Last week, Jamesy and Brando coined a new word in the TGDP Lexicon, Sculture. This week the boys dive deeper into that idea of scuba culture. Sculture, if you will. What are we doing? What do we believe in? Is the idea to certify as many humans as possible just to make money? Or should we be building something better?

Does (at least) part of the issue with Scuba education and practice lie in the culture of Scuba diving? Some aspects of our Scuba culture (Sculture) seem to promote quantity over quality. Whether it is certifications or depth, the emphasis seems to be on high numbers vs. high quality of the diver doing the dive. Agencies incentivize high numbers of certifications by awarding "Elite Instructor" status (LMAO!) to instructors based on speed and numbers of students certified. This is an achievement that can only be accomplished by prioritizing speed of training (to get more numbers) over quality of training. The two are mutually exclusive. Quality takes time. It takes time because it takes work. Anything of value takes work and therefore time. An instructor with 100 dives under their belt is only going to make divers with that level (or worse) of competency. Couple this with the glorification of the depth achievement over the glorification of the quality and proper execution of the dive is also contributing towards the degradation of our Scuba culture with the constant attention to depth rather than the overall quality of the diver and the proper approach and execution of the dive. Too many people want the T-shirt without doing the hard work. Have a listen!!

James and Brando start talking about a recent weekend teaching the UTD Essentials class to a couple of scuba professionals. This class is hard, but not because of the difficult skills or impossible expectations. It’s hard because it requires humility and intention, rather than learning and doing random skills underwater. Check it out.

The boys wrap up International Cave Diving Month with some final words. What can the recreational diving community learn from the Cave Diving community? Have a listen!

What possibly could be the downside of focusing education on quantity vs focusing on the quality of the education? This week the boys explore the idea of a quantity vs. quality approach to educating the scuba world. Have a listen!

This week the boys sit down and talk about Jamesy’s recent visit to Florida for the NSS-CDS International Cave Diving Conference. So, I guess it is officially Cave Month. Ol’ Jamesy’s presentation was a philosophical look at the difference between cave diving and the rest of the scuba education.

The boys give their final thoughts on the Maldives Cave Diving Incident.

This week the boys take a week off from the Maldivian Death Cave, to bring you a special interview from this year’s Thunder Bay International Film Festival. Summer is heating up and Jamesy and Brando are busy living the scuba life. Enjoy these interviews with Andrew a Great Lakes boat captain and Kate from NOAA talking about the festival and why the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is so great.

This week Jamesy and Brando join the discussion about what happened to the 5 Italian divers inside the Death Cave of the Maldives. But, we don’t want to continue speculating as much as we are trying to move this conversation along. This story is about more than just those 5 divers.

A recap of the past few months episodes and best of all.... NO QUACKING or HONKING! yes, you read that correctly.... there are no censoring beeps, quacks, honks or even Brando yapping about Manscaping. Just good old fashioned scuba diving talk! have a listen!