Speaking Sidemount Steve Davis - Sidemount Diver & Instructor

Awesome to bring you Episode #95 Steve Martin and Vas Proud - "Educating Sidemount Part 1" with the support of our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their ongoing support of this podcast.
I've spoken many times on this show about how I got started in sidemount. Steve Bogaerts' Ponderosa skills video was the trigger but quickly after that, I found Steve Martin's website. He was the first to promote the benefits of sidemount diving to a global audience. His content, images and video were incredibly compelling and form the basis of much that you will read to this day about sidemount diving.
While I didn’t get the opportunity to complete a course with Steve, it was his recommendations and testimonials that led me to Tom Steiner and Gozo Technical Diving in Malta. I subsequently, had the good fortune to meet and dive with Steve while I was working and training with Tom.
Just a year or so later Steve released his first online video training series. In my opinion, it was a watershed moment in sidemount. From the beginning I was taken with the level of detail in each of the video modules describing everything from setting up your harness, regulators and cylinders to putting it in the water with details on how to weight check properly, diver trim checks and fixes, propulsion training, base sidemount skills, and emergency drills.
Over the subsequent years, Steve partnered with his former student Vas Proud to enhance and grow the online video training to the point today where it includes hundreds of hours of content including Intro to Sidemount, Sidemount Essentials, Sidemount Instructor modules, and a whiteboard series covering a huge array of tech diving content plus soon a cave diving series.
I have used the videos to improve my sidemount diving and as a basis for my courses and instruction. It is in my opinion an essential part of any sidemount divers toolkit.
Now in this episode which is part 1 of a two-episode discussion with Steve and Vas, we go into their backgrounds, how the video series came about, the thinking behind it and the benefits it provides, how the online video training compares and should be used alongside instructor-led training and we catch up and have a few laughs along the way.
As I've described, I'm an absolute advocate of the sidemounting.com online video training. I honestly believe it will help any sidemount diver or instructor to improve their diving and as such, I have negotiated a special offer for all listeners of Speaking Sidemount – you can get a 15% discount on any of the training materials if you contact me directly for an exclusive promotional code.
This offer is only available via Speaking Sidemount by contacting me personally via DM or email at steve@sidemountpros.com. Full disclosure, along with your discount, Speaking Sidemount will also benefit financially from every purchase generated which will contribute to the ongoing production of this podcast. I sincerely appreciate your support.
 Enjoy Cheers
Steve

Hey, great to bring you Episode 94 Florian Symoens - "Transitioning to a Full Time Instructor" with the support of our show sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support which helps to make this show possible.
Well, there must be something in the water in Belgium. For such a small country, located in northern Europe… there seem to be so many divers from there doing great things. To date I've interviewed David DeBruyne 48, Laurent Miroult 63, Sanne Volja 74, and Ellen Cuylaerts 91… and for some time now I've been following the exploits of Florian Symoens.
Florian is an ISE Tech and Cave instructor who for many years juggled his diving passion with his hospitality business. Surprisingly during COVID while his "nightlife business" was in lockdown, Florian's diving activities boomed with more courses and the time to explore the mines in Belgium with Sanne.
As the world opened up so did the possibility that Florian could transition from his nightlife business to becoming a full-time Technical Diving instructor. As Florian and I discuss, there are so many of us who juggle our careers and diving so it was outstanding to hear his story and his plans for the future.
In this episode, Florian and I discuss his diving background, the Inner Space Explorers or ISE Agency, and ISE's take on sidemount diving. We get into how Florian became a cave instructor and given that much of the diving in Belgium is mines, we contrast cave, wreck and mine diving, covering the similarities and the differences we need to be aware of.
Florian takes us through the sale of his business and his progression to a full-time Tech instructor. We talk mine exploration in Belgium and then the tools required including the KISS Sidewinder rebreather on which Florian is now an instructor.
Florian has experience on a bunch of rebreathers so we compare and contrast a few, in particular, the Dive Soft Liberty before we share our excitement on the upcoming release of the second generation KISS Sidewinder or Sidewinder 2.0
We close on Florian's plans for this year and beyond.
Enjoy :)
Steve

Hey, I hope you are having a great start to the year :)!! It's great to bring you Episode #93 Tamara Adame - "The Path to Cave Instructor". Thanks again for your support.
Huge thanks also to XDEEP for sponsoring the show. Their support has been instrumental in the success of this podcast and it is sincerely appreciated.
One of the pinnacles in the application of sidemount diving is of course cave diving and cave exploration. It's an addictive pastime to research and then ultimately physically search for and then investigate flooded holes in the ground in an attempt to find that euphoric "never seen before… virgin cave passage.
Many cave explorers either started their journeys as sidemount and cave instructors or found their way to this profession as a way to pay for their passion. For the vast majority, it's a match made in heaven where they get to earn a living sharing and teaching about how to dive caves and then applying their skills to their exploration. Teaching is also the perfect way to keep their cave diving skills current and built into muscle memory.
The path to becoming a cave instructor is long. There's joining courses with other instructors, observing their teaching styles and content, having your skills reviewed and critiqued, then when you are ready… assisting on courses, being evaluated and then eventually qualifying as a Cavern instructor, teaching, building experience and then repeating this process twice more to reach the coveted level of Full Cave instructor. I'm using the TDI agency levels here but they map easily to the levels of other agencies… long story short… it's a journey full of pressure, failures, learning, and ultimately I am sure one of satisfaction when achieving a pinnacle level in the dive profession.
In this episode, Tamara Adame joins me to share her journey along this path to cave instructor under the mentorship of Patrick Widmann of ProTec Playa. I had the good fortune to meet and hang with Tamara a bit while I was at ProTec training with Patrick. She's an amazing person, a great diver, and has a real passion for caves and diving.
Tamara talks about growing up around the ocean in Mexico and how this shaped her love of everything aquatic. She shares on her time in Belgium building her career before she found herself back in Mexico and ultimately falling in love with caves and cave diving. She shares on how she met Patrick and how he guided her on her path to becoming a cave instructor. Tamara goes into how she came to work at Protec and the standards-driven focus of the team there.
We discuss the challenges, failures and ultimately achieving the standards required in cave instructor training and where Tamara is taking her diving including her scientific diving work and the search for "Tamara's Cave".
Enjoy :)!!
Steve

Great to bring you Episode #92 Pepe Tiburon: "Tren Maya - A Disaster in the Making". Big thanks to all of you and also to our brilliant sponsor XDEEP. Your support makes this podcast possible.
Many of you will be aware of the environmental issues and development pressures experienced on the Yucatan peninsula in the area spanning from Cancun to Tulum. This area encompasses the largest cave systems in the world, many of which are also of huge archaeological and environmental significance, playing home to rare species of flora and fauna, Mayan artefacts, and geological features dating back millions of years. On top of that, the caves are aquifers that carry the water supply for all life in the region.
Development pressures and the lack of adequate development controls have already damaged the region recently the Mexican Government's plan to build a train loop from Cancun to Tulum directly through the pristine jungle and above the precious caves of the region has caused huge concern and opposition. Known as Tren Maya, the train was originally planned to run along the highway meaning its impact would be manageable however, following opposition from the hotel industry, the Government decided to move the train 7km inland through the jungle and yes directly over some of the best-flooded caves on the planet. All cave divers should be concerned about this but more than that, the loss of jungle habitat, endangered species, and the ongoing and increasing damage to the water supply should worry us all.
I have covered this topic in other episodes notably EP #36 Somos Los Cenotes with Phillip Lehmann, Natalie and Vince of Under the Jungle and also with Alessandra Figari #77 and Robbie Schmittner #85 but when Stratis Kas provided an introduction to Jose Urbina Bravo or Pepe Tiburon as he is known I took the opportunity to meet and find out more.
In this episode, Pepe takes us through the background and history of Tren Maya and then describes the issues and terrible outcomes likely if this project is allowed to continue. He speaks not only of the damage caused by the Tren Maya project itself but also of the "Cancer" that will result in terms of additional development surrounding the train and environmental damage in these last remaining pristine jungle regions of Mexico.
Pepe updates us on his progress including winning a legal injunction to stop the project before this was overridden by the Government. He talks of the ongoing battle to oppose the project and his recent trip to Mexico City to meet with the Government face-to-face. But Pepe also provides balance to the discussions with ways in which development might occur in the region where technology and modern techniques might both reverse current issues and allow for responsible development in the future.
Lastly Pepe shares with us ways in which all of us who love this region and care about the environment might assist and support the fight to oppose the Tren Maya project in its current form.
So sit back and join me with Pepe Tiburon in this episode of… Speaking Sidemount.
Watch a video of Pepe showing the damage.

Hey, great to bring you Episode 91 Ellen Cuylaerts - "The Power of Positive" with the support of our sponsor XDEEP, and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Massive thanks to both for their support :)!
Of all the disciplines associated with diving, photography and videography have always been special to me. The ability to capture that perfect moment, underwater, in often challenging conditions, dealing with lighting and composition along with the technical requirements related to the camera in an underwater environment. Add to that the dive skills to be stable in the water while seeking "the shot".
I love shooting GoPro videos of my dives, clipping images and then editing them into almost a video logbook of where I have been and dived and then sharing them on the Sidemount Pros YouTube channel is satisfying. But like anything there are levels to this, and in photography, to capture images that are worthy of magazine spreads or covers and win awards against their peers is the pinnacle.
There are many great photographers and videographers out there and I've had a few on the show such as Laurent Miroult, Stratis Kas, Philip Lehman, Natalie Gibb and Becky Kagan-Schott. Some have also worked on conservation and wildlife photography in their work.
My guest in this episode is very much in this vein. Ellen Cuylaerts hails from Belgium and is an award-winning photographer focused on ocean wildlife photography. She has a unique perspective on her work as she seeks to develop deeper connections between humanity and nature through her images.
Ellen is also a cave diver and now an explorer. She was part of the all-female Xunaan Ha project under the tutelage of Robbie Schmittner my guest in Episode 85.
As we talk of Ellen's diving and her work we can’t help but touch on the many challenges that she has faced from being a mother to two high-functioning autistic children to losing her partner to suicide and a type 2 DCS incident that left her with paralysis. Through all of this, Ellen has shown extraordinary strength and resilience and most strikingly, an amazingly positive attitude and outlook. She now applies this to her work and to her conservation efforts where she is a leading speaker and voice for the environment.
Sit back and enjoy my conversation with Ellen, in this episode of… Speaking Sidemount.
Cheers Steve

This episode is brought to you by our brilliant sponsor, XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support that makes this podcast possible.
 In this episode, I catch up for the third time with Thorsten Waelde or Toddy as he is known. I first met Toddy in Episode 24 when we did a deep dive into Toddy Style Sidemount. We caught up again in episode 44 to talk about his Utopia Exploration project in Sardinia only a few months after I had returned from my trip there. I've since been following Toddy's exploits with interest and when I saw the stunning work he was doing on the Bel Torrente exploration via a video on Toddy's YouTube channel (See link below), it was time to catch up and hear more. The amazing part of this project is that it is a multi-sump or siphon project where the cave under exploration has dry sections connected by flooded passages. The penetration length requires the exploration team to live underground for several days, staying at base camps in the dry sections as they progress further into the cave. This creates massive complications to the project, especially the logistics of moving the equipment required and the physical and mental application required is immense.
In this episode, Toddy gives us an overview of the Bel Torrente project. He talks of the team he has assembled, the skills required before we get into the logistics of this project, the equipment, and the evolution of their procedures as they encountered new challenges and requirements at each section.
We talk cave geology and the risk and danger of an accident deep in the cave before Toddy explains how he uses Seacraft Dive Propulsion vehicles and the new lightweight Seacraft GO that is easier to carry across the dry sections.
We finish discussing the Cave Camps that Toddy runs at Protec Sardinia, where qualified cave divers can experience aspects of these projects by diving into a cave and spending a night at a base camp. The Cave Camps include workshops on how to use dry tubes to take equipment into the cave and a heap of time exploring the beautiful dry sections of the caves in Sardinia. I am super excited to check these out.
Enjoy, cheers!!
Steve
Thanks to:
Our Sponsor - XDEEP
Thorsten "Toddy" Waelde - Protec Sardinia
YouTube Video - Follow the Conger: Exploring the Bel Torrente Cave