In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast we learn several considerations when becoming a technical diving instructor or offering technical diving at your dive center with James Blackman.
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.
Hi everyone, welcome to The Dive Locker. Thanks for being here today. As you know, technical diving is a major part of the diving industry. Many instructors are technical divers and even technical instructors. And many dive centers have technical dive offerings whether it be training or gear or both. But what are some of the considerations for not only having a technical diving presence in your dive center but in becoming a technical diving instructor yourself. We go over some considerations for going technical with my friend and host of Divers Ready! YouTube channel James Blackman.
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 off the English Channel.
His time in the British merchant marine afforded him the opportunity to travel to and dive in far away places. 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.
When he did move ashore James took on the role of General Manager for a luxury dive operator in St Martin.
James and his wife Karina are business partners and co-owners of two power-house scuba brands. Miami Technical Diving has become a premiere scuba training facility in South Florida. Instead of watching 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 education.
James is also the personality and knowledge broker behind ‘Divers Ready!‘ a super influential Scuba Diving YouTube channel, website and brand. In just a year, Divers Ready! has become the fastest growing You Tube channel in the Scuba Diving niche, with over 26,000 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 better divers!
James and Karina live in Miami, FL and that’s where I caught up with him in HIS dive locker.
Patron Shoutout
But before we get to it, this episode is sponsored by YOU! That’s right you can be a patron of The Dive Locker podcast! To be a patron is only $4 a month – that’s a dollar an episode. Not only do you help support my time and energy producing this show, but you also get some perks. You get a shoutout on an episode where I tell folks about you, also discounts on ScubaGuru Academy courses, a listing on our Patrons of Dive Locker Podcast webpage and my eternal gratitude!
And speaking of shoutouts last week I had someone come in just before I recorded the podcast so I couldn’t give him a proper shoutout. Thomas Jensen from Norway. He loves both The Dive Locker Podcast and the League of Extraordinary Divers Podcast and he says this, “In short, I am in my early forties and having grown up by the sea in the southernmost part of Norway – Kristiansand – I love all things involving salty seawater, be it swimming, freediving, sailing, kayaking, or diving. I am a PSS Dive master and PADI Master scuba diver and I will probably become an instructor next year. “
“I would love to work with diving one day, but it is not financially viable at the moment. I cherish every moment underwater and I consider myself extremely lucky to have experienced such a variety spanning from sharks, WW2 wrecks and sunken oil platforms to beautiful nudibranch. My main goal now is to experience more wrecks and learn more about technical diving. I dive a DIR rig with double 12L tanks and , as you can imagine, there is no other option than a dry suit in Norway.”
That’s awesome, thanks Thomas for being a patron of Dive Locker. If you’d like to help support this podcast and get your own shoutout on the show please check out the link to The Dive Locker’s Patreon page on the show notes or simply go to https://www.patreon.com/thedivelocker.
Items In This Episode
- Who should be a technical instructor
- An entire team makes up a technical offering in a dive center
- Gas supply considerations
- Retail equipment considerations
- Why boat captains need to specialize in technical diving operations
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 and 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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