Episode #249: 2026 Scuba Show, On Location With Host Ryan Foland — Part 1

This week’s host Ryan Foland joins us from the Scuba Show in Long Beach, California on May 30-31, to go behind-the-scenes at the diving event of the year.

In this Part 1 you’ll hear why scuba and sailors are a perfect match, the top and not-so-top places to go scuba diving, meet Scuba Queen USA 2025, soak in the sights and sounds of the wild event, and get a sneak preview of the incredible survival story of Chris Lemons.

Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:

• Meeting Kimber Collins, Scuba Queen USA 2025 
• The story behind the incident on September 18, 2012, aboard the Bibby Topaz
• Sneaking buddy Lawrence into the show
• Chris Lemons explains saturation diving 
• The dynamic positioning system that holds dive vessels in place 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!

Learn more at ScubaShow.com and connect with Ryan at Ryan.Online. 

Check out the episode and show notes below for much more detail.

Show Notes:

• Part 1: 2026 Scuba Show, On Location with Host Ryan Foland
  • [0:14] Welcome to Good Jibes with Latitude 38
  • [0:42] On location at the Scuba Show in Long Beach
  • [3:11] Talking with divers about favorite destinations, from Tahiti and Belize to a pass on Florida
  • [13:17] South Pacific Island Travel Booth: customized dive trips for “yachties” sailing from Fiji to the Solomons, and why sailors don’t have to dive to love the islands
  • [16:25] Check out Slip Ins dive skins 
  • [22:54] Catching the keynote on an introduction to the Deep Institute’s one-to-one scale training facility in the UK
  • [24:12] Meeting Kimber Collins, Scuba Queen USA 2025 
  • [28:39] Kimber’s top dive spots 
  • [34:56] Sneaking buddy Lawrence into the show 
  • [40:32] Meeting Chris Lemons, the diver portrayed by Woody Harrelson in Last Breath
  • [43:44] Chris Lemons explains saturation diving 
  • [45:19] The story behind the incident on September 18, 2012, aboard the Bibby Topaz, working 275 feet down in the North Sea in 35-knot winds and six-meter swells
  • [47:08] The dynamic positioning system that holds dive vessels in place 
  • [48:52] Closing thoughts from the shark cage 
  • Check out the June 2026 issue of Latitude 38 Sailing Magazine
  • Make sure to follow Good Jibes with Latitude 38 on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts
  • Theme Song: Pineapple Dream by SOLXIS

Transcript:

Please note, transcript not 100% accurate

00:02

We are Sun Protection. We are also… As a ginger, I appreciate that. That was one of the selling points last year.

00:14

Ahoy everybody,  we are locked and loaded  here in Long Beach, California  as  I get my rig together. Not my rig on my Cal 34 from 1977 whose name is Bingo,  but my rig which is a camera bag which I’ve latched over my shoulder, which I have the mixer in and I’ve got two microphones  and I just  rolled up  to the scuba show. The international scuba show.  I think it’s international.  And wow, as I’m in the parking lot,

00:44

Literally the first thing I see is killer whales jumping. Yes, I’m on the coast of Long Beach. However, the killer whales are stuck in time on the Weiland painting on the famous Long Beach Convention Center. I love this building. And you know what? Well, first of all, I need to figure out where I’m walking to towards the orcas. Let me make sure to lock my car. You know how sometimes you go and then you are, you know, recording a podcast while you park and then

01:14

You forget whether or not you locked your car? Well, that was me. Back to the scoop here. So the Weiland, if you’ve never seen it, Weiland painted the Long Beach Convention Center and it is  sweet with full Weiland underwater scene.  And as we head that way, I did hear a rumor. And when I say hear a rumor, I mean saw on Instagram that Weiland  might be doing something for the Olympics. So keep an eye out for that.

01:43

Well, we talked about the podcast, but I haven’t formally introduced  the show. My name is Ryan Foland and I’m your host today on Good Jibes, a sailing podcast brought to you by Latitude 38,  a sailing magazine that’s been around serving the community since 1977. All right,  I’m up the stairs. I’m still in the parking lot  trying to find my way as a labyrinth here. Look, this podcast  is usually about sailing, but guess what? A lot of sailors,  including me,

02:13

not only love to be on the water,  in the water.  And I’ve been scuba diving since I was  13 years old. I actually got certified  on Catalina Island by Harrison Hall back in the day. But I love to dive.  I do more lobster diving than anything these days and a lot of free diving,  obsessed with the breath and all of that stuff.  But I just, there’s something magical underwater. I was just spearfishing, free diving at  Catalina.

02:42

this last weekend  and we were out at Shiprock after trying Eagle Rock and  I this juvenile seal who was like attacking me like charging me and then doing 360 flips and whatnot and it was just such a fun moment  underwater and I’m about to roll up on a conference with a whole bunch of people who  are interested in diving. I gotta get softer here because  sometimes people get weird.

03:11

You guys headed to the scuba show? All right. Well, have you ever heard of the magazine Good Jibes? I’m sorry, Latitude 38? It’s a sailing magazine. Are you guys sailors or just divers? Yes. Well, we’re recording a live podcast. So I hope you guys have a good show. What are you looking forward to this year at the show? Fun. Finding fun. Are you going to find some cool places to go dive? Yes.  All right. Well, I’ll see you in there. All right. Thank you.

03:40

People are looking for fun places to dive. Now this is my second year here. And the first year I didn’t really know what to expect.  And I found so many booths and exhibitors that were showcasing like these crazy exotic trips to go travel and scuba. Travel and dive with the sharks. Full on experiences. So I’m excited to see some more of those. And this time, being the second year around, I have coordinated a little bit better and  asked to

04:10

interview some of the guest speakers that they’ve got here. So fingers crossed  if Amy’s able to hook me up and the timing’s right, we’re going to talk with some pretty interesting folks today. I see  the line queuing here. I’m going to make my way inside.

04:29

here at the Long Beach  Convention Center, specifically the Pacific Ballroom. Pacific Ballroom, if you’re gonna meet me down here.  Scuba Show, Hall A.  Oh, so I’m in the wrong spot?  They did, okay.  So tell me the directions again. It’ll be up the stairs, make a left on the building, the theater, go straight across the bridge and make another left. All right.  Well.

04:59

It looks like they changed the entrance so I’ve got a little walking to do. But you know what? This is when I’m going to text Amy, my media contact here, and I’m going to have her see about getting me in front of some cool people so we can talk and meet. All right. That’s it. Ready? Set? I’ll be back in a minute.

05:18

Well, we’ve been walking for a little bit.  It’s a beautiful day out. And I now see the  big blow up scuba, I don’t know, figure. So I’m definitely headed in the right spot. people I walked by, some people were, you know, colorful about the situation of having to walk a little bit. But it reminds me of  life underwater. Sometimes  the current is going in the wrong direction, but you know what?

05:46

You just got to swim through it, you just got to walk through it, and you got to take a positive attitude. So we got the line queuing here in security. Hopefully they’ll let me get through with my equipment and all of the Latitude 38. All right,  no outside food or drinks.

06:04

Nope.  Thank you. Hello.

06:11

This is podcast equipment,  two microphones. I’ve got a media pass. Unzip it all, make sure there’s nothing I shouldn’t have in there. Some batteries.

06:25

No, I have a phone.

06:30

Like what now?

06:33

my car keys. Alright, I passed security.  Yay. Alright, let me pack up here.

06:43

All right, we’re on the move again. Oops, I went the wrong way through that. Sorry. Thanks guys.  Woo,  heavy security.  But they did let me in with a box of Latitude  38s. So this is good.  How you doing, sir? Good. All right.  Woo, it’s air conditioning here. I like that. Scuba Show registration. I’m going go see if I can find, now it’s not Amy, it’s actually Anne. I realized I had her name wrong. Let’s get our media pass.

07:14

I’m gonna put these down. You guys want a magazine? You ever heard of Latitude 38 if you’re into saline? It’s a magazine that’s been around since 1977. Yeah, you guys can have a copy. I’m gonna get my media pass. I’m recording for a podcast, good jives, but yeah, great magazine. Good local stories and stuff.

07:36

Everybody loves the Latitude 38. Alright,  let’s pause as I wait in line here.

07:44

I just put you on speakerphone and we’re now on the podcast. So tell me about the new stuff.  I found everybody. I want you to talk to the owner. He’s so much. It’s much more comprehensive.  OK, OK. One of the new things is the main stage. And if you go to the main stage at noon,  Chris Lemons is going to be speaking and he’s got this amazing story.

08:09

I read about him. there a way I could… Is there a way I could… I can meet is it possible to meet him before he goes up? Because afterwards he’ll probably be chaos. Are you coming just today or today and tomorrow? Just today. I don’t have his… I can’t text him. Okay. And I can’t necessarily… I’ll look for him and we know he’ll be there around 12 and I’ll see you at 12-15 at the pool. How’s that? Yeah, I mean I can for sure… I can set something up after…

08:36

I mean, we’ll pull him away from whatever he’s doing. Yeah, even if it’s just a little quick interview. Quick something. All right, well very cool. Thanks so much. Good luck with the run. I appreciate all Okay, I’ll see you at 12.15. All right, thanks. Thanks. Bye. Well, there we have it. We just heard from not Amy, but Anne. She’s making a FedEx run for a friend that’s got a booth. I’m gonna go to the exhibitor hall, then I’m gonna go to the stage around 12. There’s a very special guest, guy, Mr. Lemon, who…

09:05

had a crazy uh incident  underwater at about 300 feet.  And it’s documented in the most recent movie you might have heard about called Last Breath with Woody Harrelson as the star. So fascinating story. I’m trying to get some time with him. That’ll be cool. But for now, I’m going to stack up and head on out with my box of Latitude  38s  and microphone set up. And we’ll snap in so that we’re safe.

09:34

Secured my sunglasses.  Make sure that we are recording. That’s always good. Yep. Turn this down a little bit.  And we’re rocking.  Hey, you guys made it!

09:50

No, tickets are right there. All right, my friends from before, good to see you. See that, making friends. All right, we’re going through. Scan our QR code. oh I’m going the wrong way, you’re following me. Yep, a little like lobster diving and just getting two close quarters and running in the wrong direction. No? Okay, let’s go. I’m immediate, I don’t need to wait. Ms. Scuba Queen USA, hello. Are you free for a five minute impromptu interview or are you headed out?

10:20

All right, Miss Scuba 20 something because I couldn’t see what was on her dash, but wow, how exciting. We’re meeting all kinds of fun people and I’ll look for her on the floor. Oh. It’s gonna be a good time here. So I’m glad that you’re joining me. This is a little different than our normal sit down interview podcast, but if I do get a hold of some of the keynote speakers, that’s gonna be pretty cool.

10:47

We’re also going to try to find Seamus, my buddy who I went spearfishing with last week in Catalina. And boy, oh boy, do we have a fishing story for you. And maybe I’ll retell it if we find him. All right. I’ve entered. Big old blue, baby blue, it says scuba. People are lining up, taking their photos. Little father son photo. Do you want to be in there? Do you want me to take that so you get in there? OK, all right. All right. It’s a family affair here.

11:15

See a mannequin in a dry suit, booth 422. This is a big haul. So we got some merch on the right. There’s one, two, three, four, five, maybe six or seven rows. And it looks pretty packed as far as this goes. I think I’m going to start off at the first row. Here we go. What I am gonna do is roll up some Latitude 38 magazines.

11:45

and uh then I’ll use it to show people and then I’ll hand a few out at the same time. All right, so we’re on the move. I got to get my other microphone ready. Hello, sir. How are you doing today? Have you ever heard of the magazine Latitude 38? Are you a sailor at all? No? Well, I’ve got a podcast going. Do you mind answering a couple questions about what you’ve seen so far?  Sure. Yeah, so here you can hold on to this  at the bottom there. Yeah, it’s like a good grip. There you go. And you just speak right into it. Once you.

12:13

Introduce yourself. Who are you and how far did you come to see the show?  San Clemente. San Clemente, okay. About 40 miles. And are you a diver, I assume? I am a diver. What is your diving style? Are you the travel diver? Are you a Catalina diver? Travel diver. Travel diver, all right. I like warm water. Yes, all right. So top three places that you’ve been and then the one place to not go? Tahiti, Belize,  almost anywhere else. Tahiti, Belize. What’s another top three? um Probably Roatan.

12:43

Okay, and then what’s the one place to not go? I didn’t care much for diving in Florida. Okay, awesome. Well, thank you, sir. I hope you have a good rest of the show. Okay, thank you. All right, there we go. Three places to dive and one one to not go.

12:57

Florida, he said he didn’t want to go in Florida. All right, got a rum reggae booth. We got demos going on. South Pacific Island travel. These ladies look like they want to chat. What’s going on, ladies?  Are you calculating all the sales from today? that?

13:17

Well, I’m here with a podcast. You want to say hi? Yeah, so it’s just recorded here. uh Have you ever heard of the magazine Latitude 38? No, I haven’t. All right. Well, this is a popular sailing magazine and sailors like to scuba. Sailors love to scuba. And I see you’ve got a blow up palm tree. You’ve got koozies.  You’ve got, you know, this crazy South Pacific island trap.  You got pens too? Absolutely. So tell me about where in the world you help people dive and why.

13:45

We’re South Pacific Island Travel and we have people that we like to customize so they get the best trip that they want to have a lifetime for a wonderful holiday to anywhere in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia. So you cover that whole area? We cover all of it, and the Philippines. Are there any places that you deal with sailors who want to like sail in or you coordinate with them on sailboats? Yes, there’s a lot, what they call yachties that love to go from Biji to the Solomons.

14:10

That’s always a big one right there. And then you get your yachties that go into Micronesia from Guam to Palau or Yap. So you got some big sailors out there that have great diving.  Awesome. So for the sailors that don’t dive, how can you try to get them on off the proverbial fence? Because there’s

14:26

We have sailors you dive and sailors you don’t and I think everybody expects each other. still can enjoy the islands and just the breeze of the South Pacific is perfect by sailing around enjoying that. Yes this is true and you don’t necessarily have to dive to explore the entire environment. Most of the time you’re hanging out here you’re probably on the boat not underwater. Wow what is this is there’s a lot of stuff going on here. That would be Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea okay.  That would be uh land base. So you have so many places up here.

14:56

All right, I asked somebody a second ago, top three spots to go in one place you shouldn’t go. Rajah Ampat, Fiji, Micronesia. And then where to not go, but Europe. Europe.  All right, thank you so much. And if somebody wants to check out South Pacific Travel, how do they find you? Hi, this is Donna, South Pacific Island Travel. We’re booth 114. Nice. All right. Thank you. We’ll see you soon.

15:21

Are you thinking of sailing to Mexico or all the way across the Pacific or maybe even further?  We just heard from Joanna and Cliff saying, husband and I subscribe to Latitude 38 and enjoy the Good Jibes podcast regularly.  They went on to say they’re headed to Mexico in the fall and will continue across the Pacific to Australia.  However, they’re looking to simplify all the choices  they need to make to prepare. Of course, there’s tons of resources out there, but Latitude 38 does have a page in our website called Heading South.

15:51

And we also have LATITU38’s First Timers Guide to Mexico  available to read online on the Heading South page  or a printed copy  that is available to purchase in our online store.  There’s a lot to know, but latitu38.com is a good place to start. Jack’s diving locker, reef rainforest, paddy. Wow, lots of crazy underwater cameras. They look like they’re

16:20

from space. Let’s keep cruising.

16:25

All right,  star boating. Fire is like not fire, but safety thing over here. We got definitely a safety thing. Ahoy, it’s been a whole year. You guys remember me? Yes, you’re the shark guy.  I’m the shark guy. Yes, you interviewed me in the shark tank. That was some great footage. Thank you. Would you like to say hello to our listeners a year later?  Hi, listeners. And where are we at? Are we at the world’s finest dive skins and swimwear? Is that where we are?

16:49

Most certainly. It makes me think of the movie Elf where he comes in and he’s like, congratulations! Congratulations! You have the best coffee in the world. So what makes you… Is this part of the new team? Were you here last year? She’s an original. An OG. Would you like to say hi to the original? Oh, sure. Well, yeah, here you go. All right. So we have the OG because we hung out last year.

17:12

Hi, my name’s Rachel. Rachel, we still don’t even know what this is and people are listening so they can’t see what you guys are wearing and all of the bright colors. feels like this is like like yoga meets… Meets diving. It’s kind of like a almost want to say skydiving almost. Skydiving, yeah. It’s like yoga skydiving gear. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. the water. So tell people about this. What? It’s a full body suit? It’s a full body bathing suit. We got thumb holes and foot stirrups and a zip up the very front.

17:40

And we are Sun Protection. are also… As a ginger, I appreciate that. That was one of the selling points last year. Yes. Sun Protection. also Stinger Protection. so… Oh, that’s right. Jellyfish, Portuguese Manowar, Fire Coral,  all of those different stingers it actually protects you against. I know because I’ve tried it myself. OK, you’re live in the… Now, the real debate is whether I would be comfortable in a onesie. And we talked about this last time. You do have male onesie versions? Yes, absolutely. Yes. And like a whale shark  or a…

18:10

A great white maybe or? Carbon fiber. my gosh, that’s right. Yeah. Do you find many men are buying these or is it? Yes, actually. um As time goes on, we see more and more men buying them. think because they see each other on the dive boats and seeing how.

18:24

comfortable these men are. say cool they look, but yes. No cool, but also comfortable, truly. You know, being in warm water and diving and not really wanting to wear a wetsuit because it’s so darn warm, but still needing some kind of sun protection  and also needing stinger protection because it’s usually the stinging animals that like to be in the same warm water that we like to dive. Yes. So a lot of men are

18:44

them now because they actually like having the stinger protection.  And it is the best made dive skin on the market. Dive skin, that’s what it’s called. That’s the genre, dive skin. Dive skin, yeah. It’s just softest material. It’s the most high quality material.  We have the least amount of seams and zippers. It’s all made and manufactured in Orange County, California, so USA made. And we have the most fun prints by far. We design all of our own prints. They’re pretty wild. And it wasn’t he the master designer of the prints, if I remember? Yes, that’s Rick Rickman. is the

19:14

who’s typing in the sales, just raking in the money. Remember me, buddy?  Yeah. You guys were cautious last year, like, who’s this guy with microphones? So we’re just cruising. How is, well, thank you. Would you like to introduce this gentleman so we can catch up with him real quick? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So here we go. This is Rick Rickman. He is the founder and designer extraordinaire. Thank you, Rachel. Appreciate it. Hello. Hey, it’s good to see you back here another year. How’s this year been? ah I just got here.

19:41

struggling with the… No, I’m talking about this whole last year.  Oh, the last year has been really good. Yeah, think you were really excited about the products that were happening and you’ve been selling these skins and new designs and things. We’ve had some really nice um new additions  and this year is  especially fun because  it’s the first time we’ve done  neoprene.

20:04

Tell me about that neoprene. That’s like wetsuit material? Spring suits. Spring suits. have a two mil spring suit. Like a full body spring suit? No, it’s  a swimsuit.  Okay.  And they’re beautiful. uh you know, have designs.  The neoprene is printed. thicker for colder water essentially. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit warm, you know, so you’re comfortable in California temperature water. Right. Awesome. Well, if people want to check it out, get some skins for themselves, where do we send them?

20:34

um to slipins.com.  Slipins.com. All right.  Don’t misspell that. might end up somewhere else.  Slipins.com is the place where you’ll find the best sun protection.  You’ll slip into sun protection. That’s exactly right. Now, do you guys market to sailors very much? Like, as a sailor, would a typical sailor know? And remember, we’ve got this magazine with sailors. Do you see?

21:02

Is that a market for you? We do a lot of boaters. OK, yeah. And uh they seem to love us because they keep coming back.  I can imagine like, you know, because I’ll be either foil boarding or I’ll be in a laser or something that’s super light. And even from the sunscreen perspective, I think it’d be interesting, like to check out the bodysuit. But I don’t know. I mean, I’m confident, but I just don’t know.  Oh, you’ll look great in it.

21:30

How much does one of these things run? But I mean, yeah, I mean, how much does it run? it still? The full suit is 185. 185. That’s for the new warm one or for just the? No, that’s just for the… Holy moly, that’s a new BCD. The dive skin. the spring suit, which is beautiful. He rolled his eyes right there. Like I was a very pat… 245. 245. Yeah. That is beautiful.

21:58

Interestingly enough, is this the carbon fiber? Yes.  Yeah,  that’s your carbon fiber dye skin. Yeah. Well, how about this? If you guys want to sponsor me and give me one,  I will create some content with it in it and I will. You can get me sailing in it  and get me foil boarding in it. It’d be kind of fun and might be some interesting exposures. I don’t know if you do any micro influencer marketing, but we’re not going around,  not going anywhere.  Forty year publication. So I think I pitched it last year, but now that I’m back, maybe you take me more seriously. So.

22:27

Okay, well, why don’t you come back at an hour before the end of the show and we’ll see what we have left. Okay, I might not be here. So I’m going to come by before I leave and I’ll try to pitch you again. That’ll be good. All right. Thank you, buddy. All right. Take care. And thank you to the crew. Appreciate it.  All right. My friends from last year, I’m trying to negotiate getting a onesie. I do hate sunscreen. Okay, scuba show. Let’s see. Oh, wow.

22:54

We have a guest speaker here. right, there’s a keynote speech going on here. Full audience. We’re looking at a big boat.

23:21

But this is the simulator, the one to one scale trainer that is actually in the Deep Institute in the UK. And one of the things that they have with the Deep Institute is a 600 meter long, 100 meter wide, 80 meter deep quarry, which is a high performance development center. And the idea around that is a number of offerings in which to make humans aquatic.

23:52

And right now going in  is a saturation training facility.

24:00

I know I’m at the end of my time here. All right, trying to give you a little scoop of that. Here was some livable habitat that was… Oh wait, I found my friend that I saw outside. The miss…

24:12

scuba 2000 something. Let’s say hi. Your majesty, I found you. Hello. Here’s a microphone for you. Okay. Scuba queen, would you like to introduce yourself and say hi? Yes. Hi, I’m Kimber Collins. I’m scuba queen USA 2025 representative. Got chosen in September in Pensacola at some of the top divers from USA come and compete. And luckily I got the crown. Got to go represent USA in Malaysia, the Miss Scuba International pageant. Wow. I would say we cleaned up pretty well.

24:42

Well, Ryan, I got second place.  Miss Congeniality, Miss Marine Conservation.  brought the knowledge and really represented it on the international stage.  Well, I feel like we should have our entire separate podcast to dive into that because there’s so much meat and potatoes  within there that we could talk forever. But what brings you here  aside from the fact that you are the scuba queen? are you just  you are just representing going booth to booth, helping people out  and you’re listening. Who’s listening now is a bunch of sailors.

25:12

So this is Good Jibes, we’re a podcast on the West Coast by a magazine that’s been around for 40 years.

25:19

I’m a sailor, I love to scuba, I love to free dive, uh ocean is my potion.  But do you talk or hang out with many sailors?  You know sailboats are my second love.  In Northwest Florida where I live, now I live in Hawaii,  but I lived in Destin and the sailboat community there is  one of the largest fishing vessel fleets and the sailboats and the fishermen like to go back and forth on what boats are better, right? Yes, of course. The sailboats, we had a lot of fun there and I mean for a sailor,  men or women, our whole thing is just uplifting ocean conservation.

25:48

you can’t get on any boat without the captain saying oh we also have this conservation thing or this is what we learned about this animal and I feel like that’s what connects  us even scuba queen can connect with anyone as long as you love the ocean and love animals. can connect with everyone yes very true. Connection leads to conservation so even us just talking here someone hears it they’re like oh her favorite animal is a sea turtle mine is too. Mine’s a water bear. Oh well I love water bears. Water bears are the cool

26:14

People don’t know how cool water bears are.  They have survived five extinctions.  They are tiny microscopic. They look like little fat pigs with six legs. And they look like monsters. they’re so inspiring because  they never say die.  Now, I also like the fact that they’re water bears. And we’re talking about water here.  But your favorite animal is a sea turtle.

26:36

Underwater animal and water turtle on land. It’s a koala bear because they’re cuddly and I love them I can see the parallel I can see the parallel sea turtles I’ve done a lot of conservation work, especially northwest Florida and now green turtles no longer in danger Look what we did applause great job. What a win scuba queen for the win  We’ve done so much work on the northwest coast of Florida  and in Hawaii There’s a lot of love for the Honu. So that’s been I’ve been around them so much So they’re my passion my  my passion project with animals, but I would say coral

27:06

are also wherever the conservation leads us there. We can do some heat resilient coral. Tell me about heat resilient coral. So they’re taking broken fragments of the coral in Hawaii and they’re like why is this dying? Yes. It’s because of the heat so they’ll take it and they’ll test it  and keep testing different strains and breed this and do some genetic testing on coral.  Which ones are more resistant to heat?  Let’s plant those.  We’re speeding up.

27:30

the evolution.  Exactly. We know if they’re going to get hotter. Great. Let’s plant the coral that’s not going to die in 10 years. Let’s plant the coral that has 30 plus years  before we have to try to do this again.  So we’re there really some good  strands and different  avenues. Conservation is going and we’re lucky to be a part of it. Yeah. What initially got you into the ocean life?  I did my first scuba dive when I was nine in Mexico. My family did it with me  and I took off like a fish underwater. My family did not.  And being from

28:00

Dallas Fort Worth, Texas. I was landlocked, didn’t get the try again until I moved to Mobile, Alabama on the Gulf Coast. Got certified in 2019 and it opened everything. Did a bunch of live aboards in the Bahamas with All-Star, believe they’re here at the show. And it just opened up this avenue of the underwater world that I love and needed to be on the ocean forever. So my Instagram name is now Kimber on the Coast. I don’t think I’m allowed to move away from the water. What do I do? Change my Instagram name? What do I have to do? You know what? You’ve locked yourself in.

28:30

and that you’ve committed and that’s very important.  I’ve asked a few people here, top three places to dive and one place to not go. oh

28:39

I’m going to be partial to the Bahamas. I did my advance there and the visibility is endless. Now would you just classify that as just one huge chunk or are there so many? The Exumas. Okay. Yeah, around the Exumas the visibility is unbeatable. that’s one. how, wait, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. Visibility, I got excited about that. When you, like, how crystal clear, how far, is it just?  I can see from the boat, if you have your sailors out there,  you look straight down.

29:03

hundred  sixty hundred eighty two hundred feet you can see the animals on the bottom Wow  like crystal clear I remember seeing my first bull shark  and I could see everything about it and I’m way too high up  and it was that clear and once you’re in the water as a diver  you can see  and is the water all warm there too oh gosh it’s tropical paradise so yeah Bahamas is number one what’s number two? Mauna Loa Bay in Hawaii  okay that is where you can’t do a dive there and not see at least four sea turtles coming swimming around you the manta ray

29:33

like to come play and they’ll do their feeding up at the top. It’s the wildlife there and the environment. There’s animals I can’t see anywhere else. Yes, there’s always turtles. Always turtles. At least four turtles every dive. It blows my mind. So yeah, I love, Mauna Loa Bay, what they have going on on Oahu. so we got Mauna Loa Bay and then the Bahamas. Now what’s the third round out for the top top? I have to choose location or can I choose type of diving? You are the, you are the queen, so technically it does up to you. oh, well okay. I’m gonna say lionfish

30:03

diving in northwest Florida.  What does that mean? Live fish diving? the lionfish.  So we’ll go down there with pole spears and they’re an invasive species.  in Pensacola it’s a lot of fun because you go down to a wreck  and it’s like picking up trash and you’ll see these huge boats that have been sank as artificial reefs. Especially around Destin. the fish that you’re smacking? They’re the fish, the That’s exciting. So you take a pole spear and you get them out of the water and they’re edible. They’re a perfect white fish you can eat. Wow. can,  exactly. So if your sailors are out there, start trolling for lionfish. have seen

30:33

them 200 feet or more at depth. Okay, now those are the top three so what’s the one place that we should avoid? Don’t say it too loud. I don’t want to crush the industry here. would just avoid cold diving. I’m not a cold diver yet. I love my tropical waters. I like my Hawaiian print bathing suits. It’s kind of like a constant ice bath though. It’s just refreshing. makes you feel alive. I haven’t done my dry suit yet. Have you dove in here in the West Coast? In California?

31:01

I went to Catalina, have not dove Catalina. I’m hoping to next spring. Okay, well when you do,  let me know. I’m always out there. Got it, Ryan. And then we’ll do an  underwater podcast.  What do mean? I’ll have to do some research, but there’s got to be some underwater communication gear. We can figure it out.  Do you know of any? Like, aren’t people like walkie-talkie underwater? OTS has some. OTS, yes. And I think they’re right down the road here at our booth.  Okay, so how about this? How about this play?

31:30

Either we or I collectively, we talk to OTS and we say, look, we’d like to propose to do an underwater podcast. All we need is the equipment and we can even give it back. We just need the equipment.  And then.

31:43

I mean it might be a first of a kind. I’ve done boatcast before but not a scuba cast. It sounds interesting. I’m a news reporter by trade. So I work in Hawaii as a news reporter in a television anchor  and I love to do these stories. I’m the only certified reporter I know of out there.  So I can go dive, do my interview before,  go dive with everyone, get my footage, come right back up, do another interview and shoot my stand up underwater showing something and dub it over later and it’s so fun. Like it’s a different news story people don’t get to see.  So that’s how I do it.

32:13

water, I’m going to be unstoppable. Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s the Queen Scuba podcast. That’s how I get, you know, the fish behind me really rally them up.

32:21

As a scuba queen. Not the lionfish though. Not the lionfish. Well no. Different, only Northwest Florida bad lionfish. They’re from Asia, they’re supposed to be there, they do great. There are some in Hawaii, different type of lionfish, they do great. Specifically in Northwest Florida, if you can go, get them out. And they will, they’ll just lay there and they’ll let you. They’re just picking up trash. They don’t fight it. Awesome. Well.

32:44

You’re going to have to point me into the boot direction and that’s where I’m to go next. And all of our listeners will sort of follow this journey over the next few years as it plays out. But at least I have my first podcast guest interview. Let’s figure it out, Ryan. And I bet you you could probably be diving like on the East Coast and I could dive on the West Coast if it connects to Wi-Fi or like to the Internet. Could you imagine that? Wow. mean, humanity can’t be stopped. We can figure it out. work under there. Like we can interview fish. They might not have much to say.

33:12

but silence speaks volumes. Absolutely. Well, this has been a hoot. Thank you for talking. Of course. Thanks for having me, Ryan. And I’m serious about this. We need to connect. your Instagram again for those who now want to follow your journey. It is at Kimber on the Coast. So Kimber Lee without the Lee on the Coast. OK, awesome. Well, cheers. Excellent. Thank you, Ryan. Yes, and thanks to  thanks to Alicia. She’s a former queen.  Ah, former queen. Once a queen, always a queen. Yes. Well, here, let’s take a quick selfie. I’ll hand the microphone back to you.

33:41

Alright, here we go. With royalty. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Ray. Alright. Have fun. Yes, I’m off to the what booth? OTS. OTS booth. Right down the road, should be the last one on the right. OTS, okay. Hey, good jobs listeners and Latitude 38 readers. Have you looked in our classy classifieds lately?

34:05

It would be impossible for us to know how many boats have sold to new owners over the last 45 plus years of publishing Latitude 38. But we’re sure they have helped countless people realize their sailing dreams. Every month there are new boats listed that will fill someone’s sailing adventures. If you have a boat you want to sail or are looking for that next boat in your life, the pages of Latitude 38 will surely have something to suit your fancy.

34:29

Pick up a magazine at a local marine business  or visit our classy classified pages at latitude 38.com to find boats, gear, job opportunities and more.  Then tell us your next sailing story. Well, that was a fun conversation. So now  I’m going to go try to sneak my buddy in because I was driving in his hood here in Long Beach where I live and I was like, Lawrence, let’s go to the  show. So he showed up.

34:56

And I’m going to see if I can walk him in with my media pass.  So we’ll learn in real time if this works or not. All right, I see him. Lawrence! What’s up, buddy? Good to see you.  I got your stuff here. All right.  Let’s go. What do you need me to carry? Well, I’m going to have this. You help me with this down here.  Oh, this is the one that goes down.

35:21

He’s with me with media.

35:26

We’re fine. I’m Anne at the booth at 12.15, so we’re right on. Thank you.

35:32

All right.  My man,  we made it. made it. Sara’s a little awkward there. was like, let’s go. And then we walked past security. And then what’d do? Did she stop us?  Yes.  OK, let’s debrief real quick. Hang on a second. That was so successful.  All right, Lawrence, my man, here’s your microphone. Say hi to everybody.  What’s up, everyone?  Let me check your volume, because you’re allowed, dude. Say hi again. What’s up, everyone? Oh my gosh. I need to turn you down. All right. Well, Lawrence,  we just snuck you into the scuba show.

36:02

But you’re part of the team. You’re part of the team. I love crashing parties. You know, and this year to guard, she’s like,  is he with you? I’m like, yeah, media. And she’s like, doesn’t he need a badge? I’m like,  no, he doesn’t. He’s with me.  And it worked out. Well, you VIP. All right. lot of exciting stuff happening here. First of all, stop. Yes. Now, people might recognize you from a prior podcast episode  where we had a crazy ass adventure.  The engine basically  overheated and blew up. How much fun?

36:31

Mr. Nigel, shout out to Nigel. Nigel, we miss you.  We miss you, bro. If you didn’t listen to that episode, it’s definitely worthwhile. It was pretty exciting. We had three dudes, one who knew how to sail, one who didn’t. That’s Lawrence here.  And we had some major malfunctions and we worked through all the struggles and we tapped into our entrepreneurship. Yes. It was an entrepreneurship. And got our ship together. Yes. Speaking of which, that’s my new book series. And if you haven’t gotten your copy of Speaker’s Ship,

37:00

Then you should go to Amazon and search for Speaker Ship, how you can command your stage and steer your impact. That’s my little infomercial for my book. And Entrepreneurship,  part of my Getting Your Ship Together series, is coming out in August, so watch out for it. Wow.  All right, so Lawrence, have you ever scuba dived before?  I’ve never scuba dived. Now have you ever snorkeled before? I’ve just dove in the water and swam around and looked around.

37:26

Rippers we we snorkeled. Oh wait, you just had your goggles on though, huh? Yeah, I was totally doing some kid and like the South Pacific Diving in and swimming around hair flowing through the water Doing a frog stroke you were And I think you got really cold and you just you just charged through it. but you’re a swimmer you swim a lot Yeah, yes, you’re comfortable in the water. You just don’t breathe underwater. Well

37:51

I’ll be honest with you, first time I got a chance to swim since I’ve been in Long Beach was the other week. And I may have done maybe a 700, well, a 500 and a 200. But it was paced. It was slow. I survived. 700 yards? Well, 700. So. 700 miles? No, no, no. 700 meters. OK. So like a 500 is if you’re in a 25 meter pool, which is like kind of like the standard. OK, like Olympic kind of style?

38:21

Oh, maybe not. Okay. uh Well, Olympic is probably more like 100 meter. Okay. And then you have some pulls like my high school pull. We had 90 meter too. Okay. But 25 meter is what you generally compete on. And so you do 20 of those 25 meter laps. That’s a long way. Yeah, just flip turns, but it’s like slow, easy.  I mean,  you have a pace if you have like some endurance and you have some history swimming, your body has uh muscle memory history. Okay. You know, well,

38:49

For as much time as I’m in the water, I don’t do as much swimming, but I need to join in one of these swimming. So this is welcome to the scuba show. What do you think? What’s your first impression? What do you see? I see masks and I’m thinking about Masters of the Universe coming out and they have to have like an aqua mask. That thing totally looks like like a a doomsday mask, like full face breathing. Full face breathing. All right. What else do you see? I see some really cool like t-shirt prints. The t-shirt prints are cool. Those are fun.

39:18

And then I see like just  rows  and columns and rows of different vendors.  And I want to explore this. OK, so you randomly choose one. OK. Let’s go. Which way do you want to go? Let’s just go straight. All right, let’s go straight. Yeah. I like it. Watch out for the big scuba sign here. Yes. Actually, should we get a photo  while we’re on the podcast in front of the scuba thing? Yeah, why not? Let’s see. Maybe  this gentleman will take a photo of us. Sir, will you take a photo of us? Are those your girls you just took a photo of? All right, here.

39:48

Thank you so much. All right, we’re live on a podcast taking a photo at the scuba show. Here we go.  Wait, should I hold my cup?  I don’t know. You have a microphone and a cup. Maybe put it behind you and then we’ll stand in front. Yeah, there we go. All right, here we go.

40:04

Nice, we do one vertical too for the Instagram. Yeah, there you go. We got the scuba in here. Cheese, awesome. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. This is awesome. All right, let’s head down this way. Okay. We got to look out for a guy I met here last year. His name is Clark. And he’s got some travel business. Dude, all these all of these things are like

40:32

Resorts where people go and dive or yeah trips or charters that they dive yeah And if you see any one or anything that looks interesting Did you see the movie last breath  no, but that guy’s here no oh I’m supposed to interview him so you’ll get to meet him yes.  great So I haven’t seen it, but I read an article about him. Yeah, the guy I forget is the first name, but last name is  Lemon okay, and we’re meeting Anne in five minutes actually at the pool okay, and then his talk

41:01

After his talk, I think we get to sit down talk with him. Oh, that would be wonderful. Did you see the movie? I did. Oh, was it crazy? It was awesome. I read the article about it it just looked insane. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty awesome. For people who didn’t see it, well, I don’t know if we can spoiler alert, but  it was like a full-on Hollywood film that they put together. Oh yeah, absolutely.  Absolutely. Woody Harrelson, I think, played him. Yeah.

41:22

Yeah, mean, was, Woody Harrelson, he was like the big star in the movie. And so, you know, the name that kind of carried the movie. But just the story alone was very like Harold and and like adventurous. And he was like he was like 300 feet of water and he’s like doing pipe repairs and something went wrong. And oh, yeah. And he I don’t know if it was 300 feet. I think it was deeper than that. I could be wrong. Oh, my gosh. This is great.

41:52

This is a photo booth. These guys are getting silly with it.  Hang on, this is good. Let’s go. This is a good. Yes.

42:02

Yeah!  Get em! Get em! Rawr! Get em! uh

42:11

This is excellent. Yes. And these are my friends here. know the queen and the prior queen. This is my buddy Lawrence. came to… Scuba queen? Yes. Well scuba queen I was literally going to make up a word. Scuba queen. Has been taken. Look, scuba queen USA. She’s a scuba queen. Yes.

42:33

And we everyone can be a scuba queen or my name is Ryan’s on the little king So I’ll be this gubit is there a scuba king or is it just the Queen’s oh, this is starting to sound like a bad Maybe I’ll be all right. We got let’s go. All right. We are having fun. Yes. Oh Dude, it’s the guy speaking right now This is him here. Let’s go see if we can find a way Okay, we got a

42:59

Yeah, so they had  to go down through this tank that actually stabilizes  the water pressure and  allows you to be able to  integrate with that depth.  And then you dive out the bottom.  I mean, it’s kind of weird too because it looks like the water doesn’t even come up. It’s some sense of physics or whatever.  Where you’re that deep and then the water  is…

43:26

kind of sits there and then you just dive through the hole and then now you’re in the ocean. Yeah. Look at this. So this shows him what they’re doing, these underwater pipeline. Hang on. Let me go see if I can sneak up awkwardly and get a little bit of the audio for everybody.

43:44

quite frankly a pretty primitive, loose-fitting wetsuit with  an infrastructure of almost like a garden irrigation.

43:50

flood your suit with hot water and  it’s really convection that keeps you warm rather than the temperature of the water  in what are obviously very cold conditions.  We also have a power cable within that to power a light and a camera on our helmets.  And we also, because that helium mixture is so expensive,  instead of breathing out into the open water, we actually suck it back up to the vessel,  clean it, remove the carbon dioxide, replenish the oxygen, and then reuse it. And that keeps our usage down by about 80%. After  your six hours on the bottom,

44:20

You then get back into the diving bell, we close the door and the bell is then hoisted back up to the vessel, locked back onto the chamber system. And then we equalize the pressure between the two. The divers drop down, have a shower, have something to eat, read a book, go to sleep, and then they get up the next day and they do the same thing again. And they dive day after day after day for 24 days in this example. And then after 24 days is up, as Kirk described, you pretty much lie in your bunk with a book.

44:49

and we decompress very slowly at a rate of about three feet per hour, something like that, which is why it takes  four days to come back to the surface.  Nice controlled fashion. When you get to the surface, the door  pops open when the pressure equalizes, the divers go home, um they have a month at home, they come back and they do it all over again.  So in about what, five, 10 minutes, that is a brief explanation, I hope, of what saturation diving is. But what I’ve described really is just one dive and that’s all that it is.  We pressurize once at the beginning.

45:19

and we decompressed once in a controlled fashion  at the end.  Okay, well I’m on horse now, so that’s it.  Okay, so I’m gonna move on to the incident. I hope that’s given you a little bit of context to what I’m gonna talk about, which  happens back in 2012, as some of you might be aware,  on a vessel called the Biby Topaz.  It was the 18th of September, it seems like yesterday to be honest.

45:44

We’re working at place called the Huntingdon Manifold, which is basically a drilling template, so  a series of oil wellheads.  work, unfortunately, I wish it was something more noble, but pretty much exclusively in the oil and gas industry.  And this is really a template, a structure, maybe the size of a big house,  about 30 feet tall  and maybe about 60 feet long.  That was sitting about  90 miles east of Aberdeen, so right in the middle of the North Sea, if you know your geography.

46:12

most of the oil fields in  inner North Sea run in a spine between the UK and Norway.  was about as far from land as you can be, I guess, in that particular body of water.  And we were about 275 feet down that night, which, as I mentioned, is pretty average for where we are. We can be  a lot shallower further south. We can be as deep as  about 600 feet up in the north part of the North Sea.  That’s pretty average.  That night, there was about a 35-knot wind on the surface.

46:39

about six meters of swell, so the boat is going up and down about six meters. Now, I mentioned that really, us on the bottom as divers, because you’re working on the seabed principally, almost all of the time, we work wearing a pair of yellow boots basically, and we wander around on the seabed doing our work, because that’s where most of the infrastructure in the oil and gas industry is, the pipelines, the whirlheads, the hydraulic and electronic infrastructure that you need to pump the oil and gas back to the mainland exists there. So, I’ll tell you what it’s talking about.

47:08

For us, don’t  really sense the weather above us because the motion is taken away by the umbilical cord.  I mention this really not because this was a cause of the accident, because it wasn’t,  but it very much exacerbated what happened. It made  finding me and subsequently rescuing me infinitely more difficult. So was a big lesson we learned that night,  which you can definitely apply to the dive sites that you go to as well, which is just because  you feel conditions might be acceptable to dive in.

47:33

doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s okay. We really learned that we had normalized that kind of diving, diving in marginal weather.  We have a system on the boat called a dynamic positioning system, which is basically a  computer system that uses a series of references, GPS,  beacons on a seabed, the torque wires,  whose angle of inclination is fed back to this computer, wave sensors, wind sensors, things like that.  And the computer correlates all of that information and  then instructs the various thrusters, so propellers, around the boat.

48:02

to counteract the effect of the wind and the wave and the tide and hold that boat in one position because we  can’t drop anchors, there’s too much on the seabed. And  it does that with a remarkable career. Okay, I’ve asked the  audio guy if he can plug this in directly so we might get a good feed of the… Alright, we’re hooking up directly to the mixer.

48:24

Here I am at the Long Beach Aquarium in a shark cage at the Scuba Show watching out for sharks. Shark! I see a shark! Oh, it’s just a little toy shark, not to be worried about.  No, that sounds more like a horse, All right, here’s the thing. We just rounded up all kinds of fun conversations here at the Scuba Show in the Long Beach Convention Center 2026. But it’s been a wild ride, so we’re about to head out. Lawrence and I…

48:52

Thank you for joining us here at the Scuba Show and you should come check it out next year. And they’ve got places all around the world. So we’ll see you the next time. My name is Ryan Folland and this has been quite the unique Good Gybes episode. And if you’re not following Latitude 38, you should. Latitude 38, find them on social media. And if you want to connect with me, if you want to be a dive partner, if you want to go hunt lobsters, if you want to hang out in or under the ocean, you can contact me via my email, Ryan at Ryan.online.

49:22

If you want to be on the podcast, can hit me up at Ryan at latitude 38.com. And if you want to find more about me, am I getting your ship together series, the books I’m writing, you can go to Ryan dot online. A lot of information I know, but I’m in a shark tank and oh my God, there’s a shark behind me. We’ll see you in the next episode. And if you’re not subscribed, now’s the time to do so. Oh God, there’s another shark. Oh, horn shark attack.

49:51

We’ll see you next episode