James Blackman – Founder & Host of Divers Ready!
In this episode of The League of Extraordinary Divers I chat with founder and host of Divers Ready! YouTube channel.
Hey everybody welcome to another episode of the League of Extraordinary Divers. It’s so great to have you here with me today.
Okay, when we want to learn something quick – like a tip or some good advice, how many of you YouTube it? I certainly do. And when it comes to diving, one of the hottest, and in my opinion, best of the YouTubers in diving is today’s guest James Blackman. Check this out James’ YouTube channel is called Diver’s Ready and it at the time of this recording has over 47,000 subscribers! And one of his episodes on the future of diving has over 900,000 views! That’s huge!
James and I live just a short drive from each other so he had me on his My Dive Buddies Episode #2 where we drank beer and had a great conversation about diving. And so here in this episode I returned the favor, and again we are drinking beer at the Funky Buddha Brewery in Fort Lauderdale and having fun with him telling dive stories. Hmmm. There might be a pattern here, beer and diving stories.
Here’s a bit about James Blackman:
Bio
With a career in diving spanning twenty years, James has seen a thing or two in the dive industry. James grew up on the Southwest coast of Britain and learned to dive in the frigid waters of the English Channel. If your first dives were like being placed in a cocktail shaker full of cabbage soup and you come away with a love for the sport, then you know it’s going to be a life-long pursuit.
James spent his twenties in the British merchant marine which afforded him the opportunity to travel to and dive in far flung locales… 177 countries and counting. Between stints onboard a variety of vessels, James used his shore leaves to level up his scuba training… Rescue diver in Tanzania, DM in Indonesia, Instructor in Honduras, Tec Instructor in the French West Indies.
His last ship before moving to a shore-based life style was an expedition ship where he notched up some of his most impressive dives, including briefly holding the world record for most northerly scuba dive… 82 degrees north in the Russian arctic; diving the Amazon river; the Antarctic; and virgin reef systems in Papua New Guinea and Melanesia.
Moving ashore in his early thirties, James took on the role of General Manager for a luxury dive operator in St Martin and never had a dull moment! Hollywood visited the island and called upon James’ underwater skills for on-set safety. When Cat-3 hurricane Gonzalo devastated the area, James switched hats to salvage and public safety diver to help with the recovery.
Scuba Diving has given so much to James in his life… and first on that list is his brilliant wife Karina whom he met while teaching her AOW class! Yes, that old cliché! James and Karina are also business partners and co-owners of two power-house scuba brands. Miami Technical Diving has become the premiere scuba training facility in South Florida. Tired of seeing other dive shops compete in a ‘race to the bottom,’ James decided his model for teaching scuba would focus on keeping the quality as high as possible; using the best gear possible; teaching beyond the minimum standards on a 1-to-1 student-to-instructor ratio. The fullness of the MTD training calendar shows that people – student divers – will pay more for quality tuition.
James is the personality and knowledge broker behind ‘Divers Ready!’ a super influential Scuba Diving YouTube channel, website and brand. In its first year, Divers Ready! was the fastest growing You Tube channel in the Scuba Diving niche, and now has over 47 000 subscribers. Their weekly videos range from Mouthpiece Mondays – where James shares his insider knowledge and opinions about controversial topics in the dive industry – to practical ‘hints & tutorial’ style videos, all with one simple goal in mind – to make you a better diver!
James and Karina started small group luxury dive trips for the Divers Ready! audience. The 2021 line up includes Truk Lagoon, Palau, the Sardine Run in South Africa, Roatan and Curacao.
James and Karina live in Miami, FL with their rambunctious Husky; Ziggy and their two Maine Coon cats; Thumper and Foxy who remain unimpressed.
Items In This Podcast
- Learning to dive in the BSAC club model
- Truk Lagoon
- Caught in a down current
- The mystery of whale sharks
Tec Clark in the Divers Ready Studio!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YCSmSHI6Lc
Divers Ready Travel Offerings: https://www.diversready.com/travel.html
Epic Sardine Run Adventure!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmPcSGpuzl0
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/diversready?sub_confirmation=1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diversready
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diversready/
Divers Ready Swag Shop: https://teespring.com/stores/divers-ready-3
Miami Technical Diving: www.miamitechnicaldiving.com <http://www.miamitechnicaldiving.com>
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiamiTechnicalDiving
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miamitechnicaldiving/
Sponsor
Special thanks to our episode sponsor Aggressor Adventures
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!
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