In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast we learn strategies to work with the diving industry’s media sources.

Welcome To The Show!

Welcome to The Dive Locker Podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that make you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management and dive business.

In 1989, just one year after I became a scuba instructor my mentor said to our dive program staff you all should write and speak about diving. We kinda laughed it off. But he persisted by saying that we didn’t know just how good we were and that the industry could use some tips of how we do things. So, I took him up on that offer and I wrote a small piece for the YMCA Scuba Program’s Current and NAUI’s Sources, both were magazines produced by those two training agencies.

Over the years I have written and spoken at most of the diving industry’s trade and consumer shows, and I have had articles in several of the industry’s publications such as Skin Diver, Dive Training, Dive Business, and Alert Diver just to name a few. I have been on podcasts, radio shows, and have authored and edited books like Trailsides Guide to Diving, Graver’s Scuba Diving and Scuba America. And finally I have been quoted and or featured in media outside our industry such as Men’s Journal, ESPN Magazine, Outside Magazine, The Outdoor Channel, A&E channel, TLC. And of course today I have a website with numerous blog articles and two podcasts with nearly two hundred episodes.

I don’t tell you this to impress you, I tell you this because it all started as a challenge from my mentor. Today, not only do I want to challenge you to tell the industry something special and unique to you, but today I want to share with you how to do that. So to help you navigate the daunting world of scuba diving media sources, I interviewed Stephan Whelan founder of DeeperBlue.com – one of the diving industry’s largest media sources, to teach you how to work with the dive industry media.

Stephan Whelan

Here’s a bit about Stephan. Stephan is the Founder and Publisher of DeeperBlue.com.

Stephan got bitten by the diving bug early in life. His first scuba experience was a try-dive when he was eight years old on a family holiday in Europe, and from that moment, he was addicted. He learned to dive properly with BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club) as soon as he could at school and then did his BSAC Assistant Instructor when he turned 16. By the time he was heading to university in 1996, he was hooked on teaching and diving as much as he could.

By the time he started studying at university, he decided to have a go at flexing his web-design skills by publishing some of the stories he had built up about various ‘challenging’ students and dives he had encountered, and so deeperblue.net (as it was known then) was created. He published numerous personal stories until 1998 when other writers began enquiring about contributing to the site with their tales, and it was at this moment he decided to make it more like a magazine format and began asking for volunteer helpers. He got a couple of editors on board, and plenty of writers began contributing.

DeeperBlue.com (or DB as it’s become to be known) is now one of the most-popular diving websites in the world and has grown to publish over 9,700 articles covering all sorts of topics like Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy, and Diving Travel all the while keeping over half-a-million passionate divers from the diving community connected every month through the forums, large social media following, mobile app, and multi-award-winning podcast.

So, he is the man when it comes to media. Great knowledge and experience but also a great guy and a great friend.

Also, I want to give a shoutout to Ted Harty with Immersion Freediving, he is putting on the first ever Freediving Summit and today is day two of the summit of the three-day summit! This is where 29 of the worlds best in freediving are assembled for individual interviews on a variety of freediving topics. I absolutely have loved what Ive heard, I got early access to listen, and I’m blown away. So if you’re into freediving at all, or are even remotely interested in the sport, you’ve got to check it out.

Now here’s the thing if you can’t listen today or tomorrow, and you missed yesterday. Don’t worry! You can upgrade your free ticket to the All-Access Pass at any time and get unlimited access to a membership site where you can watch the interviews whenever is convenient for you as opposed to only having limited access from February 1st – 3rd.

This way, you can start watching the interviews on your schedule! Oh and with that all access pass, You’ll also get access to Ted’s most popular online freediving courses – Breath Hold Secrets and How To Activate Your Mammalian Dive Reflex.

Simply access the Freediving Summit by clicking here Freediving Summit

Items In This Episode

• press releases
• blogs
• forums
• podcasts
• magazines
• journals
• radio
• television
• training agencies
• who to and how to pitch your story

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Episode Sponsor

If you find this show adds value to you as a dive pro and you’d like to help support the show, please consider supporting it on Patreon. It’s only $4 per month – that’s only $1 per episode. When you become a supporter of The Dive Locker you’ll get a shout out from me on the next episode after you join. You will also be listed on the Patrons of Dive Locker Podcast webpage. And you will receive 10% off any ScubaGuru Academy course at the Patron level, and 20% off at the Rockstar level. And of course my undying appreciation for helping support the show.

Thanks For Listening!

That’s it for today, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher, that way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes Page at scubaguru.com . There you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care of my friends.

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