Welcome to Scoop shack Radio season 6, episode 142 recorded Monday, 07/15/2024. Well, hello again, everyone. And as always, thank you so very much for tuning into this latest episode of Scoop shack radio. I'm your host Jeff Pin. I hope your July fourth holiday went well, and it's you're staying cool. Where Smack dab in the middle of July, and it seems a dog days a summer of Come early for most of the country. I saw that a temperature in Death Valley last week was reading a hundred and 33
degrees. This Wow, that is hot. Now, we're just about a month away from our trip to the Sea Cortez. And our week on board the Roche roadshow Del mar. We'll again be exploring the mid filings. Donna and I are both looking forward to this adventure. We had a lot of fun last year and we do need a little time away since we haven't had any time off since January. 30 days until vacation. Well, today marks another milestone as this will be my last episode of Shock radio.
This was not an easy decision to make since I put so much into a podcast over the last 5 plus years. But as with life, we go through various changes. And sometimes those changes being that you need to leave things behind. So for this final episode, I thought I do another, bit of a re... Retrospective kinda like I did at the beginning of the year on Scooby shack radio. And then give you a little bit of a look ahead.
It was Saint Patrick's Day 2019 when I first turned on the microphone to record episode 1 of Scoop shack radio. Now I've been thinking about this for several months and finally got up the nerve to record. Back then, it didn't seem that there were a lot of scuba related podcast podcasts that were consistently publishing new content. I found a a lot had done several installments and then seemed to have stop.
Yes. There were several, and I thought I could add my voice to the podcasting world with something that might be a little bit different. Now I don't know if Shock radio turned out to be different, but I tried. I've gone back and listened to some of those first podcasts and my goodness. I couldn't believe how bad they were. I'm surprised anyone listened to after that. But fortunately for me, there were those who started to follow each episode.
Back then, I would do a short segment on various topics like dive computers or other gear wet suits things like that, and the value of certain equipment, as and training, as well as short segments on ocean related topics and current issues facing our ecosystems. I quickly determined that I needed to have a little more structure around the show and went to a 3 segment format. The first segment would always be a scuba
related topic. Topics like a digital versus analog compass or a discussion on regulator, pressures intermediate pressure cracking pressure things like that. The middle subject was always about some ocean conservation or environmental issue. Some of those topics included things like the state of wind power in the United States or the Ocean based climate Solutions Act back in 2020. The the topic for the third segment of each show would be on a rotational basis.
1 of these topics would be about the history of Scuba. That was where I had to do a lot of research. I learned a lot about the early days of the dive industry in the United States by doing a series on the original. Dive equipment providers. I covered V health, day decor, Us divers. This research covered some of the Pioneers who made the industry what it is today. There was people like James K Hill, Ed Lincoln and Diver dick Anderson. And then there was Fe Johnson.
I was so ghost in the story that I ended up doing a 3 part series on his life. Contributions to the Navy U innovation and underwater photography and is ultimate owning and running a full service dive shop, not very far from where I grew up. This was by far the most intense research that I did. I got a great deal of information on Ben Johnson from Sid mack of the historical diving society and from the archives at Dr University.
I was en gross in his life and felt that this was a great story to tell on the podcast. The second rotational topic was your next dive where I would take you to the various locations that I had the fortunate of visiting. Originally, I thought that your next dive would be a standalone podcast, but thought better of that given the time commitments of Sc shock radio. I started your next dive in October 2019, and the first place I took you was to Maui. Now we were fortunate to have made about
15 trips out to the island. And and every year we would get in at least a week of diving across 4 different islands. Maui, Lana I Mo and Mo some very fond memories of Maui and definitely a great place to start your next dive. The segment inspired me to write a book, Your next dive, my adventures in Scuba diving. I started writing in late 2021, and ultimately published in mid 2022. At the time, I thought there would be a volume 2 as this only covered, half my adventures.
Let me say. It does cost a lot in time and money to self publish a book. And, like Kenny Rogers said, you gotta know when to fold them. So there would be no volume too. And then there was sea hunt. 1 of my favorite shows when I was a very young, Probably too young, to really understand what Mike Nelson was up to, but young enough to be me by the under idea of being underwater to I started by taking us back to the movie that inspired C hunt underwater warriors.
The movie is based on the book by 1 of the early pioneers of the navy under what a demolition team, Doug was Fe. Then it was time for more research on the history of Sea hunt, and what better place than the old journal of diving, journals of diving history. That paved way for Sea hunt. It's still alive on Scuba radio, Every third show I would pick out an episode and give you all the play by play of mike Mike's exploits.
I started the series with the end of the show, Sea hunt with the final episode of Sea hunt, and that was titled roundup. And it certainly was a roundup up of the many scenes or from over the years. By my account, I have done 34 installments of Sea hunt, it's still alive over the years here on K shack Radio. Now with the start of the new Year, I decided to put Sea hunt and Mike Nelson's adventures on Hiatus. With episode 53 in February 2021, I introduced wet note my news and information segment.
This also signaled the change from the 3 segment show to 2. Also right around that time, I did a 2 part series on C lab 1 the C lab 1 report, and I was digging into all the details as the Navy saw. That was really interesting to read just a facts. Along the way I dabble in interviews. That wasn't my forte, I decided that I wouldn't make interviews a part of the show. Occasionally, I would do some. I also tried to do a remote broadcast once, but from the Boston Sea rover show back in 2020,
right before the pandemic. That also wasn't a sweet spot for me, from So I kept the show to the 2 segment format up until this year when I started back with 3 segments, shop updates, wet notes and a new commentary segment. The commentary segment which allow me to specifically dive a little deeper into some of my thought related to the state of the dive industry as well as the current challenges facing our ocean and planet.
It's And now midway through 2024, I think the time is right to wrap up Scuba shack radio. I believe that I achieved what I had set out to do when I start at way back in 2019. Little did I know how our life would be up ended by the pandemic. And how scary a time that was for people and the survival of small businesses. Sc shack radio was an outlet for me to stay connected at a time when we all felt disconnected. So what lies ahead?
While Sc shack radio is coming to an end, I still plan to stay connected to the dive and just... 3 as I remain a member of the Dim Board of Directors and continue to serve on several of their committee supporting the Dim Show. Therese I plan also to contribute... I I also plan to continue to contribute to Scuba diving industry magazine through various articles related to the diving business. Hopefully, you will hear my voice on the level up podcast produced by the magazine as well.
Don and I will us be at this dive shop with our retail sales and travel. The 1 thing that we've learned about active divers is that they'd like to come to the shop, consult with us on dive gear and make sure that they're getting exactly what they want and need at a fair price. We also learned that they love to travel with a group and have a connectedness with their fellow divers. They also like the convenience of the trip being planned and coordinated.
So Donna and I will also focus on keeping our travel program up and running So for 1 final time, I want to thank all of you have been loyal listeners to the show over the years. In particular, I wanna thank Donna for providing me support and encouragement, not only for Scuba shock radio, but also throughout our 41 years of marriage and for putting up with all my crazy ideas over those years. I got some more in my head. With that, I will say adios to Scuba shack radio and wish you all well.
Goodbye.