Send us a text Hi, in this episode Ben will discuss the Dunning Kruger effect. A cognitive bias that was created in 1999 by David Dunning and Justin Kruger. It gives a graphical representation of the development when learning new things. It's very applicable to us divers, as we can easily become the victim of incomplete education and/or a false sen…

Send us a text Meet UTD Instructor Rene Krikke, based in Blomberg, Germany. Rene is teaching across northern Europe and brings a fascinating perspective to our "Meet the Instructors" series. Rene stumbled into diving while on a holiday in Egypt, got hooked, made his way to the UTD Scuba Coaching Program, and is now a UTD instructor. Check out Rene'…

Send us a text How many dives do you have? I believe the answer to this question is the biggest lie in scuba diving. As instructors, we are trained to take this answer with a grain of salt. In this short carcast, Jeff takes a look at logging dives, logging flight hours, and some ideas about how to best log your dives. For more information, contact …

Send us a text Do you feel like you are in a rut with your diving? Doing the same dives over and over? How do you stay motivated year after year? These are the question we look at today in another of Jeff's soon-to-be-famous UTD Carcast episodes. Check out more on UTD Scuba Coaching, click here.על ידי UTD Scuba Diving

Send us a text In this inaugural episode of Ben's short podcast series, "The Training Corner," he looks at the concept of 'dive beautifully.' How do you gain your own level of elegance in diving, particularly around propulsion techniques. As always, if you have questions, comments, or thoughts about this, you can contact us here. https://utdscubadi…

Send us a text Weerrrrreee...back! The Most Obscure Questions in Scuba Diving - Live at DEMA 2024. This week we collected questions in the booth and pulled them out in front of an audience. Fun, interesting, informative. And did we say fun?על ידי UTD Scuba Diving

Send us a text We are back in Las Vegas for the DEMA show – us and a gazillion other divers checking out new equipment, new training, new everything. This year, in the Technical Resource Center at the show, Ben gave a talk on advanced rebreather training, why it's important to dive a consistent team configuration in your closed circuit rebreather, …

Send us a text Things don't always go quite as planned. Sometime the planning turns into a setback. What is the best way to deal with that? Take "no" for encouragement and take a setback for opportunity. Thoughts or comments? Let me know. Contact here.על ידי UTD Scuba Diving

Send us a text Who is brilliant? You? Or your students? Or both? What happens when you face an instructor or a coach who is more focused on their own brilliance than yours. In this short carcast I take a look at a scenario where the brilliance got confused. Have a listen, let me know what you think. Contact us here. https://utdscubadiving.com/conta…

Send us a text Another of the Most Obscure Questions in Scuba Diving. This time we tried something a bit different. Ben came up with the questions and did not tell Jeff what they were going to be. Tune in for an honest discussion about pockets, valve drills, cameras, and more. Send us your obscure questions....contact us here: https://utdscubadivin…

Send us a text Following someone else's dreams. This is something every scuba instructor has faced. A student brings a partner, who does not want to be there, into a class, usually Open Water. As instructors, we get to see this play out, sometimes in terror, sometimes in joy. What do you do when someone drags someone into your class? What is it lik…

Send us a text How to get there. That's today's question. What is the path to becoming a UTD instructor or dive master. How does the program work? What are our expectations of you? What do we expect your expectations to be of us. In this episode Jeff and Jay look at the "path," the course work, and tell some stories from past IDC's. Interested in U…

Send us a text It's on! Cave Week 2024! This November join us in Florida for Cave Week. In this short podcast Jeff, Ben, and Jay discuss the logistics, the fun, and all the details about this amazing UTD community event. For more information and to register for Cave Week, click here: https://utdscubadiving.com/utd-cave-week/…

Send us a text Jon Edwardsen has been a UTD instructor almost since the beginning of UTD. He is my colleague, friend, and critic. The great thing about having Jon as an instructor trainer is his uncanny ability to cut through any and all BS and get to the heart of the matter. So when Jon did an IDC with a few of our coaching clients and said he was…

Send us a text There is much to unpack around how we run out instructor development program, how we train our instructor trainers, and how all that benefits the Unified Team Diving students and coaching clients. Back in the car, Jeff takes a look at the mechanics of teaching teaching – education as a change in behavior, that change being worthless …

Send us a text This episode is a cross between our wrap up of "Becoming a Thinking Diver" and "The Most Obscure Questions in Scuba Diving. Jeff and Ben cover: Redundant equipment. Knowing when to say when. Training for multiple failures buy planning for one. And a quick story about the bike. Check it out, if you have questions or comments contact u…

Send us a text It's not the equipment, it's the choices you make. In his inaugural training corner episode, Ben takes a look at how you can make good, or bad, choices and how those choices can have dramatic ramifications. For more information on the Unified Team Diving training systems and the UTD Scuba Coaching Program, or to reach Ben or Jeff, cl…

Send us a text One of the great things about me and Unified Team Diving is that I get to set the company culture around money, finances, student fees, all of it. I feel very strongly that financial transparency is critical to the health of any business. I also believe "free" does not serve anyone – us or you. Basically, I believe free has no value.…

Send us a text In our last episode about the "Thinking Diver" we talked about creating your team, or village. In this episode Jeff and Ben start to look at the practical elements of being a thinking diver – gear, gas, team, and much more. Be a thinker. Listen in. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know by clicking here. To join ou…

Send us a text A non-car carcast. This time I woke up ready to talk about why Unified Team Diving is so important to me but I did not have any place I needed to drive, so I recorded a non-car carcast. Why do we keep doing what we do? How do I grow as a coach and instructor as you grow as a diver or instructor? What makes me tick and, in turn, what …

Send us a text Learning and advancing at anything does not need to be something you do alone. Really, it takes a village. You are at the center, then your instructor or coach, but then all the other people and organizations and facilities and friends and family that guide you to becoming the most successful diver-version of yourself. In this episod…

Send us a text In any business one of the most important things is knowing who your clients are. And equally important is to know who your clients are not. In this carcast, I take an honest look at who we are for and who we are not for. It's a complex discussion about a very simple concept. Are we for you? Let us know: Click here to contact Jeff an…

Send us a text Is it success that's the most important thing in scuba diving? Or style? This is a discussion – actually a monologue I recorded in my car – on the issue of style vs. success or, in scuba diving, style vs. certification. Drawn from a phrase common in big wall rock climbing, style vs. success refers not to whether or not we reach our g…

Send us a text We are Unified TEAM Diving not, as we sometimes like to say, Unified 'Go-Run-Off-By-Yourself Diving.' But what about when you are instructing students? Are they part of your team? Can they help you? What are everyone's expectations when instructing? In this episode Jeff and Ben unpack this simple, yet not so simple question. Contact …

Send us a text Setback happen. This is true for everything we are learning, particularly when moving to a higher level in any field. In scuba training, in Unified Team Diving, we have a thing called the "ebay dive." This is when you come out of the water after such a frustrating dive that you want to put all your gear on ebay, sell it, and take up …

Send us a text In the late 70's or early 80's I had an opportunity to take on something that looked really cool to me but my situation at the time blocked it. I've kept that dream alive until this past weekend when I fulfilled an unfulfilled dream. What are your unfulfilled dreams? What are you missed opportunities – in scuba or in life? Do you hav…

Send us a text We are live at the DEMA show in New Orleans taking questions from the audience. Listen to Jeff and Ben answer all sorts of random questions and, finally, almost get completely stumped. Contact us with your obscure questions and plan on seeing us at DEMA 2024 in Las Vegas where we will do another live episode: https://utdscubadiving.c…

Send us a text Welcome to Jay Gardner, UTD's new Director of Development! Jay joins Jeff and Ben as the third member of UTD's management team, bring a lifetime of experience with companies both large and small. Jay started his journey in UTD as a coaching client, then an instructor candidate, then an instructor. After a short stint in Austin, Texas…

Send us a text This is a short addendum to my previous carcast on quitting. In this quick episode I add a little info, this time about when it's okay to quit. There is a time and place for everything and sometimes the best thing is to "know when to fold 'em." Thoughts and ideas? Contact us here: https://utdscubadiving.com/contact/…

Send us a text "Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run." Great words to live by. In this carcast, actually recorded as a "hikecast" during this year's solar eclipse, Jeff looks at some of the mental and physical elements of quitting – quitting a class, quitting a training path, quitting anything. But,…

Send us a text Let's breathe without bubbles. In this episode, the first or two or three, Jeff and Ben look at all things rebreathers. In this first part: the what, why, how and the joys of diving rebreathers. In future episodes we will look at the traps of diving rebreathers, the training progression, and answer your questions. If there is anythin…

Send us a text A live episode with slightly sketchy audio, although it was a technical marvel. Ben and three of his tech students in Norway, Jeff via cell phone from San Diego. In this episode we take live questions from the students who just completed their tech training. Ratio Deco adjustments, diving with non-UTD buddies after your class, and mu…

Send us a text Consistency and compliance. Or is it compliance and consistency? Either way, these are the two hallmarks of a great client relationship with their coach and coaching program. In this carcast, Jeff takes a look at how consistency and compliance inform the best possible training for scuba divers. If you are just chasing a certification…

Send us a text Following two weeks of UTD classes in San Diego, and a few minutes before Ben heads back to the airport to return to Denmark, we chat about how this series of classes went for both the instructors and the students.על ידי UTD Scuba Diving

Send us a text In this episode Jeff sits with UTD Scuba Coaching client Lisa Huynh the day after she completed UTD Essentials of Rec. Lisa explores how she got her start with coaching, the benefits of integrating UTD's in-water training with the coaching program, her experiences with her prior training, and much more. For more info on UTD Scuba Coa…

Send us a text The rebreather. Is it a wildly complex thing that rivals something that could fly to the moon? Or is it simply a bag you breathe into that scrubs out the CO2 and allows for longer bottom times? Or something in the middle? In this episode Jeff and Ben look at the simple yet complex story of rebreather diving...how to get started, the …

Send us a text Your "Path to Mastery" is a buzzword (or buzz-phrase) that's been around forever but, what does it really mean and how can you take your path to becoming great at one thing and apply it to becoming great at something else (like scuba)? In this carcast, recorded on an endless, rainy drive from San Diego to Las Vegas, I explore the pat…

Send us a text In April this year UTD went through an audit with EUF, the European Underwater Federation and received certification that the UTD training systems are in compliance with ISO standards. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, creates standards for many industries, including scuba training. However ISO does not certify…

Send us a text Estamos en el tercer día del curso de desarrollo de instructores de UTD. En este podcast cortito realizamos una pequeña entrevista a los candidatos a instructores para saber cuáles son sus percepciones del curso hasta el momento. Para saber cómo hacerse instructor UTD, pinchar aquí.על ידי UTD Scuba Diving

Send us a text Just a few minutes after the UTD Instructor Development Course ended at the Rivemar Dive Center in La Azohia, Spain, Jeff and Ben sat down with the four English-speaking instructor candidates to get their take on the week...how it went, their expectations, and much more. For information on becoming a UTD Instructor, click here.…

Send us a text We did it again, another carcast. This one we recorded on our road trip from Madrid, where Alan and I just picked up Ben at the airport, on our way to the Rivemar Dive Center in La Azohia, our host for this instructor development course. In this episode we discuss the upcoming class, the journeys of some of the instructor candidates …

Send us a text This is The Random Episode – we've collected questions from the past few weeks and here a some of the obscure and random things we covered in this episode: Why are there various low pressure inflator connectors? Why is our compass NOT on a boot with the SPG? Can we do a "swimming" deco stop, or to we have to hold still and be serious…

Send us a text The Big Scuba Podcast, a show based in the UK and hosted by my new friends Ian and Gemma, explores all things scuba. They got interested in the UTD Scuba Coaching Program, so we started talking about that, but quickly moved to UTD's philosophy, teaching ethos, and history. For me, it was back to basics, forcing me to define, to peopl…

Send us a text Recurrent training is a thing in many, many industries. Flying is where recurrent training is the most obvious – pilots are required to complete various scheduled trainings to keep their certificates current and diving should be no different. Since our inception, UTD has always had a structured recurrent training program called the A…

Send us a text Trying something new here...a "car-pod," or "pod-car," or "car podcast," or something. In any case, I was in traffic for about two hours and had some time to think about, then record, a short podcast on choosing a coach, staying with a coach, leaving a coach, and much more. But most importantly, how to apply what you learn in the UTD…

Send us a text En enero de 2023 hemos completado el Castilla Cave Tour. En este viaje hemos visitado algunas de las cuevas más icónicas del centro de España. Empezamos en el Pozo Azul que es actualmente la cueva con mayor desarrollo explorado en Europa con +13km de longitud. Fuente Azul es una de las cuevas más profundas con una cota de -130m. Fuen…

Send us a text In 2022 I was invited to speak at the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical Society's scientific meeting. This was in the ORCA project: Operational Resilience and Cognitive Awareness, quite a mouthful, but basically it was a meeting about human factors in scuba diving. In UTD we have been teaching human factors in our training programs since d…

Send us a text Incident and accident reporting. Is it good for scuba or terrifying for scuba? In this episode Jeff and Ben are joined by Diver Alert Network's Cat Harris. Cat manages DAN's incident reporting system. Should scuba take a page from general aviation, an industry that has consistently published accident data and analysis? Or should scub…

Send us a text Why no bungees? Why no double bladders? Do you need an STA? Why are they all black? In this episode Jeff and Ben tackle these questions and many more as they dig into the ins and outs, and ups and downs of BCDs, wings, dumps, and bladders. Questions? Comments? You can reach us by clicking here.…

Send us a text Immediately following the DEMA show in Orlando, Ben taught a Tech 1 course in the Florida keys. He was joined by three students and UTD Instructor James Mott, who flew down to co-teach with Ben. The team decided to record a podcast in three parts, one at the beginning, right after the first day, one in the middle, and one after the f…