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