Stuart Cove – Legend of Underwater Filming & Shark Diving

In this interview we hear stories from the one and only Stuart Cove of Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas.  Raised in the Bahamas Stuart had grown up in the diving industry working as a child in the first dive center in Nassau.  Stuart learned to dive from a stunt person Fran Doyle and once his father owned a dive boat, he took to showing tourists how to scuba dive.  After a time away at college, Stuart returned to the Bahamas and opened his first dive center called Coral Harbour Divers.

In 1980 Stuart and his father were contracted to work on the James Bond film “For Your Eyes Only.  Stuart taught the movie crew how to dive and use specialized equipment.  He soon learned how to wrangle sharks and how to put sharks in a tonic immobility state to mobilize them.  Not too long after this Stuart met his future wife Michelle who assisted him at his watersports concession at Lyford Cay Club.  And after a time away at college herself, she came back to be Stuart’s partner at the South Ocean Golf and Beach Resort Dive Center in the early 1990’s.

As the dive center flourished it became one of the most popular locations for underwater film shoots.  Stuart assisted with many underwater film productions including several James Bond movies as well as Splash and Flipper.  Both he and Michelle were stunt doubles for dozens of actors.

But it is from the many movie productions that required the use of sharks that Stuart began a relationship with them.  He mastered safe ways to feed sharks and handle them, as well as improving special metal shark suits for the shark feeders.  Soon he developed dive excursions with sharks, and today thousands of divers have experienced diving with sharks on one of his famous shark dive trips.

Stuart has been responsible for sinking over 20 wrecks in Bahamian waters as well as installing moorings for ships, all in an effort to conserve the reefs of the Bahamas.   Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas is consistently one of the top rated dive operations in the world.

 

Items in this Podcast

• Hurricane Matthew
• Diving as a 8 – 10 year old in the Bahamas
• First shark encounter at 8 years of age
• Learned diving from a stunt double
• Diving and shark wrangling on For Your Eyes Only
• The first idea for his shark adventure dives
• The history of Stuart’s shark adventure dives
• West End Tiger Sharks
• Dive shop remodeled from Flipper
• Blue hole diving and sacred underwater caves
• Sean Connery’s “special autograph”
• The history of Stuart Cove’s Underwater Hollywood
• Thunderball, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Sea Hunt, Salty the Sea Lion, Moonraker, Splash, The World Is Not Enough
• Sharm el Sheikh
• Tips for divers

Resources

Contact Stuart at the following sites:

Website – Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas

Instagram – @stuartcove1  and @stuartcovesdivebahamas

Twitter – @StuartCoveDive

Facebook – @StuartCoves

 

Sponsor

Special thanks to our episode sponsor Aggressor Fleet

Thanks for Listening!

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Dan & Betty Orr – Champions of Diving Safety

In this interview we hear stories from a very well-know husband and wife team in the diving industry Dan and Betty Orr.  These diving legends have focused on diving safety unlike anyone else in the industry.  Dan Orr recently retired as President of Divers Alert Network (DAN), where he led DAN on its worldwide diving safety mission.  Prior to coming to DAN, he worked in a dive retail store, and at two university diving programs.  He’s served on the Boards of many diving organizations including the Historical Diving Society, Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA), Our World Underwater Scholarship Society and many others.

Dan has published and co-authored over 100 articles and a dozen books and manuals including:  Scuba Diving Safety, Pocket Guide to First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries; Pocket Guide for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries; and the DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries Training Manual.  He has won many prestigious diving awards including the NOGI Award in Sports/Education, the Leonard Greenstone Award for Diving Safety, the Our World-Underwater Award, Beneath the Sea’s Diver of the Year, the Wyland Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement and the 2012 DEMA Reaching Out Award.

But Dan didn’t accomplish all this on his own.  Standing by his side the whole time is his wife Betty.  Betty Orr spent 23 years of service at Divers Alert Network. Prior to coming to DAN, she worked with the Florida Department of Regulation as an agent and at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio as an Associate Professor of Biology.  Betty has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biology and has authored and contributed to many books and magazine articles in scuba diving, biology and general interest.  She is an inaugural year member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

The two of them now comprise Dan Orr Consulting where they provide a variety of services to the diving community.

 

Items in this Podcast

• Movies Underwater and The Deep
• Early NAUI training and YMCA Scuba instruction
• Wright State University Dive Program and Florida State University Academic Diving Program
• Dan & Betty meet when he was her scuba instructor!
• Divers Alert Network
• Best Publishing
• Duke University Accident Hotline (Diving Accident Network) turns into Divers Alert Network
• Favorite dive sites: The Arabia, Ontario & Wreck of the Balboa, Grand Cayman
• Intimate experience with a moray eel
• Tether goes away in a quarry penetration dive
• The exploding lobster
• 2000 psi in 13 minutes
• Aging and diving
• Advice for divers

Resources

Get 20% off Dan’s book Scuba Diving Safety from Best Publishing.  Type in the promo code scubaguru on the checkout screen to get 20% off.

The Ageless Diver article from Dive Center Business

DUI Arctic Cruise with Dan & Betty Orr

Other books written by Dan Orr:

Contact Dan & Betty at DanOrrConsulting.com

Sponsor

Special thanks to our episode sponsor Aggressor Fleet

Thanks for Listening!

Thank you for joining me again. Do you want to give a shout out to our guest on this podcast? Leave a note in the comments section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The League of Extraordinary Divers podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! And, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates.

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Dottie Frazier – First Female Scuba Instructor

In this podcast I chat with Dottie Frazier.  Dottie Frazier is credited with many firsts in the diving industry.  It all started as a child with her passion and talents in swimming.  As a teen Dottie began entering spearfishing competitions – and winning – making her the first female freediving and spearfishing athlete and champion.  Due to extreme prejudice Dottie almost did not get her scuba certification, but she was sponsored and supported by those who knew her talents.  Once Dottie was in the water, she shined and came out tops in her class.  The instructors invited Dottie to return often to assist in their classes, and it was not long before she was in the L.A. County Parks and Recreation Scuba Instructor course.  Again, she excelled and became the first female scuba instructor in the diving industry.

Dottie continued to acheive from there.  She opened up a dive shop called Penguin Dive Shop – making her the first female dive shop owner.  Then she got into the manufacturing of wetsuits and drysuits.  Dottie even did commercial diving.  What is amazing is that she did this in the 1940’s and 1950’s when women were not in such positions.  Dottie is a charter member of the Long Beach Neptunes and the Women Divers Hall of Fame.  At the time of this podcast (2016) Dottie was 94 years old – yet she still works in her garden every day, rides her motorcycle, and surfs!

 

Items in this Podcast

• First woman at freediving/spearfishing competitions
• L.A. County scuba certification
• First female L.A. County scuba instructor
• Penguin Wetsuits and Dive Shop
• Hard hat diving
• Tiburon Blanco Grande
• What was found on a mask and snorkel at the bottom of Catalina Island
• Long Beach Neptunes
• The ocean’s bounty then and now
• Kelp diving
• British Honduras, Glover’s Reef
• Advice for divers
• Health and diving

Resources

Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Scuba

Long Beach Neptunes Club

Women Divers Hall of Fame

Sponsor

Special thanks to our episode sponsor Aggressor Fleet

Thanks for Listening!

Thank you for joining me again. Do you want to give a shout out to our guest on this podcast? Leave a note in the comments section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The League of Extraordinary Divers podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! And, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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