The Grey NATO - Ep 41 - Diving 101

Published on Tue, 22 Aug 2017 09:40:15 -0400

Synopsis

The podcast discusses getting started with scuba diving. The hosts cover topics like the costs involved, certification requirements, different instruction agencies, necessary gear for beginners, and advice for choosing a dive shop and instructor. They also touch on potential specialty courses one can take after getting open water certified, and emphasize that diving should be an enjoyable experience with proper guidance. Overall, it serves as an informative introduction for those interested in taking up the sport.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown Welcome to episode 41 of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. Thanks for listening. So before we get into kind of what's new for Jason and I, we have a little bit of show business. So first up, if you haven't noticed on our Instagram, the Michant Flieger giveaway is currently active, obviously depending on when you eventually get to this episode. But until episode 42, we will be running that giveaway. And so you have at most another two weeks to get in on it. The post is on the TGN Instagram. Follow both accounts and tag a friend in the comments. Go nuts. Awesome flashlight and a really generous giveaway from Michant. And Jason, we've also got another small announcement. You want to take care of that one?
Unknown Yeah, well, we had some good success with our supporter bundles. Thanks to everybody who signed up for that. And we'll be running that campaign again, maybe a bit later in the fall. But in the meantime, we wanted to mention that we're officially at the point with the Graynado that we are interested in finding advertising partners or a partner. Any brand that isn't a watch brand, that's one thing we were trying to kind of steer away from. If that's you and you'd like to chat with us, please send us an email at thegrenadoatgmail.com. Thanks a lot and get in touch.
Unknown Perfect. Okay. So moving on to quote unquote new business. What's new with you, Jason? What do you got going on? I know this is a pretty busy time. We're recording right before both you and I get on some flights, but your flights last a lot longer.
Unknown Yeah, I'm about to leave in a couple of days. In fact, by the time this episode airs, I will be on the ground in Sri Lanka. I know I've talked about this on past episodes. I'm going away for about three weeks. My in-laws live there and we try to go every couple of years to kind of have some face time with the in-laws. And then it's just, it's a great excuse to explore what's really a cool country. So yeah, it should be another great adventure. Every time I go, there's always something new that I see, you know, there's elephants and beaches and Buddhist ruins. nightlife and all sorts of stuff. And, uh, we'll, we'll see what we've got going on this time. We've got a couple of, um, sort of dive excursions planned. Um, one thing I talked about on, on a past episode is, uh, I have a plan kind of to, to dive this, uh, Holy Grail shipwreck that I've been kind of reading about and, and watching videos and studying for the past, you know, several years. It's the, the HMS Hermes, which was the, the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, which was sunk by the Japanese in World War II. And that's off the East coast of the country. So I'm, I'm signed up to, to go out with, uh, with, uh, a guy named Felician Fernando, who happens to be, he's kind of Mr. Hermes. He, he's been diving it since like the eighties or the nineties, and he's got hundreds of dives on this wreck. And, and so I feel pretty good about going out with him. Um, but it's a pretty deep wreck. So I'm, I'll be taking a tech diving course. Uh, in the days preceding that dive, and then it'll sort of culminate with, with the dive on the Hermes. So, you know, stay tuned, uh, Instagram and certainly I'll do kind of a download on, on a show in the future when I get back. But, uh, between now and then I've got 22 hours in an airplane, so downloading podcasts and a nice long audio book and I've got a couple of movies on my laptop. So yeah, before I get there, it's going to be kind of enduring some, some cramped seats and bad, bad food. First class of course. Oh, no way. Way too expensive. Yeah. So, yeah. What about you? You've got, you're, you're not only going away, but you've got some, uh, you've got some pretty big news.
Unknown Yeah. So, uh, my, in a couple of days I'm leaving for Pebble Beach, which we've spoke about for, so there's not really that much to add to. I guess my most recent big news is, uh, I'm now officially without a job. I, uh, I quit my day job a little while ago. It ended last week and I'm now professionally full-time freelancing. Something I've, I guess I've inadvertently or maybe intentionally, subconsciously been working towards for the better part of 10 years now. So I'm, uh, I'm pretty excited for the move and, and, uh, all that it kind of brings with it, uh, hopefully a little bit more freedom than I had previously. And, uh, theoretically a bit more time for some new projects and to expand, uh, the kind of scope of things like gray NATO and the stuff that I write about.
Unknown So. Yeah. Congratulations. Um, you know, it's, uh, I remember when I, when I went, uh, kind of quit my day job and went freelance a few years back. Uh, uh, we were at a friend's house for dinner and, and, uh, uh, our friend's spouse, uh, at the table, she said, no, Jason, you're, so you're retired now, huh? So just be prepared for people not to quite understand exactly what it is you do all day. But, uh, no, it's great. It'll be, I think there are big things in store and, uh, You know, we saw recently you had your first article up on Hodinkee, the C4th review, which was really cool.
Unknown Yeah, I enjoyed, we got a lot of love in the comments for Grenado and thank you very much. Everybody who read that and who commented, it means a lot. And I'm currently working on a piece for the Omega X-33 Regatta, which I spoke about on the last episode. And then just a couple of days ago, I took delivery of the Oris Chronoris, the new three-hander with the kind of 60 minute rotating internal bezel.
Unknown Oh, how are you liking that? Just to give a sneak preview. Are you enjoying it?
Unknown In short, I really like it. It feels like a, it feels so similar to appeal of like my Seiko World Timer. Oh yeah. Like it feels like an old watch. And this is not unlike what they did with the 65. Like I don't really know why I'm surprised because they've done this before. Where it is a brand new watch. So there's no patina, there's no dots on the crystal, there's no, or on the dial, there's no anything. It's a brand new watch. But it really feels like something old. And the way it catches the light feels old. It's a 39 millimeter cushion case with cutout lugs and two crowns. It wears really well on a NATO. It's great on a leather strap. And it kind of has that feeling of some of the older, obviously it's referential to an older Oris, but also kind of older Omegas. you know, the nice use of gray and black and white and orange. It's very legible. So far, I'm really liking it. I'm going to, I'm going to wear it a little bit more. And I learn a lot about watches when I take pictures of them. Oh yeah. And then I go to edit the pictures and then I'm like, oh man, I didn't notice this so much or that and that sort of thing. But that's in right now and it's on, I've been wearing it on a Grenado and really, really loving it. So that's been fun.
Unknown That's cool. I've got kind of a similar take on my end. I also had sort of one of these Neo Vintage pieces I've been wearing for the past couple of weeks and finished my review recently for the Rado Captain Cook. I think both of these watches, the Cronorus and the Captain Cook, were two sort of, I guess, surprise watches from Basel and two of my favorites. I just like the vibe of both of these watches. On my end, the Captain Cook, I was just smitten with it at Basel, as everybody knows, and of course everybody remembers, you know, your Captain Hook comment, which people seem to kind of hold on to.
Unknown Yeah, it's funny. I was so unbelievably tired when I said that. And every time I hear somebody, you know, I see it in a comment or somebody mentioned it to me that I called it Captain Hook. Not only is that a mistake I would make if I wasn't that tired, like that just seems like my sort of poor brain wiring would say Captain Hook when I meant Captain Cook. Yeah. But on top of that, of all the things that I could have gotten wrong, Uh, when I was that tired after doing those vlogs for so many days, I'm really happy that it was something still kind of, at least a little bit, it's certainly harmless, if not slightly charming to be Captain Hook instead of Captain Cook. So. Yeah. Yeah.
Unknown Could have been worse. Could have been worse. But it's a great watch. Um, you know, the elephant in the room with that watch, of course, is the size. It, uh, I, I kind of applauded Rado and I still do for, sticking with a slightly over 37 millimeter case size, which is actually bigger than the original was that it pays reference to the 1962 original. But, uh, I, you know, I've, I've been wearing it for quite a while and it's, I can pull it off and I'm, I've got pretty big wrists and, and so far, you know, I didn't, I didn't kind of start to wince after a while and think, eh, you know, this is too small. It's, it really does work. And I'm not quite sure why, because it has a, you know, a fairly wide concave bezel. Um, which is ceramic, by the way, but it's got this beautiful sort of gray tropical dome dial. But I don't want to say it wears bigger, it just wears well, I guess. It's just a fun little watch. And there's a non-limited edition version of it, too, that if people don't quite get in on the 1962 pieces that they're releasing initially, there's a kind of a version with a less fancy dial now that's the same size, that should have a lot of the same sort of attributes. And then, of course, they also have a 45 millimeter titanium one that's rated to 200 meters. So if you truly don't like 37 millimeters, you can bump up to that. But yeah, fun watch. For sure. I just, amidst all my, through the fog of last minute deadlines here before I take off, I just finished that up a couple days ago. So that should run at some point when I'm either in the air or on the other side of the world.
Unknown Well, I mean, looking at our notes, it looks like we each went to some sort of an event and we each got picked something based on either recommendations or based on a hunt that we were on. So let's start with events. You got to check out one of our heroes in person. I did.
Unknown Yeah. You know, back in, I guess it was June, I went out to the GoPro Mountain Games and got that really fun chance to chat with Jimmy Chin, who was there with Tudor and just Um, what was it last week, late last week? Uh, I, I found out about a local event here in Minneapolis, um, where Conrad anchor was speaking. So we've got the two, two of the three, uh, climbers, uh, that were in the film Meru, which is a movie we've talked about quite a bit. And Conrad is kind of, he was kind of the elder statesman of, of that movie, you know, the, the, the grizzled sort of veteran climber who had all the wisdom. And, um, so he was here speaking, he did kind of a slideshow. as a fundraiser for a local hiking trail association that's trying to rebuild a bridge on a trail up north. And it just totally blew me away. I just snapped up some tickets and my wife and I went and got some good seats. And Conrad just talked and it was just this totally, he called it Meru Ad Lib. And it was just kind of a slideshow about his climbing career and his childhood. And he talked about, you know, finding Mallory's body the allure of Everest and some of the work he's doing, um, training some of the Sherpas on sort of rudimentary sort of climbing technique and English language skills to kind of help them with vocational skills. Um, kind of, it was kind of crossed a lot of terrain in his talk and, um, it wasn't what anything I would call sort of polished, but it was, it was just what you would like from Conrad Anker. He's a very thoughtful kind of quiet guy who, who, had a lot of nuggets of wisdom and, uh, awesome. And so it was fun to hear him speak. And then, then afterwards, um, at the, uh, the outdoor shop where that was hosting this, he was signing, uh, posters, Meru posters. And I had this Tudor trucker cap that I had had Jimmy Chin sign the brim of. So he signed that for me. And then I, I knew that he had this, uh, this special Tudor Pelagos watch that, uh, Tudor made for, for him and for Jimmy and for Renan Ozturk, the third guy in Meru. And they did it when Meru debuted, when the movie came out, I think it was in 2015 or so. Tudor engraved the back of apelagos for each of them that had the outline of the Meru massif, you know, the mountain range that Meru sits in. And then the shark's fin, which was the specific route that they climbed, it was sort of shaded. And, So when I, when my turn came up to kind of go and chat with him, uh, you know, I immediately said, can I see the back of your watch? And he, cause I knew that he was wearing the Pelagos and he sort of looked at me very quizzically, like how in the world did you know that? You know, but, uh, I mentioned, you know, new Russell from Tudor and then he, uh, he pulled it off and showed it to me. So I put up kind of a bad picture on Instagram. It was bad lighting and I was kind of in a hurry, but, uh, it was, it was really cool. And, and, uh, Really, really fun to hear him speak. He's kind of one of my heroes, so good times. What a great opportunity. Yeah, yeah. And what about you? You had some fun times with the new Bremont retailer and went to the air show?
Unknown Yeah, so last week, officially, Bremont's finally available in Vancouver. So that's pretty great. Obviously, we're fans of Bremont and Bremont's watches. So not only did I get a chance to kind of revisit all the watches we saw in February, and spend some time with those. I also got to hang out with Mike Pearson, a Bremont Superman and TGN listener. So hi, Mike. Thanks for all your support, of course, and for hanging out in Vancouver for a couple of days. Glad that you could make it. And yeah, they did a little event at Rolldorf & Co. So Rolldorf & Co. we've had on the show quite a few episodes ago. Jason from Rolldorf was on with Merlin Svertner from Nomos. And I've actually become pretty tight with Jason. He's just an absolute A plus sort of guy, a deep watch nerd and a great resource. And he's, I'm hoping to have him on the show sometime in the next little while, certainly before the end of the year to answer all sorts of watch serviced questions, because he's a Woestep trained watchmaker and currently makes, you know, his living and his business, not only selling watches, but providing support for anything you can imagine. I've sat in that store and watched everything from Panerai to, you know, Nixon's with the crystal blown off or shattered or a hand fallen off or something like that too. You know, he's got Speak Marin in there and obviously Nomos and now Braymont. So it's a really nice shop and I really like the people kind of involved with it and I'm in no way paid for this opinion. It's just somebody I've gotten to be friendly with, you know, within the small kind of Vancouver watch scene. And yeah, he did a nice event with Mike and there was a bunch of watches on display. Mike brought out a handful of his limited edition pieces. So I got to see a DH-88 in person. I hadn't seen that before.
Unknown Oh, wow.
Unknown Which is really fun. And they had the local Red Bar guys out, which is awesome. Great group of guys we have in Vancouver here. So that was fun. And then to kind of put a button on it, I took, I went with my cousin and my daughter to the Abbotsford Air Show this weekend where Rohldorf had actually taken that Land Rover Defender, that's a TD5 Land Rover 90, and built like an army tent into the back that had air conditioning and like a Bremont display on the inside. So cool. And I mean, I would say most people, 90% of the people at the air show wouldn't have any idea what Bremont is, maybe even more like 95%. Yeah. But they'd see this truck in this tent and just walk right in. Like it was a magnet for people really like this truck and I can't blame them. I mean, it's awesome. Really cool. So went and checked that out and covered my kid's ears while the jets went by overhead. And I went to air shows as a kid. Yeah. Quite a few. And I flat out do not remember the feeling of the unrestricted pass, where the super Hornet or Hornet CF-18. goes by essentially as fast as they want to. Yeah. And at one point they did a pass at 50% of Spesos 1200 kph. Wow. Wow. But they did it bisecting the crowd. So they went right over our head and my daughter had an ice cream cone in her hand and I just got my hands over her ears in time. And I mean, it made my entire body stand on edge. Wow. I cannot imagine what it would be like to face one of those jets in the field, let alone when there's a group of them, a formation, a squadron, whatever, the noise is unbelievable. And when they're moving fast, you don't hear them until they're past you, which is really insane. And I know I remember that from a kid, but it's really fun because it's been many years since I was at an air show. And then we got to see the F-35, which was really awesome. That was louder than I possibly could have imagined. at takeoff was just brutal. Really, really cool plane. So that was a blast and a really fun way to bring Bremont to Western Canada. So if you're in Vancouver, Rolldorf is under the Bentall Center, right downtown. So if there's like a, there's the Joey's restaurant and you can actually just go down the escalator and you can check out everything from Autodromo to Speak Marin to Bremont to Nomos to Laco. A handful of nice watches. Such cool brands. Yeah, really nice people. And also if your watch is broken or you need something fixed or looked at or serviced, I've had them service a couple of my watches now and they've done a great job. They did a bang up job with my Seiko. And like I said, I'm hoping to have Jason on to chat about kind of watch service questions in the future. So if you have any of those questions, and I collected some, oh man, over a year ago, and I still have those. But if you have any questions for a watchmaker that you'd like answered, Then send them our way to thegreatnado.gmail.com and we'll get that set up for a show sometime in the future. I have the gear now to do a nice face-to-face interview with very little stress, so I think that would be a really fun one to do because Jason, you know, he's a dive instructor, bought a Land Rover and then drove it across Canada to launch a watch brand. Obviously, trained watchmaker, came out of the same year as Kari and Steven Forsey and Peterspeak Marin and all these, you know, Great brands he has a connection with way back. So I think that could be a really fun thing for the show to cover. Oh, very cool. Moving on, you have a resolution to the wallet hunt. I think people will be excited. We got a lot of emails and DMs and comments. I think people, where did you land?
Unknown I like the choice. Incredible. Yeah. I finally settled on one. I looked at a lot of different websites and someone even sent me a wallet that I mentioned on the last show. Um, which I tried and it wasn't quite for me. Um, what I ended up with was a recommendation from a listener named Zach Nash and Zach, thank you so much for this. Um, he had sent a link, uh, to, um, a website of a guy who sells wallets. Uh, the, the, the company is called Recycled Firefighter. And the specific wallet that I got is called the Captain. Um, kind of the origin of the name Recycled Firefighter is the guy who makes them, uh, makes most of his wallets out of recycled fire hose material. So it's that kind of heavy, I guess it's, I don't know if it's cotton canvas or, but it's a, it's a really heavy duty woven material. Um, and most of his are actually like front pocket wallets, but of course I wanted, I had very specific needs. Um, and the captain is just perfect. The interior is that recycled fire hose material. And then the outside is made of, uh, it's like combat boot leather, um, like us combat boot leather, um, in a color called coyote. So it's that sort of light. khaki tan color, which my only concern is if it's going to show dirt. But it's super durable, well-stitched, lots of storage inside. And it's kind of a bigger wallet in terms of kind of footprint. But because of that, everything inside sits very flat and it still fits nicely in the back pocket. So I'm about two weeks in on that and so far so good. I just love it. So, you know, for those of you that sent in Ideas, much appreciated. I did look at all the links and weighed everything in terms of, you know, my needs. And I settled on this one. And so, you know, I can fairly confidently say it's time to kind of close the book on wallet recommendations.
Unknown So that's great. Yeah. On my side, I actually, you know, had mentioned, opened some email floodgates by mentioning that I was looking into a new knife purchase. In that process, I got a ton of really great emails listing a ton of brands I'd never heard of, a handful that I had, and a bunch of kind of really interesting knives that weren't necessarily that kind of tactical knife that which I have in the Benchmade 556S. And while hunting, and obviously I have a preference or I like Benchmade so far, I found a new one on their site and also Sam from Kill Hubris sent me a link to the same knife, which is the Benchmade 319 Proper, which is their first, as far as I know, their first slip joint. So kind of a gentleman's folder. It's a little bit bigger. The blade is still 2.86 inches, but it's made in a nice S30V steel, has a sheep's foot blade style, really usable. So there's no opening it with one hand, there's no locks, there's no anything, it opens like a big Swiss Army knife. And then the handle, you have two options. There's a red, kind of a burgundy, maroonish sort of red G10. And then the one that I got, which is this green linen micarta, which kind of looks like... It just kind of looks like a military bag. Yeah. But it's very soft to the touch and apparently it'll absorb oils from your finger and change Depending on on your usage and I'm actually quite smitten. It's really thin. It's about as thick as my cell phone so even though it doesn't have a belt clip being more of a Grandpa sort of knife, even though it doesn't have a belt clip. It just kind of sits in a pocket and I haven't really noticed it yet and I'm so far, you know, I've only had it for for a few days, but I'm I'm really liking it There's still a handful of others that I'm looking at. This isn't really something that I think I would ever just be done with Yeah. You know, looking at knives, but if you're looking for a nicely priced, I mean, in Vancouver, I paid about 140 Canadian for it. So that would be put it in the neighborhood of a hundred, 115 US. And if you're looking for kind of a nicely priced, simple folder, but with high quality materials, so you get a nice, nice quality steel and a nice sort of, instead of wood, the micarta scales. I really like it. I dig it so far. So. That's one addition I'd let anyone know. And again, thanks everybody for sending in our knife recommendations. I had a real blast just kind of clicking through them and taking a look at what you guys were into. Knives are like watches, the variance is huge. You can go in any direction. Same with flashlights too. Flashlights, yeah, for certain, no doubt. And yeah, so do you have, have you got anything else there?
Unknown No, I mean, I think, uh, we had a lot of new business this week, but, uh, I think, I think that covers it. I, what do you say we kind of dive into the, uh, the main topic here?
Unknown Yeah, that works for me.
Unknown Yeah. So if you'll recall, uh, those of you that have been listening, uh, for, for quite a while back in episode nine, we covered a little bit about scuba diving and how James and I both got into it. Some, a little bit of gear talk, um, some watch talk, uh, et cetera. Um, we've, we've gotten, you know, some questions particularly from, from a listener named, uh, Leandro who goes by L N D R D Z on Instagram. Uh, who specifically asked us to, you know, maybe revisit the topic of diving, talk a little bit about if somebody wants to get into the sport, how they go about doing that. Um, you know, some of the requirements in terms of, uh, you know, fitness and skills and gear. Um, so, you know, certainly if, if you want more. diving talk than we're going to give you tonight. You can go back and listen to episode nine and we might have a little bit of overlap, but, uh, both of us get approached fairly often from people that know that we're passionate about diving and, and ask us, you know, how do you get into the sport? How, how do I get started? You've kind of, you've kind of lit a little bit of a flame here and I'm interested in pursuing it. Um, what, what steps do I take? So, you know, we thought we'd kind of back up a little bit and just sort of maybe give a little bit of an introduction to, to diving, you know, and how you would go about getting into it from our own experience. So.
Unknown Yeah. Diving 101. Diving 101. Yeah. So I think to start, probably the easiest place to start would be to give a baseline expectation for costs, because that might weed out some people who aren't even sure how, like what it's worth to them. Yeah. Before you get into the process of hunting for a shop, most likely lessons in your city and nearby will all be the same price. Yeah. So there may be a variance from one part of the country to another. Right. But most likely shops in your area will all be charging roughly the same amount amount of money for very similar courses, regardless of the certifying agency.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah. I did kind of a little search. I was chatting with a friend locally here who was asking about getting into diving. And I just looked at the shop where I did my certification several years ago. And I was actually quite surprised at how affordable it was or how affordable it is. Um, they're charging about $300 plus rental, plus any gear rental you need for kind of the basic open water course. Um, that's Patty open water, which is the kind of the biggest certifying agency, um, uh, internationally. Um, so, you know, about $300 plus gear rental. That is what you could expect to pay here in Minneapolis and whether or not that translates into Chicago or Florida or wherever else that, um, I would say that's probably roughly. Um, what you would expect to pay between three and $400 somewhere in the U S to, to get certified. What's it like up in your neck of the woods?
Unknown Uh, so I just double checked, uh, because you mentioned 300 plus rental. So, uh, where I got certified, which is called, uh, the diving locker in Vancouver. Yeah. They start at four 50, including your basic gear. Oh, okay. And that's CAD. Oh, sure. So it's not that it's certainly not more to learn in Vancouver. Yeah. And in this situation you are in a city, you know, that has ocean. Yeah. Um, which is, uh, not that important when you're near a lake in your case, right. Uh, and the great many lakes, but obviously there's some places I know lots of people who've learned in quarries and you might prefer the ability to, uh, to learn an ocean. Certainly if that's available to you. Uh, in my case, I paid more like 600 CAD back when I did it because I did it as a private certification with one other guy. Um, simply because the schedule was such that to do the continuous evenings, it was just kind of too arduous to fit in. So you pay a little bit more money and they essentially assign you an instructor. And then you work out when you can do the two, two or three nights of classes and two, two days of diving.
Unknown Huh. That's a nice option. I think learning in a group setting is, has its advantages, but I also really could see how a small setting, you know, one-on-one or, or in your case, two, you know, one to two, um, would be a really neat way to learn because it's, it is a sport that, you know, you want to learn at your own pace and And, uh, that kind of instructor to student relationship is just, it's so important.
Unknown Yeah. And I had a really patient instructor and I also had a bit of a problem learning to take my mask off. Oh, sure. And, uh, I take, sorry, taking it off is really not that difficult. Uh, once it's off, it's off, it's, uh, you know, for part of the certification, you have to have your mask off and breathe for a minute. Um, and you're fine to plug your nose. That's up to you, uh, depending on, on your preference. Um, I actually just found it very uncomfortable taking the mask off. Yeah. Uh, and then, but once you're putting it back on, it's fine. And, and, you know, with a, with a, I don't know, but maybe it was in a class setting where there were eight or nine other people. Um, maybe I wouldn't have gotten the same time to just retry that again and again until it became right. Non-problematic. Yeah. Um, I haven't done it in a big class and my guess is the big classes have all sorts of benefits. You'll meet people to dive with all that sort of stuff. So I think there's benefits to both sides.
Unknown Yeah. And I think it's, it's probably a good time to kind of mention that, that you and I both came up through the, the Patty system sort of instructional model. Um, Patty, as I mentioned, is kind of the biggest organization of, of instructors. I think it's called the, it stands for the professional association of diving instructors and they've been around for a long time, but there are plenty of other instruction agencies besides Patty. Um, and, and usually a dive shop or whoever's, um, doing these courses, offering these courses, will be affiliated with one or more of these agencies. So in addition to PADI, you have one called NAUI, N-A-U-I, S-S-I, S-D-I, there's G-U-E, then there's the British organization, B-S-A-C. So it's a bit of an alphabet soup. The takeaway from this is that most, if not all, of these agencies are instructing to a certain standard It's actually like an ISO standard for what it takes to be open water certified or the various levels of certification. And they're required to teach to those standards. So regardless of which school of instruction you go through, you're probably going to come out of it with the same or similar sets of skills. It's just kind of how you get there that's different. I got some good information from one of our listeners, a guy named Chris Scott, who's actually the Midwest representative for NAWI, kind of the other big agency here in the U.S. or actually in the world. And Chris goes by A Cultural Dispatch on Instagram, if you're interested in following him. I wrote to Chris just to kind of get a few tidbits of feedback from him on the differences between NAWI and PADI. And he mentioned the ISO standard to which everyone has to certify. He kind of stressed the fact that there's a difference in this idea of academic freedom between the agencies. And with PADI, the instructors are kind of taught to teach by the book. They have very specific methods by which they teach you the skills. Whereas with the NAOI program, they are kind of given more free reign to teach in their own style, as long as they get you to the same endpoint. James, you mentioned the difficulty with the mask clearing, the mask taking off exercise. And Chris even gave a specific example of how, you know, an instructor can kind of experience how the student is either struggling with it or doing well with it and tailor it for that student without having to go very specifically by the book. And that could be helpful in some people's situations. So certainly we're not going to endorse one or the other. You and I really both only know Patty. Yeah. That's kind of our experience, but it's just something to be aware of.
Unknown Yeah, for certain. And then the other side of it is there is a swimming skill that always kind of be, it's always kind of a persistent question that I'll get. And I think the same for you. And so for Patty, you're looking at a 200 meter swim with any stroke and 10 minutes of treading water. Yeah. None of that is especially difficult unless, like you've written on our notes, you absolutely cannot swim. or you have a significant issue that would cause kind of semi-prolonged respiration, an issue. This will be something like 10 minutes of treading water in a pool, your heart rate will go up, and certainly a 200-meter swim. Unless you're a swimmer, that's a long swim for just about anyone. You know, Jason, you swim way more than I do. I could complete a 200-meter swim. I wouldn't want to do it and then start again. Uh, I think 200 meters would be plenty for, for somebody like me to swim. And, uh, and yeah, I would say, you know, it's, uh, they're looking to establish the base ability for you to swim a distance. Yeah. And in a worst case scenario, keep yourself afloat. Um, and then what gear you have on while you do that will be up to your instructor.
Unknown Yeah. And I think, you know, kind of the intimidating parts of, of the dive instruction process are, are, And the ones that I and you probably get asked most about are, are the swimming requirement as well as, um, the stuff about like taking off a mask underwater and taking your regulator out of your mouth and things like that. And I think the point is with this stuff is, um, you know, diving is, it's a serious sport. Um, despite how it's often portrayed it, there is an element of risk and you're very reliant on your gear and kind of keeping a cool head. And I think this baseline of kind of comfort in the water, which I think is what the, the swimming and treading is aiming to prove. Um, it's just to, you know, they, they do it right up front before you do anything else in the course. Um, just to make sure that, you know, if, you know, if somebody panics or is unfit or, you know, can't stay afloat, you know, diving just might not be the sport for you or for, for that person. So it's nothing to be scared about. Um, but it's definitely something to, to be aware of. The thing about diving, especially when you're just getting into it, is it's such a, it's such a foreign experience when you first do it. I mean, even to just put a mask on and a regulator in your mouth and dip your head below the surface of the water. And I even remember doing it, taking that first breath. Me too. It's the most unnerving sort of foreign experience.
Unknown I was so sure it was going to be a mouthful of water. I was a hundred percent sure. I had zero faith.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown I was like, well, I can, I'm just kneeling. The water's like two inches above my head. I'm going to take a big pull out of this regulator. I'm going to half drown and just stand up. And then about 10 seconds later, you're having so much fun.
Unknown Yeah. I think everybody probably goes through this stuff. And, uh, and once you do, it's, uh, the whole course should be pretty fun.
Unknown Yes. Nothing, none of it should be especially stressful. And if you find that there's, there's an element of either the coursework as there is some in-class work where they teach you the science behind diving and then caring for your gear and dealing with other divers and the general environment of diving. And then you deal with, yeah, some pool sessions and some open water sessions. None of this should be especially stressful. There's parts of it that may cause a stress reaction in you the first time, but by the second or the third time, it should feel natural and fun. And generally that's what I've seen from any time that I've paid money to have somebody teach me something about diving is they're in it because they really like diving. And typically that comes across as establishing and protecting like a fun environment where these are the base rules. We're not going to mess with these rules, but the rest, you know, you can have fun with. And it's certainly meant to be an enjoyable experience, not a scary one. It's not a scary thing to go through. This is why they allow, you know, teenagers to be certified.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown And, uh, and yeah, it's, uh, I, I highly recommend it for anyone who's even loosely interested because you can also, if you don't want to go the route, you know, we're talking about essentially signing up for open water, but outside of the expectations of what we've just explained, you can do, um, a discovery dive. And, uh, Jason, I believe you've done that before. I went directly to open water.
Unknown Yeah. So, you know, interesting stories. I was, uh, on vacation in Mexico and, um, and the, the hotel where we were staying was offering, uh, discover scuba courses in the pool, actually not in the pool, but they were sitting around the pool, signing people up for this stuff. And, and I always had this kind of intrigue about diving and I'd just gotten my new dive watch and I thought, you know, I really should give this a shot and, and I did it. And so it was, you know, I don't know, two, three hours of basic skills in the pool. Um, sign my life away, get on a boat, go out and do, you know, very shallow open water dive in like 30 or 40 feet of water. And this was across from Playa del Carmen. It was in Cozumel. Um, and it was spectacular. I mean, I absolutely loved it. The hook was set. I knew I wanted to become a diver and then the rest is history, but there are people that do have reservations about Discover Scuba. And I can entirely understand that because, you know, you're taking people into a potentially dangerous situation where if somebody isn't entirely comfortable and there's a panic situation, um, you know, things can happen. But I think if it goes well, it's a small enough group and you have faith in, in kind of the organization or the people offering it, it can be a really nice way to, to gain an experience in diving and just to see if it's a sport for you before you drop a bunch of money and buy gear and kind of go that route. Because, uh, you know, it's, it's just, it's one of those sports where, You know, I often hear people say, Oh, you know, I'm a little bit claustrophobic or I have trouble with my sinuses. I mean, both of those things can be utter deal breakers with, with diving, especially this claustrophobia thing, which isn't something I experienced, but, um, you never know if you. Back roll off of a boat on your discover dive and you go down 10 feet and you realize this is just not for me. There's, you know, there's, there's a good chance you, you won't get over that. Um, so it's, it's kind of a nice way to, to dip your toe into it, so to speak.
Unknown Yeah, and I know it's offered by the other agencies as well. So I, you know, this is just one of those things. This is what I always say whenever people ask me, you know, they write into the Grenado about diving or they write in about getting a wash service or they write in about really anything. It's just go to the person that's selling whatever it is and ask all your questions. Yeah. And if you're still like reaching for your wallet when they've answered all your questions, then give it a try. Yeah. If, if with every answer you feel somewhat more reserved about the idea, Yeah. And don't bother, go watch, uh, go watch, you know, Chasing Coral or something like that. And, uh, and, and, and count that as your dive for the week and maybe address it the next time you're on vacation or something like that. But, uh, yeah, I think there's a, there's so many different inroads to diving, uh, and you can go directly to open water. Like I did, you know, I was near an ocean and all I really wanted or needed was the general commitment of a dive buddy. So I had someone to dive with moving forward. And my cousin in Vancouver was also interested in diving. He found out I was interested and then the ball was rolling very quickly. I was, I was certified weeks later, uh, and, and, and an absolute blast. It was a great experience.
Unknown You know, another question that comes up is, you know, what does it take? What's the time commitment? Um, I know with Patty, when, when I did it, um, you know, 10, 11 years ago, it was like, you know, so they give you a fairly thick textbook to read through. Then you go to classroom sessions in the evenings. Um, I It doesn't have to be in the evenings, but you know, maybe two or three classroom sessions and then you start doing pool work. And so it's kind of, you can almost do it in like a week or less, um, you know, four or five days maybe where you're doing, uh, book learning some, some written tests and, and sort of discussion. And then you get in the pool and learn the skills. And that's kind of the first, I'd say two thirds of, of the learning process. The final bit of course, is where you actually go into open water. You do start doing boat dives or shore dives, whatever the case may be. And, and one thing that there are kind of two routes you can go, you can either do that classroom and book stuff locally, wherever you live. Um, and then the dive shop or whoever you're taking the course from can give you a referral document that says you did all this stuff. And when you take your next vacation, if you have something in Mexico or wherever you're going, You can present that to a dive shop there that is with the same agency and they will then walk you through those four open water dives. I think it's four, um, that you have to do to, to get your, uh, your certification. So you can either do that or you can do it all locally. In which case, you know, as James mentioned earlier, you're going to be diving in, uh, you know, murky lakes or quarries, or, you know, like in your case, uh, you had the ocean, uh, down the street, um, white cliff park. Yeah. Yeah. So kind of two routes. I know Patty's offering and maybe now he does too, the e-learning, so it makes it even easier. So you don't have to use that big thick book. You can actually do it, step, step through these courses online and take the quizzes online and that sort of stuff. So that's kind of cool too.
Unknown I think we can probably buzz through a lot of the common questions fairly quickly now that we've established the relative level of expectation. I think that covers a lot of what people ask, like what we've already chatted about.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown But if you're still interested, you'll want to know how to pick a shop, which should be really easy. Uh, not unlike picking a mechanic, uh, look for some reviews online. Or go into every shop and just start asking questions. And with a dive shop, you know, you can ask them to walk you through what to expect for your open water course. You can ask them about various types of gear. You can pretty much get all your questions out from these professionals. And then, uh, you know, if, if you have any doubts or if you just want to be very thorough, you can certainly ask about past dive accidents that they've had. If they've had any in training, if that's the sort of thing that you want to have kind of an idea of, it's exceedingly rare. Um, simply, especially, you know, uh, within these certification groups, they go out of their way to make these training scenarios essentially as safe as possible, but also as fool safe as possible so that you can get through them. If you're enjoying diving, you will get through these courses. The people that don't typically get through, uh, their open water cert, they don't like diving. So they're either trying to do something that they really don't like doing maybe because a spouse is doing it or it's a significant other or a family member. Right. Something like that. And as long as that's not you, if you're in this, because you like diving, I don't think you'd have much trouble in any city that offers diving. And I mean, if it's available in the Midwest, it should be available, you know, most places. I know people who've gotten certified in Arizona and in Kansas, all sorts of places where, you know, if there's a body of water, they can certify you and then you can be ready for your next trip or you can make a big trip and go diving. And I think, uh, the big thing is always ask all your questions. And if you're not happy with the answers, then go ask the same questions elsewhere and see if they all line up. Yeah. 99 times out of a hundred, they should all be giving you the same answer. You know, maybe the price will vary a little bit and one store will carry different brands than another store. So you'll get some differences there, but as far as the coursework and how they take people out and how big the classes are, all of that should be relatively standardized and an easy, easy, easy questions for them to answer. So that would be your kind of your inroad to picking a shop. And I guess gear is probably a pretty popular question.
Unknown Yeah. You know, for starters, you know, when you take that first course, pretty much all they, they require of you is to, is to purchase a mask, a set of fins and a snorkel. Any other gear, you're certainly welcome to buy the full kit if you're going to go all in and you know that ahead of time. But that basic, they call it sort of your personal gear. mask, fins, and snorkel are kind of the bare minimum because it's very personal gear. The snorkel, you want, you know, it's going in your mouth for one thing and it's something you have for a long time. A mask is, it's all about fit on your face. So it's really nice to have a good, well-fitting mask right from the start. And then, and then fins and then, you know, everything else you can rent and pick up kind of as you go.
Unknown And with, I assume of those, I mean, there's obviously lots of different styles of fins, you know, I would pick a basic fin to start out, unless you have a specific environmental need for something different. Like the certain type of diving you might do around your house. Like I wear kind of very large split fins because I have typically do, well, I only do shore diving around Vancouver. So you have these big surface swims. Yeah. Yeah. But outside of that, when you go into a store, you'll see there's a, and if you certainly, if you're also cross-checking the prices online, you'll see there's a huge variance in the cost of masks. I wouldn't as a learner necessarily go kind of buck wild by buying a really expensive mask, because in the long run, you will want a second mask anyways, you have a backup for if it breaks or if it you know, whatever. And, and so I would say a standard doesn't have to be some, you know, bargain bin special, but a normal mask from the shop, it doesn't have to be this amazing, several hundred dollar atomic with special lenses and all that kind of thing. Yeah. It can be, uh, you know, I dove for many years with a Cressy until this, you know, it was maybe $40 I paid online for my mask. And then this little tiny piece of plastic came off and I lost it and now they don't seal.
Unknown So. Yeah. I mean, and a lot of times with this, uh, this initial gear that you end up with, um, it, I think it's, it's good advice to not, you know, break the bank on this stuff because what happens is as you progress in your diving, as you continue to dive after learning, you, you kind of learn what you like and what you don't like. Um, I actually still use the same mask I got certified in, which is amazing. Um, although I do have a second and actually like a third mask, but, but the fins that I started out with, I think I got to dive number like three and I was getting such horrible leg cramps and a friend of mine handed me a set of fins and said, you know, take these, you'll never get cramps. And so I started using them and, and have used them ever since. So, you know, you kind of dial in what, what, what's good for you. Um, You know, without getting into too much kind of technical detail, the same goes for like a buoyancy compensator. Um, typically when you start out, it's sort of this jacket style. Um, and as you get sort of fine tuned and a little more comfortable with your buoyancy, you can move to more of a back inflate style. Um, you know, of course, dive computers are a whole sort of rabbit hole. You can go down. Um, James and I actually both are kind of Sunto, uh, devotees. Uh, it's a, you know, brand well known to people from, uh, Sort of the outdoor watches. They also make some great dive computers. So, um, you know, start small, um, be patient, get, get a lot of advice, you know, same, same tips that James gave earlier about picking a shop would go for, for, for picking gear, read lots of reviews. Um, if you like gear diving is, is one of those sports where, uh, you'll just have a whole, whole lot of fun.
Unknown Yeah. It's endless. The gear thing is endless and I would not, yeah, I would not recommend anyone go crazy. From the start, there'll always be the gear there. A lot of the gear doesn't change that often. Yeah. You know, there's always something new every year. They have a sales cycle to meet, but for the most part, the gear is the gear and you'll, you'll dive with people when, if you dive long enough that are diving on ancient gear and will dive much better than you. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's, it's, the gear is there to support the dive skills and the better your skills, the better the perceived performance of the gear, but it's really the diver. Right. Um, obviously you have to, care for the gear, which is something very specific to the gear. Masks, snorkel fins don't require that much and BCs require minimal maintenance, very minimal maintenance. Things like regulators require very specific maintenance, but at a pretty long interval, given the importance of what they do. So I think all in all diving is definitely a gear happy sport, but I don't think you have to go gear nuts from day one. Yeah. You know, get into it, maybe get, uh, get your first 10 dives in and then start looking into, uh, expanding your kit, um, into, you know, preferably things that make you more comfortable. So if you can get a better fitting wetsuit than what you're maybe boring from your shop or the same with a dry suit, then maybe that's a good place to go. You'll be more comfortable. Um, if you can get something with integrated weight, if you find that more comfortable than having on your hips, like that can be helpful too. Um, a lot of, uh, diving is about dialing in these tiny changes in your gear. Um, so if you're, when I dive constantly enough around Vancouver, you start to make these tiny changes to where the gear, where the weight is and how much you're carrying and how you do this or that. And then you go dive somewhere else with a different exposure suit and you kind of start all over again.
Unknown Right. You know, kind of to, to maybe put a bookend on this, um, you know, to kind of briefly touch on the, uh, uh, sort of the, the courses that you can take. I mean, diving is one of those things where once you get into it, you can, you know, the possibilities are endless. There's. diving under ice, there's wreck diving, there's tropical diving, there's underwater photography. Um, and, and the joke goes that with, uh, with Patty, the other acronym or the other thing it stands for is put another dollar in because they, um, of course they offer this endless number of courses that you can take and get little cards for. Um, and certainly not to poo poo that, I mean, I've done, you know, ice diving and I've got my rescue diver certification and, you know, sort of got a small collection of these cards myself, but, um, you know, The possibilities are fairly endless depending on what your interests are and to what degree of training you'd like to take things. And all the agencies are like that, whether it's NAOI or SDI or anything like that, you can just keep going and going.
Unknown Well, yeah, all of them will have a fairly straightforward intro course, then an advanced course, and then with PADI, like Jason said, you can move into rescue. And then from rescue, you work into fairly specialized routes, either towards very high degree of proficiency with specialization from just a layman's perspective or into a professional route, like an instructor. Not unlike the gear thing, there's always another specialization. And they actually launch new courses with not a high degree of frequency, but they come up and go as kind of diving changes over time.
Unknown Yeah, they've introduced free diving. There's a solo diver, so there's all sorts of routes you can go.
Unknown Cool. Well, I think that's probably a good place to leave it for now. I'm sure this is something that we can address again. Leandro, I hope that kind of covers what you were looking for from an introduction to diving perspective. I hope we had a, you know, reasonably touched on all the bases there, and obviously if you have any feedback or anything you'd like to add, any questions, thegrenadoatgmail.com, we will get to all of those ASAP, and until then I think it'll be good to hit final notes and put a bow on the show.
Unknown Yeah, good idea. I've got kind of my first one, I'll jump in. It was an article that came out in Men's Journal on their website, possibly in the magazine, I'm not sure, but It was called The Last Voyage of El Faro. And if you'll remember, I think it was either last year or the year before, there was a cargo ship that sank kind of near the Bahamas in a hurricane. I think it was Hurricane Joaquin. And it was a really rare occurrence and it made the news because big ships just don't sink anymore. They don't just disappear. And there was all sorts of speculation about, you know, crew negligence and, you know, the weather, et cetera. Well, um, I hadn't realized that, that these, these big ocean going cargo ships actually have black boxes like, uh, aircraft, commercial aircraft too. I didn't know this either. I don't quite think it's as, um, as all inclusive as a black box on an airplane kind of dealing with all the different systems, but, uh, at least it, it records what's going on in the pilot house, uh, what's being said. And to a certain degree, I think, you know, the direction the ship is taking and that sort of thing. And, um, The NTSB who investigated this shipwreck, this disappearance of El Faro, managed to find the black box and it's in three miles deep of water in the Atlantic. And they brought up the black box and pulled off the voice recorder and released the transcripts of kind of the last day of sailing for El Faro, the ship. And this article kind of walks through that last time period before the ship sank, right up to the moment when it capsized, essentially. You know, and at the risk of, you know, kind of going to the car racing because you want to see the crash or, or, you know, having some sort of morbid curiosity. It really proved to be a really fascinating read to kind of, you know, see how this all transpired and why this ship sailed directly into a hundred mile per hour wind, you know, force to hurricane when they should have turned around or gone a different route. And what, what kind of comes across when you read this is it's, it's almost like reading a well written play, like, you know, Shakespeare or something, because you're seeing these different characters come and go in and out of the pilot house and this level of concern and sort of hubris and you know, various things that are sort of coming into play here with the different, you know, characters, the captain, the first mate, the helmsman. And ultimately, of course, it ends up in great tragedy. But I just found it really interesting read, fairly somber, but quite well put together. So we'll put a link in the show notes. It's called The Last Voyage of El Faro.
Unknown Yeah, I only got partway into it, but it is a fascinating story. And I really like how they've divided it up by the timeline. Yeah. Which is a clever way of presenting what is likely a lot of data in that recorder. Yeah. Definitely something I'll finish on, on the plane in the next couple of days should be, should be a good read. Yeah. And my first, I have just two today, both articles. The first is about a book. It's an article about a book. It's called the edge of the world, a new book from outside. So this is from Our favorite outside online.com. It's to commemorate their 40th anniversary. They've packaged more than 140 of their best adventure photos from the history of the magazine. And it's actually the, the article gives you a little backstory to a couple of the editor's favorite photos and then presents the book. And the book is on sale through Amazon somewhere between 16 and $20, depending on the version you purchase. I I'm definitely going to buy a copy. I think it looks fantastic. You know, they have a couple. great images in the blurb leading up to the actual piece. But I just love that, you know, Outside has obviously been a presence in that space now for 40 years. And some amazing photography has come out of the work that they've done and has been inspired by the work that they've done. And I think that it's cool to kind of wrap that all into one book. And it's certainly the type of $20 purchase that's pretty hard to argue with. So that would be my first for the week.
Unknown Cool. Yeah. I think I'll pick that up as well. That's great. Um, I have kind of a quirky, uh, one that was submitted to me by a listener named John Edwards. Uh, John, thanks a lot for sending this over. Um, this is a, it's called Twix time and it's an iPhone app. Um, I don't think it's available for Android at this point. Um, John had been listening to our EDC episode, uh, last time around and, and heard that I had an iPhone and he pinged me on Instagram and asked if I was keen to try this iPhone app called Twixtime. And it's really cool. It's a way of telling your watch's accuracy using your iPhone. Now, a few years ago, if you remember, there was a somewhat expensive app that Hodinkee had publicized. It was called Kello, and it used your phone's microphone. You'd put a headphone jack or put a headphone in the jack and lay the watch on the microphone and it would detect the frequency of your watch and tell if it was running fast or slow. Twixtime is both lower tech and to a certain degree higher tech than that because what it does is it actually just uses the phone's camera and you take a snapshot of the dial of your watch and then it blows it up really big immediately and has you overlay different colored lines for the hour hand, the minute hand, the seconds hand, and then identify where 12 o'clock is on the dial. And it uses all of these vectors and compares that data with the very accurate satellite derived timestamp that you get on a, on an iPhone. And then it will compare that to the same snapshot or another snapshot that you take at least 24 hours later. And it will tell down to the 100th of a second, how accurate your watch is running. kind of cool. I tried it with a couple of watches. Um, you know, I've only had it for a couple of days and it's so easy to use. The only frustrating thing is you have to wait 24 hours to kind of take another photo and, and wait for the results. But, uh, it's, uh, it's just neat. It's a, it's kind of, uh, you know, really smart thinking and, uh, it's just kind of fun. And like I said, it, it feels very low tech the way you're doing it, but it's also, you know, using the, a lot of the great features of the phone. So check it out, Twixtime. It's from a company called Coldflower, and we'll put a link in the show notes and you can find it in the app store for the iPhone.
Unknown Yeah, I remember playing with Twixt back when it first came out, which I think was actually several years ago, maybe not in its current iteration. But I remember playing with the interface and yeah, you kind of establish all of these hard points on the watch. Yeah. And it's clever and it's easy to use and it's kind of interactive. Yeah, yeah. Um, I thought it was a really cool idea. And, uh, and then I think shortly thereafter I moved to, uh, Android and I haven't played with it since. Uh, for all I know it could be available on Android. I don't recall that it is, uh, like you said, it might just be an iPhone thing. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, really, really neat idea if you have the iPhone and unlike, uh, you know, Kello, I've, I've read really mixed reports on using the little microphone in your headphone line. Very frustrating. Yeah. to establish that. And it can be about like a position thing and it's not sensitive enough and there's too much background noise. So, I mean, this kind of removes that by simply looking at at least, you know, two references in time with timestamps. It's a clever way of going about it. And it's a fun kind of nerdy thing to do with your collection if you've got the time and an iPhone.
Unknown Yeah, it's more, it's like a step above, you know, You set your watch to your computer time and then 24 hours, you just kind of visually check it. This just kind of takes it to, to the next step. So cool.
Unknown For all those guys with the spreadsheets, this is a, this will save you a little bit of time of entering the spreadsheet. Exactly. Or, or, I mean, those guys eventually buy timing machines, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. And my second and final is a really, really fantastic article that I found and had saved in pocket. And then a listener, Jason wrote in. Just to say how much he loved the article. So that gave me another impetus to go back and read it. Thank you very much, Jason. And, uh, this is called, uh, what made the McLaren F1 the world's greatest car. Uh, so it's written by a fantastic auto writer, uh, Sam Smith with pictures from Richard Pardon and it's on road and track. Uh, so it's the complete oral history of the McLaren F1, which is turning 25 years old this year. And I remember when the McLaren came out, I remember I can still see the cover of the magazine that a friend of my family had gotten for me. They knew I was into cars. And this is an absolute A plus article if you're into cars or even just the F1. All sorts of snippets from interviews with everybody from Jay Leno, who's of course a noted owner, to Composites technicians from the actual, you know, program that created the F1. Various other owners, writers, it's all really good. And Jason had shared a snippet from the article, which I'll share now, which is a senior technician from McLaren reported they had a German customer, a businessman. He lived in Cologne, commuted in the car every day. And he said, Oh, I have a problem. It's a warning light on the dash. And I've looked in the manual and I can't find anything. Can you send somebody out to see what it is? And so McLaren, you know, flies a guy to Cologne and, uh, it turns out that, uh, the light came on when the engine cover lifted ever so slightly in the wind. And it was a warning light for the engine cover not being fully seated. Um, but the only time the car ever did this was at 185 to 190 miles per hour. Oh, wow. And the guy reported, yeah, it does it every day on the way to work and it does it every day on the way back. So that's the type of businessman in Germany who's buying an F1. And I mean, it's just a marvelous thing. I would say, even if you're not into cars, even if you're just into design or engineering, there's never been anything like the F1. This is the SR71 of cars, in my opinion. And although there are more advanced things now, they don't offer the same experience and the same allure. as the F1. So please swing by the show notes or by road and track and check this out. The photography is fantastic. And Sam Smith is a really great writer, and he compiled a really fantastic list of, you know, various people's opinions and experiences with the car. So everything from fixing the car to driving the car to the ownership experience. And it's a really nice long read, and it's entirely worth your time. 100%. Nice.
Unknown I'll have to check that out. I remember when the F1 was kind of, you know, all front and center and the most fascinating part of it was the fact that it had three seats. Yeah, for sure. It was like, always fascinated me.
Unknown Driver in the center. Yeah, right. Wild. Yeah. Someday I hope just to get a ride in one. It would be an absolute achievement. Well, you should make that your goal when you go to Pebble Beach. A couple of years ago when I was at Pebble Beach, I saw one actually just parked in a field at the Quail. Oh, wow. Fantastic. So what do you figure? That's a good enough place to end it? I think it was a good show. Yeah, let's let's call it quits. All right. Well, as always, thank you so much for listening. You can hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and you should follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe or review wherever you find your podcast or you can actually grab the feed directly from our website, TheGraynado.com. Music throughout a siesta by Jazzer via the Free Music Archive.
Unknown And until next time we leave you with this quote from Albert Camus, which comes courtesy of Conrad Anker. Whether or not one can live with one's passions, whether or not one can accept their law, which is to burn the heart they simultaneously exalt. That is the whole question.