DIVE TALK Woody Alpern and Gus Gonzalez

The Cave DPV Certification is one of the toughest technical diving certifications to attain!
Those of you who have followed our podcast/ YouTube channel for a while are probably aware that we tried to achieve this certification earlier in 2021 and it was a total disaster.
We discussed this on great detail the last episode of this podcast.
Today we give you all an update on our progress and share our stories on the toughest scuba diving credential we've ever worked for.

A few months ago Woody and Gus bought some amazing DPVs (Diver Propulsion Vehicles) with the intent of using them when diving the Florida caves which in most cases are springs and a bit of a workout to swim against.
So the guys showed up to class, with minimal practice, a leaky dry suit, and new dive gear configurations, what can possible go wrong?
Well, apparently, everything!

Central Florida is the home of 'Cave Country' and since we live only 4-5 hours away we get to cave dive there often, but we have many friends who live in Cave Country and dive their caves constantly, almost daily in some cases.
We were wondering why we and thousands of other people continue to dive the same sites over and over, and also, how come 'Cave Country' attracts so many non-cave divers?
We interview Joe Cocozza, a local cave diver who is also the owner of the Pod Diver Lodge and host of Pod Diver Radio. Joe is an amazing host, a scuba instructor, and a huge wealth of knowledge regarding cave diving and scuba diving in general.
Links:
Pod Diver Lodge: https://www.poddiverlodge.com/
Pod Diver Radio: http://poddiver.org
 

This episode was recorded on video too! If you are interested in seeing our pretty faces and hand signals you should head to our YouTube channel and check it out!
Today we talk about the main pillars of scuba diving and what can you do to conduct a self-assessment of your skills as a diver and determine whether you are a good diver and/or what areas you need to work on in order to take your skills to the next level!

In this episode we discuss "Diver's Cemetery" which is located in Dahab, Egypt. We discuss why it is so dangerous, why should some people stay away from the site, and why we would absolutely love to dive it!

We had the wonderful idea to go diving in the Gulf of Mexico, in February, on wet suits.
The water temperature was 63 degrees (17 celsius) and lets just say we had some problems...
We learned our lesson and wanted to share with you what happened and how you can avoid running into some of these issues.