UTD Scuba Diving Podcast

Send us a textFor about two years Jay has been asking me for a history of UTD. It's one of the tasks I never completed, until now. On a long drive from San Diego up to the Sierra Nevada Mountains I recorded a look back at Unified Team Diving – how did it start, where did it start, what were some of the ups, and what were some of the downs.For those of you who have been around UTD for a long time, much of this will sound familiar. For those of you who have come to UTD more recently, this should give you some perspective on how we became what we are today.Questions or comments? Click here to contact Jeff.Or click here to contact Jeff, Ben, and Jay.

Send us a textDear UTD Community,Today, we're sharing a meaningful milestone in the journey of Unified Team Diving.After years of inspiring leadership, Jeff is stepping down from his leadership role at UTD. His vision has shaped the path we've walked together, and his contributions have left an indelible mark on our organization. We are deeply grateful for his passion, his pioneering spirit, and the values he instilled in all of us.Jeff will still be around, however, as an instructor, instructor trainer, and coach.As we turn the page, Ben and Jay will step forward to lead UTD into its next chapter. Grounded in our “Thinking Diver” philosophy and the foundational principles of our WE Code, they are committed to carrying the mission forward—with you.We invite you to listen to this special podcast episode reflecting on this transition and where we're headed next:Thank you, Jeff—and thank you to each of you—for being part of this extraordinary community. We look forward to growing together as we shape the future of UTD.If you have any questions, reflections, or just want to connect, please feel free to reach out to me, Ben, or Jeff directly. Best,Jay GardnerDirector of Development, Unified Team Diving

Send us a textDo you feel like you are good enough? That is the core of this episode. In diving, and in sports, we are constantly comparing ourselves to others and that can be a huge impediment to any successful outcome in a class or training program. The most important thing in any training situation, or in a competition, is simple: you do you.As usual, I tie diving to cycling. Regardless of whether these stories are about you, let us know if you need some guidance, some coaching, or some mentoring as you move though your career as the best scuba diving version of you.JeffMore on the UTD Scuba Coaching Program:https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/For more info, contact us here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Hi, in this episode Ben will discuss the Dunning Kruger effect. A cognitive bias that was created in 1999 by David Dunning and Justin Kruger. It gives a graphical representation of the development when learning new things. It's very applicable to us divers, as we can easily become the victim of incomplete education and/or a false sense of security by our own doing. For more information, contact us here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/Here is a link to the graph:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_Effect_01.svgHere are the videos:Episode 1: https://youtu.be/h-elWmoQ3I0?si=QT2380wwAeOCwTPgEpisode 2: https://youtu.be/zRc-2kADCrI?si=kJENf3TP_tcdAA0PEpisode 3: https://youtu.be/Gl4vf6UyLgc?si=BgJlMDfIj-vaOoCz

Send us a textMeet UTD Instructor Rene Krikke, based in Blomberg, Germany. Rene is teaching across northern Europe and brings a fascinating perspective to our "Meet the Instructors" series. Rene stumbled into diving while on a holiday in Egypt, got hooked, made his way to the UTD Scuba Coaching Program, and is now a UTD instructor.Check out Rene's journey as we continue our "Meet the UTD Instructors" episodes.To reach Rene, click here.https://utdscubadiving.com/member/rene-krikke/For more information about the UTD Scuba Coaching program, click here. https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching

How many dives do you have? I believe the answer to this question is the biggest lie in scuba diving. As instructors, we are trained to take this answer with a grain of salt. In this short carcast, Jeff takes a look at logging dives, logging flight hours, and some ideas about how to best log your dives.For more information, contact us here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/For more information about the UTD Scuba Coaching Program, click here:https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/

Do you feel like you are in a rut with your diving? Doing the same dives over and over? How do you stay motivated year after year? These are the question we look at today in another of Jeff's soon-to-be-famous UTD Carcast episodes.Check out more on UTD Scuba Coaching, click here.

In this inaugural episode of Ben's short podcast series, "The Training Corner," he looks at the concept of 'dive beautifully.' How do you gain your own level of elegance in diving, particularly around propulsion techniques.As always, if you have questions, comments, or thoughts about this, you cancontact us here. https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Weerrrrreee...back! The Most Obscure Questions in Scuba Diving - Live at DEMA 2024. This week we collected questions in the booth and pulled them out in front of an audience. Fun, interesting, informative. And did we say fun?

We are back in Las Vegas for the DEMA show – us and a gazillion other divers checking out new equipment, new training, new everything. This year, in the Technical Resource Center at the show, Ben gave a talk on advanced rebreather training, why it's important to dive a consistent team configuration in your closed circuit rebreather, and how we accomplish that goal at Unified Team Diving.Here's the link to the video that Ben showed at the beginning of his talk:https://youtu.be/UisaQxKZlmU?si=-MXCvCqfZpwCCwXHCheck out the talk and if you have any questions, click here to let us know.

Things don't always go quite as planned. Sometime the planning turns into a setback. What is the best way to deal with that? Take "no" for encouragement and take a setback for opportunity.Thoughts or comments? Let me know. Contact here.

Who is brilliant? You? Or your students? Or both? What happens when you face an instructor or a coach who is more focused on their own brilliance than yours. In this short carcast I take a look at a scenario where the brilliance got confused. Have a listen, let me know what you think.Contact us here. https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/Jeff

Another of the Most Obscure Questions in Scuba Diving. This time we tried something a bit different. Ben came up with the questions and did not tell Jeff what they were going to be. Tune in for an honest discussion about pockets, valve drills, cameras, and more.Send us your obscure questions....contact us here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Following someone else's dreams. This is something every scuba instructor has faced. A student brings a partner, who does not want to be there, into a class, usually Open Water. As instructors, we get to see this play out, sometimes in terror, sometimes in joy. What do you do when someone drags someone into your class? What is it like to successfully follow someone's dream? What is it like  to not want any part of someone's dream. In this short podcast I tell a few stories, some about me, some about my students, and look carefully at following your own dreams. JeffOur 2013 trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp with a team of people with Parkinson's Disease. Watch here.Contact me here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

How to get there. That's today's question. What is the path to becoming a UTD instructor or dive master. How does the program work? What are our expectations of you? What do we expect your expectations to be of us. In this episode Jeff and Jay look at the "path," the course work, and tell some stories from past IDC's.Interested in UTD Leadership? Click here: https://utdscubadiving.com/be-a-utd-instructor/

It's on! Cave Week 2024! This November join us in Florida for Cave Week. In this short podcast Jeff, Ben, and Jay discuss the logistics, the fun, and all the details about this amazing UTD community event.For more information and to register for Cave Week, click here: https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-cave-week/

Jon Edwardsen has been a UTD instructor almost since the beginning of UTD. He is my colleague, friend, and critic. The great thing about having Jon as an instructor trainer is his uncanny ability to cut through any and all BS and get to the heart of the matter. So when Jon did an IDC with a few of our coaching clients and said he was knocked over by the success of the coaching program, I knew we had to get this recorded. If you have any interest in Unified Team Diving as a system of diving or as a leadership training company, carve out a half hour and have a listen.JeffRead about coaching, click here.Contact us about coaching, click here.

There is much to unpack around how we run out instructor development program, how we train our instructor trainers, and how all that benefits the Unified Team Diving students and coaching clients.Back in the car, Jeff takes a look at the mechanics of teaching teaching – education as a change in behavior, that change being worthless without retention, how we use levels of learning, and how we create common ground with our students. Grateful to Socrates for allowing us to take his principles and maneuver them into our program to teach scuba instructors how to properly teach scuba.Click here to learn more about our instructor development course.And click here to learn more about our Scuba Coaching Program.And click here to subscribe to our mailing list.

This episode is a cross between our wrap up of "Becoming a Thinking Diver" and "The Most Obscure Questions in Scuba Diving. Jeff and Ben cover:Redundant equipment.Knowing when to say when.Training for multiple failures buy planning for one.And a quick story about the bike.Check it out, if you have questions or comments contact us here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/To subscribe to our mailing list, click here:https://utdscubadiving.com/subscribe/And for more info about the UTD Scuba Coaching Program click here:https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/

It's not the equipment, it's the choices you make. In his inaugural training corner episode, Ben takes a look at how you can make good, or bad, choices and how those choices can have dramatic ramifications. For more information on the Unified Team Diving training systems and the UTD Scuba Coaching Program, or to reach Ben or Jeff, click here.

One of the great things about me and Unified Team Diving is that I get to set the company culture around money, finances, student fees, all of it. I feel very strongly that financial transparency is critical to the health of any business. I also believe "free" does not serve anyone – us or you. Basically, I believe free has no value. In this short carcast I expand on my vision around UTD and money.Questions? Comments? Contact me here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/Jeff

In our last episode about the "Thinking Diver" we talked about creating your team, or village. In this episode Jeff and Ben start to look at the practical elements of being a thinking diver – gear, gas, team, and much more. Be a thinker. Listen in.If you have any questions or comments, please let us know by clicking here.To join our mailing list, click here.

A non-car carcast. This time I woke up ready to talk about why Unified Team Diving is so important to me but I did not have any place I needed to drive, so I recorded a non-car carcast. Why do we keep doing what we do? How do I grow as a coach and instructor as you grow as a diver or instructor? What makes me tick and, in turn, what makes UTD tick.Contact us here to ask me/us anything. https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Learning and advancing at anything does not need to be something you do alone. Really, it takes a village. You are at the center, then your instructor or coach, but then all the other people and organizations and facilities and friends and family that guide you to becoming the most successful diver-version of yourself.In this episode Jeff and Ben help you discover how to create your village.Questions? Comments? Contact us at https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

In any business one of the most important things is knowing who your clients are. And equally important is to know who your clients are not. In this carcast, I take an honest look at who we are for and who we are not for. It's a complex discussion about a very simple concept. Are we for you? Let us know:Click here to contact Jeff and Ben at Unified Team Diving

Is it success that's the most important thing in scuba diving? Or style? This is a discussion – actually a monologue I recorded in my car – on the issue of style vs. success or, in scuba diving, style vs. certification. Drawn from a phrase common in big wall rock climbing, style vs. success refers not to whether or not we reach our goal, but how we reach our goal.In this episode, after I apologize for the crappy audio quality, I look at style vs. success in our world of training the most stylish divers in the world.

We are Unified TEAM Diving not, as we sometimes like to say, Unified 'Go-Run-Off-By-Yourself Diving.' But what about when you are instructing students? Are they part of your team? Can they help you? What are everyone's expectations when instructing?In this episode Jeff and Ben unpack this simple, yet not so simple question.Contact us any time at: https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Setback happen. This is true for everything we are learning, particularly when moving to a higher level in any field. In scuba training, in Unified Team Diving, we have a thing called the "ebay dive." This is when you come out of the water after such a frustrating dive that you want to put all your gear on ebay, sell it, and take up another sport.How we deal with the frustration of setbacks in scuba also informs how we deal with setbacks in life. In this short carcast, Jeff takes a look at the frustrations surrounding a setback and talks about how he deals with the days when everything goes sideways.For more information on UTD, particularly the scuba coaching program, click here:https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/To contact us, click here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

In the late 70's or early 80's I had an opportunity to take on something that looked really cool to me but my situation at the time blocked it. I've kept that dream alive until this past weekend when I fulfilled an unfulfilled dream. What are your unfulfilled dreams? What are you missed opportunities – in scuba or in life? Do you have the chance to close the loop now? In this short episode I look at how I completed something I started almost 50 years ago. No regrets, just fun. Contact here: https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

We are live at the DEMA show in New Orleans taking questions from the audience. Listen to Jeff and Ben answer all sorts of random questions and, finally, almost get completely stumped.Contact us with your obscure questions and plan on seeing us at DEMA 2024 in Las Vegas where we will do another live episode:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Welcome to Jay Gardner, UTD's new Director of Development! Jay joins Jeff and Ben as the third member of UTD's management team, bring a lifetime of experience with companies both large and small.Jay started his journey in UTD as a coaching client, then an instructor candidate, then an instructor. After a short stint in Austin, Texas, Jay and his family are back in San Diego. We're grateful to have Jay join us. This episode serves as his introduction to our global community of divers.Welcome, Jay!Congratulate Jay here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

This is a short addendum to my previous carcast on quitting. In this quick episode I add a little info, this time about when it's okay to quit. There is a time and place for everything and sometimes the best thing is to "know when to fold 'em."Thoughts and ideas? Contact us here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

"Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away,  know when to run." Great words to live by. In this carcast, actually recorded as a "hikecast" during this year's solar eclipse, Jeff looks at some of the mental and physical elements of quitting – quitting a class, quitting a training path, quitting anything. But, more importantly, how to avoid some of the traps of quitting and what you can learn from teetering on the edge of "quit or succeed."Comments or thoughts on this one? Click here to contact Jeff.More info on the UTD Scuba Coaching program, click here.

Let's breathe without bubbles. In this episode, the first or two or three, Jeff and Ben look at all things rebreathers. In this first part: the what, why,  how and the joys of diving rebreathers. In future episodes we will look at the traps of diving rebreathers, the training progression, and answer your questions.If there is anything you'd like us to talk about, send a note and we'll add it in.Contact us here:  https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

A live episode with slightly sketchy audio, although it was a technical marvel. Ben and three of his tech students in Norway, Jeff via cell phone from San Diego. In this episode we take live questions from the students who just completed their tech training. Ratio Deco adjustments, diving with non-UTD buddies after your class, and much more.https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Consistency and compliance. Or is it compliance and consistency? Either way, these are the two hallmarks of a great client relationship with their coach and coaching program.In this carcast, Jeff takes a look at how consistency and compliance inform the best possible training for scuba divers. If you are just chasing a certification card, the UTD Coaching Program may not be for you. But if your goals and desires are to become the best scuba diver you can possibly be, then have a listen and give us call.More on the Scuba Coaching Programhttps://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/ Contact us here:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Following two weeks of UTD classes in San Diego, and a few minutes before Ben heads back to the airport to return to Denmark, we chat about how this series of classes went for both the instructors and the students.

In this episode Jeff sits with UTD Scuba Coaching client Lisa Huynh the day after she completed UTD Essentials of Rec. Lisa explores how she got her start with coaching, the benefits of integrating UTD's in-water training with the coaching program, her experiences with her prior training, and much more.For more info on UTD Scuba Coaching, click here: https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/

The rebreather. Is it a wildly complex thing that rivals something that could fly to the moon? Or is it simply a bag you breathe into that scrubs out the CO2 and allows for longer bottom times? Or something in the middle?In this episode Jeff and Ben look at the simple yet complex story of rebreather diving...how to get started, the benefits, the dangers, the challenges, and much more.For more info on rebreather diving, contact us here.

Your "Path to Mastery" is a buzzword (or buzz-phrase) that's been around forever but, what does it really mean and how can you take your path to becoming great at one thing and apply it to becoming great at something else (like scuba)?In this carcast, recorded on an endless, rainy drive from San Diego to Las Vegas, I explore the path to becoming good at something, then how you can take the process of that path and apply it to something new.Need a new purpose? Need a new hobby? Need a new job? In this episode I define a structured way to use what you know to get really good at something else.JeffThoughts? Contact Jeff by clicking here.

In April this year UTD went through an audit with EUF, the European Underwater Federation and received certification that the UTD training systems are in compliance with ISO standards. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, creates standards for many industries, including scuba training. However ISO does not certify or confirm that a company is operating with the scope of those standards. That's where the EUF comes in. EUF is a certification agency that certifies that scuba training agencies are meeting ISO standards.Which all means this is a big deal for UTD.In this episode Jeff sits down with EUF auditor Martin Denison to talk about ISO, EUF, the audit, the certification process, and how UTD met compliance.

Estamos en el tercer día del curso de desarrollo de instructores de UTD. En este podcast cortito realizamos una pequeña entrevista a los candidatos a instructores para saber cuáles son sus percepciones del curso hasta el momento.Para saber cómo hacerse instructor UTD, pinchar aquí.

Just a few minutes after the UTD Instructor Development Course ended at the Rivemar Dive Center in La Azohia, Spain, Jeff and Ben sat down with the four English-speaking instructor candidates to get their take on the week...how it went, their expectations, and much more.For information on becoming a UTD Instructor, click here.

We did it again, another carcast. This one we recorded on our road trip from Madrid, where Alan and I just picked up Ben at the airport, on our way to the Rivemar Dive Center in La Azohia, our host for this instructor development course. In this episode we discuss the upcoming class, the journeys of some of the instructor candidates that brought them to the IDC, and our expectations for this upcoming week.For more information on becoming a UTD Instructor, click here.

This is The Random Episode – we've collected questions from the past few weeks and here a some of the obscure and random things we covered in this episode:Why are there various low pressure inflator connectors?Why is our compass NOT on a boot with the SPG?Can we do a "swimming" deco stop, or to we have to hold still and be serious?Does Ratio Deco scale to rebreathers and cave diving?Why don't we use ball valves on our scuba cylinders?Can you use a wet suit as a dry suit undergarment?And much, much more.To submit your obscure questions (and to contact us for any reason) please click here for our contact form.

The Big Scuba Podcast, a show based in the UK and hosted by my new friends Ian and Gemma, explores all things scuba. They got interested in the UTD Scuba Coaching Program, so we started talking about that, but quickly moved to UTD's philosophy, teaching ethos, and history.For me, it was back to basics, forcing me to define, to people not familiar with UTD, why us – why choose us, what makes us different, where did coaching come from, and much, much more.Have a listen, and check out the rest of their episodes.https://utdscubadiving.com/https://www.thebigscuba.com/

Recurrent training is a thing in many, many industries. Flying is where recurrent training is the most obvious – pilots are required to complete various scheduled trainings to keep their certificates current and diving should be no different.Since our inception, UTD has always had a structured recurrent training program called the Annual Dive Review. This is modeled after flying's Biannual Flight Review, something that has been in place for pilots for decades.In this episode Jeff and Ben explore recurrent training for instructors and students – the how and why, the ego and the logic.Questions? Contact us to learn more about the UTD ADR.https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Trying something new here...a "car-pod," or "pod-car," or "car podcast," or something. In any case, I was in traffic for about two hours and had some time to think about, then record, a short podcast on choosing a coach, staying with a coach, leaving a coach, and much more. But most importantly, how to apply what you learn in the UTD Scuba Coaching Program to not only diving, but to the rest of your life.UTD Scuba Coaching Program:https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-scuba-coaching/Contact us:https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

En enero de 2023 hemos completado el Castilla Cave Tour. En este viaje hemos visitado algunas de las cuevas más icónicas del centro de España. Empezamos en el Pozo Azul que es actualmente la cueva con mayor desarrollo explorado en Europa con +13km de longitud. Fuente Azul es una de las cuevas más profundas con una cota de -130m. Fuentenavinahttp://www.espeleogaem.org/fuentenavina/s_fuentenavina.htm es una cueva bastante cerrada con un desarrollo de unos 700m a través de unos tubos con muchos zig zags. Finalmente, Fuencaliente es una surgencia que desemboca en un lago en un parque regional y es extremadamente ratonera. En cierto modo, para los que conocen los cenotes mexicanos, parecida al Cenote Minotauro.Este podcast lo grabamos a modo de conversación entre los miembros del equipo la última noche en el hotel. Muestra las opiniones de los diferentes miembros, desde los más noveles que recién empiezan a bucear cuevas tras el Cave 1 a los más experimentados que buceaban con CCR y torpedos.In January 2023 we have completed the Castilla Cave Tour which was a trip through some of the most iconic caves in central Spain. We started at Pozo Azul which is currently the longest cave explored so far in Europe with +13KM in length. Fuente Azul is one of the deepest caves at -130m. Fuentenavina is a tight cave with aprox 700m penetration through tight tubes with many zig zags. Finally, Fuencaliente is a surgence which feeds a lake in a Regional Park and it is extremely tight. In a way, for those familiar with Mexican Cenotes, like Cenote Minotauro in that sense.This podcast was recorded on the last night at the hotel as a conversation with part of the team in Spanish. It highlights the impressions from newer cave divers who joined this trip to more seasoned ones diving on CCR and Scooters.

In 2022 I was invited to speak at the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical Society's scientific meeting. This was in the ORCA project: Operational Resilience and Cognitive Awareness, quite a mouthful, but basically it was a meeting about human factors in scuba diving.In UTD we have been teaching human factors in our training programs since day one, but there is a secret. Listen to this short talk to learn the secret to teaching human factors in scuba diving.JeffAs always, let us know if you have comments:Click here to contact us:  https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/

Incident and accident reporting. Is it good for scuba or terrifying for scuba? In this episode Jeff and Ben are joined by Diver Alert Network's Cat Harris. Cat manages DAN's incident reporting system.Should scuba take a page from general aviation, an industry that has consistently published accident data and analysis? Or should scuba continue to hide behind the idea that telling anyone there could be some danger associated with scuba is just bad for business.Also joining us is Andrej Gaspar, a UTD Instructor in Slovakia, whose student just created an reporting system for mountain incidents and accidents.What do you think?Let us know by clicking here.  https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/DAN's Incident Reporting websitehttps://dan.org/safety-prevention/incident-reporting/