ScubaRadio 9-7-24 HOUR1

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under the sea

where the hell are the sharks and now here's your dive guide for scuba radio greg the dive master

and welcome this is the world's first radio show devoted to diving i am greg the dive master we've

got a special edition of the big show today that's gonna allow me to catch up with some

folks that we haven't had on scuba radio in a while one of them being our first guest pete

from scuba board pete how you doing buddy i'm doing excellent greg how about you well uh fine

you know i i can't complain i have nothing to complain about but i know you've been going

through a lot uh you know the last time we spoke you were recovering from uh some back surgery and

i know you had some serious rehab to get through and you just told me before we got on the air that

you did your first dive since surgery is that right that is correct it was good i hope right

no no it was awesome it was awesome i went to a little known place here in north central florida

called catfish respectively and i got there very quickly and i got in there and i got in there very怎么 some

deal i mean i i did i i didn't do a bigじel i did let out all those huge Hung's right i grew a couple hundred

hole which is inside manatee springs okay and that would have been uh how long of a break did

you have uh from the surgery but you know before you're allowed to get wet again at least according

to your surgeon and stuff he actually gave me a release about a month ago yeah maybe a little

less than a month but it's it took me a while to get other things straight i was still on uh

percocet did not want to die while i'm on drugs yeah um but this doesn't make sense to me so i'm

off of it now finally okay and it's like ready to get wet yeah i was worried as you know i told

you earlier i've lost 64 pounds since christmas so i was worried about my bioprene not working

well and i'm happy to say it's still fine i'm still fine in the springs you got plenty of

leftover is that what you're trying to say or yeah i want to lose another six

six

pounds okay well that's fine well congrats on the weight loss for sure and uh yeah i mean the

springs can be a little on the chilly side so i could understand your apprehension getting back

in the water oh god here what's that i grew up in the spring so it's i'm used to it i used to

dive them without a wetsuit when i was uh uh under 200 pounds and so it's really i don't think it's

ever going to be a problem i think i'll always love that spring feel as i go into the water it's

not cold it's refreshing as we like that's exactly right right yeah i mean i was in the turks uh

cake coast uh i don't know a few about a month ago and uh the water temp was 86 degrees beat

and i was diving in board shorts on a rash guard i'm like golly man i i feel like i'm wearing a

wetsuit it's this is almost too warm and i love warm water don't get me wrong i'm a warm water

wuss and i'll be first one to admit it i mean the springs are a little too chilly for me

it's a little too chilly for me it's a little too chilly for me it's a little too chilly for me it's a

hard to sell myself on that refreshing uh mindset that you have but uh but 86 was a little uh too

warm and i was i was just like you know i i think the sweet spot for me and not having to wear a

wetsuit or anything is probably about 85 84 in that range just a degree or so uh you know cooler

to to just make it just a little refreshing when you jump in and stuff and then you get used to it

pretty quick and you're still not too cold yeah you're with me on that or you think that's way

too i hear you but i'm not with you okay i like it i like it definitely colder than 80 i like it

below 80 uh 70 degrees is what the springs are year round that's uh right at the bottom of my

toleration right um but i don't like it any warmer than 80 because then i feel like i'm swimming in

my own um urine okay all right there's that you know mental image that you put in our brain there

never be i don't wear a wetsuit too yeah okay well there's that yeah i don't know for me i mean

tg zone for me the springs i can do a three mil i can do a 45 minute dive and i'm fine but after

that i'm gonna start getting chilled and it's gonna be too much the four hours okay well you're

that's that's my length in spring water for a cave dive without a wetsuit well i wear a t-shirt

does that count no no that's what i'm saying you're doing the board

thing and the t-shirt so okay well god bless you that bioprene is good for something

and when you're built like a manatee you get to dive like a manatee okay well that's uh pete from

scuba boards mantra fine that's a teacher's own but uh i'm glad you're back in the water i mean

when you got your surgery your back surgery i mean how long of a time did the surgeon say hey

you need to stay dry you know about a month he wanted to see all the all the he didn't want to

any scabbing he wanted all that to be smooth though no way of getting infected um you know

i was worried about a couple things my neutral buoyancy which has been my trademark my my thing

i love most about diving is being just to put myself in the water and not have to worry about

it i didn't lose it i it was still there everything was right where i needed to be

i guess since i've been diving since 1969 it's hard to forget all that stuff yes well you know

that's interesting because it kind of brings me back to when you know i had open heart surgery

you know a little over let's see that was six or eight years ago over eight years ago and my first

dive after having that i i had the same uh mental block that maybe you're alluding to that you're

like hey am i going to be able to do this you know like i just like i did before surgery as i was

after i mean they give they gave me you know they said i i could dive you know i could dive you know

they were kind of saying six months i had a physician a cardiologist she admitted she said

okay we'll let you go after four but there's really no hard you know time for that kind of

surgery you know that it's more for insurance purposes kind of guessing yeah right exactly

but but when i got back to scheduling my first dive after surgery i i was very mentally i don't

know uh challenged a little bit because i was like i don't know i'm not going to be able to

i'm not sure if i'm going to be able to do what i did before uh you know the surgery you know and

how is this going to affect my scuba diving and that kind of went through your head too just at

least from the bioprene thing but just from the surgery as well didn't you did you have those

questions in your head or what as an instructor you remember the i the thing we tell our students

that if you've gone more than a year without diving go dive with someone else get a refresher

go make sure that you have

uh you know you relearn all that stuff but you and i are in that category where we have thousands

of dives over many many years right and it's it's like riding a bike it might be 10 years before i

get on the bike um but i'll still always remember how to ride it i've just done too many miles on

them true and well i think that was the case here and i think you know as far as your skill set yeah

that doesn't change but did you have that mental block a little bit like well okay i've just had

this big surgery i'm going to have to do this again i'm going to have to do this again i'm going to

my back uh am i going to have to adjust the way i dive how is it going to affect how i dive and all

that i mean that's what was going through my head now as soon as i jumped in the water started

swimming around like hey i feel just like i did before this is awesome was that how it was for

you pete or what it really was i mean all the worries about how i was going to fit uh when you

go for a full neutral buoyancy like we do for caving you arch your back a bit and i really

thought i was going to have a problem with that you know no it it was a little bit of a problem

worked well yeah it were everything worked well good and you have no limitations like uh lifting

tanks or anything like that for a while or or you got to kind of watch that i would assume

the limitations are imposed on me by my buddies no no we'll carry that and it's like no no i can

get it down to the spring i said i might need help getting back out after a long dive but uh

yeah you know they really wanted to help more than i needed the help right right well good

well that that's uh awesome and so this uh place where you

dove will have a a special place in your heart now because that was the first dive after surgery

kind of thing or it doesn't really matter if i ever get the duckweed out of my hair yes duckweed

why what's the problem with duckweed oh it's covered in duckweed which is good because it

keeps the algae down uh-huh the darkness keeps the algae from growing so the viz is good it's

a little dark but when you ascend you get it all in your hair all over your gear get a free wig

it sounds like a bonus to me i don't know i need more

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scuba radio

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learning secrets, thinking about life.

This is the world's first radio show devoted to diving.

I am Greg the Divemaster.

We're checking in with Pete from Scuba Board.

It's been a while.

You know, he had some back surgery a few weeks ago and had his first dive.

He was happy how it went.

And, you know, you've, you were, you know, you lost a lot of weight too, which was a bonus.

And you thought that was going to affect your buoyancy a little bit or your bioprene insulation factor, but it didn't.

Did you have to make any other adjustments or, you know, that kind of, you know, at all since the surgery or what do you think?

I don't know if I had to make any other adjustments.

I did.

I added another two minutes to my safety stop.

I usually do a five minute safety.

Stop.

Now I did seven, which everyone's like, well, that's excessive.

I got scar tissue.

I have no idea how it's going to off gas or on gas.

So I don't, I've never been bent 60, 50 plus years diving, never been bent.

I'm going to keep it that way, Greg.

Sure.

Well, yeah.

I mean, if you got the air and you got the time, why not?

Yeah.

It's just extending your bottom time and might be factoring in a little extra headroom for that kind of stuff.

So that's probably not.

A bad move to make.

So what's next for Pete from scuba board?

You already got a bunch of dives planned on the, on the docket or are you going to ease back into the sport now?

What do you think?

Well, we're waiting.

I'm waiting for the Springs to clear up.

We're flooded out here in North central Florida.

I do have my next big dive trip.

You know, scuba board is going to Belize next year.

I'm going to go see the big blue hole.

It's one thing I've never done in the Caribbean.

I've been to so many islands there.

And that's when I haven't been to Greg.

Have you been there before?

I have not.

That's the famous Jacques Cousteau blue hole in Belize.

You're talking about, right?

I've heard much about it as I'm sure you have too.

There's a ton of videos, but basically Jacques went in there years ago.

He kind of got a little heat because I guess they, they broke a side of the wall so they could get the boat in there, but they filmed this incredible TV show.

Is that what you remember too?

Is that what happened?

I remember that.

I also remember, uh,

some of our, uh,

caving pioneers trying to dive it and,

uh,

having issues as well.

What do you mean?

Having issues accessing it or just being able to dive the blue hole?

They got sharks in there.

Oh,

yes.

Yeah.

Well,

that's why I think Jacques went to it.

They,

they knew it was a awesome place.

There was some controversy on how he,

how he got back to it in the day,

but Hey,

that's all history,

whatever.

Uh,

you know,

it did more good than bad because it put them on the map.

I mean,

that's why,

it really did.

That blue hole is so famous is because of Jacques,

uh,

you know,

his film work from back in the day.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of it was shark action.

And so have you ever done a blue hole at all,

by the way,

or will this be a.

Never done a blue hole,

but however,

I've done lots of cave holes,

which are probably a little bit more challenging.

Probably.

Um,

yeah,

you can't always see the surface,

you know,

it's like,

I want a surface right now,

not right now.

You got to go a little bit,

but yeah,

blue holes are,

are pretty cool.

I mean,

uh,

in there a little bit,

you know,

better for the folks that don't like the overhead environments,

uh,

necessarily.

Exactly.

So it's almost like a cavern type of dive.

Uh,

I understand it's 400 foot deep.

I don't plan on hitting the bottom.

Yeah.

Um,

but I,

I will swim around the side.

I will be taking hopefully a brand new certified diver.

My,

uh,

great nephew,

Ethan,

help me through.

My surgery spent two months with me.

I think it's the least I could do to reward him by taking him with me.

He's going to be spoiled though.

How so?

What do you mean?

His first big trip.

And I'm taking him to Belize.

He's going to go everywhere else and say,

well,

this is a cool,

you know,

you got a lot of cool stuff.

You can do a topside too,

on your surface interval in that part of the world.

They got these,

uh,

they,

they do have a lot of big cave system there where they do a lot of

inner tubing,

like,

uh,

through the rivers and things.

Yeah.

That's a big activity there.

I don't know if it's close to the blue hole.

I mean,

I don't know.

Is that inland?

I don't even know where it is exactly.

I don't think it is.

Belize is an island,

so it can't be too far inland.

Right.

It's not that big of an island.

Well,

if Cousteau did his thing,

I mean,

the blue hole must be out in the open water somewhere.

You have to cruise.

It is.

And you have to travel about an hour by boat to get to the blue hole from where we're staying.

Yeah.

You know,

they also have those rivers,

those cave rivers in,

in Mexico,

just on the other side of,

uh,

Cozumel.

And,

uh,

there's always,

uh,

fun,

fun thing to do because,

you know,

it's caving in a different way,

you know?

Sure.

Yeah,

it is.

I mean,

well,

like I said,

uh,

diving a blue hole,

I have done it.

Uh,

they're quite,

uh,

interesting,

but to me,

they do kind of remind me of a cavern dive,

which,

uh,

you know,

caverns like intro to cave,

you can only go where you can still see the surface.

And so you have ambient light from the surface.

So if you get into trouble,

you can get out of there and caves a whole nother level,

but blue holes are kind of like that because,

I mean,

you can always see the surface,

but a lot of times they'll have some in cuts into the side of the wall there where,

where,

you know,

you can kind of,

it's almost like it's not really a cave,

but you know,

it's like a over slightly.

A swim through.

Yeah.

Kinda.

Yeah.

Sure.

Swim through without an exit.

Right.

And,

uh,

but,

but they're cool.

I mean,

they're definitely,

uh,

pretty intense.

I mean,

by the way,

so,

are they famous for a particular type of shark or just big ones and scary ones or

something?

What,

what do you got all sorts there?

Uh,

I mean,

all sorts from,

from tigers to reefies,

you know,

I'm sure they got nurse sharks too.

Yeah.

Just depends on the day then,

huh?

Yeah.

Unlike other places,

like most Caribbean places you go and you may not see a shark after 20 dives.

I,

this day you see a shark usually every other diver.

So gotcha.

Now,

are you going to be doing a rebreather stuff on this?

Is that the plan or are you just going to do open circuit or try mix?

I'm probably going to do open circuit cause my grand nephew is going to be doing,

doing open circuit and I'm going to probably match him.

Okay.

I mean,

but you're not doing anything like a side mount technical thing that you're

always involved in.

You're just going to go old school and,

and kind of probably old school,

dumb it down to his level.

I do.

Exactly.

I want,

I want him to be comfortable.

You know,

like I said,

it's his first big trip away.

We haven't even,

we were just now starting,

we were just on him doing the,

uh,

online training.

Oh,

okay.

I'm no longer an instructor.

So I've actually asked an instructor friend from Georgia to come on down.

Let's go dive together with my,

uh,

grand nephew and teach him diving and he's all for it.

So we're going to be talking about that,

getting that going and getting him ready to go to Belize.

Okay.

Well,

I think that's a good thing.

I mean,

uh,

you know,

when you're certifying a family member or a family friend,

I'm not so sure that's the greatest,

uh,

setup anyway.

I think,

I agree with that.

You're,

you're better,

uh,

helping them along with a friend of yours because if you're their parent or

guardian or something,

uh,

chances are you're going to be a little bit more concerned about them or,

or maybe hammer them a little bit more when they don't deserve it.

You know what I mean?

Exactly,

man.

All right.

It's just food for thought.

All right.

Well,

I'm glad you're doing well,

Pete.

It's always good to catch up and we wish you the best,

my friend.

Wish you the best too,

my friend.

We got more coming up on the world's first radio show devoted to diving.

Scuba action star Mike Scott is back in a new audio book.

Cayman Cowboys reefs under pressure from author Eric Douglas comes the one that

started it all.

Listen,

as Mike deals with submarines,

kidnapping,

betrayal,

and more,

he didn't even have fins or a mask to let him see in the water.

He was going to be slow and blind.

If it weren't for the float,

he wouldn't have been able to dive.

He knew there would be no way he would ever make it to the surface.

Download Cayman Cowboys or Oil and Water,

Return to Cayman,

Turks and Chaos,

and Lionfish at Amazon,

booksbyeric.com,

and audible.com.

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You are now clear to dive with Scuba Radio.

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Scuba Radio.

Dive, dive, dive.

I need you to take off all of your jewelry right now,

because sometimes sharks can confuse the glint of your jewelry with fish scales.

Does anyone have any questions?

Aren't you scared?

Oh, no.

Do you know what the most deadly animal is?

Mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes killed 725,000 people last year.

Do you know how many were killed by sharks?

Ten.

And that's compared to the millions of sharks that we kill every year.

So, no.

You're more likely to be killed by a mosquito or another human being than a shark.

She says she's the perfect girl because she loves to dive.

But that ain't changed,

because we know she needs Scuba just to survive.

Oh, but when she was told

to check out the show called Scuba Radio,

cause

you'll never listen too much

and you need to feel the rush

till I can dive with you.

I'm gonna dive with you.

Cause the weather's right and I think you're dynamite.

I'm gonna dive with you.

Yeah, I'm gonna dive with you.

This is the world's first radio show devoted to diving.

I am Greg the Divemaster.

You know, that one's pretty bad.

This would be a little better, though, I think.

You gotta pull out the big gun sometimes.

So, with a little help from the Beatles,

we bring in our good friend Eric Douglas,

the paperback writer of cool diving novels.

Eric, how are you, buddy?

Been a while.

It has been a while, Greg.

Good to hear from you.

Yeah, good to see you.

Our friends out in the diving world can't necessarily see us,

but we can see each other.

Well, they consider that a bonus, for sure.

It is a blessing.

Yes, yes, it is.

Thanks for radio.

I've heard it for 27 plus years now.

But we're just gonna move on from other things,

or to other things.

Like, well, how's the writing going?

Where are we at in the Mike Scott dive novels, you think?

Well, as we speak, I'm sitting at the location

of several of the Mike Scott novels.

I'm sitting in Nags Head, North Carolina,

which is kind of where Mike has his beach house here

when he's not around.

He got off traveling around the world.

So I'm getting some motivation again.

You know, I kind of lost my way.

I'm in the middle of a new book,

but I'll be honest with you, I sort of lost my way with it a little bit,

but I'm getting kind of psyched up for it again.

Inspired where you're at.

You know you're lending credence to the conspiracy

that Mike Scott is actually you.

You know, your beach house and Nags Head and photo dive journalist.

That's the character of Mike Scott.

But yeah, we've talked about this before.

It's not you.

The name is an old friend of yours that you've paid tribute to,

but you kind of pull elements of real life

and create this alter ego.

You know, it's experiences I've had over 20-something years

in the dive industry and with you.

Steve Barnett actually gave me a lot of inspiration

for my very first novel for Cayman Cowboys.

Yeah?

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of people I've known,

either the good guys or the bad guys.

Either the good guys or maybe the not so good guys

in some of my books.

Really?

Oh, so some of the bad guys you've pulled from real life as well.

Are there characteristics that you've encountered?

Some of the characteristics, you know.

I don't know that I know anybody truly evil, but yeah.

It's like, this guy's a jerk.

I'm going to put him in my book and make him the bad guy.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Actually, Eric kind of did that to me, you know,

but he switched gears.

He switched gears.

And what was that, Lionfish?

I don't know.

I don't want to give too much away, but if you read it

and you don't get past the first 10 pages,

you're not going to have a very favorable view of yours truly

because he incorporated me.

And even if you do, you may not.

Well, true.

Good point.

Exactly.

But they're entertaining.

Even you were kind of like, man, I'm kind of a butt, you know.

I'm kind of an ass.

He's made me into an ass.

Oh, wait a minute.

I kind of am.

Okay.

Just take it and be honored that you even got written about.

So that's how I took it.

But my mom, yeah, did give me some grief over that one

because she didn't get past the first 10 pages.

And she kept it to herself for literally like two or three months.

And finally it got brought up.

Hey, mom, you ever read that book that Eric Douglas wrote that had me in it?

And she goes, yeah, you're kind of a jerk.

I raised a better man.

I was like, what?

What are you talking?

And then I realized she didn't read the whole book.

She stopped as soon as she got mad.

It was hilarious.

And she finally finished it.

I was like, okay, yes, that was quite entertaining.

But yeah, you got to hang in there.

You know, if you have any preconceived notion of how I'd be presented in written form.

So anyway, back to Mike Scott, though.

Nag's head, that's where he's based a lot of times.

Is that just because you grew up there or you've been there for, you know, so many times?

I've been visiting here for 30 years and just love the place.

If I could retire, you know, and you and I both know you've you probably more so than me, but you've been all over the world.

But there are some places that just kind of strike you and say, this is where I could live if I were.

If I had the opportunity, this would this would be where I would sit down roots.

However, it is a big moving sandbar.

So, you know, I don't know if I want to buy a household next head right now, but it's a little exposed up there for things like that.

What about the diving?

Is there good diving in that area?

Oh, there's fantastic.

There's fantastic diving out of this area.

Some some amazing shipwrecks.

There's actually everybody talks about the U-boat up in New Jersey.

And then there's another one down further down in North Carolina.

But there's actually a German U-boat sunk offshore here.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Yeah.

And that's where the mags head close to where all the sand tigers are to that one famous.

That's in Wilmington.

That's one or four.

Yeah, that's that's that's Beaufort Wilmington.

That area.

There's sand tigers here, too.

But but where everybody kind of thinks of it is is down.

And that's kind of the southern part of North Carolina.

Gotcha.

Okay.

But I mean, this is where now you can't get to it.

But this is where the USS Monitor went down just off.

Right.

Yeah.

And they've they've brought part of it back to the surface and all that kind of stuff.

So there's some amazing and it's real shipwrecks.

I've got no problem with artificial reefs, whatever.

But there's some you see torpedo shipwrecks.

Yeah.

So you can go see that U-boat.

You can actually dive that.

Can you dive the Monitor, too?

Or the remnants of it?

No, you can't dive the Monitor.

That's kind of protected area.

They actually surfaced.

They brought to the surface the the turret from it.

Yeah.

But it's in 150 plus feet of water.

Gotcha.

But they brought that to the surface.

But the rest of it is is actually they don't like to tell you where it is, to be honest

with you.

Understood.

Yeah.

So but as far as diving off of Nags Head where you are, I mean, is that something you've

done quite a bit or you just decided to make that Mike Scott's base of operations just

because, you know, you have a beach home there and you visit and you're familiar with the

area?

A little of both.

Maybe.

I know.

I love to come out here.

But but no, I have.

I've dived out here a number of times.

And the one problem with it and it is what it is because this I mean, well, they refer

to this area as the graveyard of the Atlantic.

There's probably literally a thousand shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina.

The reason for that is there's so many currents and that sort of thing out here.

Right.

That makes a diving more challenges.

Yeah.

If you're diving out of here, probably three days out of seven, you're going to get blown

out just because there's a storm offshore.

And, you know, we just had Ernesto recently and there were red flag warnings all the whole

week after that.

Right.

Yeah.

It's.

But if you're out there, if you live out there on Nags Head and you're watching the weather

day to day, you could pop out on a boat, you know, on a good day.

And it's pretty cool stuff, huh?

All right.

Well, it's great.

Nothing.

Books by Eric dot com.

Go there.

Get pick up one of the Mike Scott series or God knows there's a whole bunch more beyond

that.

But always a pleasure catching up, my friend.

Good talking to you, Greg.

All right.

We got more coming up on the world's first radio show devoted to diving.

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This is the world's first radio show devoted to diving.

I am Greg the Divemaster, and as promised, I told you we were going to catch up with some people that we haven't spoken with lately on the show.

One of them would be Jeff Trode, a.k.a. Captain Cocktail.

They are at South Florida Diving Headquarters.

Jeff, how are you, buddy?

I'm trying to stay dry down here right now.

Are you?

Wicked storms.

Well, yeah.

Some wicked storms today.

You guys get them up there?

Yeah, you know, it just depends on where you're at in the state of Florida.

But chances are, you know, if it's sunny right now, it'll be storming five, you know, ten minutes later.

You know what they say, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

Exactly.

That's what's going on.

But, hey, I mean, it's still pretty good diving right now.

I mean, we're kind of in the sweet spot for summer, don't you think?

This has been a great summer, actually.

Yeah.

We only really had lost one weekend all summer.

So, I'm not complaining at all.

I mean, the lobster, the catching lobsters, and the water's been really clear.

Yeah.

Other than the usual PM storms, we always get those.

Right.

It's nothing new.

Right.

But it's at bathtub diving right now.

I mean, I was in the Turks and Caicos about a month ago, and it was 86.

What kind of water temp are you getting down there in South Florida, you figure?

Oh, we're there.

It's not down.

It's a little more.

I mean, it's hot.

Yeah.

And you don't need a wetsuit.

This is the time of the year to dive, because you don't have to put that rubber thing on

top of you.

Dive naked, if you so choose, but just warn those around you.

Jerry, the diver guy.

Hey, doesn't a little thing like that bother you?

Well, Jerry, the diver guy, goes in his mankini, but that's a whole other issue that most people

need therapy for after.

That's it.

And I think I'm going to need that.

Exactly.

That was Jerry.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's okay, I guess.

But like I said, he's still doing his thing.

But what about the lobster season?

You say it's been pretty strong so far?

Yeah, it's been pretty steady.

No complaints this year.

Any rumors of them walking at all?

Not yet.

It's about time.

It's about time for that, though.

Yeah.

It's usually around mid-August.

Okay.

So it's about time for a big walk.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, you're going to call me when that happens.

Right?

Because I haven't went down.

Yeah.

Yeah, right after.

Oh, sorry.

Did I say it?

Was that out loud?

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

You should have been here last week.

Yeah, that's what Jeff will do.

He'll call me up.

He goes, man, three days ago, boy, you should have been down.

Yeah.

I haven't done the lobster thing this year yet.

So it's kind of on my list to kind of fit something in.

Oh, well, that explains everything.

That's why there's so many lobster then.

Well, yeah, the lobster slayer has not been out there with his trusty sidekick.

Bug boy.

Yeah, let me call Marine Fisheries and let them know that their graph is all off.

Yeah.

Just because Greg hasn't been diving.

That's it.

Okay.

You know what?

When you look at it, I mean, that makes so much sense.

It sure does.

Obviously.

So Jeff's alter ego is Liquor Boy.

And when me and him get together, it's Liquor Boy.

Or no, wait, that's me.

I'm Liquor Boy.

Yeah, that's you.

It's Captain Cocktail and Liquor Boy.

That's right.

I'm Liquor Boy.

Have you already started today?

Oh, my gosh.

You're ahead of me.

Yeah.

It's past 10 a.m., isn't it?

Okay.

Yeah, we're off.

I think we're good to go.

All right.

Yep.

But yeah, so we have these alter egos.

And then for lobster season, CJ evolves into Bug Boy, and I am the lobster slayer.

Yeah.

So why are you laughing?

What's so funny?

No reason.

Okay.

Well.

A legend in his own mind.

Well, exactly.

But you know, the thing is, this time of year, though, is the best time to go diving.

Kids are going back to school.

So, I mean, business has still been pretty good, though.

But you can get down on the boats, no problem, if you called up South Florida Diving or what.

Yeah.

Weekends get a little crazy, but call ahead.

You can get spots on there.

It's been pretty steady.

What's the latest on the artificial reef projects?

That you've been working on down there?

You got the, I mean.

That's where I'm standing now, as a matter of fact.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we were working on the Oahu Bay project, which is the artificial reef just inside the inlet that we built for snorkelers and handicapped folks, divers and everything.

So, we had a big floating dock put in.

Well, in our infinite wisdom, nobody bothered to paint the or either coat the big steps we put in.

So, what do you think happened?

They're covering barnacles.

Of course.

So, you got a what?

A little scraper?

Pull them out.

Oh, you got to pull them out?

No, you got to pull them completely out of the water.

They're big, big stairwells that go up.

All right.

But that's not a dive site.

That's a snorkel thing you guys installed down there?

Well, eventually, it may become a dive site.

Right now, we're just starting out with snorkeling to try to let the growth and everything take place.

You know, try to build it.

Then it'll come.

You know how that goes.

Right.

And we are opening it up a little bit to handicapped groups to come in because it's a great place for them to train.

It's very tranquil in there for them.

Yeah.

Okay.

That sounds good.

And then eventually, once we have all the infrastructure in place and the way permitting and everything, so we'll open it up.

Well, okay.

Do you got some other wrecks that you guys are working on right now that are in the pipeline or you can't talk about them just yet?

Yeah.

What do you got?

Well, they come and they go.

And that's the problem with that.

Everybody offers you, hey, we'll give you a free wreck, but it's in Norfolk.

Oh.

Yeah.

Well, okay.

Well, yeah.

I don't know.

Hey, Jeff, I don't know if you heard the news, but you remember the Nekton Pilot, the liveaboard that we've been on years ago?

Oh, yeah.

Well, so they're sinking those evidently off the coast of Destin.

Those two ships, those were the no seasick boats, the Nekton Pilot and the Nekton.

And what was the other one?

Yeah.

Recall.

Yeah.

That's the one we were on.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Back in the day, you know, 20 years ago.

And evidently, they've been commissioned and approved to be sunk off of Destin.

I just saw the news about that a few weeks ago.

We should have got them in Fort Lauderdale, man.

Yeah.

I don't understand why they do it and how they even get over there.

I saw some report.

It could be they were in a shipyard over there and they said, hey, let's gut these things and throw them offshore.

I don't know.

I don't know what happened.

They've been rust buckets for a while.

I remember they were up on the hard.

Yeah.

And John had just left them.

So that's probably what it is.

They're abandoned.

Yep.

And they're just going to scrap them.

Yeah.

But that'd be kind of cool to go dive those.

That would probably be the first.

I can't recall a situation where I'd actually been on a boat like that and had it turn into an artificial reef.

I don't think that's ever happened in my lifetime, you know, or my dive life.

This might be a first for me.

You've done that, haven't you?

Or have you?

What do you think?

With all the wrecks that you've dove?

Yeah, but we brought it back up afterwards.

Okay.

Exactly.

That's a different type of wreck dive.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes.

Exactly.

Okay.

All right.

Well, just something else to add to the list.

I don't know how long it'll take them to get those sunk.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

I'll look into that.

Yeah.

We'll have to.

We'll have to, you know, make a plan, you know, right after we do some lobster diving down there.

Yeah.

You got to come down here with your Borak costume for our Halloween dive.

Oh, are you going to do a big dress up kind of jump in the water thing?

Okay.

Yeah, do that.

That's an annual thing.

Now, are you doing the Compton underwater pumpkin carving too?

Yeah, that's on the second dive.

All right.

First dive, we do the haunted wreck, and then everybody's dressed up, and we judge it.

Okay.

And then the pumpkin carving, we go in shallow, and then we judge that.

We got prizes.

Do you need any haunted attractions?

Like, we could throw Jerry the Diver Guy down there in his mankini, and that'll make people

spit their regulators out and everything.

For sure.

That's a definite horror show.

Hey, I'm throwing up a little in my mouth just thinking about it.

So, there you go.

There you have it.

All right.

Enough nonsense.

And SouthFloridaDiving.com is the website to connect with Jeff, a.k.a.

Cap Cocktail.

Always a pleasure, my friend.

Yes, sir.

Good talking to you, Greg.

We got hour two of the world's first radio show devoted to diving on deck.

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