Scuba Goat

Steve Crosby - Wading through the pandemic years - S03 E04

May 16, 2022 Matt Waters / Steve Crosby Season 3 Episode 4
Scuba Goat
Steve Crosby - Wading through the pandemic years - S03 E04
Show Notes Transcript

Steve Crosby walks us through his journey to become a dive pro and what it has taken to stay connected to the dive industry particularly during the pandemic years.

Many people have asked me how to get into and become successful in the dive industry.  Hard work and determination... Be like Steve.
 
He is a shining example of how to progress and focus on the goals one at a time without taking your eye off the prize and all whilst maintaining the right attitude, with a smile. 

Steve is one of the nicest guys you would ever wish to meet and I have no doubt that anyone wishing to dive and/or learn from him will have an amazing time whilst doing so. 

I'm a big fan of humility and Steve exudes this, just take a listen and you'll see what I mean.

Should you wish to get in touch with Steve and arrange some dives you can connect with him through his website at Crosby Dive

Steve's diving journey:

  • 2004 - He became a NAUI Open Water Diver - Instantly hooked on diving
  • Fun dives throughout Central America and the Caribbean.
  • 2008 - Completed NAUI Nitrox Course.
  • 2013 - Arrives in Koh Tao and realises diving is the industry for him
  • 2014 - Completed SSI Dive master and then OW Instructor training
  • 2014 - 2015 Teaching various SSI courses
  • 2015 - RAID Deco 50 course completed and became a RAID Instructor
  • 2016 - TDI Trimix course in Malaysia
  • 2016 - RAID Advanced Wreck Instructor 
  • 2016 - RAID Instructor Trainer
  • Back to Malaysia to gain qualifications to become a Tech Instructor
    • Tioman, Malaysia - completed RAID Deco 40 and 50 Instructor programs
    • TDI instructor course, enabling me to teach technical diving though TDI as well.
  • 2017 - Worked for Bali Dive Trek and became a Side-mount and DPV Diver and later received my DPV Instructor Certification
  • Late 2017 - Koh Tao for Sidemount Instructor and ADV Wreck Instructor Trainer
  • 2018 - Co-founded Unique Descent Dive Adventures (UDDA), with the goal of leading expeditions around the world
  • Sept 2018 - Mexico to attain Full Cave Diver Certification
  • Mar 2019 - Egypt to start working at Red Sea Explorers
  • Oct 2019 - Mexico to complete Stage and Multi Stage Courses
  • 2020 Covid hit - re-organisation of life and objectives
  • Dec 2021 - Mexico full time to engage in further training and qualifications.  Currently working as a cave and cavern guide having completed CCR Mod 1 and focussing on Cave Instructor qualifications. 
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Matt Waters:

Hey there, David buddies and welcome to the show. Now it's pretty clear that over the last couple of years, the dive industry has been hit hard with dive operations going out of business and professionals having to find alternative sources of income, many of whom are forced to leave the industry and even go back to living with mom and dad. Some, however, have managed to keep that link into our watery world. And one such chap is a good buddy of mine, and multi agency instructor Steve Crosby. Steve, welcome to the show, buddy. Hey, Dan.

Steve Crosby:

Thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure to be here.

Matt Waters:

Happy days. I think that's the first intro that I've done. Straight out the bat and not cocked it up.

Steve Crosby:

I'm super proud of you. You've definitely gotten better at this.

Matt Waters:

Okay, let's, let's have a little delve into your mate and just let the listeners know who you are and where you are at the moment.

Steve Crosby:

Yeah, so um, so I'm Steve Crosby. I'm like, like you said, a multi agency instructor. I teach through SSI TDI and raid, soon to join one other agency. But for now that's it. I've been diving for about 16 years I've been teaching in diving since 2014. So as soon as I started getting into teaching diving, I quickly realised just how much passion I had. I've been diving for a long time. But as soon as I started to teach, I realised just how awesome it was and how rewarding it would be. So started doing more and more and more and more started getting more agencies under my belts or to teaching different types of courses, and just been stuck ever since. Really, I mean, stuck in a happy way. been moving around from country to country, bouncing along met you, obviously in Thailand, and then currently in saloon Mexico and have em em slowly beginning the road to big becoming a full cave instructor at the moment.

Matt Waters:

Happy days. Hey, I'll tell you what, I only noticed it last night when I was mooching around on Facebook or something when I was bored. Miko was over there at the minute izany Have you seen Yeah,

Steve Crosby:

no, I just ran into him the the other guy just ran into him on a dating site actually, he and the other guys were hopping in the water to do their, their kiss Sidewinder instructor courses. Yeah, so So I actually just finished my mod one in in January so So going down that road as well.

Matt Waters:

Happy days. Yeah, sorry with it got a little bit of video footage with that little crocodile that's in one of the senators that

Steve Crosby:

are not so good. It's actually funny. You mentioned that. Another friend who's currently here was actually on a cave dive like 10 minutes into the cave and found a crocodile still alive moving around inside the cave. First, I'll send you the video. It's it's crazy. Like we always joke about the crocodiles not being in the cave, but my friend actually got a video of him swimming around and now they're like go into the cave worried about crocodiles on top of everything else.

Matt Waters:

Yeah, I did have a look. We were out there was it 2018? And did have a Mitch around trying to find it. But alas, we were unfortunate and he must have been off somewhere.

Steve Crosby:

Well, you got a couple of options. Now. There's a few that have moved in as soon as you come down. Oh,

Matt Waters:

Jesus. Okay, cool. And who you? Are you what's the name of the company that your diver through over there.

Steve Crosby:

So currently diving through a company called Pro tech. It's there's two shafts protect aluminium protect Playa Del Carmen. I've always been into loom so I'm here now. And this is protect alumina is where I started my cave diving. So my first trip to Mexico, me and another friend of mine, Robbie Peltier area, we started organising a trip. And we had about 11 of our friends in plus us come down and all want to do our cave course together. And whenever we asked all of our tech diving friends, if you're going to dive in Mexico Duquesne for the first time, who do you talk to? Every single one of them said go talk to pro tech. We talked to pro tech and then I've been stuck with them ever since really?

Matt Waters:

Now we just take it back a little bit because I'm in the I've really enjoyed watching your adventure, shall we say? From you know, bouncing from Thailand to Egypt and back into the US and then the road trip down to Mexico. I find it very entertaining. However, we need to just back it up to a man we initially met in I think it might have been 2014 1314

Steve Crosby:

Yeah, there was forgetting. Yeah. at TEDx. Yeah, that was that was that was very early into me being in Thailand. Like I'd been in Thailand for less than

Matt Waters:

a month. Oh, really? I didn't realise it. Yeah,

Steve Crosby:

that was my that was my very first thing. So I've just gotten into a dive shop called called Planet Scuba, which now Longer sadly exists. But I was just starting to work for them and being a brand new divemaster at the time or on the road, I still DMZ at the time I think. Still in training, I needed equipment and T rex is always a good spot to hunt for sales. So I convinced the shop to let me go work at T DAX and me not knowing much tried to sell what I could and then picked up some cheap diver here on the side. And that was that's how I got my start really

Matt Waters:

well. You did. All right. Maybe you sold me a wetsuit. Remember that?

Steve Crosby:

Well, I mean, yeah. Only so many sizes will fit your body. So.

Matt Waters:

So after the I mean, I left, I think I left Harlem. In fact, when did you leave Thailand? What year was it?

Steve Crosby:

So I left? Well, I love Thailand twice because I was in I was there for Oh man, what was it? So I was there for 1415 and 16. And then for 17. I was away in Bali. And then I came back and then I works for 18 are like most of 18. Yeah. And then I went to Egypt after that. Gotcha. So I kind of left twice.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. So yeah. So I left in the same year when When did you leave the first time? It was the back end of 2006. In fact, no. January 2017 was when I went to Papua New Guinea. And then I came back very close to the time that I left. Yeah. And I came back at the end of 2017. But I went to the West Coast instead of back onto the island. So I went on to big blue on the liveaboard. Hallelujah.

Steve Crosby:

Yeah. So at that time in my diving career, I was wanting to go more down like the technical route. Yeah, and there is technical diving on Koh Tao, but it's like it is somewhat hard to organise sometimes it's not something you do every day. It's not where people go to do tech diving and that kind of stuff. So at that point in my life, I had kind of reached my depth limit almost on tau tau. So that's what I've I moved myself to over to Malaysia and did my I did my raid DECA 50 instructor and I did my TDI ADP, instructor course. And then after that I got a job in Bali that fell on my lap and it was a fantastic opportunity. So I did that for a year.

Matt Waters:

Okay, was it on Bali itself or one of the local islands no one was

Steve Crosby:

on that was on Bali property in Ahmed and a place called Bali dive trick. org and from Mark crane who is who has been doing incredible amounts check on him for an outrageous amount of years.

Matt Waters:

Good on you. And you were there for a year

Steve Crosby:

so yes, I was there for about a year I have I apparently have had some bad luck whenever it comes to the reasons I leave places. So I was there right up until mount a gun erupting so I was on Bali whenever the volcano became active and man does that do a good job of killing tourist dying like flights were cancelled and nobody was coming in and I was still like the new guy and like bottom of the totem pole I've been there for like you know almost a year or so. But still the lower sky on the totem pole so I was like alright cool. I think I can probably get a job somewhere else if I really need to you guys stay here this is more your home than mine kind of thing. So So I left and then that's whatever I picked up the management job at Rock tapas dive so I not breakfast I've been at Raj was pros or octopus is split into you got the recreational half and the pro half and that's whatever I went up there and sort of managing the pro centre because Pete Gulia finally decided to retire from that position

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah, we need a better octopus on a

Steve Crosby:

great for sure yeah that mean that's that's one thing like the rocks was crew has like spread out a pretty good bit. I mean, you've got the site all over in Malta. Now you've got Nico in Indonesia doing the rock was down there and on Lombok on Lamborghini. Sorry. So yeah, so they've spread out pretty good bit.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. Yeah, that's it Westies kind of spent most of COVID in Indonesia only surfing by the looks of it?

Steve Crosby:

I believe so. Yeah, exactly. No, I haven't caught up with us in a while. But yeah, that's that's that's what he's putting on Facebook. At least Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I'm just saying so that was me on kotel after, after the rock was a bit I got. I got a job offer to be on a liveaboard in Egypt. And I mean, you talked about like Egypt for tech diving. That was that was kind of my next step. So I decided to go over to Egypt. And we're there for a year and then COVID hit so I was on Bali. And then there was a volcano. And I was in Egypt. And so every time I tried to leave a hotel, something bad happens, but here we are in Mexico

Matt Waters:

yesterday with a crocodile. I do. In fact, another mate of mine yet. I don't know if you met him. Richard devanney. Another tech diver, you really don't think I have no isa He was working up in hockey, remember the name of the dive centre. Now it's not far from the volcano at all. It's not far from Liberty rec actually about 10 minutes drive and liberty Rec. And he was telling me when it erupted, he had, like, whatever time and night it was just a bang, bang, bang, bang on the door. And he's opened his front door and sent some of the staff just sprinting off into the distance. And then he's kind of realised that the volcanoes going off, and there's a bit of, like, 30 seconds of shaky video that he's taken, taken on his phone as he's using his scooter, who knit up the road and try and get away. So it's scary stuff.

Steve Crosby:

No, it was it was it was crazy. It was crazy times every time the volcano would pop off a little bit. Everybody was like, just like in the group message. Like, is everyone okay? Everyone's good. And then like, there was this awkward, there was this awkward period of time where like, we still had guests there. They hadn't left yet. And they still wanted to go for dives. And we're like we're in Ahmed, which is not in the flow of the lava. If the lava if the lava came. Yeah, so we were like, I guess we can still dive. So we were still going on dives and like hearing explosions and like, on the dive whatever actual earthquakes were happening, like seeing the reef move and stuff. Yeah, it was crazy. Like that's, like noise gets louder underwater. And it's a different experience whenever you feel an earthquake inside your head.

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah. And did you actually, I mean, I've never spoken to anyone else who's experienced that as well because I experienced it in Amazon with a few mates. And okay, just getting that rumble and movement under the water. I actually thought it was just a super tanker coming over the top of your head or something.

Steve Crosby:

No, and that's it. That's the thing like the first time it happened so whenever you're diving in Bali, like there's no there's no like massive piers around us and Ahmed there's no like place for a big boat to come dock. And there's all the boats that come in and like dive because all the bodies that like sheer cliffs, or sometimes little boats will like come in, drop people off and then go out. But you're sitting there and you're just like, I'm way too close to shore for a boat this big to be what is it? And then you just see the reef shaking like you're in trim. What the ground is moving?

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah. It's a weird, weird scenario, isn't it? And to be honest, when we had it in, in Amazon, we got back on the dive boat and had no clue that it was an earthquake. Until the boys that were on the boat, you know, that already had text messages saying that a couple of houses had fallen down in the local village,

Steve Crosby:

which is crazy. No, I remember like it was it was such a fun time. Like, just getting the getting the tourists out of there. And then all of us sitting there and like, no one was like, we didn't have a compressor. So we were renting tanks from a different company and like they weren't running tanks anymore. Like they were shut down. All the businesses were shut down. So like all the people are just like sitting there like what do we do? Can't go diving because no one gives us gas. We're like rationing. How many tanks we have to try to get through some weeks of diving was a bizarre experience.

Matt Waters:

So you kind of did you hotfoot it out of there and then just stay away?

Steve Crosby:

Pretty much. Yeah, I mean, I stick around, I feel like I stuck around for like maybe like two weeks, maybe three weeks, something like that. So um, we pretty much had a had a sit down with, with Mark crane, me and Alexei and everybody, we sat down. And we were just like, Okay, how long can we still be on salary if we have no money coming in? And we just had to have like hard talks like, Alright, how long is it gonna last? And I was like, Well, right now, everyone's good for this month. And next. And then after that, it's like, I was like, well, after any bookings and things and you know, it's just, it's one of those situations, kind of like COVID, where you have no real idea of how bad it's gonna be until you're on the other side of it. Yeah. So we're sitting there, and we're just like, not sure exactly how long it's going to last. And I said, Well, look, I'm pretty sure I could get a job back on Koh Tao if I asked for it. And literally, I sent Pete a message like that day. And that was the day he was like, contemplating very hard talking to Dave and Jay and everybody and being like, Hey, I think I'm gonna step down. It was like the same day was the same day that I finally reached out to Pete was the day that he was like, alright, screw it. I'm going to tell them today that we need to have a talk tomorrow. Yeah. And that was the day so Pete stuck around for another week or so or however long it took me to get over there. And the transition that way, worked out really well. And I felt very, very fortunate being able to step into that kind of a role in the situation I was in because a lot of people don't have you know, if you don't have that big of a diving network, or if you don't have that many opportunities, it's kind of hard sometimes. So that's one reason why I felt okay to leave because I had a hunch that I'd be able to get a job somewhere if I really, really needed it.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. So the position you went back into was running the pro side of things.

Steve Crosby:

Exactly. Yeah. So um, so I stepped into the role um, just managing the the pro centre. So for those of you who don't know the pro centre and rocks bliss, so rocks dive is split into there's the recreational side which just does the open water, the advanced the fun dives, the one day DSD, the trial experience. And then there's the whole pro side, the pro side does pretty much all of the like specialities the deeps, the deep courses, the nitrox courses, the very little tech that happens is run out of the pro centre, as well as the big thing that absorbed most of my time, which was running the dive master courses. So at the time rocks was dive whenever I got there octopus had about I want to say like 15 or so divemasters in training, which like, is a pretty big number. And then in my year plus ish of managing it not hugely thanks to me, but just happenstance, that number creeped up to around I was like, right at 30. Yeah, right at 30, like 28 or 30 dmts at one time, which is crazy. But also, you know, it's a minimum three month course. So a lot of people it's, you know, it's not totally unheard of. Yeah. And those were, those were some fun times. stressful days. Those are some really fun times. Yeah, just just passing on knowledge to that many, like, super eager divers all at the same time, is I mean, that's what it's all about. For me, you know,

Matt Waters:

I think we're gonna probably go through that kind of transition period now that we're two years past COVID. And like I mentioned in the intro, you know, so many people have had to leave the business and move on in life. And there's gonna be a lot of people that don't come back to it because, you know, they're now earning reasonable income and new lifestyle, etc, etc. I think we're gonna see a whole new raft of young kids coming through wanting to fill those positions become dive pros. Oh, I

Steve Crosby:

mean, I hope so. That'd be really good. I mean, have I told you I don't think I've told you my like, COVID story about how I had to leave diving and then come back. Do you know that whole spiel yet?

Matt Waters:

No, no, I saw little snippets that you put up on Facebook every now and then. But I because I know. Yeah, I could kind of feel that there was a good story, though. So I was rather hoping that you're gonna bring this up without me having to ask, go for it.

Steve Crosby:

Well, here we go. Okay. So I was I was working in Egypt for a company called Red Sea explorers. This is where I went after I was at rock to this great company that was really focused on actual, like proper tech diving. So there are a lot of Liveaboards in the Red Sea, but there are not too many of them that focus on like proper technical diving, some guys will be cowboys, because it's Egypt and they'll do silly things. But these guys that I was working with were the were properly focused on good training and good technique, and following all the rules and all that kind of stuff and just really fell in love with them. God loved working on their boats, they have some good connections with some different TV shops. So I was there for about a year didn't actually do any training myself there. But I did well Christian, I didn't do any training for myself, but I did do some teaching there. I was there for about a year and how it works in Egypt and and a lot of countries you have to be out of the country while they handle like your work permit or the next stage of your residency. So COVID was like just starting to be a thing. It was just starting to make the news. You know, this is like, February, late January of 2020. So I had to leave Egypt for 10 days while they handled my work permit stuff. So I left Egypt I went visited a friend of mine, Danielle Hi. When visit a friend of mine in Germany for like 10 days. I had a backpack on and that was that was just not a lot of like a small backpack like everyday rucksack, not a like backpackers backpack. Because you know, I was gonna go back. So I was in Germany for 10 days. On day two, Egypt announced that they were going to shut their borders because of COVID. And I was like, okay, cool. I can't go back and get my stuff like all my dive gear, all my everything is sitting back in my apartment. And I can't get to it sounds like alright, that's fine. I'll just hang out here in Germany for like 10 days. And I'll let this whole COVID thing blow over. And then I'll just go back to Egypt and it'll be fine. Because at the time, no one knew how bad it was going to be or what was going to happen. It was like, Oh, this will blow over in like 10 days. I'll go back. So like two days later, Germany announced that they were going to close their borders in like 48 hours. Yeah. And I was like, Cool. can come back to Egypt. I don't feel like it's wise to stay here and I don't really have the money. To be stuck in Germany, Germany's expensive place, don't really have the money to like to sit here for an unknown amount of time. So I was like, I guess I'll go to my parents house. So I hopped on a flight, went back to Mississippi. And then my parents shoved me in like the room off to the side of the house. So I would quarantine there away from them for like two weeks. And I said, Cool. I'll hang out here in Mississippi for like a month, I let this whole COVID thing blow over. It'll all be fine. Yeah. So a month passes, and I'm an unemployed 30 year old living my parents. The only job I've had for the past six years is in diving and all of my dive gear is in Egypt. Have you ever tried to mail something from Egypt? It doesn't work. So it's all just, it's all just stuck in Egypt and unpacked and I'm here, I was like, What am I going to do? So I figured the kind of I was thinking about jobs to get and I was like, well, maybe there's a job like encode that I could get on oh, what can I do? There's got to be some opportunity somewhere for me to do until I get my time your back until I get back on my feet diving. So for me the next year in my life was all about what can I do to get back to diving. But there was never a doubt in my head. I just didn't know exactly when. So first thing I did was I went to Texas, well, first thing I did was bought a $1,000 Mazda three drove to Texas, and I did my EMT course. So I did my EMT course because like I've always had a bit of a medical background. I've been like a lifeguard for a long time lifter instructor and teaching first aid courses with obviously with diving and all that kind of stuff. I've always been that kind of go first responder in certain situations, all that kind of stuff. It's pseudo familiar to me. So I said, alright, this will probably segue nicely into diving, it's probably nice to have an EMT around because whenever you go to remote locations, okay, I'll do my EMT. I did my EMT, I'm in Texas. I, at this point, have no idea what's going to happen on my dive here, I have no idea where I'm going to get a job. I passed my EMT course. Easy breezy. And I go to indeed.com, which is a website that like North Americans used to find a job. And I just typed in, like COVID EMT into the search bar. It click and then I filtered by highest paying. And then I just applied and the first the first one I saw was the one that I got. And it was a COVID compliance officer. So it's I I was like, Oh, that is but sure whatever. I'll do it. So I applied I talked to the guys got for you. Everything's good. They said, that's great. You're in Texas right now. We need you in this is like on Thursday. They're like cool. You're in Texas right now. It's Thursday. We need you in Massachusetts by Monday.

Matt Waters:

How far does that mean? I

Steve Crosby:

was like, I guess I'm that's like, a half the distance of the country. That's that's like, that's a ways. That's like three and a half 1000 kilometres. So, so as like, I guess I'm driving right now. So I literally got off the interview, I packed up my stuff and left, drove to Massachusetts. And for the next year in my life, my life was the most weird. Like, I just can't believe this is what I did to make ends meet life. So my primary job was, or the first thing I did was I worked on a movie called The movie just got published. It's called the unholy, featuring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, you were right, there was the movie.

Matt Waters:

What's up? You're a safety officer or something like that. I think I saw the credit. Yeah, exactly. No,

Steve Crosby:

no, yeah, I posted the credit song, I posted a snapshot of the credits. So that was what I did. I was literally going around like helping make sure that because this isn't like the dark times of COVID. Like everyone in the movie industry wants to get back to work. They want to do it safely. So like I'm like helping make sure people are wearing masks, make sure the right people are tested off enough. Make sure people are spacing, make sure people are in their little groups. And I'm just like, organising stuff, all of the last men. And a lot of people are telling me like, wow, you're like really good at this. And I realise that years of Scuba diving, which is like always getting organised at the last second. But it happened to be like really organised really fast has actually trained me really well to work in the movie industry. That's the same everything gets organised at the last minute, but it has to be perfect and it has to be safe. So I did that job for a couple months. And you at the end of that job. I was like alright, I was like making good money. I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do after this. And after that movie Me and like five other guys who have done that job, we were the first people in the US to do it because that was the first movie to be shot after COVID or during COVID. So me and like four other guys were all of a sudden, quote unquote, the most experienced people in that role in the industry. So, so we rolled from movie to movie to movie to TV show to commercial the movie. And like, it was so crazy. One job would end in the next would pick up and then I moved up in the ranks. And before you know it, I'm the health and safety supervisor for some like pretty medium budget films, nothing like huge was never worked on any Marvel films I did work on don't look up, which was a pretty big, big film that came out on Netflix. But the entire time, every single paycheck, I literally have a spreadsheet all worked out, this much goes to rent this much goes to whatever. And then like 60% of my paycheck went into the Mexico fund. And like that's all I did for a year. And then I wanted more work. So I picked up more and more jobs. I was working security on the weekends. I was DoorDash you want to have time in between on Sundays, I was teaching swim lessons. I was doing anything I could. I just talked with my tax man, it was amazing how many different jobs I had during the last year and a half. So did all did whatever I could. And then I save up money to Mexico. I decided on Mexico for a couple of different reasons. Primarily because I could drive here and I knew I could drive back if I had to. I knew the airports wouldn't get shut down again because of COVID I'll drive Thank you very much. And I knew the for me the most important thing like security wise of diving in Egypt if the tourists don't come the boats don't go out. Yeah. Right in Thailand, it's the same for tourists don't come the boats don't get you don't fill it up boats. Yeah, you know, the boats don't go out. But in Mexico, it's all cavern and cave diver. If I have a car, I can drive to the sun all day. And then I can go for a dive. So knowing that I can be completely independent, and just continue diving was like my only thing like keeping the going.

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah. No, it's a good call. Yeah, yeah. And what a what a hell of a journey.

Steve Crosby:

And as for the Scuba here took an even weirder journey. Yeah. How did you get that back? Okay, so that was a super outrageous chain of events. So pretty much what happened was, I was messaging, video chatting. My roommate back in Egypt. Shout out to the Reese absolutely amazing woman, absolutely amazing instructor. So she was nice enough to FaceTime me. And we would go through and like, or you can sell that you can keep that and I need that back. Yeah. So we just like went through everything I owned. A lot of stuff, facilities or philosophy got thrown out, a lot of stuff got sold. But all my like most important stuff got put into two boxes. And you can't mail things out of Egypt. So she had to contact a Shem contact one of our old people we used to work with who had the contact of a person who worked at the German Embassy in Egypt. That person got it to back to Germany on like, you know, because diplomatic flights didn't stop. So they got it back to Germany. Person Germany got it to a person who worked at the American Consulate in Germany. So that person gave it to another person randomly who were like both divers, so they like loosely knew each other. Yeah, that person got it to the states person in the States got it to DC person in DC shipped to my parents house. Wow. So every like, like no tracking numbers, like no idea where my stuff is. So just like every, like, couple of weeks, I would randomly get like, you know, sometimes you're like introduced to someone on Facebook and you just get thrown into a three person group. It was that it was me person A and Luis and a group. And then it was me person A and person B then Person B, Person C and B. Until finally it was like I this guy is gonna have your kid next. And he's gonna ship it to your house. And then I owe a lot of people beers and many thanks to all those guys who eventually got my beer. Mike eventually got my gear back to my house. And then as soon as I had it, the house got shipped up to Massachusetts, where I was living at the time. Got it all collected, service, everything that I could and then got here.

Matt Waters:

So ultimately, you've got the only set of diver equipment in the world that is it has been treated like a diplomat. No literally

Steve Crosby:

like well, I mean, because diplomats do that when they fly. But mine has been on adventures that I haven't been on for sure. I've never had so many strangers willingly just handle my equipment. Usually I'm like, Oh no, don't touch my kit. Now. I'm like, please take my kit.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. Oh, well, at least it got successfully back to you about

Steve Crosby:

Oh yeah, no. So got back to me and then um, and then just waited till December so I can save up the last bits of cash, bought myself a rebreather and drove across the border.

Matt Waters:

You brought the polar rebreather. Which one? I did.

Steve Crosby:

Yeah. Went for the sidewinder because Sidewinder so, just finished my mod one just finished by mod one, which is the you know, the learn how to dive the unit but no deeper than 40 metres in open water. In Mexico, there's not a lot of open water. So currently, I'm racking up hours. And then hopefully soon within the next month or so maybe to do my cave robbery their course. And then instead of being limited to two or three tanks in a cave, I can just go do a whole system in a day if I wanted to, you know,

Matt Waters:

yeah. Yeah, I was kind of looking at that Sidewinder when Miko started playing around with it. And I think that was, it couldn't have been much, much time after the start of the COVID outbreak when he started doing the Sidewinder. And I've got my eyes on it, because it's definitely picked up in popularity. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's, you know, with me having nomadic Scuba, the Scuba travel company that put that on hold now for two years. But at that time, it was getting to the point where I was travelling all the time doing expeditions, and it kind of started to play on my conscious that a site a rebreather unit would be good for some of the expeditions. However, a large rebreather would be a pain in the ass when you're travelling. Hence, the sidewinder kind of caught my eye.

Steve Crosby:

It's a it's a great use for exploration. It's what everybody uses here. There's been a big shift recently and just more and more people picking up the Sidewinder. Because that's you know, that's a limitation wherever you're wanting to go exploring and small caves and stuff like that. Also, just carrying the dang thing is heavy. For the guys who like go trekking through the jungle for like, an hour or more or they go like crazy part of the jungle, you're not going to carry like a big heavy canister, you want something small. And that's what it for. It's a nice small, very like streamline unit. You can get ones with more and more bells and whistles, you can throw on stuff as you want. But I've got the most like just slimmed down unit, less bells and whistles. And that's what most of the guys here say that like you just want a basic, nothing fairly nothing fancy, nice, dependable unit.

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah. I might have to revisit that. Did you? Did you get a bit of a cheeky discount on it? Or have you managed to did you have to fork out full price?

Steve Crosby:

For the unit, I forked out full price, because I wanted to buy a unit brand new. So I went ahead and did that. So yeah, so absolutely full price on that. I wish I got a cheap discount. Yeah, that would be I did not get a cheap.

Matt Waters:

So what it's ultimately it's resulted in, all your savings are gone. And you're now back to DoorDash or you have to buy in it

Steve Crosby:

pretty much now. Not quite too bad. So, so me, me and the missus moved down here. And we said we were going to give ourselves like a five month window where we wouldn't need work. So like without actually working, we'd have enough money to dive as much as we wanted to eat as much as we want to drink as much as we could responsibly and live a comfortable life for five months now. Neither one of us is the type of person that can just not work for five months. I need to be working I need to be diving with new folks and all that kind of stuff. That's That's my jam. So luckily, we budgeted correctly and budgeted pretty conservative actually very conservatively all our numbers have been pretty much under so we're able to live you know, not too bad a life on the what we're making now, which is you know, not like nothing in like the Western world but here in Mexico, like a little bit goes a long way, you know?

Matt Waters:

Yeah. Hey, they die but as I hope you're enjoying the show. Now, just give me one minute, I want to give a huge shout out to a company called Cy Marine. Now for you boat owners out there. See why Marine is a business owned by an absolutely amazing woman who will be at the sanctuary Cove International Boat Show this coming week. See why marine deliver the best anti roll stabilisation systems that money can buy. If you don't believe me head along and just check out the videos. It's insanely good. These anti roll gyros are so simple to instal that your boat doesn't even need to be hauled out of the water for fitment. It doesn't need to see water for cooling and is literally a bolt in and go procedure. Once fitted, the only thing you need to do is flick a switch to turn it on before your trip and then turn it off when you're done. It's as simple as that. So if you're looking to minimise the motion of the ocean onboard your vessel head along to booth 24/7 in the pavilion this week at the sanctuary Cove International Boat Show and get chatting to the amazing Carrie hip grave and you can get more information and on the website see why marine.com.au me in the message that South America Galapagos back up to Cozumel and a few stops along the route. And we started we stayed in Tulum for I think it was four or five days with, with Lani and Claire and the face. Yeah. And have you have you met Jesse Crieff? Do you know,

Steve Crosby:

Jesse? I don't think so knows

Matt Waters:

Jesse. Lovely Lady. Yeah, we did a couple of couple of sonotubes with her. Gaiden lovely go. But yeah, as far as I

Steve Crosby:

know, it's a small industry here, but there's a lot.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. And it's finances. Yeah, we did the money goes a very long way. It was surprisingly cheeping I think I would probably destroy myself if I was there for a month or two, not. Not working.

Steve Crosby:

No, that's the thing. I was like, we came down we wanted to have the money because you know, COVID like, scared a lot of people financially and they everyone wants to like have that safety net. No, they're okay. So we gave ourselves like, a nice, big, nice, huge, we gave yourself a decently sized safety. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of that's already gone. Because there's always unexpected expenses whenever it comes to work permits and things like that. But all in all, it's, it's been really good. So yeah.

Matt Waters:

And how was it for? Like talking about work permits and stuff? I know, it was a pain in the ass when we're out in Thailand. What's the what's the go in Mexico do is a special kind of visa with you being American as an agreement between the two countries or is it difficult?

Steve Crosby:

So? Yeah, so So not necessarily because I'm an American, but because I've been to Mexico before. So I've been on diving chair. So like I first came here, I got certified then I came back a year later and did my, my cave stage course, my multistage course. Then I came back and did some fun dives. And then I think this is like my fourth trip back. And effectively, I think because of COVID, Mexico has started issuing four year temporary residents, like status to people who had been in Mexico over like certain time ranges and for certain amounts of time. Okay, so pretty much if you had been like before, COVID before COVID. If you've been in Mexico for at least this many months, or at least this many days. They were like, Alright, cool. We're gonna give you a residence because we know that things are a pain right now and flying in and out and all this. So the Mexican government did a really nice thing. And they made it easier for expats, who had been here before COVID. Now, as COVID was happening in becoming more thing, more people working from home, there's been a huge influx of like, like digital nomads, working out of saloon. And those people, those visas they can't get. Because it's like, no, you only came here ever since you could work online. Yeah. So they kind of were like are so they're so they created this kind of visa for those kind of people. And also, because some of these rules are COVID related, those rules are like constantly changing. I highly recommend if you're looking into it, like give us a shout. But then first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to send you over to like my immigration lawyer who's here, because that guy is like, on top of everything you like, you properly need a lawyer, yes, if you're just wanting to do like a three month tourist thing, or even a six month tourist thing, get your return flight, you'll get six months and then the app plenty of time is sorted out. But that process is ever changing because of COVID right now, like so much has changed in the last just six months. So it's I don't want to speak too much to that process, because it's changing all the time. Yeah. It's not horribly, it's not horribly difficult. It's just gonna cost some money to make it work. And it looks like because they're so backed up because again, like the Mexican were kind of shut down for a little bit just like the US government did for a little bit. So there's this kind of backlog process where like most people who are starting from scratch, they're having to wait around five months before they get a proper like one year residency sorted.

Matt Waters:

Okay. So they're coming in on the you got to do the tourist visa to be there and do you have to get out of the country while they process it? Same again.

Steve Crosby:

So, again, that depends on which one you get. I did not have to leave the country because of the type that I received. Other people who have entered the country at similar times have had to leave and go to a consulate in Miami or go to a consulate in Boston or something like that. And go get it handled there. But for me because I have been in Mexico before COVID I was able to just kind of upgrade. So literally I went to the immigration office. I handed over my visa which was like stamped on a separate piece of paper. They took it Like stapled into a piece of paper and gave me back my residency card. So like, they just took the visa. So like I never even had to leave. I was just like, I was like with this changing hands. I was legal.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. Yeah. Deep in rather fortunate in those little hops through life and so far. Well,

Steve Crosby:

I'm a firm believer in like two things. Number one, always listen to the locals. Alright, if someone in that country tells you to do something, you do it. They tell you to go to a restaurant, you do it. Do some research, if you want, if you don't have any friends in the area, all right. But if you got a friend in the area, go and do it. They say, that's number one. Number two, anytime I'm in a new situation, I always act like I have no idea what I'm doing, because I usually don't if it isn't Scuba diving. So if I go up to the immigration lawyer, and I'm like, Hey, man, I don't know what I'm doing. Can you help me, please? He's like, Oh, yeah, I know how to do this. And like, people are just so much kinder. As long as you just like, I feel like people are kind if you just open up to them, and you say, like, I don't know how to do this. Will you please help me? Yeah, and people do it. But if you go in there like slinging an attitude, or with your nose up or whatever, no, it never works. Yeah, always go in and be like, I have no idea how to do this. Will you please help me I'm a helpless random guy. People usually respond much better to that.

Matt Waters:

And how many people have asked if you're actually Seth Rogen, since you've been down there?

Steve Crosby:

Legitimately once a week, as soon as someone says it, I start talking differently. So now my voice is gonna change. Because I'm thinking about Seth Rogen. On average for the past 15 years. It's happened once a week.

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah. And what's the what's the master plan? So you've got a you've got four years. visa status. So are you I've got, yeah, gone.

Steve Crosby:

So I've got four years legal at the moment. I'm currently so now that I'm legal. I'm currently freelancing around I've only been freelancing for pro tech. I'm not technically or currently a pro tech employee yet. I'm not a full timer. So right now, we're kind of in my like, trial phase. So the turnover rate for instructors of pro tech is like almost zero. Yeah. So you'll see, you know, like, recreational shops with really high turnover rates. But at pro tech, it's crazy. Like people just like they just stay there. Because it's a great shop. It's great people start training. And if you want to hang around, if you want to be a better diver, you hang around divers were better than you. And that's why I'm going to be a project. So that's why I want to be for these four years right now. I'm in my like, trial period, starting to do some work for them. They're seeing how I work because they've only known me as you know, customer friends. guy on the street. They don't know me as a co worker. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going through that process right now just doing the freelancing thing for a couple months we'll trial period hopefully within the next couple of months, I'll be offered a four year contract and then that will take me down the road of becoming a full cave instructor. So you can become a full cave instructor faster with other dive shops. But a project they do things a little bit differently and they just from the fundamental course from the very beginning courses, everything is super like locked in and super clean. And they don't let you get away with any mistakes and it's just like really, really really good divers who have had a long track record of producing phenomenal divers. Yeah, so those are the guys I want to like connect myself with so hopefully I get get the contract offer and then four years later I'll be a game instructor hopefully

Matt Waters:

Yeah. And wow, four years seems quite a long time to get your tick in the box when you compare it to everything else. But I mean you raise a good point there I mean, if you're going to if you're going to do something like this and you know go into an overhead environment and seriously into an overhead environment then there's only one way to do it and that's the right way you know none of this

Steve Crosby:

is gonna be clean I'm like on in any other diving besides rec diving in any other type of diving you can just go up you do tech diving Do you check that okay you're gonna get benched you might get been feel bad but you like you get lost on a dive site who cares you go a little bit too okay whatever but it can't like you take the wrong turn like there's no other eggs you know you don't you don't have the option of going out so like every member of the team has to be like clicked in it's it's quite serious stuff like we all joke we all have fun like it's a lively you know, it's not just everyone in the shopping like super strict all the time. Like we we have fun with it. But whenever it's time to dive it's time to dive in. It's it's you know, it's the it's the most serious type of diving because you just don't have the option of going home.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. What's What's the message doing the ship?

Steve Crosby:

Just gonna say like granted you Yes, of course if you go 200 metres and you go straight up, you're gonna have a bad day. I don't want that guy in the comments to be okay. But yes.

Matt Waters:

They said, don't even bother looking at comments mate. I say it many times in the forums especially on Facebook, there's so many armchair experts that Scuba dive and it's ridiculous. Exactly the only ones I ever read are the ones of the names that I recognise as people that I respect as a diver in your man who can you man who complains about not being able to dive with a dive shop because they say he's not qualified to go that deep but he's done it for last 25 years because he can and he's a stubborn I'll get

Steve Crosby:

ya know, that happens sometimes. And he just smile and wave and like it's sometimes a divers we could fit for a shop or sometimes a diver needs not necessarily like to be humble, but sometimes people just need to like to have you know, he's familiar with the Dunning Kruger curve. I swore I wouldn't bring this up today. The Dunning Kruger curve ideas like the less experience you have, the more confident you are and then as you get more calm, or sorry, as you get more experienced, your confidence takes a massive dip. So you see a lot of that in cave diving and like I was one of those guys, whenever I first started cave diving, I was like, Oh, I'm already an advanced wreck instructor trainer. I'm already a sidemount instructor Raja Raja Raja, I'll be fine. And then I got here and I was like, I was humbled. It's a humbling experience. And you don't know until you do it for the first time. So like, you don't know what you don't know. Until you know,

Matt Waters:

yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm gonna say I've had a few cave divers on now are tech divers, and they're talking about cave. And I did that bit in in Tulum. And we just, we only snuck in, it's more, you know, I barely scraping the surface, but the idea of going through little holes and nooks and crannies really just doesn't appeal to me. So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm confident enough to say it's not for me.

Steve Crosby:

Gotcha. Well, and that's the thing, like number one, like, all types of diving aren't for everyone. Right? Just because you like get nervous doing it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Yeah. All right, like caving isn't for everyone. And that's okay. All right. So like, sometimes in recreational diving, you'll have people who are like, oh, like, I know, you're nervous about doing it. But once you do it, you'll love it. Right. irata And like, sometimes we'll have some peer pressure and all that. But like, that kind of stuff is really like not welcome in the caves tonight. Because like, that's just not that's not what we're after. It's okay for it not to be about you. And like, if you realise that about yourself, that's fine. Yeah. Give it a try. Go for a cavern tour if you want. All right. See some light. See, okay, cool. You don't like the rocks over your head. That's okay. You don't have to do it. All right. For me, personally, I still don't I don't like small caves. I've been like I've been stuck in a wreck before and ever since then. Like I really don't like small things around me. I like big cave. I'm a big guy. I don't like tight tight restrictions. I'll go through them. If I know there's big cave on the other side. Yeah, but most of the time I try and avoid the tight tight stuff too. Yeah.

Matt Waters:

Yeah. Like say you're not a small frame. I'm with you on that one. No,

Steve Crosby:

no, but I do make a bad habit of like, Hey, guys, what's one small hole I can fit through and get stuck. Yeah, that'd be insane in itself. Always a good time. Yeah.

Matt Waters:

So have you have you started to formulate your own opinions on the sort that the individual should notice? And have you started to get a hierarchy of favourites and all that kind of thing?

Steve Crosby:

So it's weird. It's like um, I mean, I'm not gonna I'm gonna take the cop out. It's not a cop out. But it's like it's the truth. It's like whatever people say, What's your favourite type of diving is like what depends kind of on like, where you're at and what you're doing like, sometimes you'll do this sometimes you have to do that and also depends on like, who you're with. Because if you if you get a client and they really love seeing small little stalactites, like I know where I'm gonna take you if you get a client that wants to see like, huge rays of sunlight come pouring through and okay, well boom, I know exactly what I'm gonna take you and I know what time I'm gonna take you but you like so you start formulating like ideas of what's better for this or what's better for that? But every single day and every cave is like so dramatically different. Everyone who doesn't go into caves and goes in this notice? Like thanks to the same I had a girl asked me a wife of a client who was here she asked me she's like well aren't also known as the same as like he can meet they're all like so fantastically different. You'll have like, you'll have like Nick diehard that has literally like flowers and lily pads in the middle of the snow day and then there's like, there's some water flow through the cavern die, which is like always fun to be like diving into current in a cave. And then you'll have like the pit which is like the biggest, like multiple cathedral sized hole that has ever been discovered. Yeah. So like, you get like such crazy like, like different things. So to say that one is like a favourite versus the other No, but I definitely have ones that are like more suited for better stuff. So like, if it's your first dive, I know exactly what I'm going to take you every single time. I'm gonna take you to a dive cycle though, so who knows? Because it's like, it's nice and flat. There's no big buoyancy changes. It's not like a beginner's dive. It's still a cavern dive. But it's not like a difficult dive. But a lot of the cabin dives aren't like difficult dive but you gotta be careful whenever you say that. Because sometimes if you say this dive site isn't difficult. The experience people don't want to go on that easy dive. So no, it's still a great time. Let's go. Let's go for a dive. So like your first time we take you into a sauce every single time you see a bunch of light, see a bunch of select a bunch formations, you go over you see the Batcave, you surface inside an air dome full of bats. Like there's so much fun stuff to see. So yeah, so do I have favourites? And not favourites? Like it changes all the time?

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah. You mentioned the pit there. I mean, we did that when we're over there. And I think I could have done easy. I could have spent a day there just hunkered down in the bottom corner trying to try and get the perfect photo. It's just amazing to see.

Steve Crosby:

For photographers. It's crazy. Yeah, yeah. Now in the pit, the pits are special in and I really just want the history behind somebody that's not theirs. And the pit has like such an amazing history, the fact that it was discovered from the cave side. So cave diver was doing an outrageously long dive from a neighbouring sun out there, and then just randomly emerged into the biggest room that's ever been found.

Matt Waters:

Did you know how long ago that was?

Steve Crosby:

You know, I don't I genuinely don't if I had to guess I guess somewhere like in the 80s. Maybe I genuinely don't know. I probably should.

Matt Waters:

Because there's so many of them, though that they keep. Forgive me if I'm getting it wrong. I don't think I am. But I think New So notice I just found constantly Are they not?

Steve Crosby:

Constantly, constantly. So the name Sonata is just like it's just a sinkhole. It's where the ground gave way. And now there's water underneath. Yep. So so no thing does not mean that there's necessarily a great cavern area or that there's a great dive. There's just the actual opening where, you know, effectively a sinkhole happened in the really, really big ones. A lot of the time there's a nice cavern area where you're not properly in the cave, you can still see the light, you're never that far from an exit. You've you know, you're not going deeper than 30 metres you're in the cavern zone, and that's awesome. And that's exactly what it should be. And in Tulu in the tomb area,

Unknown:

I don't know maybe like 1520 Cavern sites? Yeah.

Steve Crosby:

But then like, cave sites, it's hundreds upon hundreds. Okay. It's an absolutely insane amount. Yeah. A lot of them a lot of them nice. A lot of less nice a lot of them great state clients and a lot of them not great dictate clients. And so, yeah, there's just there's hundreds whenever you look at like a zoomed out map of the Yucatan Peninsula, and you like just filter by like insurances in there everywhere. Yeah, it's crazy. How much there are.

Matt Waters:

Did you? Do you follow? Cristina Zenato at all? of you,

Steve Crosby:

Cristina Zenato? No, you keep you keep hitting me with names of people like

Matt Waters:

this is the lady that wears the chainmail and takes hooks out of shark's mouth. In Bahamas?

Steve Crosby:

No. Okay, so yeah, I know, I know who you're talking about. Yeah,

Matt Waters:

well, she and her partner over COVID There have a cave, divers and instructors and all that kind of thing as well. And over COVID They took the opportunity to go and explore. And I found so many new caves and tunnels and I think they are the only two people that are legitimately recognised by the government to be guides in those those regions because they're that new,

Steve Crosby:

right? There's an insane amount of excellent that's the one like nice thing so like here until Doom over COVID Like some people came the nomads and some people couldn't work so they came so to loom like diving or at least like pro tech didn't see a huge decline. But there was like some decline and that gave way to the opportunity for some of the guys here to explore and mainly I've been friends with them for you know since 2018. And just seeing their posts every week like up just laying another 600 metres of virgin cave just found this this like scandal one of the one of the like the in house explorers that we have at protect every week. He's like posting on Instagram these like empty spools that he has. There was a whole lot online on it. And I just, you know, here's three empty spools from us exploring today and I'm just like dad Governor, why am I not down there? That's the one nice thing like COVID did lead to a lot of exploration in the area happening, which has been nice because now we have more and more places to take clients and more and more just virgin cave, which is always, you know, an amazing treat.

Matt Waters:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Sorry, I was not nearly nearly asked earlier. The missus Is she in the dive industry as well.

Steve Crosby:

Yeah, so she is a open water instructor. So she's, she did her dive master at Rock tapas. So that's where we originally met her. She's now an instructor. So she's doing she's freelancing at a shop here, doing like open water courses, advanced courses, fun dives, that kind of stuff. She's not into, like Kevin diving yet. So to be a cavern guide in the area, you have to be a full cave diver. And she's content at our current level. And it's not something you'd like for us to push. It's like Alright, cool. Whenever you're ready to do your assignment, of course, then you do your K, of course. But right now, she's still like a, you know, a relatively inexperienced instructor because she got her instructor in like January of 2020. Gotcha. And then like, no tours, brand new instructor so, so she doesn't have a whole lot of certs under her belt just yet. So she's contends to just be teaching that for a little while. And then then hopefully move into that kind of role later on, if she wants to.

Matt Waters:

And that's a good thing to do get that experience now that you've got to that level, I mean, anything from DM, DM and onwards, I think you need to get some experience at each level before you rush through and try and get to be Billy big bollocks at the end of the day, because Yolanda go and bolt it up. Anyway, that's

Steve Crosby:

a that's a that's a really big concept. What's there's a book written about it by the same guy who I think we're too far like, the Human Factors of diving, we're just like, enjoy the journey. Like, just because you want to get to like point D, like ABCD you don't have to like strength they're like go from a then go to B and like chill out a B for a while, like teach the open water courses, teach the advanced courses do that, then go to speciality instructor do that for a while don't like if you want to, and you got the money. And that was sure. But like, you're kind of cheating yourself out on so much other stuff like so much. So many different opportunities for growth and experience. So like 100% Enjoy the journey, like do it one day at a time. Like, I'm completely content to do my full cave instructor course in four years. Because I have never taught a cavern course, I have never taught an overhead sidemount course. And I've never I've taught very the only courses I've taught here and some of them have been open watercourses for my friends a couple of years ago. Yeah. So like, I still have so much experience in this area to get. And that's where like you need to start like checking yourself. It's like, Alright, cool. I have a lot of experience over here. But I've never done this here before. Or I've done a bunch of racks. But I'm in the grand scheme of my diving. My cane diving is still like a very small, like minority of my diving. Yeah. So I need to like start building that experience. Like really, really slowly. And there are a lot of people who just like rush that. And it's a shame sometimes. Whenever you see people who like, do their open watercourse, and then a year later, our uninstall are a speciality instructor. And they're this and they just bought a rebreather, and this and then you ask them, like, how many fun dives have you done? And they're like, you know, less than 100 people?

Matt Waters:

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, you know, it is and you've got to,

Steve Crosby:

you've got room for whatever the bare minimum is for that.

Matt Waters:

You've got to give room for that experience to become second nature. And you know, to have a good foundation for everything else that you're going to extend yourself out to. And I think you're doing the perfect example there might have just been able to slowly progress through those recreational routes and have that as, as a blueprint, going forward into a much more complex role.

Steve Crosby:

Exactly. And that's, that's the thing, like, it's whenever we first started diving, the idea of doing like, have the idea of, I don't know, going 40 metres inside going deeper than 40 metres inside of a wreck by yourself or like leading customers inside that situation like, that's like so crazy and foreign to you. But then there are people who like that's their goal, and they'll just like shoot it, I believe it's like, step one, like do a whole bunch of deep dives. First step to do a whole bunch of wreck dives next. Then go do some deep dives next, then start leading in like, like build up all the things as soon as you start combining specialities and putting yourself in these weird situations too early. You find yourself in like in strange situations. Yeah. But like I remember, I remember I did a fun time in Egypt. This is As you know, two years ago, it was a DPV dive at night, while wearing a twin set, getting dropped off from the Zodiac and we went past two different retina three different rxbar diving on. I went to Haas we went past three different racks with the scooters the whole time. Being the guys having a great dive gone up, it was cool like maybe we hit 30 metres whatever. And then I got up onto the boat and I had to submit it to like self reflect I was like, cow Lee like doing like, that was just a fun dive. But doing like a GPD dive to a lot of people's a big deal. Doing a nighttime is a big deal. Ducati V diver nights a big deal to DVD dive around racks at night with nitrox on twinset. Like you start to, like, if you just rush into that situation, it's gonna be like overload. But if you do, like just slowly, slowly building up the levels of confidence. And then also like, it's like having the ocean punish you a couple of times, because you only really get good experience whenever something goes wrong whenever someone gets close to going wrong. Or whenever an instructor stops, you inhale, that's gonna go really wrong soon. So that's you just got to the school of hard knocks, that just takes time. Yeah. Yeah. And so there's no reason to rush it, you know?

Matt Waters:

Yeah. Well, I think your message is gonna be in safe hands and using a bit of wise experience from yourself, and be patient time and enjoy the journey. Oh, yeah, for sure. And I tell you what we will do as well, if, if you don't mind, well, we'll we'll catch up with you later in the year, six, eight months time, something like that, and just see how your progression has come along and where you're at Next. And, you know, just follow that journey a little bit more, because I think there's gonna be a lot of people that are looking at re entering the industry as dive professionals, and probably kind of wondering where they're gonna go to next. And then also, there's going to be those. Yeah, and I think there's going to be a lot of those kids that are going to be coming through and saying, Well, how the hell do I get into this? And what do I do? What's the opportunities? And it'd be it'd be nice to see how you get on as well with with you know, planting yourself in, in Mexico and, and getting on board with the guys at the dive shop.

Steve Crosby:

Yeah, so you're officially my accountability, buddy. Now, as they say, my what? My accountability, buddy.

Matt Waters:

What the hell is that

Steve Crosby:

holding me accountable don't start to hold you accountable. Like if you start a new diet, but you have an accountability, buddy, it's like Alright, cool. Steve said he's gonna work on being a full cave instructor. We're gonna check in with you in six months. You better be on the road. Hell

Matt Waters:

yeah, man. Okay, I am your accountability. biller out accountabilibuddy All right. I've never heard of that one before, but I'll take it. You are now you know, responsible of taking yourself forward. Good on you, mate. Steve. It's been an absolute pleasure catching up with you, buddy. And thank you for coming on the show. I wish you all the best for the future and the diving down in in Tulum, and we'll catch up in the not too distant future.

Steve Crosby:

I'll be here.

Matt Waters:

Goodbye, everybody.