title: Episode 27: SEPARATED DIVER
author: DIVE TALK
contenttype: podcast
publication: DIVE TALK
published: 2021-01-22T12:00:00-05:00
sourceurl: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/divetalk/Episode_27.mp3?dest-id=1756346
word_count: 9835
Hello everyone welcome to episode number 27 of dive talk today I'm hosting by myself and the main reason for that is because you know right after we came back from that tripping Castle male that you heard on the last episode of the podcast which was about cave diving by the way that episode got a lot of Great reviews so thank you so much to those of you who listened to the episode and took the time to you know reach back and Ask questions or tell us what they thought about it You know, I really love talking about cave diving obviously. I really love cave diving as well and you know Be able to kind of share our experiences and lessons we learn and also prevent people from going into caves if they're not trained in order to do You know cave diving so thank you so much once again for listening to that But after we came back from Castle male, you know Woody went back to diving like the next week Or within five days or so or three days. I think it was I think we arrived on like I went and he was diving back during the weekend He was doing a he was getting or becoming a sidewinder instructor during that trip and We started tinkering with the sidewinder I came up with an idea to make it what I call a backwinder which means Mount the bailout tank on the back And I don't want to get super technical because if you don't know what I'm talking about basically I wanted to reconfigure his re-brither In order to make it better for boat diving in my opinion and his opinion a lot of people have tried something like this I came up with a new design. We tried it in the pool. It just didn't work out So he's kind of busy dealing with that You know putting it back together and all of that and the reason for that is because next week we're going on a dive trip We're going to back to Pensacola. We're going to you know try to eradicate the entire Gulf of Mexico of lionfish Hopefully we are you know back with Avengers. We kill a bunch of those guys in Koso Mell but You know I I'm looking forward to going back to Pensacola for three days and Murder as many lionfish as possible. You know they're destroying reef. They're a pest here in the US and in the Caribbean if you're listening you know From overseas and you don't understand what's happening Basically, I'll give you the abbreviated story of lionfish hunting in this side of the world Basically what happened is lionfish were nowhere near This side of the world and the Caribbean or anything like that. They didn't you know they didn't evolve here So they weren't available or present Here in the water, but because they're beautiful because lionfish are beautiful They you know they are very popular in aquariums You know personal aquariums and whatnot here in the US So people and companies and whatnot had them some restaurants had them you know just to show them around and at some point They either got sick of them or They just didn't want to maintain them anymore or whatever it was and the easiest thing to do was instead of killing it They just dumped it right in right at sea So I assume this started in Florida somewhere I think this started back in the 70s or 80s or something like that Somebody dumped a few lionfish three four or whatever and then somebody else did it again So something that started with just a handful of lionfish a Couple decades ago now is Essentially millions and millions of lionfish out there on this side of the world with no predators Like none of our groupers and sharks or whatever know what to do with them They're brand new to the environment so they're like I don't I don't know how to eat you and But they know how to eat the little fish so the other fish are having a hard time Procreating they're having a hard time you know Essentially growing because lionfish are eating them all and You know lionfish just keep coming and you know keep growing and growing and growing without predators The only predator that is out there to stop the growth and the destruction of the environment essentially And this side of the world is humans so governments and Organizations and agencies and everyone encourages people diverse to go down there and Murder kill as many lionfish as possible. We do this with pole spears We go down there and we essentially kill them and put them in this thing called a zookeeper or a containment unit basically And you know you just get to go and kill as many as possible You're helping the environment by doing that and having re-breathers is awesome Just amazing when he comes to you know a mission like going down there and killing us many lionfishes You can't because we can stay down for a long time one example is a dive within Kosovo Where we went you know hunting for lionfish It was a dive down to 135 feet. So that's 40 I don't know 42 43 meters something like that And we were down there for Two hours and 31 minutes so two hours and 31 minute dive and we killed Hundreds of lionfish we hit in just that one dive we hid 12 dive sites Right it's called palan car in Mexico. There's 12 different Sites to go to in palan car and we hit them all we started in one tip of palan car and came out right at the end and in the process We killed hundreds of lionfish Which is great again for the environment. So that was good and again beautiful that You know we have these amazing machines called re-breathers kiss re-breathers in our case And we get to do that safely and and love it. I mean if you love diving You want to do it for longer and you know and do something that you love I can only imagine if I had a regular open circuit tank at 135 feet like the most I can stay is like five minutes Right before I start hitting my decompression limits and before I run out of air to be honest I mean at that depth you're going through your air so fast So he doesn't like people are always like well, you know You don't really have to use a re-breather You can just take doubles or side mounts or whatever. It's like even with doubles or side mount Even if you have doubles 120's cubic feet like the biggest tanks you can come up with it will be a handful of minutes That you can be at that depth before you start going up Whereas we can stay you know for an hour at depth and then obviously you have to decode on your way up on the wall But regardless it's it's just just way better So I'm a huge fan of re-breathers and we've talked about re-breathers here on the show So next week we're going to Pensacola like I mentioned we're diving with the crew at Sharkquest which are great operator. We've worked with them before again This show is not sponsored by anybody So whatever products or places or things I announce are because I legitimately like them Or we me and Woody legitimately like them and like working with them So we we're not sponsored by anyone The the guys of sharkweiss are great because they're also re-breather divers So when we go they have a smaller boat that essentially becomes a tech boat So we all go we're all re-breather divers even our guide You know Nick and Eric over there at Sharkweiss they jump in the water You know either one of them and they have re-breathers So we can do those two and a half hour long dives with a guide Which is a struggle sometimes when we travel as a team and we have a bunch of people with re-breathers and the guide is just looking at us With an aluminum 80 right like I don't I don't know what to do and To be honest with you some operators like pure avida for example in West Palm Beach They do a great job with this they essentially send a guide down And you know they have a they have a big tank and they stay as long as possible like an hour and something and then that guide comes up And then another guy jumps in you know with with the next tank and stays with us up to two hours and something and then we come out I think the longest dive that I've been like that with multiple guides has been about two hours and 48 minutes I think it was a drift dive in In Florida which was you know awesome so Some operators are willing to you know Bend the rules have not been the rules but accommodate I guess For re-breathers divers if like the whole boat is diving re-breathers They'll figure out a way to make it happen And obviously a lot of the people that are diving on those boats are You know very experienced like in a lot of cases. I mean you don't really need a guide on On a lot of these drift dives. You're just in a wall and you're drifting like the current is pushing you like What's the guide gonna do like oh look? There's a lot of like they'll just point to stuff and they'll tell us when it's time to come up So you know in a lot of cases we could really self-guide in some of those dives But you know we understand that for safety reasons or whatever they want to have someone down there and You know they they're willing to accommodate but sharp quest is cool because they you know they're re-breathers diverse too So the the guide can stay with us the whole time which is which is great We appreciate those guys and we're gonna be there next week again diving with them for three days and Killing as many lionfish as possible the other thing that we're doing they were excited about me and Woody as you probably know We've talked about this before we've bought D.P.Vs or scooters You know, I feel like we we got to a point where it was like you know swimming is dumb Let's just let's just get you know scooters and Sip around these large wrecks You know when you think of wrecks like the oriskeny which is the largest wreck in the world which is in Pensacola Or off the coast of Pensacola if you think of you know Even the speagle grove down in the keys like some of these wrecks if you want to see the whole thing and do like Penetrations and things like that Obviously you need a re-breather just so you can stay there for longer but at the same time There's some current in those wrecks as well even though it's on the keys and You know in order to see the whole thing having a D.P.V Would be massive help So we so we're excited about that and obviously for caves D.P.Vs on caves are great the caves that we dive have a lot of flow and they're trying to push you away So you're literally just pulling yourself into the cave with a D.P.V With a scooter you can just crank that up in nine or nine plus or whatever the highest speed is and go for it So our D.P.Vs actually arrived five or four days ago They're down in In Florida and we have to go get them so the trip to Pensacola will also serve to pick up our D.P.Vs and Test them around which is which is awesome. So we're looking forward to that Tremendously so that's pretty much the update Oh one more thing I wanted to add I wanted to thank the people at Orca torch by the way They reached out to us and they asked me and Woody to test some of their new lights coming out You know the the the I guess the they appreciate the fact that we dive in all these different environments and they wanted to you know essentially give us a few of the new models that are coming out so we can try them out and give them real world You know feedback that they can use to make better lights to enhance them in the future Even those models that we might be testing can be tweaked before they go live to the public Based on our feedback because we put those things to the test I mean we really take them deep we take them into sketchy places We take them into you know a thousand two thousand feet into a cave Turn off all the lights and let's see how it performs Compare with all the brands and again We're not sponsored by anyone even orca torch is not paying us to do it Is they're just asking for us to do it? They're asking for a favor and we're gonna test them We're gonna give them real world feedback We agreed to post the feedback on our YouTube channel So if you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel, please go check that out Just go to YouTube and search for dive talk The channel is growing tremendously. We're getting more subscribers to our YouTube channel Then we're getting to the podcast So if you haven't subscribed to the YouTube channel Please go ahead and check that out because we'll be once again posting our reviews of the orca torches There are coming out or there are already out very very recently and people are thinking about how should I get this new one or not? Well, we're gonna check that out. I dive orca torches as my backup lights on Cave dives and my main lights on regular just ocean dives because they're very convenient very small and they're built like a tank like they just One break. They'll work every time. They're awesome. So I'm looking forward to testing You know what they're sending us and providing real world feedback and like I said look I dive big blue It's my main light for caves And if I'm doing night diving I'm gonna take my big blue as my main light and orca torches will be the backup So I'm excited to see if these new orca torches have the potential to be a primary light Not just be a backup, but Check out how they perform if you're listening to this and you work for a product You know if you you are in the dive industry and you want someone to just test the product and give you 100% honest review like we will never Ever change our opinion based on getting a free product like if if you just want to give us a free product because you think We're gonna automatically give you a good review then don't even contact us. We were not interested The only thing we want to do is we want to improve the diving industry and make it safer So if we can give you real world honest feedback on your product that will make it better and safer for Dive is out there. We're interested in doing that. We don't mind taking stuff You know into caves. We don't mind taking stuff everywhere. We dive all the time I mean, I think right after like full-time diving structures and dive guides That's people like me and Woody. I mean we we're diving almost every weekend or every other weekend and you know We we get after it, you know just Again, if you have a product that you want us to test that is you know met to be safer and and You know make it making dive safer or more fun We're always open for that. So this is my calling to you if you're interested So there's an email info at divetalkmedia.com. That's our email address info at divetalkmedia.com And we'll we'll check that out Lastly next week's video people have been asking for this. I don't want to lie and say oh a lot of you have been asking no But we've had about 10 to 20 people ask us to post video of our dives in our adventures to dive talk because if you look at our videos Most of them are just either me talking about things like You know a video I found online with a top seven most dangerous caves in the world And I just talk about why they're dangerous or why they're not dangerous in a lot of cases They're not and they're just exaggerated videos made by non-divers To you know for clickbait essentially to get also non-divers to click on them There was another one of a Jacob's well. There's another one about a dive accident that was interrupted by a dive you know Safety diver. I guess our rescue diver. He prevented two deaths and the video is awesome And I review that and I give my opinion on that so those are the kinds of videos that we have On our YouTube channel so people have been asking again, you know 10 to 20 of you are so over time have asked Can you please post videos of your dives or your adventures? So this next trip to Pensacola. I'm actually planning hopefully it happens But I'm actually planning on shooting it you know like vlog style I'm gonna shoot it from the beginning like preparation for it the drive there, you know where we're staying Everything I want people to understand what a tech dive trip looks like which is Completely different than a recreational dive trip. I know it sounds stupid I know you're listening to this and you're like why would it be different just because you're diving deeper and longer or you have a Rebrea there should be the same thing It's not the same thing There are some things are different and different struggles that you have to go through In order to make these tech dive trips happen And again, it's just hopefully is informational and entertaining at the same time Because you'll get to see us in person and you know how we look in real life and You know this the kind of stuff that we like to do every month or every you know twice a month or whenever we can So I'm going to try to record that one as a vlog as an adventure. I don't know how long the video is gonna be But that's what I'm going for I'm planning to shoot video on the surface and I'm planning to shoot video underwater too Now obviously Especially if we have our D.P.Vs with us because we're picking them up before we get to Pensacola like on the way to Pensacola They're in Mariana Florida If we have I mean if I have a spear a suk keeper a D.P.V. and a camera on top of that That's gonna be interesting So I might have to delegate like a cameraman You know one of the other Divers are gonna be on the group. There's four of us going so far Maybe can carry the camera while I you know I deal with everything else. We'll see It's a lot of multitasking so and obviously on top of that I'm diving a re-breeder which is manual Mechanical re-breeder so it's not automatically Working for me. I need to manually dive my re-breeder my D.P.V. My spear my suk keeper and my camera all combined Alright, so we'll see how that goes To wrap up the episode I just wanted to cover an excellent article that I've been meaning to cover with you But every time I have Woody I take advantage of you know him being here to talk about things like cave diving and all There's stuff but this article is on a magazine called alert diver magazine It comes from essentially Dan the Divers alert network that all of you are probably members of and back in the let me see This is from the first quarter of 2020. I've been saving it since then I get it, you know every quarter essentially This one has some really good stuff. It has you know an interview with Jill Heinerth, which is a you know an Explorer cave diver a lot of people a lot of people know about Hershey wrote the book into the world. I think it's called and You know great book and you know it has a lot of really good articles, but there's a one page article There was written by Olivia Jackson and Stephanie Martina and I want to give him a shout out because they did a really really good job With this article because this is and the reason why I single this out is because this was one of my fears When I started diving and I don't know how many of you listening to this have the same fear I don't think everyone does. I don't think this is a common thing But you know, I think a lot of people just go diving and they don't really care or think about what could happen to them But to me and it's not that I had like a close call like oh my god I was left in the surface alone for an hour one time No, but I've heard many stories. I've read things out there where divers get lost and whatever And it was enough that for me I knew I had to do something and There's a reason why every time you go boat diving during the safety brief the boat captain talks about if you come out and you don't see the boat If you come out and you're alone or whatever These are the frequencies for the radio if I know the boat picks you up tell them that you are with Insert name of dive operator here. We are on channel 17 and channel 20 Whatever it is like you hear the safety briefing and I always pay attention to that because I don't know why I always have the notion that that could happen to me That I'm gonna come out at some point and I'm gonna be alone and granted it's happened a bunch of times that I come out with my SMB You know on a little group like the group got detached from the main group or whatever and he takes 10 minutes or whatever for the boat to come and get us because Are getting the other group first or whatever like that happens a lot. I'm not concerned about those times those times are easy If I have an SMB and that's enough for the boat to see me that's not a sketchy situation. That's just diving There's nothing wrong with that and I don't mind waiting if they can see me But the fear is if you come out and they can see you what if you come out on a night dive for example and Your SMB is not you don't have like a cam light or something that you can attach to it By the way all of you that has SMBs or surface market boys If you notice they have like a transparent little flap towards the the tip of the SMB a lot of people don't know that That's so you can insert a light whether it's a cam light or one of those Stick lights that they sell everywhere, you know every store or whatever is you know They use like watch batteries little tiny button batteries and you can turn them on you can stick a light on the tip of that thing So if is you know coming to if you're coming out on a night dive or perhaps you're coming out late afternoon Like it's almost to the point that you you know the sea starts turning really dark and you really can't see an SMB from the distance You can stick a light on that thing That's why I always in every one of my BCDs and my rebreather I have one of those stick lights hanging it's always off because I never need it But if I need it I can just twist it. It's on I can stick it on my SMB Whatever it is to make myself more visible So I have this fear especially again when I was a newish diver and I started to dive at sea that at some point This could happen to me and let me just give you the title of the article It's pretty straight to the point two words separated divers That's the name of the article once again shout out to Olivia Jackson and Stephanie Martina who wrote this article So I want to read it to you and again, let's talk about What it means to be separated they wrote a story Essentially about separation that happens, you know some things to think about and what things we can learn And I also want to talk to you about what I did in order to feel more comfortable and more at ease with The fact that I could potentially get separated right what what is it that I that I Decided to do essentially in order to get around that All right, so here's the article in quote with sunny skies and one foot seas the day was perfect for a wreck dive in the Gulf of Mexico By the time our 20-foot boat that's not a huge boat by the way arrived at the site two miles of shore However dark storm clouds were forming in the distance We previously monitored the weather and checked numerous online forecast while slowly prepping for our slowly prepping our gear There were no signs of an imminent threat so we proceeded with our dive plan one person stayed behind for topside support He had the demanding role of supervising our safety which included vigilant weather monitoring in case the grading conditions Require us to abort the dive we surfaced 30 minutes later to noticeably stronger winds larger swells and darkening skies We quickly stowed our gear and prepared for the turbulent return trip Several other boats that had been at the site were now gone except for one smaller boat in the distance with a Die flag still flying it was getting batter by the waves and nearly capsized from several broadside hits It appeared that divers had in service yet and that no one was managing the boat. I mean think about that a Just loan boat out there Tiny boat getting batter by its sea while the divers are just down there living life An uneasy feeling came over to us large rain drops began to fall as the storm was now nearly overhead We knew that it would be a long ride back to the shore Requiring thoughtful maneuvering and steady navigation to overcome the now five foot seas as As we nervously retreated we scanned the waters for signs of divers a Diver soon surfaced about 20 feet away port side which was nearly 500 feet from his boat I mean think about that on a storm. It's it's it's not a good deal He was an older male holding a spear gun and wearing a blue camouflage Wet suit we called out for him signal for an okay sign and ask if he had a buddy He was alert and kept fidgeting with the gear but did not respond to us. He's this orientation and fatigue where apparent With a black sky rapidly approaching we knew that conditions were going to worsen but that we had to help without Delay our team jumped into action two people on board kept an eye on the boat in the distance and scanned the water for more divers The others monitor and reassured the diver are captain positioned the boat so we could throw a Resculine to the diver once we towed him in we assisted him with gear removal He landed off he handed off his spear gun initially without this engaging it and it was slow to answer questions Reims forcing his distress Surely afterwards we noticed that his dive buddy had made it back to their boat. That's awesome By the way, good job We called it out and waved them down and he quickly raised over to meet us and he retrieve his dive buddy He smooth was surprisingly lighthearted, but ours was not the storm was now upon us And we had to expeditiously continue our departure Which prohibit us from learning what had happened with these two divers and what caused the vast buddy separation The rescue diver was fatigued and would not have been able to make it back to his boat This near miss incident highlights numerous triggering events that could have escalated to cause an accident and it's true Like think about that So this guy an older person an older gentleman. Let's say he was 60 or something like that He comes out. He's tire. He's disoriented 500 feet away from his boat, right or let's just say 150 meters if you are If you don't use freedom units So 150 meters from the boat huge current wins five foot seas Right, how do you get back if you're exhausted back to the boat? And then the body comes out surfaces on the boat the boat's getting batter Like he's probably trying to keep the boat afloat. He's not like Ignoring what's happening with the boat just to search for this buddy And all he had to signal was his spear gun like Yeah, it's it was Scary situation, right? So then they go into the importance of topside support back to the back to the article the first Identify all trigger was the decision to dive off a boat without a topside attendant a quick search through scuba diving Forms reveals that this is a hotly debated topic I guess there's a lot of discussion about whether you should do it or not Topside support plays numerous roles support ensures that the anchor holes and the divers do not surface to find their boat floating out to sea Support can also help divers with gear before and after the dive and with savory entry into the boat Which is critical in the event of an emergency? You can also help to limit heavy post-dive exertion Which can contribute to the development of decompression sickness? That's for sure and that's one thing that we learn Especially when you go into tech diving you have all these big tanks that you're carrying and all that stuff You know, they always tell you like just leave the tanks behind like not leaving behind You know under what I'm just saying like bring him to the the edge or you know get to the boat and then let someone pull them out Either dive buddies that are already on the boat or topside assistance right people that are on the boat that are dry They're just there to help then you know, they can just go ahead and pull the tanks Just hand them your tanks hand them your camera hand them your spear whatever it is just hand it to them That way you can come out of the water safely. I've seen people hand off entire BCDs with tank and everything to the dive attendant Because they were tired they couldn't come out whatever it is I personally unless the boat is equipped with what is called a tree type of You know ladder where you can climb up with your fins on you don't have to take them off I personally like to hand my fins, you know if I'm diving the rebreather I like to hand the tanks and I don't take off my rebreather I come up with it But if I had to I have no problem taking it off and handing it up to the attendant as well But you know, that's the idea is you can you know you have someone who you can hand that to but if you come up and the boat is empty That's all on you, right? so Keep that into perspective Topside support serves serves as a liaison keeping watch for changing weather conditions and Signaling to divers if a retreat is required a dive plan shooting include a discussion of topside signals For example using continuous bang with a wrench or tool on the side of the boat to tell divers to surface and they do do this During the dive briefing by the way the safety briefing they tell you that they're gonna bang the ladder or whatever What's the recall procedure essentially they tell you what to do and and to come out? That's quick as possible Let's see Okay to tell divers to surface along with dive time and contingency plans which should be agreed upon and communicated between the divers and support Doing the dive support can be on bubbles watch and monitor the divers the divers ascend according to plan and at the boat If a diver ascends far from the boat as was in the case of you know this an area we just read Support can be pulled the anchor and navigate to the diver in the case of a missing diver topside support can probably call for help They need to know how to operate the vessel and should be familiar with the divers equipment dive plan and emergency procedures The vessel should have a first aid kit and an emergency oxygen unit and support should have been training on how to use them Topside support should also know the boat's starting position before moving to initiate a search if the search and rescue Efforts are required this information will be important for the rescuers I've only been on a boat ones that we left unattended I've only done that ones and it was in St. Bart's I was in St. Bart's in the in the Caribbean and it was a very very small operator I reach out to them and the obviously the guy who owned the boat was also the instructor dive guide You know director of first impressions he did everything so It was a small group. There were only four of us diving that day and You know it was the the guy the you know dove drove or whatever navigated on the boat was the dive guide also for that dive So there were two guys. I think they were from Europe I think they were from France actually and me and the you know the owner of the boat the operator and You know he tied into a morate line Or you know he tied into a line and then we just jumped in and Did the dive and then came out on the boat he came out first Which was odd because I feel like as a guide or whatever you want to be last and make sure everyone is on however He did make sure that we were all up on the surface and he had a line on the side of the boat We were all hanging on to it inflated BCD's that he made sure everything was safe Essentially and the sea wasn't bad. Obviously the sea conditions were good where we went and He jumped on the boat first and then he helped us out of the boat and that was good It was an open-zerged dive. It was it was a good stuff All right back to the article is almost over when diving from a boat It is prudent to each for each diver to carry a surface market buoy And it's actually mandatory if you do it in Florida and in a lot of places you have to have it or they won't let you dive Whistle in a flashlight a separated diver can use these items to increase their visibility Which is crucial for successful rescue efforts consider high visibility when selecting gear for use Most of the gear is black. I think I feel like you know wet suits all that stuff It's hard to find hoodies that are not black. I mean honestly Whenever I see someone that has one of those hoodies are like high-vis like crazy yellow and orange or whatever I'm like I know I know who they are. I'm like I can see them because no one else hasn't and You know I appreciate the fact that they're wearing that. It's a safer safety thing, right? The take-home message just to wrap up the article is diving and boating involves some level of risk good Divers are skilled at risk mitigation and management when we failed to do this We often neglect the risk in posting our bodies and rescuers the fate of the diver in this story Might have been much different how we not seen or being in the vicinity Have have we not seen them or being in the vicinity and much worse for us if we had not made it out of the worse and post-rescue weather conditions Well, imagine if these divers stay together and once again Thank you for the article to Olivia Jackson and Stephanie Martina from divers alert network Imagine if they came out and that little boat that was battered by the waves was actually sinking or It was battered so bad that it was non-operational the engine wasn't working or maybe it got pushed away from the morning line And now it's floating out in the distance instead of being 500 feet away is you know a quarter of a mile away I mean, what do you do now? They say that there were two miles of short if you can see the shore I feel the two miles would be horrible. It will be a super long swim But you know, I've done almost two miles swims and caves before you know We've talked about this in one of our episodes it took hours But it is possible now if the current is pushing you away from the edge you're really from the shore You're really swimming like what four five six miles just to cover two miles. I mean I feel like I'm in a physical condition level that I can make it You know eventually it won't be in any record breaking time, but I can make it eventually So two miles of shore is good, but some of these dives are way way out there like I mean very way out there I don't know how far the Ores can he is of shore? I'm gonna look it up just here really quick so we can talk about how far is the Ores can he of Sure, I just I just figure what it is and this is not saying anything Here is 35 to 40 miles. Okay, so 35 to 40 miles away from shore if you surface 35 40 miles away from shore 60 kilometers from shore How what do you do? I mean you don't even know you can't even see the shore. It's not like you're like well It's gonna be horrible, but I'm just gonna go and start swimming and hope for the best. Okay, but to where? Where are you gonna swim to? I mean obviously if you if you say well, I'm gonna you know I figure that if I'm if I'm in the in Florida and I'm in the Gulf of Mexico Pensacola is always gonna be north because north of Pensacola is land So I'll just set my you know my compass to north and start swimming north. Okay, that's smart that you're doing that but Drifting can like it just you can't really Relie on self-rescuing 40 miles of shore. It's just not gonna work So you have to be prepared for it. Like I said, this was one of those things that I was Concern about you know when I was a new diver. I was I was hesitant always to Depend just on my boat and topside support for rescuing me or for spotting me. I had an SMB. I actually have two of them You know SMBs and they're both like really really big, you know tall SMBs I want to make sure that I'm very visible always carry lights with me in every dive Always carry those stick lights that I can stick on the SMBs as well I'm always ready to go but on top of that I decided to make it safer. I decided to you know have something that I Can rely on it better. So back I would say I don't know within six months or so of getting certified I purchased a Nautilus marine rescue GPS I don't know if it's called it's called a Nautilus lifeline marine GPS And essentially if you haven't seen this it's a it's a device that You can trigger and it essentially calls boats around you So the Nautilus marine GPS is it's a it's a little plastic device It's a you know Consolidated unit it comes with a battery and a transmitter and all of that and what you do is if you ever need it You take a cap off and you you know you essentially eject this antenna this massive antenna that is all coiled up Into the into the unit you release this antenna and it will broadcast your location up to 34 miles away Okay, and apparently the GPS positioning system on it is very accurate within 1.5 meters or you know five feet Let's just say 4.5 feet. So that's pretty good like if I can get a boat five feet from me Trust me like they don't have to see me. I'm gonna find a way to hang on to the boat All right, but they will see me because I have the SMB and all of that. They'll see me from hundreds of feet away So 5 feet It's planning. It's very very accurate. I've never used it obviously on an emergency But I I have one of them. I have the Nautilus lifeline I actually bought the the one that comes with the case on it It's like a neoprene pouch and I have it attached in my tank band So I have it in my tank band or depending on the The BCD that I'm using I have it either on my tank band or I have it on my Trim weight pocket band And I can reach it or my body can reach it in my back And it comes with a line yard that it stretches basically a coil line yard and you can you know pull it out and Activated all while attached to your BCD, which is which is great. It's not very cheap But to me kind of let the peace of mind was Something that made me you know go for it And I I think you know over time the way I thought about it It's it's $205 by by the way at least in Amazon I checked on the price right now the package that I bought is $205.204.95 a lot of dive shops sell these by the way So I would check first with your local dive shop. I just wanted to give you an idea So that's why I went to Amazon I don't really remember where I bought this maybe I bought on Amazon. I don't know, but it was a long time ago and You know it comes like I said complete you can just hit it and it would deploy an antenna and it would work You don't have to pay anything monthly or whatever you just buy it So the way I thought about it was I said look it's $205 But if this thing let's say it lasts 205 dives It's a dollar a dive, you know will a dollar extra per dive Make that makes me feel safe for knowing that if something happens I come up the boats too far whatever My SMB on the way up. I don't know hit a lionfish because they're idiots and it's spirit and now it's deflated It doesn't work. I don't know whatever whatever imagine the worst you know thing that can happen It's a worth a dollar extra per dive to have something that will help people find me and You know if I'm in the middle of the ocean and the answer was yes You know, so I bought it. I carry with me on dives the pouch. It used to be beautiful orange is now I would say I don't know like skin color like like white skin Type of color is like all faded because it's been to many dives and I've actually owned it for about 38400 dives so far so you know if you think about how much it caused per dive is less than a dollar which which has been great However, last year um, I think it was early in the year I was going to the mildives as I mentioned I've mentioned before on on previous episodes And I was like look the mildives is it's big like you get lost out there and well there's probably an island close by Um, and no actually I was going to Egypt when I booked my trip to Egypt I'm like, I don't know you know how far we need to go on Egypt I don't know like we're gonna be on a live aboard that can be in the middle of the ocean and if the live aboard collapses and and sinks How are we gonna call for help? So I was kind of like I don't know how things are in Egypt I don't know exactly how this thing is gonna be Although I know from live aboard they like to be in coves they like to be close to land anyway if possible But again just me being extra safe I'm like I wonder if 30 something miles 34 miles is enough and again That's the advertised range the range could be less than that could be 30. I don't know um But I was I was like maybe the nautilus is not good enough For every situation by the way the nautilus can go down to 450 feet or something so in terms of depth This thing works regardless of the diving that you're doing I guess if you're diving to a thousand feet that it won't work But I think if you're doing that you're probably have the national geographic team Monitoring your dive so you don't have to worry about it But so in terms of depth and all of that is good um However once you open it to deploy the The antenna and stuff. I'm not really sure how waterproof or how good it is to handle water Once the whole mechanism is open and transmitting because again, he deploys That antenna in the air and it's completely wide open to be found So if you have five foot six ten Foot sees and I wish Woody was here because I think he has a story when it was like 40 foot sees or something You know how likely are you to keep it dry? I'm not really sure so the waterproofing while the unit is sealed no problem. But after he's open I don't know so You know, I just thought I wanted to get something new however I still recommend this product it has five star reviews and I was not four and a half five star reviews on Amazon People love this stuff very common great gift by the way for someone a loved one that is a diver If they don't have one this would be a good gift to have a lot of divers don't have it And again is something you throw back on the on the band you know of your tank or on your Weight pocket or whatever on your pocket if you want to carry it some people I've seen they carry it right on the shoulder straps You know, I want to have it out of the way because the only way I'm gonna need it is an emergency and I don't expect to have an emergency often But if I do I want to be able to reach it. So I just throw it in the back out of the way But anyway when I was going to Egypt. I'm like okay. I need something better So I upgraded I upgrade to a Garmin in reach mini satellite communicator So the satellite communicator obviously doesn't have the 34 mile restriction this thing works all over the world It's on the iridium network of satellites which work covers 100% of the earth So no matter where you are this thing works plus he works on land, you know, so if I'm I don't know hiking in the woods somewhere um And and I fall in and break my ankle I could take this thing with me. It's tiny and call for help So I like the fact that he works on land and that it works on you know at sea as well It has an s os button you hit that thing and once again, they come get you um But you do have to pay a membership, you know every month to be able to use that um And I don't remember how much I pay if it's $50 a month or $30 a month It doesn't matter to me to be honest because I dive all the time. I think it's good to have it So I don't care uh how much it costs at that point But I I have it so it's an in-ge rich meaning it's more expensive than the nautilus obviously it's more capable to You can text message out of it you can you know lead people know like I'm okay or whatever it is Uh, which is great And um, it's $317 $316 38 right now on amazon obviously like I said some dive shops sell this I think you're more likely on outdoor shops as well if you want to buy it locally I recommend you do that So I bought this a year ago and I'm taking it on every dive That I'm out you know at sea or whatever I only do the nautilus If I am you know With students and I'm out with a reputable dive operator something like that like the chances are you in smaller But if I'm doing a two and a half hour re-breeder dive out there in high current or whatever I take my nautilus sorry my garment with me. So the garment uh you have to get a case for it the case is Let me check $50 so the k the dive case is $50 and it goes down to 10 atmospheres or 100 meters essentially So 330 feet which is as deep as I want to go um, so even if I go Super deep dives This thing will will be able to hold so it doesn't work on the water You know, it's the question I get every time when people see it in my pocket or whatever I'm putting it on my pocket What is that? So I said just a GPS communicator and they're like does it work on the water? No, you don't use it on the water you come to the surface and then you call for help on the surface It is waterproof, but it's only ipx7 which means you can only it's only certified to be submerged Down to three feet or one meter for 30 minutes so The goal is if I'm calling for help and I don't know like I'm getting pushed around and he gets wet It's never I'm never gonna submerge in more than a meter And I'm never gonna have it on the water for more than 30 minutes So you know, I can have it in my hand I have my hand out of the water making sure that the connection is going the communication is going And then at that point You know if I if I have to submerge it or whatever because I'm holding onto something or whatever a wave comes over me and washes me off completely The Garmin is still good to go which is one thing I wasn't sure with a Nautilus and some people I've seen complaining about it It's like oh, I was there, you know a wave came and it just killed it You know, I'm glad I was able to get picked up, but he got messed up So anyway the Garmin I trusted a little bit more than the Nautilus but I trusted Nautilus too by the way And the Garmin is pretty awesome some ones again if you want to research this stuff Garmin in reach It's one word I and R-E-A-C-H in reach Mini GPS satellite communicator you have to get the case or else if you take it on the water pass one meter It's dead. So you want to you know, make sure you have the the dive case with it And get the membership and use it. I took it to mildives And when I got to the resort I turned it on to make sure that it connected to the satellites and all of that I know the thing this has an internal battery so every time before I go on a dive trip like Pensacola next week I'm gonna plug it in charge it completely The Nautilus has an internal battery So unless you're gonna be opening this thing up change in the battery for every trip to make sure that the battery is good With a Garmin I just charge it. I can see the battery indicator has a screen on it Nautilus doesn't have a screen I can see the battery indicator is full good to go take it with me now I know it's full and it's reliable and it's good to go so that is the trick you have to be you know Aware of it if I ever get disconnected I always whatever I land there like whenever I get to Pensacola I'm gonna turn this on make sure you connect it to satellites It located everything and it's good to go before I go on a dive And then I take it on a dive the idea is if I really need it I turn it on it's still gonna have to reconnect but it's based on the same kind of location It should in theory connect faster and allow me to transmit an SOS message to get someone to come get me I grant it not everyone has this um and I love to be you know the person that has this with me because if if it happens to me I can make a call if it happens to the team they can rely on me to you know get us rescued essentially this also worked by the way as our emergency called um line essentially when we went to Eagles nest which is a cave in the middle of Florida there's no cell phone connection there at all when you go to Buford spring another cave and kind of the same park Where Eagles nest is located middle of nowhere no cell phone signal whatsoever And the first thing I did is here's my eannuch mini if something happens one of us gets banned or whatever Just and I and I tell him here's where it's gonna be in my left hand in my left pocket take it out Here's how it works you're if I'm unconscious This is how works turn it on wait until it connects hit this SOS button or whatever and people are gonna come and get us um At least that's what Garmin says so hopefully hopefully works hopefully and never have to use it though But like I said I feel that this is such a small price to pay to be Extra safe and I wanted to share this with you because I know some of you out there have felt the same If you're like me you felt like man What if I was in the middle of the ocean by myself like how long can I stay alive How long until people come and get me and there's always stories about diverses spend 40 hours out at sea or whatever and like They saw a faint light in the distance or whatever it is um I never want to be a victim because I wasn't prepared You know if I'm diving and I have a heart attack I get it. I didn't see that coming you know Stuff like that happens, but I didn't I don't want to be a diver that dies or you know Or that has an axi then that is that it was preventable just because I didn't have my gear Ready to go so I wanted to share that I'm excited about the trip coming up next week Please subscribe to the youtube channel once again go to dive talk If you want to go direct is youtube.com slash c for channel slash dive talk And you can get directly to it Subscribe then because we're gonna be dropping videos of the trip and also dropping videos about other interesting stuff Thank you so much for listening to this episode We'll see you on the next one with hopefully woody this time around. Thanks guys