The Grey NATO – 196 – Why We Love Diving (And You Should Too!)

Published on Thu, 09 Jun 2022 06:28:42 -0400

Synopsis

This episode of The Grey Nato podcast is a discussion about scuba diving in honor of World Oceans Day. The hosts, James and Jason, share their experiences getting into diving, the gear and equipment involved, and the sense of adventure and exploration that diving offers. They encourage listeners who are interested to give diving a try, even just a discovery dive on vacation. The hosts also touch on some recent pop culture like the new Top Gun movie and the return of the TV show Top Gear.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 196 and it's proudly brought to you by our ever-growing TGN supporter crew, which keeps growing every single day, I've noticed. We thank you all so much for your continued support. We appreciate everybody out there. Certainly, if you'd like to support the show, please do visit thegrenado.com and you can find all the details on how to sign up and maybe even get yourself one of our TGN Grenado straps as part of the deal. Without further ado, let's dive into it. James, we run our kind of weekly reminder here, shouldn't we?
James We don't need to belabor this point. We've said it on past episodes. We'll continue saying it until the episode right up in mid-July, but we will be at Windup Watch Fair in Chicago. We are crazy excited about it. Everything is coming together, which doesn't normally happen. July 15th, 16th, and 17th at Venue West in Chicago. We would love to see you. We will be there. We will have some merch. We'll have some stuff that doesn't cost anything. We'll have plenty of time to chit-chat. And we're going to be recording some episodes. We're going to be hanging out. We're going to be checking out all the other amazing brands. They're going to be there with us. It's going to be an incredible crew. And if you can make it to Chicago, we highly recommend that you do and come by and say, hi, we would love to meet. And that's what we intend to do. July 15th, 16th, 17th, Venue West, Chicago. Be there if you can be, and we'll be there too. All right, man.
Jason How's last week been? Uh, it's been good. I think, you know, you and I had similar themes for this past weekend. It was, uh, it was wiring on vehicles, uh, sort of a vehicle electrics, uh, weekend. You, you got your Jeep, uh, issue sorted and I did some putzing on the, uh, on the old series three Land Rover got, um, one of the headlight headlamps that was, uh, never quite working properly. We'd kind of flicker and go out and finally just wasn't working at all. So I got that sorted with the help of a friend of mine. We did some. multimeter testing and ran a new ground wire and soldered some connections. And now, um, now it works. Now I can actually legally drive after dark and still see something. So I'm pretty pleased about that.
James That's great. That's great. So now with this one, you're still operating on what a sealed beam. Yeah, it's a sealed beam. I mean, they're, so it's not amazingly bright for no.
Jason And if Enrique Mushant is listening, he's long urged me to upgrade to at least some halogen H4 bulbs, which, which I might do someday now that I've actually got, you know, reliable wiring that, that provides power and ground to both sides. Um, I, I might look into that next time I need to change the bulbs. The fact is I don't really drive this thing after dark much, but you know, there's always the chance that if you're out for an evening and you get caught out after dark, I mean, literally it was, it was one very low powered right hand headlamp that was working consistently and that just didn't cut it. So it was good to get that sorted.
James Yeah, for sure. I mean, it was one of the first things I did to the Jeep, which has H4 halogens is what it had was I went to LED because there's so many people that there's the community that supports the Jeep is so big that there's all this other product, right? And these, the seven inch circular lamp is the same one that goes in certain transport trucks and some Harley Davidson. So there's all this like crossover and you can spend from 20 or $30 for something really cheap that might or may not make it through a Canadian winter. to which of course didn't have a projector. So I'm just blinding people driving down the road. And now that I'm an older guy, I just, I can't stand it. And I always think back to how much of a jerk I was with some of the lighting I put on my cars. But with the Jeep, it has several little projectors all built into the bulb. And as long as you level it correctly, despite the Jeep being quite a high vehicle, like where the headlights are on it are up there, like with some pickup trucks and that sort of thing. And probably the Defender. As long as you level them correctly, people don't flash at me, which is nice as well. I can see the argument for keeping the older bulbs because of the look, which is why I worked pretty hard to try and find an LED, you know, array that still had a silver background on it rather than all of them are black. And my Jeep is green. So with the black, it's like too stealthy. It's too kind of trying too hard for my aesthetic. Yeah. But then you'd have to, what, install a light bar or something to kind of support it. And then you run into the rules as to like, are you even allowed to run? a light bar as in the place of headlights or a fog light. There's rules for every state as there are in Canada, right? So, uh, I'm glad that it's working though. You need headlights of some sort, but I'm a big fan of like bright, properly aligned headlights.
Jason I'm a big proponent. Speaking of alignment, I mean, this is just an aside, but you know, both of these vehicles are, um, they were UK vehicles. So right hand drive. And my understanding from something I read was that, um, because these were originally meant to be driven on the, left side of the road instead of the right side, the angle of the headlamps might be incorrect for this country. Um, so that might be something to look into. So I'm not blinding somebody, so I'm not like mis-aiming and like shooting it right into people's eyes or, or something, but I, I've never really figured out what that's all about. I don't know if that's in the bulb itself, or, I mean, if you look at the back of the series three, I mean, there's no, There's no real room for adjustment.
James There's no little alignment screw or spring system?
Jason Well, everything's kind of corroded and it's just sitting in this sort of, you know, barrel, this sort of plastic sort of bowl in there. So I'm not sure that that one, the defender might be a little bit more modern, but not by much.
James Yeah. Yeah. I could see that. I know with back in my HID days, which I, you know, I'm embarrassed to talk about, but back with those ones, you would you could see a physical cut. So a big straight line would come out of the left bulb, the driver's side. And then it would hit a point where the right bulb interacted with the same beam and it would cut up. So you had one that was ever so slightly lower for oncoming traffic. And I've mimicked that in the Jeep. There's a way to know from the height of the headlight to the distance of a wall. So you'd have to go to a flat parking lot at night. And you can align them so that you really get the thing. And all I did was I kind of did that to the best of my ability because I didn't have like one of those things that tells you that you're 45 feet from someone. I don't have a tape measure that large. And then if I drove at night and someone flashed my headlights, I would take it. You can actually do it without removing anything on the Jeep. You can fit a screwdriver into the little gap. I would just knock it down. The next time I drove it at night, if I got flashed, I would knock it down a little bit more. And I just kept doing it until it stopped happening. Cool stuff. I could nerd out about headlights a bunch, so I'm glad you got them sorted well enough to, yeah, you know, an evening run if you needed to get out in the vehicles, a good plan.
Jason And on your end, you got your weird draining battery issue sorted.
James I think so. Yeah, I think so. The result was, you know, I think I talked about it on a previous episode. I ended up replacing an alternator that had a bad diode, possibly several bad diodes that seemed to be leeching from the battery. And it did so pretty sneakily, was enough to destroy the Optima yellow top I talked about buying back in February. So I went through a bunch of this and I finally found a reliable way of testing for parasitic loss on that circuit, on the main circuit in the vehicle. And it looked fine. So I figured the continued not running was an element of just the damage that had been done to that battery. So I replaced the battery, another new battery for the Jeep, and everything's been fine for a few days. So if I guess in the next few weeks to few months, this battery is destroyed as well. uh, then I might have to bite the bullet and take it to a shop that knows how to, has some tricks on how to test this stuff. Cause according to a multimeter, you know, the base base draw when everything was off was fine. So, and hopefully I get more than a few, a few months out of this battery, right? They should last four or five years. Yeah. Right. Always fun with a vehicle, especially the older ones. Yeah.
Jason Yeah. Hey, I went and saw, um, I don't know if you're a top gun fan. We've never actually talked about that. Um, We're, we're due for a film club, I think one of these weeks, but, uh, I suppose so. I'm an unabashed fan of, of the original Top Gun. You know, I've seen it many times since it came out in the eighties and, uh, I, Kashani and I went and saw the new one Top Gun Maverick this weekend. And, you know, you know, say what you will about Tom Cruise. I mean, the guy, if you look at his Canon of films that he's made, I mean, he, he does make some blockbusters and he, he pours his whole heart into everything he does. And some, I like some, I don't, but, um, Top Gun Maverick was, was I thought Uh, fantastic. It was just such a satisfying movie. Oh, I'm glad to hear it. You know, it's funny, you know, after sitting through like 20 minutes of trailers for lots of CGI and kind of superhero movies, it was like good to just finally sit down and just watch like a full length kind of light action film with just sort of a basic, you know, semi believable plot and sort of some rah rah, you know, heroics and, and cool fast planes and big watches. And it was just a, it's just a fun, um, sort of guilty pleasure sort of film, just loved it. And I think, you know, most of the people that I've seen that, that I follow on Instagram or follow me or have commented, say, you know, go see this movie. It's great. Whatever. Right. So yeah, that's, that's my, you know, 32nd review, two thumbs up from me. Cause Shawn, he loved it too. So yeah, that's great.
James Yeah. I'm glad I haven't heard a, I haven't heard a single bad word about it. It's apparently like a proper old school, big movie. Yeah. You know, I'm a massive Tom Cruise fan, especially when he's not playing a person that I expect, uh, like, normal human emotions from. I love him as an action star. Yeah. I love him. I love him. You know, I think I, I absolutely adore the mission impossibles. The first one we've talked about on a previous film club. And then when you get to about four, yeah, they really take off again. And he's largely the reason for that. Not just his performance, but like he's in control of very various elements of those films, especially kind of the, the veracity of a lot of the stunts and that kind of thing. So I nerd out really hard on that. Yeah. You know, Top Gun, I think is as old as I am. So I wasn't around when that movie was like a cultural thing. I've seen it a few times. I find it to be a strange movie. It's very Tony Scott. I'm thrilled that they made another one and that it wasn't a dud. Because I think the legacy of the original is this sort of cult classic that people enjoy for all the reasons you enjoy an entertaining movie. And I'm just glad that they were able to do it. And I've read a bunch of the stuff about the fights they went through to prevent it, you know, that Tom Cruise and others went through to prevent it from going directly to streaming, to make sure that it had a proper theatrical release, and then to see it be, you know, the biggest movie of Memorial Day weekend. That just kind of fits for Top Gun. It's pure, like, it's real Americana. Yeah. You know, I think it's a movie I will see at some point. I think I'm really long on record for, uh, TGN is hating the experience at movie theaters.
Unknown Yeah.
James Uh, so I think this is one I'll watch on the projector at home with the, with the caps turned up nice and high, uh, when, when it makes it that far, but I'm, I'm, I'm just glad they still make movies kind of like that to some extent, because it would be the easy, I'm in, I mean, in a lot of the like fighter plane movies that have come out since the last top gun are kind of computer generated, right? right? There was that robotic plane one with the girl from seventh heaven and Jamie Foxx. And I don't even remember what that one was called. Uh, you know, I, I go back, if you want to talk a bad plane movie, let's talk about Firefox, the Queen Eastwood movie from the early eighties, which, you know, I, I was part, you know, one of the, one of those 20 movies I watched a lot as a kid, uh, Russian espionage, a plane flown by thought, uh, had to be Russian thought, by the way, it's a great, great movie, but yeah, I'm really fighting the urge to watch the trailer for the new, the new Mission Impossible. I feel that these days trailers ruin movies.
Jason Well, they did show a trailer for it before, before Top Gun. And it didn't, it didn't seem to give much away. It was, it was kind of one of those more teaser trailers, like a shorter version. So I didn't get a gist of the story at all. It just had some kind of, some kind of crazy, crazy.
James I mean, there's no way it's not crazy. Yeah, true. Yeah. So it, I think it makes sense that you, that you would enjoy this. And obviously the whole plane thing is right up your alley and there's a lot of touch points between watches and sunglasses and the rest of it that, uh, that I'm sure people attach to. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Super fun. Yeah.
Jason Good stuff. What else is new? You're off. We both have some travel. I'm, I'm set from our North Carolina trip. We leave on a Saturday and are gone through next Wednesday. We're both excited about that and got some good, good recommendations. And then, um, you're headed to Italy for something a little more exotic than, than where we're going. Uh, Mila Melia.
James Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm headed to Italy for a couple of days next week. So when you hear this, um, I don't normally talk about my travel before it comes out, but, uh, so Mille Miglia starts next week. That's a thousand mile vintage car road race through Italy. That's based on cars that ran the race, uh, in 1927 and 1957. Uh, Chopar has been a huge supporter of this race for a really long time. And that, that partly comes from their, uh, CEO, uh, being a big vintage car guy and a fan of this race, especially. And so, uh, they invited me out and, um, it's a really short trip. Uh, it's not one in which I get to drive any of the cars to my understanding or, um, or see a whole lot of the race, but we'll get to see some of the prep for the race and some of the pomp and circumstance around the start of the race and that sort of thing. So I'm pretty excited. It's vintage cars. How could I not be excited? Um, but it is a very, very quick trip. I think it might even be less than 48 hours. I'm on the ground in, uh, in Italy. Uh, so yeah, that by the time. The next episode comes out, I'll be on a plane to come home. Uh, we've already recorded that episode. It's a special guest. We're very excited about it. Definitely be in tune for next week. It's one that a lot of you have asked for and one that's been coming for quite some time. Uh, but yeah, I, yeah, go, go into a million million. My, my cameras are all ready to go cleaned up and charged up and the rest of it. I picked up a new lens for the M 10, uh, P that I have. So I, I've, I think I've talked about in the past that the, the reason I don't shoot the M 10 a ton, is one, it's not that great for watches because I don't have a macro lens. Oh yeah. And the Q does a fine job. Yeah. But also the lens that I have for it is a 35 millimeter Summilux, which is an incredible, arguably one of the best lenses money can buy, but it's also roughly the same. The Q is 28 millimeters, so it's roughly the same focus length as a Q. And most of the time I would just rather shoot the Q. It's a little faster. Obviously the autofocus helps, the electronic viewfinder's great, all that kind of stuff. But I really wanted to get more use out of the M10, especially with stuff like this, show par trip and some car shows around Toronto that are coming up and that kind of thing. I dug around and went with the budget option, essentially the ZEISS competitor to the 50 Summicron, which is the step down from the Summilux. It's an F2 both for the Summicron and for the ZEISS, but I picked up a ZEISS 50 millimeter planar TZM F2 for those of you who care. You know, I'm maybe a hundred frames into it just walking around my house and shooting plants and my kids and that kind of stuff. It's awesome. Yeah. It's razor sharp. Wow. It doesn't, it doesn't, um, image the same way as a Leica lens. It just doesn't have that glow. Um, but I think for something a little bit more on the clinical side, like in my mind, portraits, cars, things like that, it should be great.
Unknown Yeah.
James And for a lot of the lifestyle stuff, I'm still going to be snapping that with the Q cause it's just fast and, and, I could do it with one hand, you know, this one, you're, you're still manually focusing cause it's a range finder and the rest of it. But so far I'm thrilled. And it was a 10th of the U S price before tax before the rest of it.
Jason Huh? Nice. Nice. So you're going to take both cameras.
James Yeah, I think I'll take both cameras and I've, you know, I've upgraded the podcast recording cause we're going to do a special show for a hooding key radio. So if you're on that feed as well, stay tuned for a, hopefully we're still working on booking it, but hopefully a pretty fun, um, set of guests for a show par melee, melee sort of episode. Yeah, I think that's pretty much all I got going.
Jason I mean, it sounds like a lot when I ramble that long about it, but yeah, we'll have, we'll have a good download the week after next when we, when we chat again about our respective, uh, our respective travels. I'm excited.
James Yeah. And I, you know, it's, it feels like what has been a long time since I've been to Italy. So I'm, I am pumped for that. Um, which should be a good time. Nice. Look, we've got we've got a fun episode planned for the rest of this show based on the fact that it's World Oceans Day. So why don't we get to a risk check and then we can get ready and we can dive right into the main topic.
Jason Yeah, I tried to pick a kind of an appropriate watch today. And I've been enjoying this watch a lot lately. This is my old 1980s Citizen Aqualand. Oh, fantastic. I know I just wore it a few weeks back, but I've moved it on to this. I've got this You know, the good friend of ours, who shall remain nameless, who makes a lot of great leather straps, he had made this 24 millimeter wide shell cordovan Horween strap. It's a NATO and it's the only 24 millimeter strap I have other than the stock citizen rubber that came on this watch. And so every once in a while, it's fun to slip it on this watch and just wear this big burly kind of shiny leather NATO. It's just, it's such a fun watch. Every time I look down at my wrist, I just kind of pause for a bit and look at it. It's just so fun.
James Nice. Yeah. Those super cool. And obviously, you know, there's that, the, the kind of reissue reedition, additional edition that they've done recently. Oh yeah. So I think these are, these are great and they're super fun to see and to see the one that you have at that age still being essentially the same watch, right?
Unknown Yeah. Yeah.
James Definitely makes more sense for a dive themed episode than, than mine, but I'm excited about mine. It's a watch that I've, I've thought about a lot and never really thought they would remake. And that's the, uh, the kind of Oris world timer from the nineties. It's a little 36 and a half millimeter steel watch that I've, I've tried to buy a couple of times that, you know, they don't come up that often. They're kind of rare. Uh, I don't know what would be involved in making sure the movement and, and all that kind of stuff is, is what it needs to be is correct. And all that, uh, you know, serviced and running, cause it has an interesting complication, but now we have the Oris Holstein 2022 limited edition, AKA the full steel. which is a pretty faithful recreation of that exact watch. It's 36 and a half millimeters. It's a little less than 12 millimeters thick. It has this little tiny dial, a super sporty look, and then kind of two distinct time displays. The main dial surround, you know, the full dial hour and minute hand, and then a sub dial around three that has another hour and minute hand and an AM PM indicator. And then what kind of makes this special as far as GMTs go is that there's two buttons on the case flanks, one kind of at eight o'clock and one at about four o'clock that advance or retract the main hour hand. So you set the time, uh, linking kind of both hands together to let's say your local time. And then when you land somewhere and change time zones, you press the hour buttons forward or backwards. The date is tied to the local, uh, main time display. And, uh, and then you end up with a home time by default on the sub dial. and an indication of a.m. p.m. in that time zone along with a really easily adjustable local time display. It's a neat kind of weird take on a jumping GMT and it comes on a full steel bracelet and it's kind of weirdly small. Normally these days when we see a 36 millimeter watch it's a dress watch with a very thin bezel and this kind of has a case element and then a bezel element and a crown guard element So it has all the markings of what you might attest to a larger, sportier watch, but on a small watch, and it really feels like they took a watch of this era and just, you know, did it at 75% on a photocopier. And I really like it. It wears a little bit like a bracelet where the watch, the so-called head or case of the watch, right, is very much in tune with the weight of the bracelet. Oh, sure. So it wears in this kind of really simple flowing sort of way. Legibility is good. There's actually some decent dial depth. I like the color. I'm working on a story for Hodinkee. So obviously we'll have photos and the rest of it soon enough, but, um, I I'm, I'm largely really, really impressed by it. Uh, they're making 250 and, uh, I think it's pretty cool. All things told.
Jason Yeah. I mean, it is a very strange watch, but it's, it's so practical. I mean, when, when you describe it the way you did with, with that really functional forward and back, Um, our hand advance it's, uh, I mean, that's right up your alley for one thing, but then to me, this kind of represents. So much of kind of what Oris is all about and has been since I first became aware of them back in the early two thousands that, you know, they always had things that were just a little, little bit off kilter out of the, out of the ordinary, you know, they had the pointer date stuff and then they had the, the, the depth gauge diver that was different than other depth gauge divers. They had the altimeter and then, you know, The Meister talker, which is a, you know, regulator display. I mean, it's, it's just a little bit different and they kind of do these, these complications that you might not consider, you know, high horology or people might not think of in that way, but they're like taking really useful functions and designing them in a more simple way that, that can really be useful to the owner. And I think that's a, that's really cool.
James Yeah. I mean, I talk about the idea of like oddball charm. Usually it's one element of a watch that I'm reviewing that just doesn't feel like everything else I've had before it. Yeah. Or within a genre, it kind of steps out, whether it's a weird dial, or if you look at something like what Brew does so well is that sort of where it's different than the norm, but not in a way that makes it problematic or difficult to wear, but in a way that makes it kind of special and charming. Right. And this watch is kind of wall to wall weird charm. Yeah. Yeah. It would be less interesting if it was 40 millimeters. It would be, uh, you know, less interesting if they'd gone with a different, like if they tried to update it in any way, but by just remaking the one from the, from the time and said like, look, it's a limited edition. What do we got to lose? That's it's just so Oris. And it's something that so many other brands wouldn't even bother trying. It's not even a question of like having the faith in their thing, but to pick something that was kind of an esoteric design to begin with and then do it again. in an L.E. I think that like talk about what a nice way to do an L.E. in the first place. Yeah.
Jason Yeah. And even the name, Full Steel.
James Full Steel, which I did not remember from the original that that was its name. Yeah. I always knew it as the world timer. Yeah. But I'll see if I can find a photo of the original. We'll put it in the show notes. I've got a picture of this on my Instagram. I can also put that in the show notes or whatever. And then by the time this comes out, you'll be within four or five days of the story on Hodinkee, I believe, if the schedule holds. So cool. Uh, big thanks to Oris for sending that my way, loaning me one for a little while. It's always a treat, especially just to wear something that is so different from everything else. You know, I've got a bunch of cool dive watches in and that kind of thing. And this is just, uh, something, something of a palate cleanser. So, uh, super fun.
Jason Cool. Well, we should get underwater, I guess. Yeah. I think, I think that's a good point. Yeah. As you mentioned, I mean, this is, uh, uh, this episode comes out a day after the official, uh, world oceans day, which I, I, Didn't really know much about the history of it, but it was actually proposed back in the early nineties as a kind of an international celebration of. All things aquatic and kind of a way to heighten awareness for, you know, the issues facing the ocean, as well as kind of celebrating the ocean and everything in it. And I guess it became kind of an official United nations. Well, I don't want to call it a holiday, but a special day, uh, around about 2002. So I hadn't realized it had gone on that long. Um, but you know, Wikipedia is your friend here and you can read up all about it, but. You know, we're not going to kind of delve into the history of world oceans day as much as we are just going back to talking about diving. It's been a while since we talked about diving on the show. And, um, you know, both of us kind of met, uh, largely due to our mutual interest in diving and dive watches. And so this is kind of a bit of return to form for us. And I think what we kind of want to do here is, is, you know, in the past, we've done an episode on how to get into diving. And we'll definitely refer back to that. It was one of our earlier episodes, probably within the first year, I would say of, of TGN. And much of that episode still holds true. I mean, not much has changed, you know, the, the methods of going about learning to dive and, you know, buying your first gear and renting and where to dive and things like that. But what we really wanted to focus on here was, you know, just our love of diving and why we love it and how it can kind of be addictive and get you into the water and, and celebrating the ocean on a more regular basis. So. That's kind of where we're at for today's episode.
James Absolutely. Yeah. I'm, I'm looking forward to this. Uh, obviously world oceans day is just one time of the year that you can think about the ocean, but you know, diving has been a major part of, of a whole kind of phase of my life. And though I haven't dove much in the, in the last few years, partly because I moved away from an ocean and then, uh, COVID kind of slowed me down. we're, you know, in the process of, of getting back into that. And, uh, and certainly I haven't, I haven't lost my love of snorkeling or swimming or the rest of it. And I think all of that speaks to the same sort of ideal, you know, Jason, what, what was it? We should probably make this quick. Cause it's definitely been in several other episodes and I'll link the past when we did about getting into diving in the show notes, but what was your, not so much miss maybe like why you like the first dive or, or your experience getting certified. I think we've, we've covered that kind of stuff, but what was it where you said like, I would like to scuba dive. Was it a kid? Was it later on?
Jason Well, no, you know, I, I didn't come to it like so many people. I mean, you, you ask a lot of people, even of my generation, your generation. And so often they refer to, you know, Jacques Cousteau. I mean, it's, it's like a cliche. Like I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau. I didn't grow up watching Jacques Cousteau. I watched very little, uh, underwater stuff. Um, I don't remember going to many aquariums when I was a kid. Um, But, you know, as, as I've said in the past, you know, the, the real impetus for me to kind of get curious about diving was when I bought my planet ocean and kind of felt like a poser wearing this big chunky capable dive watch and not really knowing how to use it. And Gishani and I were, uh, shortly after I bought this watch, we were vacationing at a resort in Mexico and. I saw them doing or advertising some, one of these discover scuba courses where you can, you know, get a briefing and do some exercises in the swimming pool at the hotel. And then they'll take you out for a very shallow dive to kind of introduce you to the concept of diving. And I did that. And it was such a great way to start. I always encourage people to do that because what seemed like such an intimidating thing was became instantly addictive. I mean, even, even putting the regulator in my mouth and dipping under the surface of the pool, which was such a novel experience. And if you haven't done that, you've got to try it. It's so cool. That first breath is scary. Yeah. Like you feel hesitant to like inhale. Yeah. And then they took us out and we were in Playa del Carmen. And then we, we took the ferry over to Cozumel with this small group of novice divers. And we, we did like a 30 foot, you know, probably 30 minute dive. And I remember seeing a Barracuda and I remember, you know, I mean, Cozumel is spectacular. I mean, it's, it's one of the top places in the world. It's it's beautiful reefs and clear, warm water. And I was hooked and I came home and then I started looking into what it took to get Certified. And I remember talking to a friend of mine who had just gotten certified the year before. And at the time I wasn't really even into swimming. I really wasn't a water person. And I remember him kind of telling me, well, you got to do this length of the pool, swim kind of, uh, you know, holding your breath to simulate like an emergency ascent. And you got to prove this and that. And I felt intimidating, but I remember one thing he told me was scuba diving is like standing outside of a circus tent. And looking at the outside of the circus tent and scuba diving is like pulling open the, the flap of the tent and looking in and seeing all this color and carnival atmosphere and excitement that goes on inside. You, you, when you're standing on the shoreline and you look out at the sea, you don't see much, um, might be a beautiful sunset or some waves lapping, but you don't really get a sense of what's going on behind the flap. And he was so right. And I've never looked back. So, um, Yeah. I mean, that, that was kind of my story. You came to it differently. I mean, you kind of did grow up wanting to dive and explore underwater.
James Yeah. As a kid, I was pretty obsessed. You know, I, I loved the idea that you could go underwater and interface with these big animals that otherwise, like, even if you're in a boat, they could be right next to you and you couldn't see them. Yeah. But if you're in the water, you could be down there. Then, then I learned about, you know, some of the, some of the, you know, nature documentaries and people taking cameras underwater and then later on Cousteau and all that sort of stuff. And it's kind of been like a lifelong love of mine. And one that I really only backed away from because it had to, it had to go second to being a father.
Unknown Yeah. Right.
James It is a selfish hobby, kind of like golf, or there's a time in your life where there's it's right to do it. Right. And, and then there's a time where like the fact that you start your day at say 5 36 AM on a Saturday and get back maybe in time for dinner and then spend the next hour after dinner, rinsing your gear off in the shower. It just didn't make it didn't make enough sense. And then when I when I left Vancouver, it made even less sense. You know, I'm not saying that the diving in Lake Ontario nearby me isn't amazing, but it's not going to line up with with the experiences I was having in the house sound for, you know, very little money and and relatively speaking, not that much effort. But for me, it was always something I wanted to do. And when I first moved to Vancouver, it turned out that my cousin who lives in Vancouver and did at the time and still does, was also interested. So we were able to quickly realize that we could hire essentially a private instructor and do it on our schedule. We both had kind of busy schedules in the city and workloads and that kind of thing. So we were able to kind of work around that and not have to worry too much about interfacing with a big class or that kind of stuff. And I do recommend that if you can afford it. It's a nice way to get into it because you get a little bit more one-on-one attention. Yeah. And especially for a couple of nerds, like we were, we were reading every dive book we could find it. The, the instruction manual was not enough, right? Like the Patty guidebook was nowhere near enough. I wanted, I wanted to know the math behind the math. I wanted to know how Patty had adapted Navy timetables. I wanted to know mixed gas stuff that I'm never going to use stuff. I forgotten at this point.
Unknown Yeah.
James If you asked me, you know, some of the percentages, but back in the day I had them all memorized and that kind of stuff. So to have somebody who was a good diver and a good instructor that was also essentially one-on-one or in this case, you know, dedicated to just the two of us meant a nice flexible schedule and a really kind of chill way to get into diving. You know, the intellectual side of diving kind of building in my mind, the appeal for probably 25 years. And then the first time I got into a pool, you know, at the Jewish cultural center in Vancouver and took a, took a breath off a regulator in two and a half feet of water, I was hooked.
Unknown Yeah.
James I just, I wanted to see, I wanted to see and touch and take a picture of and, and remember all of it. And, and I think that the next time that that feeling really, that I got that same rush again was it's every time I see a different big animal in the water. It's an unbeatable feeling, whether it's a sea lion, a manta ray, the first time you're face to face with a shark, even a small one, sea turtles, all it's kind of the big, the small stuff is wild and, and some of it's kind of cool. And, and, you know, you can maybe learn to get close to it, but it's, it's crazy when you can have eye contact with a big, you know, seemingly intelligent animal, an octopus, you know, some of that stuff is, it's all life-changing as far as the experience.
Jason Well, and I think, you know, coming, coming to it from our, our very different beginnings and, and, and continuing journeys and diving, you know, you haven't taken some time off and I've backed away over the past couple of years, certainly. But I mean, there are very few people that get into diving and do it, Consistently, even for a few years at a time, even if they back away that, that aren't don't remain passionate about it, even if they're not doing it actively. And I think it's this, once you're a diver, you're always a diver, you know, almost like a secret handshake kind of thing where you, you get to talking with somebody about it and immediately. If you haven't been for a while, you immediately want to go diving and you remember, you know, exactly the feeling of what it's like, even if it's been years since you've been underwater and you know, that's not to say that everyone's for it. Some people just don't get it. I mean, I, I, I've. Always enjoyed kind of having a, a level of proficiency in anything I do that I'm able to kind of read about something, watch a movie or speak about something intelligently, whether that's climbing a mountain or kayaking or cycling or whatever it is. But diving was the one thing that I went into kind of extra deep, you know, pardon the pun to, to a level that I, I just don't have that same interest in something like, you know, like let's say rock climbing or, you know, downhill skiing or something. Those are sports that I'm quite happy to just be a casual. a participant. Um, and I imagine we all have things like that. And that's not to say that everyone who takes up diving is going to go in, you know, full on. Um, but it's such a special thing.
James Yeah. And I think that's one of the great things about diving is you can basically make it whatever you want. Yeah. You want, you want to be the next John Chatterton go nuts. Yeah. You can read 50 manuals. You can learn, you can finish Patty and go into any of the other progression tunnels. Right. And, and start modifying your own gear. You can learn how you can become a technician. You can go through the kind of recreational side of the Patty flow all the way up to a master scuba diver, or you can divert at a certain point and become an instructor if that's what you want. Right. Yeah. It's kind of an endless thing where you take it as far as you want. You take it, whatever's fun. Like I think for you and me, we've, we had an experience on a big mountain and it wasn't the immediate experience that goes, Oh, I have to do this again in two months. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Or, or you know what, I've done Rainier, so the next one's gotta be Denali. Exactly. The next one's gotta be Aconcagua. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And, and that's what it was for me after Baker until I realized, oh, I want to do Aconcagua. That's a, like a 28 day engagement. Yeah. True. I don't have 28 days for anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. It's a, so the, the, the great thing about diving is I don't think there's any, one, there's definitely no shame or embarrassment or anything in just being a vacation diver. Get certified to your comfort level. make sure you're good at everything they ask you to do. Cause that's the stuff that keeps you alive. Right. And moreover, it gives you some padding in an emergency and then just dive once or twice a year. Yeah.
Jason Enjoy it. And what's cool about diving is that if once you know, and you have that card in your, in your wallet, it adds an element to travel. So let's say you are, you know, going to, Oh, I don't know. Let's say, you know, let's say you're, you're, you decide, let's take a vacation to France, a two week vacation to France. And like you find yourself on the South coast, along the Mediterranean and lo and behold, the little town you happen to be staying in and you're, you know, eating your baguette and sipping your, you know, cafe au lait in the morning and you see across the street, there's a little dive shop. Like you can rent some gear and show them your card and you can see a part of France that very few other tourists will see and potentially see something spectacular. And it just adds this element, you know, like if you, if you went for a hike or rented a bicycle and went up into the mountains behind your hotel, like now you can actually go in the sea. go underwater and explore a whole different part of it. And I love that. I love that part of it, that flexibility it gives you.
James The way that I always try and explain it to people who don't dive, but are kind of like, well, why would I, why would I go somewhere and add a dive trip or add a dive or two in is the same reason you would go somewhere you've never been and hire a helicopter. It gives you a view that you can't get from standing on the ground. And in this case for really not that much money, when you really consider it, like helicopters are a fortune for one thing, but like for not that much money, you get to go somewhere that almost no one else gets to go. Even on a really busy dive site. We're not talking about most people. Yeah. Yeah. Right. We're not even talking about probably most people who live in that area. It's kind of specific and it is a, I love something that requires local knowledge, right? Like, like finding a great restaurant or a great hike. It takes a little bit of research. It takes the right people to put it together. Then the rest is up to chance. The conditions might be terrible, right? Yeah. The boat might break. You might not ever leave the shore. But every time that you go on a dive, even the days where I would just be like, I'm going to go diving. So I think I'll probably just do Kelvin Grove again in Vancouver. And you put the work together and drive out there and get everything down the hill. If you know Kelvin, it's a bit of an intense point until you get to the water. And then you roll in and you have no idea what to expect. Maybe you won't be able to see anything until you're 80 feet under. And it might as well be a night dive. And other days I got into 10 feet of water in that little cove, not even at the real part of the dive yet. And I was like, I could just stay here. I'm in an aquarium. The sun's here. The little fish are here. I'm having a blast. Yeah. You know, you can have a three hour dive, five feet or something. Uh, it can be anything.
Jason I was up, uh, on the North shore of Lake Superior one year after having, um, dived to this shipwreck that I try to go to almost annually because it's, it's a surface swim offshore. It's a lovely big wreck in a, in a beautiful, um, Cove where, you know, you never see any other people and there's a lighthouse nearby in a state park. And I remember going to the, to the lighthouse after diving with a friend of mine and we were just kind of walking around the lighthouse area. And you know, there are a lot of tourists that go see the lighthouse and there's a big anchor that they have sitting outside the lighthouse. And it's from the wreck that we just dove. And it was the reason back in 1910 that they built this lighthouse is because the ship wrecked against the cliff. And. You know, I overheard some people. you know, reading the plaque next to this anchor. And I think I mentioned, you know, yeah, we, we were just diving that shipwreck and that they couldn't believe it. I mean, and it's like, where's the shipwreck? It's like, it's right. Like you can, if you could see through the water, like it's right there below the cliff here. Like it's right here. And that people have no idea what's just off the, off the coastline of, of a lot of places. And, uh, I don't know. That's just so exciting. It gives you a certain smugness to, to kind of have that added element to, to places you go. Yeah, for sure. And, and, you know, Shipwrecks are one thing, you know, topography underwater is another thing. You mentioned the, the wildlife and I just can't get over, this has always been a strange phenomenon for me. The fact that, you know, I remember going to the Bahamas years ago and, and just the sheer number of sharks, um, swimming around, uh, you know, reef sharks and we saw a tiger shark and a hammerhead. And it's like, if you were hiking in the forest. uh, somewhere and, and you saw, you know, a grizzly bear or, or, okay, maybe not say a grizzly bear, like a pack of, you know, timber wolves or something that, that ran by you. Yeah. Like you'd be kind of freaked out or a, or a mountain lion or something like that. Like an apex predator of that, of that territory or, or a snake, you know, like let's say a snake, like underwater, the equivalent is like a more a eel, a shark might be the equivalent of a coyote or a, you know, a pack of wolves or something. underwater for some reason that that element of fear kind of fades and it becomes more fascination. You're at eye level with these creatures and you're in their environment. And I mean, what could be more fascinating to, to, to be amidst all of these perfectly adapted, very exotic creatures that are in their habitat doing exactly what they were kind of evolved to do is, I don't know, it gives me the chills even thinking about it. Some of the, some of the things that, that I've been able to see over the years that if I never went underwater, I'd even be able to imagine almost.
James Yeah, no, I, I can think of so many, so many scenarios in, in, in which you like, you almost can't focus on the metrics of diving.
Unknown Yeah.
James Like the first time I kind of interacted in, in closed space with a sea lion. Oh yeah. Right. They kind of come out of nowhere and they're big. And for a minute, your brain has no idea what they are and you just have this big spike of fear and your heart rate goes through the roof. Uh, you know, I've still, I've got a couple of animals still on my list, but I had, I had like a, uh, a magical, you know, sort of Miyazaki style experience with a, a huge pelagic manta ray in Socorro at the UNESCO world heritage site that just followed me around. I, I, it was so fun. I burned through my tank so quickly and then he followed me up to the surface while we waited for the boat. You know, you just, you can't, you can't do that. That's not going to happen. It's like a giraffe or an elephant with a, you know, I mean, Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And outside of reserve or something, which I guess in some ways of world UNESCO heritage site is in that nobody should be fishing for them. Right. Right. It's an experience that doesn't cost that much money, adapts to pretty much any way that you want it to be. You want to be hardcore, dive in Vancouver, do the cold water thing, kind of be uncomfortable the whole time, but have a sense of adventure every day you go out. Yeah. That's there. And like, maybe it's $2,500. Right. From the time you start certifying to the time where you've got a dry suit, a rag, you know, all of your personal kit and can, can go to the dive shop, pick up a tank and basically do the rest yourself with a, with a buddy. Yeah. The other thing that I like is diving is typically pretty capable for people of, of a varied set of physical skills and even disabilities. Yeah, that's true. Cause you, you, one, you don't want to dive hard. You want to ski hard. You want to run hard. You want to bike hard. Maybe you want to do jumps. There's no jumps in diving. You get in the water and then try and do as little as possible. Yeah. The lower your heart rate, the less, if you're built like me, the less you move your legs, the longer you get to dive. So you're rewarded for learning a certain set of skills that don't require an insanely strong body or, you know, no injuries from when you played football in high school or college, or like you don't have to be in perfect shape to dive. You really don't. In fact, most people aren't. I've been in the water with people who would be very metabolically unsound and were fabulous divers as soon as they were underwater.
Jason Yeah. And that's certainly not to, not to encourage people to not be fit because it does help in a lot of aspects, but you're right. I've been on, you know, countless dive boats over the years with you look across and you know, the person across from me is like, really, should you really be, you know, shouldering a tank and jumping in the water here? And it's like you get underwater and they've been, they're doing it their whole lives and they're, yeah, they swim like fish. They're very graceful. Um, I remember my first visit, not my first visit, but my first time after I'd been certified going to Sri Lanka and I was on a dive boat there and It was this really eclectic international group of divers. And there was this fairly overweight, older woman who had this flaming red hair and bright lipstick. And she, you know, I, she was Russian and you know, we didn't share any kind of mutual language or anything like that. But, but after the dive, she got back on the boat, took off, took off her, her mask and her took a reg out and she's sitting on the bench and she immediately reaches in her bag, pulls out her lipstick and reapplies her lipstick. And then somehow mutual, some mutual discussion with somebody else on the boat. I was asking her about her diving and she's like, she grew up diving in like Lake Baikal. And then she pulls out this very old Russian language certification card that indicated that she was like an ice diving, you know, certified diver. And I was like, I mean, there's people of all shapes and sizes all over the world that are doing such different types of diving. And it's just, it's that, that aspect of it too, that I think is really appealing. The people you meet and the places you can go with it.
James Absolutely. Yeah. It really is a marvelous pastime that I think just about anyone can appreciate. I guess the limitation here is, you know, I have several family members that are quite claustrophobic. Yeah. And that seems to be kind of a world you can't get beyond. And then other people don't like the idea, and I think this extends from even soft claustrophobia, that at a certain point in your dive, you can't go up. Right. Right. You're down. You're committed. Yeah. I like the mental weight of that. I like the fact that your biggest enemy when you're diving is you and your ability to remain calm or lack thereof, your ability to panic or hopefully lack thereof, right? Yeah. It really is a sport or a pastime or whatever you want to call it that requires a certain mindset and a certain focus on process and excellence and repetition and planning. And I love all of that kind of stuff. It's in my mind, the only one where I've really had the same feeling, but it, the speed is turned way up, this is obvious once I say it, is driving a car on a track. And the whole time you have to put your brain in a mode where you find a sort of flow state where you're not concerning yourself with anything except the input that is hitting your synapses right at that moment. It's all reactive. And there's something about diving where once you get beyond all of the training and the comfort zone, and especially in my case where if I would do four or five dives in a short, in a month, or over the span of a couple of weeks, then that sixth, seventh dive, suddenly my air consumption would go way down. I'd be way more calm. Nothing felt like I had to think about it. And once you've kind of learned a track and you kind of understand a car a little bit, there's that same sort of thing. It's a little bit of a flow state. It's a little bit of just, just existing in the moment and taking the impetus back and forth of what the, what's happening around you and, and observing kind of what that is and your position in the space. I think it's a wonderful thing to get to experience and way less expensive than driving a car on a track.
Jason I think you, you also learn so much about yourself when you start diving and as you continue diving, you, you learn. I remember as I mentioned, you know, when I was first getting into it, I was really intimidated by it and I thought, you know, I'm not that comfortable in water and deep water and breathing underwater and how, You know, you mentioned claustrophobia and that's, that's something that several people have said. I can't dive because I'm claustrophobic. I get it. It's not for you. That's, that's fine with me. I didn't know. I didn't, I didn't think I was claustrophobic. I'm not claustrophobic and, but I didn't know how I would react. And once I, once I did that first dive, I thought this might be what I was built for. I mean, it's, I'm, I'm a pretty introverted guy. I'm not as comfortable in, in kind of big crowded social settings. you know, I like an attention to detail and kind of mindfulness and, and I love gear and, uh, I love a good kind of physical challenge as well. And, and it kind of, it kind of ticks all those boxes. Yeah.
James Yeah.
Jason Yeah.
James Yeah. For me, the, the, the point where I thought, Oh, maybe this isn't for me was when I started practicing taking my mask off. Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh, if I didn't have a regulator in my mouth, I couldn't care less. Yeah. Take the mask off. But there was something about attempting to breathe. in the scenario where I couldn't see and I knew I couldn't go up, that I had to like, I had to consciously walk my way through it when it happened because I could feel myself panic. And it took that, like I had to mentally process my way through that because I couldn't just practice it in a bathtub, right? I'd been swimming underwater my whole life, but it was something about having the disconnect between my nose and my mouth with the reg. And I know they recommend a lot of people, you know, plug your nose when you want to take the breath. I just ended up holding my breath, which later he was like, you're going to have to do that again, because you held your breath for like, you know, 25 seconds or something during that, which you really shouldn't be doing. Yeah. Cause I was so scared of, of like, if I take a big pull through my nose of saltwater, right. How do I, how do I stop that? Right. It's once, if it happens, it's jarring. But if you, if you start coughing through the reg, the rest of it, what happens? And it turns out it's all pretty fine. Like some of that'll happen to you. And I've had it now. Um, and even mentally talking about this, it's scary to talk about it, but I've had it where my, uh, mass strap slipped while I was diving. Oh, sure. And, and it didn't come fully off my face, but it definitely fully flooded. I took half a nose full of water, coughed it out through the rag, pushed my mass back on, figured out the strap. And I did so mostly without even changing my kind of position in the water. Oh yeah. So I think you can get through that kind of stuff. And, and you know, it's, and you know, I don't, I don't love saying that, you know, I wasn't a natural at every part of this. I think I come to the gear side and the, the numbers and the, the format, the process, all that really naturally. But some of the, some of the, um, the autonomic stuff I had to think my way over and kind of process out. And if you can, if you have that same thing, my recommendation would be to ask your shop or your, your pool or, or whatever for more, a little bit more time in the pool. Yeah. Right. Don't, don't practice like I did at 15 feet practice at three. So if you want to stand up, you just stand up. Not a big deal. You're not going to hurt yourself. Right. And then, and then get to the point where the mask off means nothing, any, any of the small shortcomings or the stuff where it feels uncomfortable mentally, I think you just have to process your way past it. Yeah. And then you get to the gear.
Jason Yeah. I mean, we talk about gear and I think what's, what's cool about diving, I think it's kind of wrapped up in both kind of the history and romance of the sport. Um, and for those of us that, you know, that are part of TGN community that, that, you know, look, you know, love watches to begin with, especially dive watches, you know, we come to it, with a real heavy emphasis on the gear side of it. And, you know, if you look at like something, a sport like skiing or climbing, you know, I think there's a parallel there because if you look at kind of old 1940s, fifties, sixties climbing, and you get, you know, these great sweaters and, you know, tweed pants and great old leather boots and snow, you know, glacier goggles or whatever, um, right up until modern day, you know, North face parkas and plastic mountaineering boots and things, the same goes for diving. Like you can look at these old. nostalgic photos that the tutor uses so much and Aqua star and whatever, and they're advertising because we're drawn to the romance of, of kind of this retro space. And you can go that route. You there, there are historical diving groups that dive with that stuff. But I like this blend. I like, you know, a big knife strap to the leg. I like, you know, the dive watch on one wrist. Um, but then, you know, like I w I want a modern, uh, regulator, uh, you know, that breathes well in cold water and doesn't freeze up. I like my, You know, my dive right BCD, um, a good set of fins, you know, you can kind of mix and match and kind of tailor it and do as much or as little research as you want. I would emphasize, emphasize doing more research than less because this is lifesaving equipment, but you can just go hog wild with, uh, with the gear side of things. And it's so fun. It's all such well-made good stuff in this industry.
James Yeah. Yeah. No. And it's, it's definitely a rabbit rabbit hole, but you can, you can fall down, whether it's trying to decide what BC you want, depending on where you want to go, or then you'll meet people who like you go to their garage and they've got six different setups. Yeah. And it depends on, am I carrying a camera? Am I going on a vacation? Am I doing two tanks or one? And then in my mind was like, but I'm never going to want all this stuff. So what's the most flexible kind of middle road. What's what, what can I get and get serviced at my dive shop, which is an important thing as well. You can't just go buying everything on Leisure Pro. Right. You know, the thing to remember is this is still an industry completely supported by small businesses. So it's a point I did want to make at some point in this is like, get to know your dive shop. If you get the wrong feeling, go find another dive shop. Right. If there's a city nearby, there'll probably be at least two dive shops because at one point they were all one dive shop and then they had a disagreement. That's how it is. There's beefs in the dive community. You'll learn all this kind of stuff. It is an industry as big as Patty is. And as much as they have kind of a whole scheme going, I think it's a good scheme. I think it has to happen or whatever. And same with Nowy and the rest. This is still a system that's supported by small businesses and by people. This isn't that different than the restaurant industry. The people who you'll be working with to get training, you know, they don't make a ton of money doing this. A lot of them, it's one of their jobs and to try and buy local as much as possible. does make a difference. And then it also allows you to focus on the gear that's available or that they're willing to say order in. And if you end up outgrowing that what's available locally, assuming they carry the standards, right? Then then I think you've hit a level of diving where you should start considering going to like dive shows, right? Go check out the latest gear, the coolest stuff, get demonstrations, all this. And really, really, you know, you could end up end up going pretty deep into this hobby way deeper than I have for certain.
Jason Yeah, I think When it comes to gear, I'm very curious to see where it, where it goes next. You know, we were largely using very similar gear to, to what was even being used back in the sixties when it comes to buoyancy control and, uh, and regulators and tanks and, um, and lead weight and this sort of thing. It's, it's, it's a pretty simple process, but lately, well, when I say lately, I mean, within the last decade, you know, we're seeing a real uptick in the use of closed circuit rebreathers. And I don't want to get too, too deep into that, but. you know, the concept of, of filling tanks and carrying air on your back is, is slowly becoming outmoded to the point where a lot of, uh, divers that are doing a lot more diving are moving to this rebreather setup and, and the rebreather technologies is advancing. The units are getting simpler and smaller, easier to maintain, uh, and, and more affordable. I'm not sure in my future diving career, I will get to that point. It's still an expensive, uh, bit of extra equipment to buy. Um, but you know, like, like travel to Mars or supersonic, uh, commercial air flight, um, I'm sure within the next decade or two, rebreathers will become the kind of the norm for, for most people diving. It just feels like, like it's kind of the, the, the smart move going forward.
James So you'll have to add that to a list of stuff to chat with Becky shot the next time she's on the show.
Jason Yeah, definitely. Yeah. She's an instructor and, and, ardent proponent of, of rebreather technology. So, you know, one thing I guess, you know, before we kind of maybe wrap up or, or kind of talk about what, what we hope to do or our ambitions, um, uh, you know, I, I wanted to, to not neglect this idea of free diving. Um, you know, we've been talking about scuba, um, you know, carrying the air on your back and, and certainly, you know, I've had some great experiences and I know you have too, where you're just. You're not carrying any gear. You've got a mask on your, on your face and maybe a set of fins on your feet and then just some swim trunks and, and that ability to, you know, kind of just put your head under water, take a deep breath and, and, and dive down to look at some coral or whatever. I mean, that, that is the purest form of diving and certainly something I hope to do more of and have been doing more of. I think it's, it's a very freeing kind of way to travel and explore without, without all the equipment and the training.
James Yeah, I love free diving. I think it also opens up a whole lot of options where if you want to spend some time underwater and you still want something that takes perfection and time and consideration and technique and the rest of it, all of that applies. There's so many different ways to interface with it, but I think the point that we're trying to make here with this fairly rambly dive-focused topic is it's World Oceans Day. The oceans have brought us, and the lakes, to be fair, brought us a huge amount of happiness and fulfillment in life. If you're on the fence, if you're considering it, uh, I hope this pushes you. And if you have any questions, you know where to leave them.
Jason Yeah, definitely.
James A lot of people listening are divers. Jason and I are divers. We know a lot of divers. And if you ask a really advanced question, we know people who can answer that as well. Uh, not a problem. So let us know in the comments, let's get in there and continue this. I, uh, we really wanted this to be an entirely unpaid for ad for scuba diving. Uh, I cannot wait to get back to it. My wife's going to get certified this year. And, uh, and I hope to get a couple of great dives in and then start chasing, uh, you know, Jason and Gashani to, uh, other locales. Maybe dive some warm water again. It's been some time for me, but, uh, I miss it dearly and I'm glad that it doesn't have to go away. It's not something I can really age out of. This is, this is really just Jason and I's plea to like, if this is something that you've been curious about, or maybe we've helped make you curious about it, give it a chance. Do a discovery dive on your next, uh, next vacation. Breathe, breathe off a regulator in some warm, clear water and, uh, and see if it, see if it sparks something in you. Cause my guess is for a lot of you, it will.
Jason And, and just to kind of put a bow on this episode, you know, I'll, I'll just kind of plant the seed that, you know, something we've, we've kicked around for, for several years is actually doing some kind of a TGN led dive excursion somewhere. So, you know, interested listeners that, that want to, you know, pay to travel somewhere, um, and, and meet up with, with James and me and, and do a few dives together over a few days. Um, You know, let us know in the comments, if that's something that would interest you and, and, you know, we'll see, I mean, it won't be in 2022, certainly we've got enough going on here, but, uh, you know, who knows, maybe, maybe next year we can put something together. I'm not going to make any promises, but, uh, I'd love to make something like that happen sometime.
James Yeah. And the last thing I would say before we leave is, uh, we have a big section in the notes for this episode. There's actually a lot we didn't get to, we could have gone on. There's so many dive stories, right? There's not such a story heavy hobby. but especially underwater photography. We've been asked questions about it in the past. We've talked about it in the past. We talked about it with Becky. We talked about it with Ghoshani, of course. I think that's a topic that's best managed with maybe having Ghoshani back on the show. Obviously, we need a Ghoshani 2 at some point. Can't let Cole do all the repeats, right? So we definitely need Ghoshani back on, but I would not want to get into that topic because my experience is essentially a GoPro some inexpensive RX100 housings. Let's get some pros on here along with you, Jason. We can dig into that. So if you would like an episode more about underwater photography, please let us know in the comments and we'll get it on the schedule to try and get to it this summer, maybe early this fall. But how about some final notes?
Jason Yeah, let's do it. Yesterday, I had coffee with a local friend. Actually, I call him a friend now because I just met him for the first time yesterday. But his name is Mike Canfield. And Mike is a local Minnesota guy here. He's a biologist by training. He's a teacher at a local school, just an all around good guy, really smart and articulate. And he has a podcast that I want to kind of bring to your attention if you're on the lookout for new and interesting podcasts. And his is called On the Dog Watch. Mike, you know, his background in science has kind of lent him this different sort of curiosity and perspective on a variety of subjects. He, in general, I would say he kind of overlaps with, with a lot of the themes that we talk about, but he's less focused on kind of watches and, and kind of a personal take on adventure and more a curiosity about other people, you know, building things of quality, what makes things of quality so appealing, um, you know, places to go, different sports, different activities. And, and he's done a number of interviews. I think he sets a good example for, for what makes a good podcast interview, because I've listened to a couple now and he's interviewed James Cox, who was the famous, uh, uh, owner and seller of, uh, Paul Newman's Rolex a few years back. Of course, he's interviewed some legendary motorsports personalities, uh, Spencer Klein, the, the, the well-known Seiko watchmaker, uh, someone from helm boots, uh, someone from a non-alcoholic beer brand. So he's. He really kind of explores a lot of different topics and, uh, and he's, the show is well produced. He's, he's a good conversationalist and, uh, and Mike's just an all around good guy. So I thought, uh, I thought I'd give him a little plug on the show here. If you're, if you're on the lookout for another podcast and also Mike contributed a couple of items for our, um, recent, uh, Ukraine support auction. Uh, so he was nice enough to do that and, uh, we appreciated that a lot. So yeah, give on the dog watch. podcast a listen and, uh, and subscribe to it if, uh, if you find it appealing.
James Very cool. That sounds great. Yeah. All sorts of great topics there. Yeah. I've actually been in the need for another podcast. So that's a, that came right, right on time. I, uh, I, a couple of times this week, I actually managed to like open up my app and not have something to listen to. Um, and I just, I think I'm a little bit too comedy forward for the last year. Oh yeah. Yeah. I think it helped during the pandemic, but now I want to hear a little bit more about these very topics and going outside and that kind of stuff. So this is great. Yeah. On the dog watch podcast, Michael Canfield, super a good tip. Um, mine every year, roughly speaking, I do this. I do one of these for final notes. Uh, top gear is back season 32 started this past Sunday. The first episode was incredible. Uh, super funny, uh, a road trip through Florida where they experienced a bunch of kind of Florida or USA specific sort of tangential types of racing. So it includes everything from like swamp buggy racing to, uh, you know, driving an RV around Miami to, uh, a donk drag racing. And then finally they end up at the freedom factory. So if you're a Cletus McFarland fan, they end up at one of his kind of well-known crown Victoria races. It's, it's a great episode. I remain an ardent top gear fan. I think that they, obviously they went through some growing pains when at one point they had like seven or eight hosts a couple of years ago after the original three. kind of bounced over to Amazon with the Grand Tour. I think they've really found a zone here with Chris and Freddie and Patty. It's funny. It's still car focused. They're still doing the big silly adventures, which is this one. And then they show a little trailer at the top of the season. And it has all the cars that you also want to see them do. So if you're, I guess, not in the UK, you should be able to watch this on BBC iPlayer, which works pretty well by my measure. And yeah, the first episode's already on there and I'm just thrilled to have it back. That and Formula One is keeping me well entertained when it comes to keeping up some car content on top of the great stuff we always talk about here, be it Henry or otherwise.
Jason Yeah, nice. Yeah, that's great. I haven't watched Top Gear in quite a while. Occasionally I catch a snippet through YouTube and I love their car reviews and Chris Harris is great and I'm glad he's still on the show. Yeah, good recommendation. We've got Top Gun and Top Gear this week.
James Top Gun, Top Gear, lot of diving, not on the top. Right. Topside though. Yeah. What a mess. All right. As always, thank you so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly and maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO. Please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is, of course, Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
Jason All right. And we leave you with this quote from Jules Verne, who said, On the surface of the ocean, men wage war and destroy each other. Just a few feet beneath the surface, there is a calm and peace, unmolested by man.