It's great to bring you Episode #101 with Gus Gonzalez, one-half of the dynamic duo behind the YouTube phenomenon, "Dive Talk". Huge thanks to our podcast sponsor, XDEEP and episode sponsor, Seacraft along with the patrons of Speaking Sidemount for their support. In this episode Gus and I discuss his journey from novice diver to prominent figure in the diving community through the YouTube Channel, "Dive Talk". We learn how Gus and Woody met, the evolution of Dive Talk, and the chemistry...

Hey, it's great to bring you... Episode #100!!! Six years, a lot of blood sweat, and tears as the saying goes but a huge amount of learning, growth, and fun... I've loved every moment. I want to acknowledge the support of XDEEP who had the vision to join us early as the show sponsor and have been with us every step of the way. I am incredibly grateful to Piotr, Patrick, Bart, Magda, Barbara, and the wider XDEEP team for their support. Other sponsors have also supported us... Shearwater,...

Hey great to bring you Episode #99, thanks for your support and XDEEP for sponsoring the show. This episode features our latest Sidemount Diving Secret - Cylinder Section: "Why You Could be Diving the Wrong Cylinders". Big thanks to Seacraft for sponsoring this segment. Check it out here - https://youtu.be/0Ksl9r7zC6I?si=ZNYWiYTGYBPWX_ZB In this episode, I meet Stefan Panis, a Belgian wreck, mine and cave diver, professional underwater photographer, and author. Stef got into diving at a...

It's great to bring you Episode #98 with the support of our sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support. In this episode, I introduce a new segment 'Sidemount Diving Secrets' where I'll share some inside tips and tricks that I've picked up over the 11 years now that I've been diving sidemount around the world. Inside the episode, I'll give an overview of the tip, and given we are producing both video and audio episodes, I'll point you back to...

It's great to bring you Episode #97 with the support of our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount, huge thanks to both for their support that makes everything you are about to listen to, possible. If you'd like to support the show become a patron for as little as $5 per month and get early access to every episode plus other benefits… pop over to www.patreon.com/speakingsidemount for all the details. Welcome to our first video podcast episode. I'm excited that...

Great to bring you episode 96 with the support of our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount, huge thanks to both for their support that makes everything you are about to listen to, possible  We had a phenomenal response to part 1 of my interview with Steve Martin and Vas Proud of Sidemounting.com. Thanks to everyone who followed up with me for the discount code. I am sure you all will benefit greatly from the online video training. In this part 2 of the...

Awesome to bring you Episode #95 Steve Martin and Vas Proud - "Educating Sidemount Part 1" with the support of our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their ongoing support of this podcast. I've spoken many times on this show about how I got started in sidemount. Steve Bogaerts' Ponderosa skills video was the trigger but quickly after that, I found Steve Martin's website. He was the first to promote the benefits of sidemount diving to a...

Hey, great to bring you Episode 94 Florian Symoens - "Transitioning to a Full Time Instructor" with the support of our show sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support which helps to make this show possible. Well, there must be something in the water in Belgium. For such a small country, located in northern Europe… there seem to be so many divers from there doing great things. To date I've interviewed David DeBruyne 48, Laurent Miroult 63, Sanne...

Hey, I hope you are having a great start to the year :)!! It's great to bring you Episode #93 Tamara Adame - "The Path to Cave Instructor". Thanks again for your support. Huge thanks also to XDEEP for sponsoring the show. Their support has been instrumental in the success of this podcast and it is sincerely appreciated. One of the pinnacles in the application of sidemount diving is of course cave diving and cave exploration. It's an addictive pastime to research and then ultimately...

Great to bring you Episode #92 Pepe Tiburon: "Tren Maya - A Disaster in the Making". Big thanks to all of you and also to our brilliant sponsor XDEEP. Your support makes this podcast possible. Many of you will be aware of the environmental issues and development pressures experienced on the Yucatan peninsula in the area spanning from Cancun to Tulum. This area encompasses the largest cave systems in the world, many of which are also of huge archaeological and environmental significance,...

Hey, great to bring you Episode 91 Ellen Cuylaerts - "The Power of Positive" with the support of our sponsor XDEEP, and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Massive thanks to both for their support :)! Of all the disciplines associated with diving, photography and videography have always been special to me. The ability to capture that perfect moment, underwater, in often challenging conditions, dealing with lighting and composition along with the technical requirements related to the camera in...

This episode is brought to you by our brilliant sponsor, XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support that makes this podcast possible.  In this episode, I catch up for the third time with Thorsten Waelde or Toddy as he is known. I first met Toddy in Episode 24 when we did a deep dive into Toddy Style Sidemount. We caught up again in episode 44 to talk about his Utopia Exploration project in Sardinia only a few months after I had returned from my trip...

Here's Episode 89 brought to you by our sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Thanks so much for your support.  Over the past 88 episodes, cave diving has featured heavily and that's no accident. As you'll be aware, sidemount diving grew from the requirements of early flooded cave explorers, firstly the CDG in the UK, with others around the world following and eventually building on sidemount diving, equipment, and techniques to give us what we have today. In many ways,...

This episode is brought to you by XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support, that makes all of this possible. It's my great pleasure today to bring you episode #88 on the fifth anniversary of the founding of this podcast. If you told me on those nervous days starting on this venture that we'd still be pumping out episodes five years later and that I would have produced this many episodes, talked sidemount with so many great divers, and then have the...

Great to share Episode #87 Arielle Ginsberg - Belize Cave Exploration, brought to you by our sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support. I recently picked up a Facebook post by XDEEP describing the exploits of Arielle Ginsberg. Arielle is a founding member of the Belize Cave Diving Society and is its first female member. The project sounded amazing but a shared post by Arielle's exploration partner Ben Popik really got my attention… This is my...

Awesome to bring you this episode sponsored by XDEEP and with the support of the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Massive thanks to both for making this podcast possible. A couple of episodes back, I let you all know that I was working as guest editor along with Stratis Kas, with none other than Michael Menduno to assist in producing what I think is going to be a groundbreaking issue of InDepth Magazine entirely devoted to Sidemount diving. To say this is a coup for the sidemount diving...

Hey, great to bring you Episode 85 with the support of our sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Massive thanks to both for their support of the show that makes all of this possible. It was super cool to do this episode with renowned cave explorer Robbie Schmittner. Robbie has spent the last 25 years exploring the caves of the Yucatan peninsula and has mapped literally hundreds of km of flooded passage. Along the way, he has been responsible for connecting cave systems that...

The KISS Rebreathers team recently set Facebook "on fire" with their teaser posts on the new Sidewinder 2. To say that the new changes are innovative and revolutionary feels inadequate. Many of the changes are in the process of being patented and there is even a patent pending on the entire concept by which this rebreather operates. By definition, this means that the KISS Sidewinder 2 will bring new and unique features not seen before and will be a huge step forward in the world of sidemount...

Great to bring Episode #83 to you with the support of XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support that makes this podcast possible. Demis Farrugia and I first started chatting online around 5 years ago. I could tell immediately he was committed to training, diving and ultimately becoming an instructor and was prepared to put in the hard yards to become as good as he possibly could. It has been awesome to watch his progress and to see him become now a...

Great to bring you Episode #82 with the support of XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Massive thanks to both for their support that makes all of this possible. I am still coming down from my nearly 3 weeks in Mexico last November. I went primarily to train with Patrick Widmann, co-owner of ProTec Dive Centers and the Training Director for KISS Rebreathers along with the many… many other things this amazing guy does. I went to do the KISS Sidewinder 60m course often called the MOD...

Hey great to bring you Episode #81 Chris Godlewski - "Sidemount Society", with the support of our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support. Looking back over the 80 episodes I've produced for Speaking Sidemount, there is a massive slant towards cave diving and exploration. I guess it goes without saying that this is as it should be, with Cave Diving and the exploits of cave explorers being the pinnacle of the application of the...

Hey, great to bring you Episode #80 Stephen Fordyce - "Seconds from Death" with the support of our sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support, which makes this podcast possible.   The title refers to Australian Tech Diver of the Year, Stephen Fordyce reliving his harrowing, near-death experience where he had a laryngospasm at over 50m while on a push cave exploration dive in Tasmania Australia. To say this was harrowing is an understatement...

Hi, here's episode #79 Rannvá Jørmundsson - "Becoming an Explorer" brought to you by our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support that makes everything you are about to listen to possible. One of the enduring themes of Speaking Sidemount is to shine a light on the applications of sidemount diving. I am a strong believer and practitioner in diving sidemount in nearly any application or environment but there's no doubt that if you...

This episode is brought to you by our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and by the patrons of Speaking Sidemount, huge thanks to both for their support. Speaking Sidemount has featured many of the top cave diving regions of the world… I'm thinking Mexico, Florida, UK, the Bahamas, and Sardinia. But it's been awesome to also dig deeper into regions not well known for caves… places like Sweden, Indonesia, Australia, and Canada. Now along these lines… I've known for a while that many of the Pacific...