This episode is brought to you by  XDEEP and by the patrons of Speaking Sidemount, huge thanks to both for their support.   In this episode, Alessandra shares her inspiring story of the events that led to her moving to Mexico to pursue diving. How she started her cave diving journey under the tutelage of legendary cave explorer Bil Phillips. She relates how she built her experience diving with friends before doing her cave instructor training in Florida. We contrast cave diving in Florida...

Hey, welcome to Episode #76 Looking Back - The Best of Speaking Sidemount brought to by XDEEP with the support of the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both!!! This episode looks back over the first 75 episodes with me handpicking some of my very favourite segments. This was such a challenging task and what I find remarkable now that it's done, is just how much great material I have left out... maybe a part 2?? Let me know if you'd like to hear that. Listen in as I talk with...

This episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Thanks so much to both for their support that makes this podcast possible. Tom Crisp hails from my home New Zealand and is undoubtedly one of our finest cave explorers and I'll use the term, adventurers. Tom has based himself in Alberta, Canada to allow him to discover and explore the caves of that region. You may recall Tom and I spoke way back in Episode #15 and in this, episode #75 we catch...

This episode is brought to you by our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for your support. Sanne Volja is a cave diver and ISE instructor from Belgium and if you haven't seen her social media then you've been missing out on a real treat. Sanne combines her huge passion for diving with a unique style that makes for some of the best and most compelling stories and reels anywhere on Facebook and Instagram.   Sanne has only been diving for a...

This episode is brought to you by our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for your support. In this episode I catch up with Edmund Yiu. Edmund hails from Hong Kong and is a Tec Diving instructor to trimix levels on both open circuit and closed-circuit rebreathers. He also teaches cave diving, is Greater China Regional Head for the RAID Dive agency, and he's a Divesoft Liberty instructor and a member of their Ambassador team. In addition to...

This episode is brought to you with the support of our brilliant Sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support. I'm really happy to be able to bring you another episode featuring Stratis Kas. In addition to being a stellar cave diver and instructor who in his own words, is as passionate about sidemount diving as I am… he also seems to be constantly involved in super interesting projects from his book "Close Calls" to his recently released video...

Hey... getting through the busy summer season in NZ so here's another Special Release from the patron archive brought to you by XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. It's awesome to be able to share my discussion with Hayun Yung from South Australia. Hayun is new to sidemount but is progressing extremely quickly through diligent practice and with what you'll hear, excellent attention to detail. We chat about how and why she got into diving and sidemount... her thoughts on her...

It's awesome to be able to bring you with the support of XDEEP, another great episode from the Speaking Sidemount Patreon vault.  This episode was the first of two episodes with Steve Bogaerts I did back in 2020 and was originally released as a premium, patron-only episode. The information Steve covers is awesome, so I am pleased to now share it more widely. In this episode, Steve and I discuss the importance of foundational skill development - buoyancy control, trim and stability, pressure...

This episode is brought to you by XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount, huge thanks to both for their support.   Robin Cuesta hails from France but has made his home in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, Sulawesi Indonesia. Long known for its brilliant ocean diving, Robin discovered that the region's geology included massive areas of limestone and that all of the water came from underground sources. If you are into cave diving you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce...

This episode is brought to you with the awesome support of XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both, their support makes this podcast possible.   Great to give you Episode #70 Christine Tamburri - "Passion Plus". Christine is a young woman hailing from the US Northeast. She has not been diving long, but as you'll hear, she has developed an exceptional attitude to both her diving and progress as a technical and cave diver. Attitude is one thing but Christine's passion...

This episode is brought to you by XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support. In part 2 of my discussion with Prof Simon Mitchell, we get into the negative impact of increased gas density, particularly at depth. We muse on the impact of gas density and CO2 retention with it likely being a factor in dive accidents such as that of David Shaw, and then I get to rant a bit and ask Simon about the benefits of streamlining with respect to work of breathing. ...

This episode has been produced with the support of XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support.   In this episode, I catch up with fellow Kiwi and world-renowned Hyperbaric Physician, Prof Simon Mitchell.   In this, the first of two special episodes with Simon, we discuss his background and how he got into diving medicine, how his service in the Royal New Zealand Navy shaped his career, we reminisce on our military service and then draw a line under...

Hey, here it is. "Skanda Strikes Back"... with the support of XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks for the amazing support of this podcast :)!!   In Episode #67 Skanda 2 - KISS Sidewinder Exploration, Skanda shares more on his very best cave exploration projects and in particular, we investigate how the KISS Sidewinder rebreather is enabling the Protec Tulum team and others to go deeper and longer in pursuit of places unseen by any human.   Huge thanks...

This episode is brought to you with the support of our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both. A few weeks back I received a message from Patrick Widmann asking if I had seen the efforts of Skanda Coffield... and for sure I had seen him featured in a couple of Phillip Lehman's Somos Los Cenotes videos most notably the Blue Abyss dive which was just stunning... If you haven't seen it... Check it out on the DRLocal YouTube channel - Somos Los Cenotes...

This episode is brought to you with the support of our sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both :)!! Late last year I was honoured to be invited to speak at the FLOW Sidemount event in Cala Gonone, Sardinia. The event was originally slated for June this year but moved to October due to COVID. Conceived and organised by Stratis Kas my guest way back in episode #38 along with Daniele Pontis and Mariona Yepes Daviu from Bluforia Diving Centre, this event will be...

Awesome to be able to share Episode #64 - Mikko Paasi brought to you with the support of XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support. By now the name Mikko Paasi is, or should be well known to all of us as a key member of the support diver team that contributed massively to the positive outcome of the Thai Cave rescue. Hailing from Finland, Mikko owns Kho Tao Divers in Thailand and beyond his exploits in the rescue, Mikko is a cave diver and dedicated...

Welcome to the 2021 season of Speaking Sidemount brought to you with the support of XDEEP and our patrons. In this episode, I catch up with renowned cave diving photographer, Laurent Miroult. Huge thanks to Stratis Kas for the introduction. Laurent and I dive into... his background and how he got into sidemount and cave diving, how he balances his career as a doctor with diving, and his training and mentoring with Rob Neto. We learn more about how Laurent captures his amazing images... his...

In this episode, I catch up with my old friend Matt Jevon. Matt is the founder/instructor at South West Technical Diving in Kinsale Ireland where teaches tech courses including sidemount, cave, and rebreather courses. Matt was infected with COVID-19 and shares his knowledge of the virus, on his recovery, and research into the longer-term impacts for divers. We discuss our time at Gozo Technical and the diving in Ireland. We cover sidemount, sidemount CCR and his work with the Divesoft Liberty.

As our summer hiatus continues, it's awesome to be able to bring you with the support of XDEEP, another great episode from the Speaking Sidemount Patreon vault. This time I catch up with PJ Prinsloo. PJ is a technical diving instructor trainer and the Director, Technical Diving for RAID South Africa. As you'll hear, he is passionate about the benefits of sidemount and has a wealth of knowledge from the perspective of a sidemount diver, instructor, instructor trainer, and in his role at RAID.

Chris Jewell is a member of the British Cave Diving Group and was part of the team involved in the Thai Cave rescue. Chris took part in the extraction dives of the rescue and in doing so became part of history as a key part of one of the greatest rescues of modern times. Chris covers his experience in training and becoming part of the CDG. Chris reflects on his experience in Thailand, and he shares more on his terrifying lost line episode while extracting one of the boys from the cave.

In this episode brought to you by XDEEP, I catch up with Florida based, cave instructor, explorer and author, Rob Neto,  Rob has just released the 2nd edition of his book "Sidemount Diving, The Almost Comprehensive Guide". This is, without doubt, the most complete written work on sidemount diving with over 300 pages of how-to and the whys behind all of it. In this episode, Rob and I get into the book, chat some on different aspects of sidemount before he shares on his cave exploration...

Sean Wheller is a sidemount diver, a decompression and cave diver and is progressing his training with PJ Prinsloo in South Africa. In this episode, Sean and I chat about his diving, how he started in sidemount, his training with PJ Prinsloo, how he has worked to develop his diving and overcome mental challenges as he addresses cave training in particular. We talk about the benefit of a variety of instructors and also get into diving in South Africa, in particular, Sodwana bay and Komati...

This episode is sponsored by XDEEP and supported by the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. In this episode, Tamara and I discuss: how she got into diving and it became her life's passion. Her travels to various parts of the world to train, work and develop as a diver and instructor. Her work at Protec Mexico with Patrick, Kim and the Protec team and also how she set up her own diving brand... Dive like a Ninja. Plus, her upcoming Xunaan-Ha Expedition project with Robbie Schmitter.

This episode is sponsored by XDEEP and supported by the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Victor Tovar is the principal of Cave Tribe. He provides specialised sidemount and cave courses. Victor is passionate about foundational skills and focuses on progressively building foundational skills while gaining experience and comfort. Victor and I discuss... His background, his philosophy in developing divers, the importance of selecting the right equipment, and then we talk Victor's home cave,...

Over the past two years, Steve Bogaerts has had it pretty tough with respect to diving. A series of DCS incidents has led Steve to hang up his fins and retire from diving. Just the thought of one of the world's great cave explorers having to quit is gut-wrenching. In this episode, Steve and I discuss his DCS incidents, what he has learned about them, his thoughts on the possible cause, his advice for professional divers, and his plans for the future. To support go to...