actually I think there should be six Every time Then um it would be dangerous, but we don't ever not follow those rules I'm not answering the questions so easily because there's a lot that goes into these well written questions So no, it's not suicidal. I don't let no that's a myth for sure You can do it safely Obviously because that added you know That added I guess condition that you can just surface you have to take safety more seriously Then with open water and open water you can walk into a shore and go diving and you know worst case scenario You come to the surface assuming your shallow you always have that option to do it And if you're doing recreational diving you can come to the surface without a safety step even It's not recommended, but you can't do that in a cave you can't do it So you have to take safety way more seriously and And follow the six rules of cave diving for sure without exception every single time you dive I'm not gonna go through those six rules But if anybody wants to put it in our comment section. Hey, by the way I'll respond and give you the six rules, but then there would be like a 12-day course behind that to learn how to do those for sure for sure all right Number six myth this one is obviously super popular Diving is super expensive. I mean you have to be rich to do this No, you don't have to be rich to do it diving's expensive super expensive That's a matter of opinion right some people may call it that but there's different levels Of gear or whether or not you're even gonna own your own gear So you know define expensive. I mean you can basically go on a few dive trips a year or dive a few times a year and rent your gear And it's not super expensive. Well, in comparison to what like compared to to golf golf, I guess maybe I don't think golf is Less expensive than diving. Yeah, I don't know enough about golf to be able to apply But probably by the time you pay golf club fees and all that and every time you're a golfing and yeah Not but I mean it's tech diving may Intu into the Expensive category. Yeah, like if you if you're thinking re-readers and all of that for sure That's 10 to 12 grand right for sure. You're gonna spend yeah to get in But you know when I think about Diving being expensive. I always say well expensive compared to what because if it's compared to doing nothing and staying home and doing nothing Then yeah, it's expensive because if you say home and do nothing you spend zero dollars compared to whatever you're gonna spend diving But at the same time there's millions of people that dive every year and they're not all rich You know, we have people that are absolutely You know Waitresses and waiters are restaurants that are divers like this is not something that super expensive Which is the way your question was word. So that's a myth. Yeah, exactly. It's definitely a myth All right myth number seven You have to memorize a bunch of dive tables and dive theory to be able to dive I Believe and I preach this when I teach that I don't like Memorization as a method of learning. I don't like memorization. It doesn't work It doesn't add relevance. It's just regurgitating something you memorized and What I what I try to do when I teach I try to be successful at it is to let people kind of learn themselves with me just coaching some so they understand it rather than memorize it they really Ah the light bulb is on this makes sense. I see the value. I understand the why behind what we are doing with that said there are things you have to learn But not memorize and then secondly It's almost at the point where dive tables are gone. They're not completely gone because We still don't have everybody in the world on the same protocol which is diving with sophisticated dive computers for sure But um I very rarely have to teach anything anymore with dive tables very very very very rarely Are we using dive tables that you're dive planning mode? Yeah, certainly in every computer that we sell at sea ventures Has a great dive planning mode where you could get the same information without dive Table so what was it you up to memorize a bunch of dive tables? That's a myth and dive theory You're gonna learn dive theory. We don't have to memorize it to be able to dive so I think that all men I have never gonna remember no all that stuff or whatever I wonder if there are any agencies out there that are just flat-out not teaching dive tables and just telling you get a computer Oh definitely you just get a computer. Oh, I can name a bunch that are already done with the dive tables for sure I mean it's just it's just way better like it's it's just none None it's the last time Honestly you used a dive table but right before me and you got on a boat and we're going diving hold on What do you come here? I got my dive table. Let's look this up group and this one Yeah, Woody, I think we're gonna come up a D and then if we wait an hour will be a B I don't remember you ever doing that with me ridiculous not done for sure So no you don't have to do that it's a myth Number eight, it's only for young and super fit people like I'm out of shape. I can I can dive yeah This is a myth first of all sure. I do believe you should be fit. I don't like To minimize the importance of being in Relatively good health before diving because it can contribute for sure to decompression sickness It does yeah, however fit is a pretty Big word, you know, are you able to go out and run a marathon and if you can't you can't dive that's for sure a myth But you know, you need to be healthy You we can always all improve our health, but it is absolutely a contributor to dive What do you think about you decompression sickness? No, I'm I mean I'm I'm 56 I see people diving one of my good friends as a tech rebreeder diver is in his 70s That's ridiculous in fact. I would tell you that it's probably People 40 to 45 and above that are usually the folks were diving with yeah frankly because It takes a little money to be able to go diving so no In commitment to and and all of that But but you're right. I mean, it's not it's not yes for for young people and my thing is There might be some people listen to this that have been divers for a long time just recreational divers like I've been a diver for 10 years 20 years So I'm not I'm not gonna get now into tech diving or cave diving. I got to want to learn any new tricks because I'm too old That's you know, just no there's a mate for it. Yeah, it's an easy myth Exactly. All right. Uh number nine divers should only drink water when diving you shouldn't have drink aterate or Jews or anything like that That's a total myth. I mean go on the dive boat and see all the different kind of drinks they offer you should hydrate before diving Water is great, but Electrolites when you're out there sweating on the boat. Yeah, aterator power. It is a great one to bring back your electrolytes Right, so no that's I have this a myth. It's like well, there's no There's no argument that you need to stay hydrated but people say but hydrate would water don't drink anything else I don't see and I've not seen any science on that at all to prove anything other than just a bunch of gossip myth In fact, if people have problems, I'd rather than pound a gatorate or a powerade to come back and feel better than just pure water That is true. We've been in situations where people are feeling like a little highlight head and we're like they need Electrolites yeah, they don't really get the electrolytes in water But water's great. I mean drink it for sure for sure and the other thing is I will say that depending also on your stomach Like some people might drink something like eliminate and it it would mess with their stomach or whatever So you have to know yourself to yeah, or maybe the the carbonation from a soda or something like that You're going up and down with bubbles, you know, not great, but it wouldn't hurt you. Yeah in any particular way for sure for sure All right number 10 if I ascend too fast, I can explode That's funny. Well, listen if you ascend too fast There's issues Right we typically will tell people don't ascend faster than 30 feet per minute or whatever your dive computer is telling you because it may be even more conservative And the reason for that is not that you're going to explode But that your bubbles inside your body that got compressed into solution are now going to expand because you're going up And we want them to expand Slowly you're all gonna bubble we're all gonna bubble but we can all handle a certain amount of bubbling They do studies on this everybody's bubbled when they come up We want the bubbles to remain small and controlled yeah, that's why if you ascend too quickly And you held your breath Well, then Parts of you could explode internally you could have an embolism yep that embolism could be subcutaneous In between your chest cavity and your heart it could be even in your brain We've seen photos of that holding your breath and your lungs themselves So holding your breath and ascending too fast In a way you could explode or ascending period even if you ascend too slow if you're holding your breath I can be you hold your breath so but I think it just says if you with a Send too fast yeah because people because people are like well, you know, I have that 30 feet per minute or whatever But you know, I What if I go too fast or I lose control my BCD starts to get bent or whatever you could get bent yeah, yeah, you could Possibly if you ascend too fast get bent. Yeah, you can't say that that's not true So I would say the way you haven't ordered is a myth you're not gonna explode But don't ascend too fast, but don't listen too fast And we talked about this the people that forget it right and when they finish their safety stuff just That's the worst place to go fast is from the safety stop to the surface. Yeah, it's probably where I go 10 feet per minute because that's the biggest atmosphere Change right there in that last 15 20 feet. Yeah, that's right And it's funny because when we're when we're you know diving or or teaching or whatever I every time we go like safety stuff like we're done It's like are we going up or like we're going so slow. I look up like okay. I look at my computer like yeah You know like the sure what has like I think three triangles to tell you if you're going too fast Mine is like the the first triangle just like blinks like it goes on like oh you're going up and now you're not and like yeah We take it so easily Absolutely Form so for sure take take your time with that all right number 11 being a diver is two time consuming I just don't have time oh no my number 11 says you have to dive very deep to see anything that is true I just read number 12 really like that question All right, number Myth number 11 you have to dive very deep to see anything interesting. What do you think about that? What I think is that the shallow dives are the most beautiful dives Interesting the first the lightest way better if you go on a deep dive Okay, like and I'm gonna call deep when we do and you're gonna do this 100 meter try mix dives we The pretty stuff is when we come up and we are deep deep our deep co-stop Is on the top of the reef at like 40 feet 30 feet We just swim around the reef because that's when all the colors are out. That's where all the fish are so Some people would argue that there is nothing interesting deep Right, but some things are deep that you can't see shallow. Maybe you have a purpose like a wreck That's happens to be deep or In the case where we all went to little camins there were these beautiful gorgeous elephant sponges that I like the size of a room that have been there for We think 250,000 years growing never had been seen Well, you don't see those till you're at about 260 feet underwater. That's interesting but To simply say that nothing nothing nothing to see most people right and most wrecks are recreational level So that's definitely a myth yeah, there's a lot of beautiful tons of beautiful stuff There are some stuff that it's you know, you have to go pretty deep I was talking to my wife this weekend she asked me you know, do divers have like a like a mecca Like is there a place where You know, you'd say like if I did that that was like that was the best you know, I mean I have for divers couple I said I think it depends on the diver like some somebody might think that going to The grayberry reef is the mecca right if you do that that that's the best chocolate gun is a or chocolate gun or You know them all leaves or whatever right the galopagos might be the mecca for for other crystal caves of the Bahamas It's a correct totally different so she asked me what would be like your mecca? And I'm like not in terms of beauty, but I think in terms of achievement and goals like personal goals will be to do Eagles nest In Florida. Yeah, you're doing it with Agony at some point right? Yeah, it's not let me don't make that sound so far out but for people that have no idea what Eagles nest is so what is Eagles nest can you tell deep cave It's a cave over near the Tampa side the west coast side of Florida Uh Tri-mix for sure. It's 300 plus feet at parts of it. It's a very advanced wreck They don't want you to dive it unless you're advanced log cave excuse me They don't want you diving unless you have the hundred cave dives under your belt that are and you've won that safety award I always forget what that one's called So they don't just it's not like just show up and no No, because you're any instructor oh no no no no no no no no no no no this is uh, yeah This is a big really really pretty advanced cave right, but in terms of beauty It's not gonna be better than Chuck Lagoon or the great baron rive or some of these other places You you would say because it's just a cave But in terms of all the things you have to do to be able to be comfortable going into that cave right to me That is more valuable than just showing up in the mildeves and jumping off a boat. Yeah, I'm just looking at it So I that that's why I mentioned you know when we see a myth like this one like you have to dive very deep to see anything interesting Um, I think it's busted like the myth is busted. It's not true But you know in some cases there are some personal goals that you may have and some things you want to see that you have to go very deep to see fair Yeah, um, okay, so let's say let's see number 12, which I already said Uh, being at divers to time consuming the people that are becoming divers and they're like this is not something I can Like I got certified because I'm going on a cruise, but I don't think I can keep being a diver. This is this will take too much time I'm confused. What is there something else more important in life than diving? Of course, it's not two time consuming. It should be most of your time right well you see how opinionated that just came out right So this question is Absolutely an opinion is two time consuming what does that mean? I mean How much time is two time consuming? I want to dive as much as possible I haven't been diving now in about a week and I'm itching and craving it so You know If you want to maintain proficient skills in diving you should dive at least every six months And that's not what he's opinion that's most agencies tell you that you should take a scuba skills update or some call it a refresher class before you if you've been more than six months like go back to your dive shop or go with your instructor update some of the primary skills before you get back in the water so maybe once every six months is uh Is is the protocol or the standard for saying what's time consuming? Yeah, and I feel that it might be also uh the the people that the claim that is because maybe they have Friends or no people that are constantly diving and and and gone as much as possible And they're like there's no way I can I can dive like two weekends a month or whatever it is And that's just because people can do that and can afford to do it time wise or money wise Doesn't mean that that is the only way that you can be a diver. Yes, you can dive once in a while and uh Yeah, so it's not it's not very time consuming all right number 13 sharks and other creatures are super dangerous And I've even seen uh especially divers that learn to dive like me on a on a just a local quarry or something like that You know you're not very like there's people have 50 dives 100 dives and they've never been at sea um and You know they might be scare of sea creatures. So what do you think about that myth? Right one of the biggest probably the single biggest myth on the entire list and sadly a myth that causes devastation to the planet earth sure so you know i'm pretty passionate about this one for sure There are sharks in my opinion are one of the most timid Animals that we encounter when we go diving as divers If you're not super chilled underwater They they're gonna shy away from you quickly and that's really the unfortunate part you They're very very timid every single kind that i've seen will be start away from you once you're underwater. They're not dangerous If you attack an animal if you's tried to spirit gravity and taggingize it scare it It can become they're gonna be defensive. Yeah, but so what do you think would happen if you attack to human Yes, same thing or a lion or a snake or anything else in the world Yeah, don't attribute that the sharks for example are more aggressive than some other animals or whatever more a yields Or they just sit there and look at you. They're opening their mouth By the way divers too scary just to breathe Yeah, that's what they're doing when they're opening and closing their mouth. They're I forget what it's called when an animal doesn't have to move to put the hump Pump pump something is the word where they can pump the water through their gills without moving That's what they're doing so that this one we don't need more discussion It's such a myth that it's the biggest myth of the whole list and today I was I was actually talking to a fertile mind that posted a video of piranhas Just like eating steak or whatever I was like oh my god imagine putting your hand on that thing somebody had like an aquarium full of primes with them at the Georgia aquarium Yeah, and I'm like dude like responded exact same thing and I'm like did the divers clean the the piranha habitat like I like it because it's warm Exactly they move over the second you get their scary. He's like oh, that's that's stupid like that's pretty Literally they all in one batch you get in one side They all just go to the opposite side of the environment sit there until you're gone Exactly and it's funny because we found a video of a guy that had a pool a whole pool with a hundred red belly piranhas And he he he first he put blood in it and the piranhas were swimming like okay, where's who's dying like like I'm hungry Right and they couldn't find anything then he put a piece of steak I think he was and they just went at it right they ate it all and then he's like well What would happen if something living gets in there? Well, I'm gonna get in so he gets in the pool And he's literally sitting in the pool and all the piranhas are on the other side like what is that super big for them? And it's not like manager bold. They have no interest. Yeah, so so he was like okay I get it. I get your point. You're right piranhas are scare of people. They're not gonna attack Um, and then I'm like oh and you should you know you should come diving so you can see the same thing happens with sharks And he's like no way there's no way you will convince me that sharks don't attack people that's sad I'm like come on I probably wouldn't dive with a bunch of crocodiles like in Costa Rica and all over the river Crocs of the saltwater crocodiles in the grayberry reef north. Yeah, I don't want to be with a bunch of those That's about it But definitely not these I know Megan called them salties. Yeah All right Number 14 you have to travel with all your gear everywhere you go like I don't want to hold all this stuff I mean we're not gonna haul tanks for example. We don't ever travel with our own tanks um There's but it goes back to what you said earlier which is Excuse gear that is Service that is in well operating condition and that you're comfortable with Like that is the point that is why you take it But doesn't mean you have to like you can rent gear where you go right but Bringing your own in some cases it makes a lot of sense because you're comfortable But you don't have to travel with all your gear everywhere you go dying I see it a lot on on the Facebook groups and stuff people are like you know why don't buy my gear Because I don't want to have to haul it everywhere I go I'm like well first of all you don't have to but number two you don't have gear that you can trust Then you're comfortable with and it's not that big about you know It's not a big deal when you say haul your own gear I mean you can fit gear in pretty small suitcases this stuff does not take up a lot of room A BCD regulator mass fin snorkel wetsuit. This is not a big deal. Yeah exactly But you're sure you don't have to all right number 15 diving is a match of sport that doesn't welcome women Well that would be a huge myth since some of my mentors of mentors are women. I mean Christina Zanato Georgia house or man you want to talk about badass divers that's right They're women they're tech divers Christina's the leading shark expert diver maybe of the world Georgia house or man I think she dives and teaches on at least seven rebreaters. It's probably more than that now She wrote many of the rebreather dive courses Mel Clark wrote the entire cave diving manual for Trimics most new divers and try mix. Yeah, I mean I this one. I don't even know how it Yeah, it could be misinterpreted as treat because Boy, I mean we have some incredible women divers for sure and we welcome you know women The want to try diving for sure, but um, I think that's you hear this the same with technology right at IT where people are like Oh, that's just a bunch of guys and they don't they don't want women to get involved or whatever is like no not at all Absolutely welcome and you know learn from I love diving with them and a matter of fact more I think about it I want to die with women as much as I can All right number 16 Modern scuba gears virtually foolproof. I've heard this before by the way several times I don't even have to worry about it the computer will tell me what to do if I use the dive computer I won't get the compression sickness like it's like I don't even have to worry about stuff myth that's on true first of all Your dive computer could be set wrong. What if you put the wrong gas in it? Let's say your dive computer isn't working properly Right or you ignore your dive computer. Okay fine is telling you what to do But you just aren't doing it human error is Absolutely a possibility in scuba diving as it is with many other things So it's not foolproof I told you I think diving is inherently dangerous and to you learn The right you didn't when you go through a course then it's not dangerous if you follow protocol Yeah, so it's the same kind of thing but but even if the computer was working perfectly and setup correctly The computer doesn't know how you're feeling right if you're feeling like you're ready to black out I mean you can't just look at your computer and be like oh my computer says that I'm a 30 feet and I have plenty of air So I should keep diving or how about the people that fall it out Or how about the people that follow the dive computer Because these decode models are just theoretical They're not doesn't guarantee you that they're going to work for you That I don't want to scare people though. They work for like This is one in one million that it may not work for or there was something else already wrong with them Maybe they had a pf or maybe they were dehydrated something else Was going on even though they followed their dive computer and they still got bent for example But but this is a myth. It's it's not virtually foolproof. Yeah, say that. That's too strong It's way more advanced obviously than the way used to be but you you still have to do your your work Do your part. Yeah, do your part as a diver All right number 17 we're getting here to the end the rental gear from the shop works great And the air in my cylinder is safe to breathe. So you go out. I'll give you an example. All right, you go out on a curse Just to keep using the curse thing. It happened to me The curse gets to cause a male my wife is like, you know what? I'm just gonna go to the beach with the kids and I'm like well, then I'm gonna go diving so I get to the boat gears already set up. Obviously they're trying to do the most for for the divers People just trap that thing in and just jump off the boat like they without checking or whatever So that is the myth or I guess the statement is just because I'm getting this gear from a shop That I assume is reputable because Disney Cruise line is using Um, I can trust it 100% jump off that's a myth. I mean you are taught as a basic open water diver To check your gear as part of the buddy check for sure every single time you go diving and There's a portion of that check that even gets Into the smelling of the air remember we smell it before we breathe it because What if it's what if the compressor was contaminated it was broken or CO2 got into it so Yeah, you need to check your gear. I mean, that's no question about it for sure. All right number 18 in all caps I have to take a class in order to get better at whatever skill so buoyancy You know wreck diving I have to take the class or else I'll never get better at it. No myth. I can't say you have to I think you're gonna get tremendous value from techniques and experience of those that are able to teach it If it's the right instructor and they're not just a checkbox instructor That would benefit you from taking a class most people walk away from classes And say I got real value out of that I learned something that I will now use in my diving that if I would have just kept going on my own I maybe would enough picked up or would have taken me a long time So it's a great thing to take a class if you're gonna do a lot of something like you want to do a lot of penetration in a wreck If you don't take a class, do you really know how to properly penetrate a wreck? No that I'm so it depends right But let's say that you want to just get better at your buoyancy You just go diving if you dive a lot I think you would get pretty good at your buoyancy eventually. Yeah, so some people would say well I don't know if that one was giving me such a direct benefit it would help you faster but um But I have to take a class is a myth right you don't have to take a class to get better Uh, you know certain skills you just have to practice but it depends on the it really you know get the knowledge is different In some cases you do one the class for the knowledge. Yeah, I mean you know Be careful with this one. I mean I highly recommend you don't want to tell people go dive dry suits without taking the class and because you'll get better at it more scoot underwater scooter or the TV right you could really get hurt without taking a class for sure for sure All right number 19. I don't want to do it too much because it will get boring school I will get bored like I mean how many times are you gonna dive seeing the same fish and the same turtles like It's coming to get that that's a major opinion one for me I can only answer it that it's for sure a myth because I keep on wanting to dive. I mean, it's been 40 plus years of it and I just I'm not bored In fact, I'm bored right now because I'm not diving If you want to know the truth not in the show, but During the week here, I'm like I'm I'm itching to go. Yeah, you know, you're always diving with new people Right, I've said this before you're diving potentially in a new place or even if it's the same place It's very rarely the same kind of conditions for sure the same marine life the same cave I love it. I don't know what else to say. I really do love it There was one one weekend that we went to the blue heron bridge and we did two dives at the blue heron bridge The same weekend and they were like night and day right now Just because in one of them we had a guide That was just point everything like that way better Way better they were within ourselves like let's just walk in and do it like you see nothing How how hard can this be it's hard It was hard. It was hard. Of course. We don't we can't see it or how I love I still love the pickup weekend We had where we're like we've got 24 hours to plan reroute our epic dive trip. Was that a fun weekend? Unbelievable right? Yeah, so you know, no, it doesn't get old ever. I don't know for me But yeah, that blue heron bridge was hilarious because I've been looking so far to and any sort of like a You know milestone for people like oh my god my bucket list All right, it's incredible and then we just walked in and it's just sucked It was like what man hard to see it was horrible like super shallow And then we went with the dive because of the weather the dive was canceled And we were like itching to go dive and she's like well we can go out there because there's just a small craft Advisory or whatever, but we can go to the blue heron bridge and it would be a guided dive and we're like dude We'll dive anywhere right like I'll jump in a canal if I have to And then it was epic. I just see it when I have our drive or something exactly and so so many things So yeah for sure. I don't think I can agree boring. All right final one the final myth myth number 20 The guide the instructor like your body whoever you're diving with will take care of me I don't have to worry about my safety totally false That's she and that maybe the second biggest false one on here myth if you will right. Yeah, you must In fact, we train you to take care of yourself first until you take a rescue class You're really not taught to think beyond taking care of yourself. Yeah, it's all about taking care of yourself A rescue class even says first step step number one are you safe Before you can take care of somebody else for sure In fact, it's opposite of the way this question is stated opposite. Yeah, very very big myth Yeah, there are a ton of stories of you know people that were following a guide and the guy went super deep without really checking if You know the divers were even Qualified or or had the experience to go deep and yeah, they're just like well. He's the instructor He should know and they just follow them blindly and getting to you know top situation No, just because you have a great you know instructor or body or whatever doesn't mean they're gonna take care of you and you You can forget about your own safety You still have to worry about your own safety and you know be mindful of that All right, well, that was it man, you know 20 myths for for divers most of them were myths Yeah, most of them there are a couple that were we agree with yeah, there was kind of the truth to it But these are again 20 things that I've heard When I'm in dive boats or or just learning from other people when I wanted to tackle them So thank you so much everyone for tuning into another episode and hopefully we get a bunch of comments right Go to our website divetalkmedia.com and you can comment on the episode themselves or Themselves or you can send us an email info divetalkmedia.com. Would you have any final words? I think that I would highly recommend everybody takes up scuba diving That's what I would do you think absolutely all right. Well, we'll see you in the next episode