August 30, 2023 • 49 mins
Stephanie Schuldt earned a degree in Biology, & Master’s Degree in Business. She had a prestigious title, big pay, big house & luxury car. However, Stephanie left her corporate career, her title & big paycheck, sold her car, purchased a 46 ft. Sailing Catamaran, obtained a captain’s license & set sail to the Bahamas to pursue her dream of sailing around the world & living on the ocean. Stephanie is now a Master Freedive Instructor, Boat Captain, 7x Spearfishing World Record Holder & Dive Master.
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Outdoors People is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET.
Outdoors People TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Outdoors People Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Outdoors People Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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(00:00):
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We make no recommendations or endorsements forradio show, program services, or products
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(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to outdoors, peoplewith me CEW, guests and her Maya
Marzaki. Good evening. It's Wednesday, August thirty, twenty twenty three.
(00:53):
We've got a beautiful seventy six degreefahrenheit day here in north central lum night,
very sunny, breezy, but justa nice breeze. And you know,
I flirted with turning our air on. I said, not gonna do
it. I'm not gonna do it. It's just too beautiful. But yeah,
that equates too for the rest ofthe world twenty four degrees celsius.
So what what does that compare toyou down there and full of brazil man?
(01:18):
Yeah, it sounds amazing. Actually, my weather is pretty much like
yours with a beautiful day of winterwith twenty two degrees cells shoes, and
it means for you see United Statesseven two degrees Fahrenheigh perfect four degrees.
(01:41):
Man, you know I'm begging aboutHey, you know what, I'm not
going to brag about that when it'sninety one hundred degrees here, so you
can Yeah, anything earth eighty degreesthat you can keep. Eighty five is
probably my top uncomfortable. Yeah,actually it is. It is beautiful.
This is the per big timing theyear two late late summer for US,
(02:01):
late summer and late winter winter forme. You know, I heard something
today. I was asked, areyou a morning person or a night owl?
And you know it's funny because Iused to be this night out.
I played in the band for alot of years. Yeah, and just
by nature, you're you're a nightowl, you know. And I had
(02:23):
to think about it, I said, you know, I honestly used to
answer that night all. But Ithink I really am a morning person.
Now. I have a morning routine. I enjoy it. How about you.
Yeah, you are getting older,right, so morning person right now?
One the early bird. Oh,he's an early bird and night owl.
You can't do both. It's likebeing a Republican and a Democrat.
(02:44):
You cannot do that. He justdoesn't leap be at all. What is
that? Yeah, so, Idon't know if it's a sign of age
or if it's just something where youchange a routine. I don't know,
you know, Yeah, maybe yourroutine is different right now. I am
always grumpy, but I wake upearly. I'm always grumpy. I love
(03:05):
that I'm always moody and grumpy,but I do like waking up early.
I do understand that. I dounderstand. Actually, I think I'm the
same exact way as you. That'swhy we get along. There we go,
Oh boy, Well. Episode ofOutdoors People is brought to you by
(03:27):
Rutabaga Paddle Sports, providing time onthe water, by Ken Grund Views making
campaign easier, by the Lupac madein the USA since eighteen eighty two,
and by Jackson Kayak persuing joy throughPatos parts. Tonight's episode is from business
Suits to Bathing Suits with our specialguest, Stephanie Schultz, a self described
(03:49):
typical American girl born and raised inFlorida. Stephanie Schult went on to earn
a degree in biology and a master'sdegree in business. Following graduation, she
under the working world and remained therefor the next thirteen years, first as
a business consultant executive for a carrental company and then for an online marketing
company. Stephanie had the prestigious life, the big paycheck, the beautiful house,
(04:13):
and the luxury car, which,by society standards, is perceived as
someone who is successful. However,she felt something was missing and was determined
to make a change. Stephanie decidedto leave her corporate career, her title,
and the big paycheck. She soldher car, purchased a forty six
I'm sorry forty six foot fountain tryinga fountain Peyo Sailing catamaran, obtained her
(04:36):
captain's license and set out to sailthe Bahamas in pursuit of her dream sailing
around the world living on the ocean. Stephanie is now a Master free dive
instructor, USCG, one hundred toncaptain, seventh time spear fishing world record
holder, and a dive master.Not quite your typical American girl, and
(04:57):
with that, welcome to the show. Stephanie. Thank you. Thanks for
having me. I love it.By the way, how bad they did?
I screw that too? Hey?Yo see how did I do?
No? Not too bad? FanTempezo. It's French right right? What's
your weather like there? And whereare you at? Actually again, where
(05:18):
are you stationed? Well? I'min French Polynesia, so just sailed across
the Pacific Ocean and we're at avery remote atoll in the two emotives.
I love that. That's that's beautiful. What do you think, Maya?
Yeah, oh my gosh, Ifeel that I wished to be there before
as well. That sounds just amazing. You know, we live vicuriously through
(05:43):
people here in this show, don'twe mean? You know, yeah,
that's true. That's nice though.And how did you first become involved in
free diving? I got involved infree diving at this point, it's probably
six or seven years ago. Andto take of this, I'm from Florida
(06:05):
and we would go lobster and everylobster season. Oh, we're having a
connection issue already. Oh no,I'm hoping that we were hoping that Elon's
invention of what is it starling wouldwould prevail, But she's still with this
(06:28):
I see her there. Okay,there we go. I'm here. I
don't know where you lost me.Let's try let's just even stir it all
over. Let's try that again.Sure. So I got involved in free
diving about six or seven years ago. I'm from Florida, and so we
would go lobster and every lobster season, and my brother in law could hold
his breath longer than me, divedown and get more lobsters than me.
So I am a bit competitive,and I decided to take a free diving
(06:51):
course just so I could compete withhim, and I ended up getting a
bit obsessed with it. I wentto got my Master is Free Diving certification,
got my Instructors Free Diving certification,started teaching, and now I'm an
instructor trainer for free diving. Wow, that's pretty Is he younger older than
you? Uh? He's he's alittle bit younger. Oh okay, So
(07:14):
well it wasn't too bad. It'snot like your older brother got by it
is no. It is the meaningof a healthy competition, right. Absolutely.
Well, listen, I understand youhave several instructor certifications. Tell us
about those, right. So Iam certified through Patty. There's a number
(07:36):
of different organizations you can obtain afree diving certification through, but I chose
Patty because I was Scuba di ScubaDive certified through Patty. So there's a
couple of levels. There's the Beginnerfree Diver, then Free Diver Advanced and
Masters, and those are all differentlevels according to depth and breath hold and
dynamic at MEIA just some specific skillsthat you have to hit certain requirements,
(07:59):
and then there you can become aninstructor and after that an instructor trainer.
So at this point I went aheadand went through all of the certifications and
I hold the top level for Pattyright now, Wow, that's that's impressive.
Yeah. I saw the movie TheDeepest Breath and I got so like
(08:20):
amazed with that, and I mean, Wanderina watch exactly specifically the things you
cover in the free dive course asyou teach. Yeah. Sure, so
that was a great film. Iactually was there when Alesia hit the record,
so that's really Yeah. Yeah,I'm definitely one of the b roles
(08:43):
that you see panning the audience.I'm going to watch it again. She's
extremely talented and just a lovely human, but in free diving we focus it's
primarily training your mind and your body, So we focus on breath holding,
how to breathe properly, how toinhale properly, how to calm your mind,
(09:05):
how to relax your body, andthen we focus a lot on safety
techniques, so how to tell ifyou're feeling the signs of hypoxia, which
is low oxygen, how to savesomebody if they do have a shallow water
blackout or lost to motor control,and then we go over a lot of
techniques head position, body position,kick cycles, how to kick to get
to certain depths, and it's prettyinvolved, but if somebody's interested, in
(09:30):
two or three days, you canget certified for free diving. Is that
for everybody? I mean, justcan anybody do that? Or do you
have to be one of those peoplethat have a bit of a talent for
holding your breath? So the youngestthe youngest person I've taught is two six
year olds and the oldest person I'vetaught was seventy six years old, So
(09:52):
it's really for anyone. The onlypeople who struggle learning how to free dive
are the people who have had sinussurgeries or struggle with equalizing because of a
medical reason. So a lot ofpeople struggle with equalizing just because they haven't
been taught the proper way to equalize. There's a certain technique to equalize your
ears and your sinus cavity, andif you haven't been taught, then that's
(10:15):
something you can learn. But ifyou have some medical things that are preventing
you from being able to equalize,that's that's really the only limiting factor.
Other than that. You can bemale or female, you can be young
or old. I've even taught chainsmokers. Yeah, it doesn't matter if
you're you're making that up. Youmean to eat really, Yeah, you
(10:37):
mean when you say chade smokers,we're talking like Jackie Gleeson five packs of
Paul Malls and dairy. Yeah.I think I think he was up to
two packs a day and after thefree diving course he actually quit smoking within
a month because he was so movedby it all. So you know,
you could probably do a program likethat and say quit smoking and program and
(10:58):
quit. That would be awesome.Yeah. Absolutely, I had no idea
I did. I thought, youknow, it was kind of going to
be You have to have a talentfor that in the first place, you
just can't. Here's not that kindof person. But not true, not
true. Anybody can do it.Yeah, it's actually I was thinking about
that because after I see the movie, I was so amazed and I went
(11:18):
to learn, but I was like, Okay, it's not for me.
But now I'm feeling a little bitmore confident, and the part of relaxing
the body and the mind really gotme really appreciate. I really appreciate that
I need that, So I reallycan you some some classes, but well
(11:41):
we are going to a little break, so don't go away. Will you
be back. A few years agosomeone asked rud the biggest owner, Darren
Bush, Hey, how long haveyou guys been selling boats? Darren replied,
(12:03):
well, we don't sell boats.We sell time on the water.
Of course, that comes in alltypes. We help people paddle more safely
with rudebec outdoor programs. We rentcanoes, kayaks, and stand up paddleboards.
We sell and install racks to getyou from home to adventure. Rudebeca's
got everything you need to get youout on the water, like paddles,
life jackets, dry bags and clothing. Rudebaga paddle Sports on the web at
(12:24):
rudebeca dot com. Mention you sawthis ad on the Camping Show it is
time to go camping. Introducing campgroundViews virtual tours, you can tour the
campground, see the site, seeif they are available, and click to
book your perfect spot, hit theopen road and explore the amazing places found
(12:48):
in nature. We make it easyto discover, find and book your site
so that you can go have thefun and freedom you seek. Campground Views
virtual Tours make it easy and simplefor you to see where you are going.
(13:28):
Duluthpack is handcrafted for every lifestyle,making memories since eighteen eighty two,
in store at three sixty five CanalPark Drive, or online at duluthpack dot
com. We are one big family, a community of taddlers, and we
want to make sure that everyone hasa great time out on the water.
(13:50):
We are made right here in FartTennessee, at USA. This is where
every Jackson kayak is born, builtby hands with a focus on innovation.
We are jack and Kayak. Weare we are, we are Jackson kaya
We are we are were Jackson jogWe are Jackson Kayak. All right,
(14:16):
we're back with our guest, Stephanieschild Stephanie, let's talk about spear fishing
and the seven i USA world recordsyou currently hold. The first of all,
where did you get started doing that? Anyway, I was it was
right after I became an instructor forfree diving. I was invited by friends
of a friend to cross from Floridato the Bahamas on spear fishing trip.
(14:41):
And this group of friends just theywanted somebody who was a good safety,
who was good at free diving.So that's how I invited. It was
kind of like a last minute cancelation. Steven and I went with them and
connected with them so well, andone of them actually taught me, was
like, hey, you want tolearn how to fish? And I was
like yeah, And they handed mea pulse bear and I shot a hog
(15:03):
fish and the rest is history.You know, it's funny, I but
this guy did not think for aminute that when you did. When he
did that, you were going togo seven world records to your credit,
right. Definitely? Not, definitelynot. No, I'm not a very
like aggressive personality, and I'm notan aggressive person at all, but I
(15:26):
am a very driven person and goinginto the water and selecting the specific fish
that I want to eat that night, and then coming back fileting it,
using every part of the fish,and then feeding myself and my family and
my friends. I got to thepoint where my parents stopped buying seafood.
(15:48):
I provided seafood for the whole family, and that made me feel really good,
but fresher than anything they're going topick up anywhere at the fish market
already. I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, well
please go oh. I'm just gonnaask you know, how long did it
take you to get to those sevenrecords? I mean, is that what
kind of periody thing? I gotmy first one in Costa Rica, probably
(16:14):
four years ago or five years ago. And then then I bought my boat
four years ago and I moved onon board and moved over to the Bahamas.
And since I was living in theBahamas, spear fishing is still very
much a male dominated sport, sothere's a lot of records for men,
and there's not very many records forwomen, and especially on pulse bear because
(16:36):
it's more primitive gear. So hereI am in one of the best places
in the world, with the biggestfish and the most beautiful water, living
on my boat full time with apulse bear in my hand. So I
got pretty lucky. You know,you're just saying Maya's tune, didn't she
Maya? Oh my gosh, yeah, I'm coming up. That's that's just
(16:57):
amazing again, a hell fee competitionfor you against demands and against itself as
well, right and ever think youtry it and you have done, you
just got like the highest position.So that's very impressive correlation and watches shark
(17:18):
diving exactly. Yeah. So Ithink the number one fear people have of
the ocean is with sharks, thanksto the Baby Jaws and a lot of
movies out there, and so peoplehave this crazy fear of the ocean and
they never get to experience the beautyof it or the interactions with all the
marine wildlife because they're terrified to evenput their toes in the water or go
(17:41):
past the beach. So when Istarted spear fishing, I quickly realized that
sharks are opportunistic and when you're spearfishing, there's always going to be sharks
there. So I took the opportunityto study with a bunch of shark biologists
and scientists to learn their different behaviorsso that when I'm spear fishing, I
can do it safely and eliminate risksas much as possible by reading their behaviors.
(18:03):
So when I moved on board andstarted offering charters, one of the
things I started offering was the opportunityto free dive with sharks. So I
would have people come on board andlearn how to free dive, learned how
to spearfish, and then we'd actuallyjump in the water when there were sharks
around, so that people could learnthe different species of sharks, learned their
different behaviors. And I took peoplewho were crying and shaking, terrified,
(18:29):
like almost to the level of havinglike a phobia of sharks, and within
five to ten minutes, they're nolonger squeezing onto my hand. They're swimming
by themselves, diving down, tryingto get closer with the sharks. Because
most fear is just lack of knowledge. And once you have the knowledge and
realize that the sharks aren't out,they're not man eaters, they're not out
(18:49):
to attack you, then your wholeperspective on the ocean changes and on sharks.
Yeah, it's beautiful. I mean, these people live, these are
growing in. Yeah, I havea very large man head on my back
for about five minutes straight. Yeah, Yeah, what's it like? They
(19:14):
have a girld man cry in thereand hold your hand. He's scared of
a shark. I mean, that'sgotta be that's gotta be a dominating sort
of a you know situation. ThenI'm guessing you know, well, it's
really beautiful because they're forced to bevulnerable in a way that they're not typical
typically vulnerable. And I feel reallyhonored and blessed that I'm in a position
to take them through this process ina healthy manner. So at the end
(19:37):
of it, they can't wait togo back in the water. And that's
the ultimate because people protect things theylove and they've experienced, and so if
they have these amazing experience, they'regonna love and want to protect sharks in
the ocean and that's the goal.Wow. You know, some women might
take that opportunity to say and makefun of them and go, you know,
really, that's why you don't teach, That's why they make fun of
(20:04):
themselves at the end of the day. So it's all in good fun.
It's funny. So when you takethese when you take these guys down there.
I mean, I just I wishI wish I could see you.
I wish I could see some videoof that, because that would be fun.
But I mean, are they reallythey just they kind of hide behind
(20:26):
you at first, or what dothey do? Are they? I'm just
curious about that. Yeah, sotechnically what happens is I'll get it.
Oh no, a last well youlost her the most excited question. Yeah,
this was getting really good. Yourlove is going like, okay,
(20:48):
I'm gonna hear this. Yeah,are we there? Yeah, just when
you just cut out, So I'llstart out over apology. Okay, So
I'll get I'll have my mask andfins and jump in the water and then
they sit on the back of myboat and they put their mask and fins
on, and then I turn aroundand they give me their hands and I
piggyback them, so they're just holdingonto the back of me, and that
(21:11):
way they can keep their mask theirface in the water next to me,
but their whole body is kind ofon between them and the sharks. So
yeah, you're shielding. There's thatbarrier. And then once they feel comfortable
enough to just hold my hand,then I'll tell them to wait, and
I'll dive down and show them whatan appropriate interaction is. We never want
to touch the sharks. We neverwant to go after the tails or surprise
(21:33):
the sharks. We just want togo down and coexist with them. And
so I'll show them kind of howto do it, and then I'll hold
their hand and dive down with them, and before you know it, they're
they're doing it on their own.That's so cool. Well, you know,
speaking it. What is your whatis your most favorite? Our favorite?
Let me try it again. What'syour most frightening thing You've experienced most
shirt dave and or free day,both of either one. I've actually never
(22:00):
been frightened when I was free divingor spear fishing or shark diving. There
was never a moment that was scaryto me. There was one situation where
there was a pregnant bullshark behind theboat and I jumped in because I wanted
to interact with her and just seeher because she was big and beautiful,
and she when I jumped in thewater, I made a little splash and
(22:22):
splashed. The vibration is what attractsthe sharks, and she actually turned and
came up to the surface and cameup to me, and I just had
a mask with a GoPro on it, and I didn't want to scratch the
mask or the GoPro, so Ididn't, but I didn't want to touch
her because I didn't want to startleher, so I just kind of tried
to move out of her way,and she came straight into me and ended
(22:45):
up hitting one of my fins andgot scared and then swam to the bottom.
So I wouldn't say I was scaredin that moment. It was more
just a surprise. I wasn't expectingthat behavior. That's not a typical behavior
from a shark. So it justwas a nice hum an experience that you
can have years under your belt andthey're still wild animals. Yeah, that's
(23:06):
true. That's a great point.Yeah, it's sich another day at off
see rate, exactly exactly. That'sRenny, and you offer leave our trips.
Let's have you walk through a cheapcall day on one off those strips.
Sure, so people will come onboard from all over the world.
(23:30):
They'll either come solo or with theirfriends or family or co workers, and
you move on board. So Ihave a four it's called four berths and
four heads, so four bedroom,four bathroom on board, so I can
take up to six guests sharing acabin, two people sharing a cabin and
you come on board and in themorning we have our coffee and breakfast thist
we go over free diving techniques andspear fishing techniques and shark diving techniques,
(23:55):
and then we suit up and wego for a dive, and depending on
where we are, we'll focus onwhatever marine wildlife is in the area,
so whether it be sharks or dolphins, turtles, sting rays, man terray's
now it's it's really special. We'llcome back, we'll have some lunch,
and then typically we jump in thewater again. Pretty much every day we
want to try to harvest at leastone fish. We try to eat everything
(24:15):
fresh and we only take what we'regoing to eat that day. And then
in the afternoons we'll go to thebeach, light a bonfire, have a
couple of beverages, make some smores, and then we'll spend the night kind
of watching the stars. Typically whenyou're in the Bahamas, there's about ten
shooting stars at night. It's magical. And then we go to bed and
do it all over. Oh mygosh, my questions for you right now?
(24:41):
When are we going to do that? As soon as we get off
the air, we're going to signup for this. And you did say
four bathrooms right, yes, yep, I can't that. Then it just
blows my mind. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, you know, would
be really cool though, is todo one of those trips in and and
shoot footage of the whole thing.I think that would be amazing. Yeah,
(25:03):
you're both invited. I think we'regoing to be talking about that,
Stephanie, No one in us ifyou really don't mean that, you are
one hundred percent invited, because we'rethe kind of people will take you off
on. That's amazing. So,which your scursions has been your favorite so
far? I mean you've been alot of places. Which one have been
(25:26):
your favorite? Probably? I havetwo favorite favorite experiences of all. Actually
I've just added a third now,but my first one was going to Tiger
It's a place it's called Tiger Beachin the Bahamas, and it's a place
where they've been doing shark diving fora couple of decades now. And the
tiger sharks I don't want to saydomesticated because it's not the right word.
(25:48):
But they're very familiar with humans,so they'll swim right up to you and
you have to choose to get outof the way because they won't get out
of the way. And there wasone time where a big fee male named
Emma swam straight up to me andI kind of played chicken with her a
little bit and she just came straightin. That's put my hand up,
and we were nose to nose fora second, and then I just kind
(26:10):
of pushed her off to the side. And just having that experience that's so
different than what I grew up knowingabout sharks, and then seeing it for
myself and experiencing it myself and sharingthat moment it was that was pretty life
changing for me. And then thenext life changing experience was I went to
Norway and I have the opportunity tofree dive with orcas killer whales in the
(26:33):
wild while it was snowing outside.It looks like Narnia around you. And
my boyfriend and I had an anamazing moment where a mom and a baby
came in and interacted with us,and the level of intelligence of an orca
is completely different. The how itfeels in the relationship and the interaction is
totally different than a shark. Ashark is very much a fish, and
(26:56):
the orca is very much a mammal. You like you're on the same level
as them. They're so intelligent.Oh my gosh. Yeah, I have
to ask you, Steviny, didyou ever picture you'd be doing something like
this. We're a kid, youknow, you know I did. I
did as a young kid, andeven in high school, I had a
(27:18):
pickup truck and I always kept abikini in my pickup truck, and after
class I would go over to thebeach and put on snorkel gear and I'd
be snorkeling around. But it justnever dawned on me that it was possible
to do this with your life.I was always taught that, you know,
society teaches you like, you goto school, you go to college,
you get a master as you getyou get a job, you climb
the corporate ladder as high as youcan, and you try to get that
(27:41):
title in that paycheck. And ifyou wanted to just buy a boat and
sail away and go play with orcasand sharks, like, that's not that's
not a real job. That's notthat's not something you can live off of,
Like, that's not something you do. So it just never occurred to
me that it was possible until Ihad kind of my aham and I said,
but why not? It's like,why, why is it impossible?
(28:03):
Well, you had me a pickuptruck, and I thought that was cool.
So yeah, I mean, yes, everything just amazed me. You
are just an amazing our lady.And you are such a inspiration for everyone,
but mainly for women and menly forme. And you said so many
(28:26):
like amazing stuff like fears, alack of knowledge and being vulnerable in a
healthier way. That's just so amazingand so oppressive. And I'm sure you
promote lots of good changes in manypeople's life. That's amazing. Thank you.
Yeah, but well we have somepictures and videos, she looked up.
(28:51):
But after these little breaks, sodon't go away. A few years
ago, someone asked Rudebega's owner DarrenBush, Hey, how long have you
guys been selling boats? Darren replied, we don't sell boats. We sell
(29:14):
time on the water. Of course, that comes in all types. We
help people paddle more safely with rudebecoutdoor programs. We rent canoes, kayaks
and stand up paddleboards. We selland install racks to get you from home
to adventure. Rudebega's got everything youneed to get you out on the water
like paddles, life jackets, drybags and clothing. Rudebaga Paddle Sports on
the web at rudebega dot com.Mention you saw this ad on the Camping
(29:37):
Show it is time to go camping. Introducing Campground Views Virtual tours. You
can tour the campground, see thesites, see if they are available,
and click to book your perfect spot, hit the open road and explore the
amazing places found in nature. Wemake it easy to discover, fight and
(30:00):
book your site so that you cango have the fun and freedom you seek.
Campground Us Virtual Tours make it easyand simple for you to see where
you are going. Duluthpack is handcraftedfor every lifestyle, making memories since eighteen
(30:41):
eighty two, in store at threesixty five Canal Park Drive, or online
at duluthpack dot com. We areone big family, a community of tattlers,
and we want to make sure thateveryone has a great time out on
the water. We are made righthere in part of Tennessee, USA.
(31:03):
This is where every Jackson kayak isborn, built by hand with a focus
on innovation. We are Jackie Kayak. We are, we are, we
are Jackson kaya we are we are, We're Jackson kah We agree, we
are Jackson Kayak. And we're backwith our guest, Stephanie. Should let's
(31:27):
take a look at some of thosephotos that Stephanie sent us and we'll they
have her tell us a little bitwell big yeah. So we just sailed
over to Panama from the Bahamas andwe went through the Panama Canal over to
the Pacific side of Panama and wecouldn't stop catching mahi. We were catching
(31:51):
mahi mahi. It was it wasmayhem. But we actually ended up keeping
this one. We only keep probablyone out of every five that we catch
the sunding on our space and ourfridge, so this was a really nice
one. That's amazing. That's abeautiful fish. By the way, he's
stunning colors. Yeah, well,yeah, that's beautiful. That's so impressive.
(32:21):
This was fun. So I becamefriends on social media with a Bahamian
underwater photographer. His name's Andre Musgrove. He's a super talented young man who's
from the Bahamas, and we wenton our first trip together to Bimini and
we jumped in the water are wewere planning on diving with hammerheads, and
(32:42):
there just so happened to be atiger shark there. And this tiger shark's
name is Joker, and this wasthe first season that Joker was spotted in
Biminy and wasn't really super familiar withhumans and didn't have didn't have her manners
down, so she she so fun. Fact, sharks are actually somewhat drawn
to the color yellow. We callit young young yellow. So I wore
(33:02):
a yellow bikini on purpose because Iwanted the sharks to come closer. And
Joker loved my bikini, came rightup. I left the surface because when
a shark is approaching you, youwant to dive down towards the shark,
and I met Joker midway and shecame right into me, so I put
my hand on her nose to redirecther, and she Tiger sharks do something
(33:24):
called exploratory bites, so they closedtheir nictitating membrane, which protects their eyeballs,
and then they take a couple ofbites to see what it is that
they're bumping into. It's not withthe intention of eating you. But that's
why you had that experience. Holysmokes, whoa, I'm never going to
wear yellow anymore. She did iton purpose? Oh my god. Yeah,
(33:52):
so here again you can the yellow. This was the experience I described
of being nose to nose with thefemale shark that came in, and yeah,
she would have just kept going.You could see she also closed her
next tadium membrane. You can seeyour eyes white. That's the membrane over
her eye for protection. But thisone didn't take any explored tory bites because
(34:15):
she's really familiar with humans. Itry to avoid interaction when I can.
Now I move out of the waymore. This was my first experience there,
and I just wanted to see whatshe would do, and that's why
I ended up having this experience.Annah, what happens when they bite to
just to check it up. Imean, well, you don't want them
(34:37):
to bite you. So with ashark, their mouth is under their nose,
like on the bottom side of theirbody. So as long as you
have your hand on top of theirnose, what you want to do is
pushed down in away from you sothat their teeth stay below you. And
it's kind of like similar to adog. When you're asserting dominance, by
just showing that you're dominant, you'rekind of like the pack leader away the
(35:00):
sharks will tend to just say okay. And with Joker that last photo when
she did the exploratory bites, Istayed in the water with her for two
to three hours and never had aninteraction again. She just swam around peacefully
with us and understood what I wasand I wasn't a threat and we had
a great time. So with ashark, if it comes in at you
(35:22):
on top of its head or ontop of its nose, flat hand pushed
down in a way, and you'llbe fine. You'll be absolutely fine.
So I did hear that somewhere youput there on there and then you know
you don't believe I don't believe everythingI hear. Yeah, true, I'm
the same. I heard that,but I didn't believe it. Yeah,
yeah, it's true. Okay,good to know. And how crazy you
(35:46):
playing? Like? Okay, beingdominant with a shark? Yeah right,
I love it. Oh my god, that's yellow bikini. Nonetheless, Yeah,
I think The biggest thing to notetoo is in all of these situations
the sharks, it's very clear water, there's not a lot of disturbance.
(36:07):
I'm with very experienced people. I'mexperienced myself, and we're not doing any
shark feeding, so there's no chumin the water, there's no feeding that's
taking place. The sharks aren't inthe feeding mentality, so their behavior is
going to be a lot different.You can see these two sharks. Their
pectoral fins are flat straight out,like parallel to the bottom. Once they
(36:29):
drop their peck fins, that's whenthey go into predatory mode. So they
start being frenzied like sporadic with theirbehavior. They start swimming a lot faster.
If you ever see a shark that'sacting like that, you want to
remove yourself from the water as quicklyas possible. But don't kick and create
bubbles because that's a very That's whatbaitfish do, is they create bubbles.
(36:51):
So always choose the situation where you'reminimizing risk and you're putting yourself in a
position to have a positive experience.But people who are educated, the reason
why we have most of our sharkbites is because it's at the beach in
the shore break with surfers. It'snot clear water and they're thrashing around and
it's sharks mistake them for fish.So I've never been mistaken there. It's
(37:15):
it's very obvious in these situations thatI'm not food to them. Yeah,
well, well that feed huge.It is your size. Yeah, that
is a nice waho that we gotand that one. Typically it's just my
(37:39):
boyfriend on board and my my twopuppies and my one puppy just passed,
and not just one puppy, butwe have friends who come visit all the
time and we love to give fishback to the locals. We have all
the gear, we have all theexperience where I caught this one on a
rod and reel, But a lotof times we're diving in and spear fishing,
and a lot of times the localsdon't have access to the equipment or
(38:02):
to the skills or then know howthat we do. So a lot of
times we'll get a fish and thenthis fish in particular, we ended up
donating the entire fish to the localsat the dock when we pulled up to
the marina and the Bahamas. That'sa way to make friends fast man.
Yeah, and it feels good.We're in their waters, in their land,
giving back. It's a way toreally feel good and create good karma.
(38:25):
Yeah. Absolutely, that's a beautifulcolored fish too. I mean,
hey, what you got? Whatwas that a flounder? You said?
Oh? Wahoo, yeah, wahoo. Yeah, that's a hog fish.
So this is kind of if youwere to say there's one fish of the
Bahamas, this is the fish ofthe Bahamas. It's a big male Bahamian
(38:49):
hog fish and they're a nice white, flaky meat. They're super delicious pretty
much every way that you eat them, and there are a great fish for
beginners because they kind of just sitthere and let you shoot them. They're
not they're not very challenging, butthey're really challenging to catch on rod and
reel, so you really can you'regoing to have the most luck spear fishing
(39:10):
for them in the Bahamas. Youcan't scooba dive, you only have to
free dive, and you can't usethe gun. You can only use the
poll spirit or sling, so there'sdefinitely some challenges. The populations are really
strong in the Bahamas, which Ilove seeing. But yeah, they're They're
one of my favorite fish for beginnersbecause it's really rewarding to get get a
(39:30):
hog fish. Yeah, that's whatthey want. Let you have some success,
I'm sure at first when you're learningsome things, right, absolutely.
Yeah, So this is probably thefish I'm most proud of. This is
another wahoo. It's eighty four pointsix pounds. You can kind of see
(39:52):
the scale about the top there.So the reason why this fish is such
a big deal is because I landedthis fish free diving on a pul spear,
and with a pul spear you canonly shoot about four to five feet
distance. So with wahoo, they'rea pelagic fish and they're really smart,
and they're really fast, and they'rereally powerful, and it's extremely hard to
(40:15):
get close to them. And thisfish ended up not only being the woman's
world record on pul sphere, butit also beat the men's world record on
pul sphere, and today it's thelargest wah who ever recorded landed in history
on a pole spear. Yeah,that's super impressive. I met you had
(40:37):
a beer at the end of that. We had quite the celebration. Yeah,
that was we were in super remoteBahamas with a bunch of locals.
One of my local friends drove myWe were diving off my catam ran,
which is also really special because typicallyyou're on a big, fancy sport fish
boat with all this high end equipment, and here we are on my catamaran
(40:58):
with a pull sphere, and itwas just a special day all around.
Meant to be, meant to him. Yep, yeah, yeah, that's
the same fish. When I broughtit on my boat, I was really
excited, really beautiful. Whoa,there we go. There's my family.
(41:22):
This is my family. So Finnis my puppy. So that's the one
chasing the sand. He. Irescued him from the Bahamas. Uh.
He's a potcake puppy, so they'recalled Royal Beahaviian potcakes. It's a breed
of dog and they're just the streetdogs in the Bahamas. But he had
been rescued. He was about noteven two pounds when I got him,
(41:44):
maybe four weeks old, had justbeen thrown into the bush to die,
and he was rescued and given toa shelter and I took my dog of
well, he was twelve at thetime, Zeke, who lived on board
with me, and we went tothe shelter and I said, I really
want to rescue a potcake puppy becauseI started my adventure here in the Bahamas.
Were about to leave to go sailaround the world, and this would
(42:06):
be such a great way for meto take a piece of the Bahamas with
me, and also like taking adog that needs a home. And my
dog, Zeki, had been diagnosedwith cancer, so I knew he didn't
have long so it was just agreat way to keep him young and train
Finn. And then that's my boyfriendCole. This is in Panama. This
is after we made it across thecanal. That's a wonderful story and thank
(42:28):
you for sharing that too. It'sit's such a lovely family. Yeah,
thank you. Oh this is cool. Yeah. So this is a statue
by the magician David Copperfield. Heput this right off of his priland in
the Bahamas and the Zumas for hiswife. I think it's his wife.
(42:52):
Her name's Chloe. And this conceptwas an idea that Andre Musgrove, the
underwater photographer, had to go downand have me pretend to play the piano
and address and he put some musicto it. It ended up going a
bit viral, but it was oneof my most favorite underwater photo shoots.
Just the concept was beautiful and itwas a way for people, regardless of
(43:14):
their understanding of the ocean, tokind of relate through seeing this photo.
That's so cool, so cool,like there is no words, just crib
it was. It was very cold, it was very cold that day.
I was wow, I love that. That's awesome. Is that the last
(43:36):
picture we get? Oh? Okay, yeah, sorry, I was awesome
pictures. By the way, thoseare those are amazing? Really well,
what of all the things you're involvedin? What would you say of all
of those things? Is probably thebiggest, most misconceived by people. I
(43:59):
mean, yeah, everything about mylife is misconceived by people, right Yeah.
The beginning, people think free divingsand is crazy that we're insane,
that we're going to go brain deadby holding our breath so long. So
that's a misconception. People think mebeing I bought the boat by myself,
(44:21):
so I was a single woman onthe boat just with my one dog,
Zeeke. The fact that I'm afemale captain doing that, people think that's
crazy that I left a corporate careerto sell everything and buy a boat bust
out another thousand, like, you'renot going to be successful. They think
that was crazy. Shark diving isis severely. There's a misconception with that
(44:42):
that they're just going to eat you, that they're mindless killers. Huge misconception
there. And then with spear fishing, just it's the most sustainable and ethical
way to land fish and provide proteinfor yourself. So it's it's hard to
pick which part of my life isthe most most misunderstood. It's my whole
life is misunderstood. Well, Igot to tell you something. If if
(45:05):
people, you know, there's awe got a lot of I got a
lot of feedback to a lot ofcomments on you on this episode time,
and people are like, that isso cool. I gotta tell you,
I would imagine that anyone that meetsyou or knows who you are, gets
to know you, has to atleast think if they don't say, gosh,
(45:27):
I really envy her, I mean, gosh, if I could do
that, if I had the gutsor if I had that, I mean,
that's impressive. And it's kind tomake you feel good that you can
be an influence to people. Alot of people. Yeah, and I
feel like the misconception comes from upthe luck, the luck off the card
(45:47):
to do the same and follow thedreams. Yeah, absolutely, well,
mind it down here in a coupleof minutes. Let me ask you real
quickly, Steph, what's the questionyou've always wanted to be asked but no
one has asked it yet? Oh? You're there? Sorry? Yeah,
did you hear my question? No? Sorry, I lost her at courage.
(46:08):
That's okay, we'll get I justwe're winding it out in about two
minutes here real quickly. What isthe question that you've always wanted to be
asked but no one's ever asked it? You got one of those? Yeah,
absolutely. Everybody asks me like whatare you doing? What is this?
(46:29):
What is that? But how areyou doing this? But they never
asked me why? Like why didyou make this change? Why did you
make the jump? Why are youon a sailboat? And that's the question
I wish more people would ask.And the answer is kind of simple.
Why not? Like we have onelife, We have one life to live
and I get to do what Iwant to do with who I want to
(46:51):
do it, when I want todo it, where I want to do
it. I mean This is theultimate freedom, and it's possible, and
it's not just possible for me,it's possible for any single person out there
who has this dream or any dreamsimilar, and it is possible to break
out of the matrix and the ratrace. And that's my why I do
this because I want that freedom,but I also want to show other people
(47:15):
that that freedom can exist for themas well. I think I think I'm
going to speak for you and myselfboth and say we both envy you for
doing this, because we were talkingabout doing something not quite a bad degree,
but for us it would be huge. And it's just amazing. You
are an amazing lady. And tosay the least, Yeah, and thanks
(47:36):
thanks for speak for me because I'mspeechful as a raino. So yeah,
that's just so impressive and so amazing. Thank you very much for share with
the world your dreams and I everthink you are able to do and uh
for people see more and know moreabout you when you're adventories. Where can
(48:00):
people find you online? Yeah?So probably the most is Instagram. Free
divers stuff is my Instagram handle.And then if you want to watch any
of the videos of our adventure,I don't do too much. But on
YouTube it's say Lovey, which isthe name of my boat, so you
can check me out there as well. That's fantastic. Well, Steph,
listen, we want to thank youso much for coming on the show and
(48:22):
be our guest here this evening.It was absolute pleasure and really a privilege
to have you on the show.I get to know you. Thank you
both very much for this time.I appreciate it. It was so nice
game to know you guys, andI can't wait to have you on board.
So let's talk about it. Let'smake it happen. Ye. Yes,
(48:44):
I cannot thank you enough, andyou know couple bent you enough,
So thank you again for being here. And we'd also like to thank each
of our sponsors, so bring youtonight's show, Ruta Bag up at it
Sport, Ken Ground's Views, DallasPack and Jackson Kayak. Be sure to
tune in for next week's episode,The Wonderful World of Dragon Boating with our
(49:07):
special guests Rosa Abdalla and Mark Applewaitealong with Marya mar Zaki. This is
CW guests saying thanks for tuning into Outdoors people. We'll see you next
week. Choo
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comments should be directed to those showhosts. Thank you for choosing W FORCY
(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to outdoors, peoplewith me CEW, guests and her Maya
Marzaki. Good evening. It's Wednesday, August thirty, twenty twenty three.
(00:53):
We've got a beautiful seventy six degreefahrenheit day here in north central lum night,
very sunny, breezy, but justa nice breeze. And you know,
I flirted with turning our air on. I said, not gonna do
it. I'm not gonna do it. It's just too beautiful. But yeah,
that equates too for the rest ofthe world twenty four degrees celsius.
So what what does that compare toyou down there and full of brazil man?
(01:18):
Yeah, it sounds amazing. Actually, my weather is pretty much like
yours with a beautiful day of winterwith twenty two degrees cells shoes, and
it means for you see United Statesseven two degrees Fahrenheigh perfect four degrees.
(01:41):
Man, you know I'm begging aboutHey, you know what, I'm not
going to brag about that when it'sninety one hundred degrees here, so you
can Yeah, anything earth eighty degreesthat you can keep. Eighty five is
probably my top uncomfortable. Yeah,actually it is. It is beautiful.
This is the per big timing theyear two late late summer for US,
(02:01):
late summer and late winter winter forme. You know, I heard something
today. I was asked, areyou a morning person or a night owl?
And you know it's funny because Iused to be this night out.
I played in the band for alot of years. Yeah, and just
by nature, you're you're a nightowl, you know. And I had
(02:23):
to think about it, I said, you know, I honestly used to
answer that night all. But Ithink I really am a morning person.
Now. I have a morning routine. I enjoy it. How about you.
Yeah, you are getting older,right, so morning person right now?
One the early bird. Oh,he's an early bird and night owl.
You can't do both. It's likebeing a Republican and a Democrat.
(02:44):
You cannot do that. He justdoesn't leap be at all. What is
that? Yeah, so, Idon't know if it's a sign of age
or if it's just something where youchange a routine. I don't know,
you know, Yeah, maybe yourroutine is different right now. I am
always grumpy, but I wake upearly. I'm always grumpy. I love
(03:05):
that I'm always moody and grumpy,but I do like waking up early.
I do understand that. I dounderstand. Actually, I think I'm the
same exact way as you. That'swhy we get along. There we go,
Oh boy, Well. Episode ofOutdoors People is brought to you by
(03:27):
Rutabaga Paddle Sports, providing time onthe water, by Ken Grund Views making
campaign easier, by the Lupac madein the USA since eighteen eighty two,
and by Jackson Kayak persuing joy throughPatos parts. Tonight's episode is from business
Suits to Bathing Suits with our specialguest, Stephanie Schultz, a self described
(03:49):
typical American girl born and raised inFlorida. Stephanie Schult went on to earn
a degree in biology and a master'sdegree in business. Following graduation, she
under the working world and remained therefor the next thirteen years, first as
a business consultant executive for a carrental company and then for an online marketing
company. Stephanie had the prestigious life, the big paycheck, the beautiful house,
(04:13):
and the luxury car, which,by society standards, is perceived as
someone who is successful. However,she felt something was missing and was determined
to make a change. Stephanie decidedto leave her corporate career, her title,
and the big paycheck. She soldher car, purchased a forty six
I'm sorry forty six foot fountain tryinga fountain Peyo Sailing catamaran, obtained her
(04:36):
captain's license and set out to sailthe Bahamas in pursuit of her dream sailing
around the world living on the ocean. Stephanie is now a Master free dive
instructor, USCG, one hundred toncaptain, seventh time spear fishing world record
holder, and a dive master.Not quite your typical American girl, and
(04:57):
with that, welcome to the show. Stephanie. Thank you. Thanks for
having me. I love it.By the way, how bad they did?
I screw that too? Hey?Yo see how did I do?
No? Not too bad? FanTempezo. It's French right right? What's
your weather like there? And whereare you at? Actually again, where
(05:18):
are you stationed? Well? I'min French Polynesia, so just sailed across
the Pacific Ocean and we're at avery remote atoll in the two emotives.
I love that. That's that's beautiful. What do you think, Maya?
Yeah, oh my gosh, Ifeel that I wished to be there before
as well. That sounds just amazing. You know, we live vicuriously through
(05:43):
people here in this show, don'twe mean? You know, yeah,
that's true. That's nice though.And how did you first become involved in
free diving? I got involved infree diving at this point, it's probably
six or seven years ago. Andto take of this, I'm from Florida
(06:05):
and we would go lobster and everylobster season. Oh, we're having a
connection issue already. Oh no,I'm hoping that we were hoping that Elon's
invention of what is it starling wouldwould prevail, But she's still with this
(06:28):
I see her there. Okay,there we go. I'm here. I
don't know where you lost me.Let's try let's just even stir it all
over. Let's try that again.Sure. So I got involved in free
diving about six or seven years ago. I'm from Florida, and so we
would go lobster and every lobster season, and my brother in law could hold
his breath longer than me, divedown and get more lobsters than me.
So I am a bit competitive,and I decided to take a free diving
(06:51):
course just so I could compete withhim, and I ended up getting a
bit obsessed with it. I wentto got my Master is Free Diving certification,
got my Instructors Free Diving certification,started teaching, and now I'm an
instructor trainer for free diving. Wow, that's pretty Is he younger older than
you? Uh? He's he's alittle bit younger. Oh okay, So
(07:14):
well it wasn't too bad. It'snot like your older brother got by it
is no. It is the meaningof a healthy competition, right. Absolutely.
Well, listen, I understand youhave several instructor certifications. Tell us
about those, right. So Iam certified through Patty. There's a number
(07:36):
of different organizations you can obtain afree diving certification through, but I chose
Patty because I was Scuba di ScubaDive certified through Patty. So there's a
couple of levels. There's the Beginnerfree Diver, then Free Diver Advanced and
Masters, and those are all differentlevels according to depth and breath hold and
dynamic at MEIA just some specific skillsthat you have to hit certain requirements,
(07:59):
and then there you can become aninstructor and after that an instructor trainer.
So at this point I went aheadand went through all of the certifications and
I hold the top level for Pattyright now, Wow, that's that's impressive.
Yeah. I saw the movie TheDeepest Breath and I got so like
(08:20):
amazed with that, and I mean, Wanderina watch exactly specifically the things you
cover in the free dive course asyou teach. Yeah. Sure, so
that was a great film. Iactually was there when Alesia hit the record,
so that's really Yeah. Yeah,I'm definitely one of the b roles
(08:43):
that you see panning the audience.I'm going to watch it again. She's
extremely talented and just a lovely human, but in free diving we focus it's
primarily training your mind and your body, So we focus on breath holding,
how to breathe properly, how toinhale properly, how to calm your mind,
(09:05):
how to relax your body, andthen we focus a lot on safety
techniques, so how to tell ifyou're feeling the signs of hypoxia, which
is low oxygen, how to savesomebody if they do have a shallow water
blackout or lost to motor control,and then we go over a lot of
techniques head position, body position,kick cycles, how to kick to get
to certain depths, and it's prettyinvolved, but if somebody's interested, in
(09:30):
two or three days, you canget certified for free diving. Is that
for everybody? I mean, justcan anybody do that? Or do you
have to be one of those peoplethat have a bit of a talent for
holding your breath? So the youngestthe youngest person I've taught is two six
year olds and the oldest person I'vetaught was seventy six years old, So
(09:52):
it's really for anyone. The onlypeople who struggle learning how to free dive
are the people who have had sinussurgeries or struggle with equalizing because of a
medical reason. So a lot ofpeople struggle with equalizing just because they haven't
been taught the proper way to equalize. There's a certain technique to equalize your
ears and your sinus cavity, andif you haven't been taught, then that's
(10:15):
something you can learn. But ifyou have some medical things that are preventing
you from being able to equalize,that's that's really the only limiting factor.
Other than that. You can bemale or female, you can be young
or old. I've even taught chainsmokers. Yeah, it doesn't matter if
you're you're making that up. Youmean to eat really, Yeah, you
(10:37):
mean when you say chade smokers,we're talking like Jackie Gleeson five packs of
Paul Malls and dairy. Yeah.I think I think he was up to
two packs a day and after thefree diving course he actually quit smoking within
a month because he was so movedby it all. So you know,
you could probably do a program likethat and say quit smoking and program and
(10:58):
quit. That would be awesome.Yeah. Absolutely, I had no idea
I did. I thought, youknow, it was kind of going to
be You have to have a talentfor that in the first place, you
just can't. Here's not that kindof person. But not true, not
true. Anybody can do it.Yeah, it's actually I was thinking about
that because after I see the movie, I was so amazed and I went
(11:18):
to learn, but I was like, Okay, it's not for me.
But now I'm feeling a little bitmore confident, and the part of relaxing
the body and the mind really gotme really appreciate. I really appreciate that
I need that, So I reallycan you some some classes, but well
(11:41):
we are going to a little break, so don't go away. Will you
be back. A few years agosomeone asked rud the biggest owner, Darren
Bush, Hey, how long haveyou guys been selling boats? Darren replied,
(12:03):
well, we don't sell boats.We sell time on the water.
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with rudebec outdoor programs. We rentcanoes, kayaks, and stand up paddleboards.
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got everything you need to get youout on the water, like paddles,
life jackets, dry bags and clothing. Rudebaga paddle Sports on the web at
(12:24):
rudebeca dot com. Mention you sawthis ad on the Camping Show it is
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Duluthpack is handcrafted for every lifestyle,making memories since eighteen eighty two,
in store at three sixty five CanalPark Drive, or online at duluthpack dot
com. We are one big family, a community of taddlers, and we
want to make sure that everyone hasa great time out on the water.
(13:50):
We are made right here in FartTennessee, at USA. This is where
every Jackson kayak is born, builtby hands with a focus on innovation.
We are jack and Kayak. Weare we are, we are Jackson kaya
We are we are were Jackson jogWe are Jackson Kayak. All right,
(14:16):
we're back with our guest, Stephanieschild Stephanie, let's talk about spear fishing
and the seven i USA world recordsyou currently hold. The first of all,
where did you get started doing that? Anyway, I was it was
right after I became an instructor forfree diving. I was invited by friends
of a friend to cross from Floridato the Bahamas on spear fishing trip.
(14:41):
And this group of friends just theywanted somebody who was a good safety,
who was good at free diving.So that's how I invited. It was
kind of like a last minute cancelation. Steven and I went with them and
connected with them so well, andone of them actually taught me, was
like, hey, you want tolearn how to fish? And I was
like yeah, And they handed mea pulse bear and I shot a hog
(15:03):
fish and the rest is history.You know, it's funny, I but
this guy did not think for aminute that when you did. When he
did that, you were going togo seven world records to your credit,
right. Definitely? Not, definitelynot. No, I'm not a very
like aggressive personality, and I'm notan aggressive person at all, but I
(15:26):
am a very driven person and goinginto the water and selecting the specific fish
that I want to eat that night, and then coming back fileting it,
using every part of the fish,and then feeding myself and my family and
my friends. I got to thepoint where my parents stopped buying seafood.
(15:48):
I provided seafood for the whole family, and that made me feel really good,
but fresher than anything they're going topick up anywhere at the fish market
already. I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, well
please go oh. I'm just gonnaask you know, how long did it
take you to get to those sevenrecords? I mean, is that what
kind of periody thing? I gotmy first one in Costa Rica, probably
(16:14):
four years ago or five years ago. And then then I bought my boat
four years ago and I moved onon board and moved over to the Bahamas.
And since I was living in theBahamas, spear fishing is still very
much a male dominated sport, sothere's a lot of records for men,
and there's not very many records forwomen, and especially on pulse bear because
(16:36):
it's more primitive gear. So hereI am in one of the best places
in the world, with the biggestfish and the most beautiful water, living
on my boat full time with apulse bear in my hand. So I
got pretty lucky. You know,you're just saying Maya's tune, didn't she
Maya? Oh my gosh, yeah, I'm coming up. That's that's just
(16:57):
amazing again, a hell fee competitionfor you against demands and against itself as
well, right and ever think youtry it and you have done, you
just got like the highest position.So that's very impressive correlation and watches shark
(17:18):
diving exactly. Yeah. So Ithink the number one fear people have of
the ocean is with sharks, thanksto the Baby Jaws and a lot of
movies out there, and so peoplehave this crazy fear of the ocean and
they never get to experience the beautyof it or the interactions with all the
marine wildlife because they're terrified to evenput their toes in the water or go
(17:41):
past the beach. So when Istarted spear fishing, I quickly realized that
sharks are opportunistic and when you're spearfishing, there's always going to be sharks
there. So I took the opportunityto study with a bunch of shark biologists
and scientists to learn their different behaviorsso that when I'm spear fishing, I
can do it safely and eliminate risksas much as possible by reading their behaviors.
(18:03):
So when I moved on board andstarted offering charters, one of the
things I started offering was the opportunityto free dive with sharks. So I
would have people come on board andlearn how to free dive, learned how
to spearfish, and then we'd actuallyjump in the water when there were sharks
around, so that people could learnthe different species of sharks, learned their
different behaviors. And I took peoplewho were crying and shaking, terrified,
(18:29):
like almost to the level of havinglike a phobia of sharks, and within
five to ten minutes, they're nolonger squeezing onto my hand. They're swimming
by themselves, diving down, tryingto get closer with the sharks. Because
most fear is just lack of knowledge. And once you have the knowledge and
realize that the sharks aren't out,they're not man eaters, they're not out
(18:49):
to attack you, then your wholeperspective on the ocean changes and on sharks.
Yeah, it's beautiful. I mean, these people live, these are
growing in. Yeah, I havea very large man head on my back
for about five minutes straight. Yeah, Yeah, what's it like? They
(19:14):
have a girld man cry in thereand hold your hand. He's scared of
a shark. I mean, that'sgotta be that's gotta be a dominating sort
of a you know situation. ThenI'm guessing you know, well, it's
really beautiful because they're forced to bevulnerable in a way that they're not typical
typically vulnerable. And I feel reallyhonored and blessed that I'm in a position
to take them through this process ina healthy manner. So at the end
(19:37):
of it, they can't wait togo back in the water. And that's
the ultimate because people protect things theylove and they've experienced, and so if
they have these amazing experience, they'regonna love and want to protect sharks in
the ocean and that's the goal.Wow. You know, some women might
take that opportunity to say and makefun of them and go, you know,
really, that's why you don't teach, That's why they make fun of
(20:04):
themselves at the end of the day. So it's all in good fun.
It's funny. So when you takethese when you take these guys down there.
I mean, I just I wishI wish I could see you.
I wish I could see some videoof that, because that would be fun.
But I mean, are they reallythey just they kind of hide behind
(20:26):
you at first, or what dothey do? Are they? I'm just
curious about that. Yeah, sotechnically what happens is I'll get it.
Oh no, a last well youlost her the most excited question. Yeah,
this was getting really good. Yourlove is going like, okay,
(20:48):
I'm gonna hear this. Yeah,are we there? Yeah, just when
you just cut out, So I'llstart out over apology. Okay, So
I'll get I'll have my mask andfins and jump in the water and then
they sit on the back of myboat and they put their mask and fins
on, and then I turn aroundand they give me their hands and I
piggyback them, so they're just holdingonto the back of me, and that
(21:11):
way they can keep their mask theirface in the water next to me,
but their whole body is kind ofon between them and the sharks. So
yeah, you're shielding. There's thatbarrier. And then once they feel comfortable
enough to just hold my hand,then I'll tell them to wait, and
I'll dive down and show them whatan appropriate interaction is. We never want
to touch the sharks. We neverwant to go after the tails or surprise
(21:33):
the sharks. We just want togo down and coexist with them. And
so I'll show them kind of howto do it, and then I'll hold
their hand and dive down with them, and before you know it, they're
they're doing it on their own.That's so cool. Well, you know,
speaking it. What is your whatis your most favorite? Our favorite?
Let me try it again. What'syour most frightening thing You've experienced most
shirt dave and or free day,both of either one. I've actually never
(22:00):
been frightened when I was free divingor spear fishing or shark diving. There
was never a moment that was scaryto me. There was one situation where
there was a pregnant bullshark behind theboat and I jumped in because I wanted
to interact with her and just seeher because she was big and beautiful,
and she when I jumped in thewater, I made a little splash and
(22:22):
splashed. The vibration is what attractsthe sharks, and she actually turned and
came up to the surface and cameup to me, and I just had
a mask with a GoPro on it, and I didn't want to scratch the
mask or the GoPro, so Ididn't, but I didn't want to touch
her because I didn't want to startleher, so I just kind of tried
to move out of her way,and she came straight into me and ended
(22:45):
up hitting one of my fins andgot scared and then swam to the bottom.
So I wouldn't say I was scaredin that moment. It was more
just a surprise. I wasn't expectingthat behavior. That's not a typical behavior
from a shark. So it justwas a nice hum an experience that you
can have years under your belt andthey're still wild animals. Yeah, that's
(23:06):
true. That's a great point.Yeah, it's sich another day at off
see rate, exactly exactly. That'sRenny, and you offer leave our trips.
Let's have you walk through a cheapcall day on one off those strips.
Sure, so people will come onboard from all over the world.
(23:30):
They'll either come solo or with theirfriends or family or co workers, and
you move on board. So Ihave a four it's called four berths and
four heads, so four bedroom,four bathroom on board, so I can
take up to six guests sharing acabin, two people sharing a cabin and
you come on board and in themorning we have our coffee and breakfast thist
we go over free diving techniques andspear fishing techniques and shark diving techniques,
(23:55):
and then we suit up and wego for a dive, and depending on
where we are, we'll focus onwhatever marine wildlife is in the area,
so whether it be sharks or dolphins, turtles, sting rays, man terray's
now it's it's really special. We'llcome back, we'll have some lunch,
and then typically we jump in thewater again. Pretty much every day we
want to try to harvest at leastone fish. We try to eat everything
(24:15):
fresh and we only take what we'regoing to eat that day. And then
in the afternoons we'll go to thebeach, light a bonfire, have a
couple of beverages, make some smores, and then we'll spend the night kind
of watching the stars. Typically whenyou're in the Bahamas, there's about ten
shooting stars at night. It's magical. And then we go to bed and
do it all over. Oh mygosh, my questions for you right now?
(24:41):
When are we going to do that? As soon as we get off
the air, we're going to signup for this. And you did say
four bathrooms right, yes, yep, I can't that. Then it just
blows my mind. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, you know, would
be really cool though, is todo one of those trips in and and
shoot footage of the whole thing.I think that would be amazing. Yeah,
(25:03):
you're both invited. I think we'regoing to be talking about that,
Stephanie, No one in us ifyou really don't mean that, you are
one hundred percent invited, because we'rethe kind of people will take you off
on. That's amazing. So,which your scursions has been your favorite so
far? I mean you've been alot of places. Which one have been
(25:26):
your favorite? Probably? I havetwo favorite favorite experiences of all. Actually
I've just added a third now,but my first one was going to Tiger
It's a place it's called Tiger Beachin the Bahamas, and it's a place
where they've been doing shark diving fora couple of decades now. And the
tiger sharks I don't want to saydomesticated because it's not the right word.
(25:48):
But they're very familiar with humans,so they'll swim right up to you and
you have to choose to get outof the way because they won't get out
of the way. And there wasone time where a big fee male named
Emma swam straight up to me andI kind of played chicken with her a
little bit and she just came straightin. That's put my hand up,
and we were nose to nose fora second, and then I just kind
(26:10):
of pushed her off to the side. And just having that experience that's so
different than what I grew up knowingabout sharks, and then seeing it for
myself and experiencing it myself and sharingthat moment it was that was pretty life
changing for me. And then thenext life changing experience was I went to
Norway and I have the opportunity tofree dive with orcas killer whales in the
(26:33):
wild while it was snowing outside.It looks like Narnia around you. And
my boyfriend and I had an anamazing moment where a mom and a baby
came in and interacted with us,and the level of intelligence of an orca
is completely different. The how itfeels in the relationship and the interaction is
totally different than a shark. Ashark is very much a fish, and
(26:56):
the orca is very much a mammal. You like you're on the same level
as them. They're so intelligent.Oh my gosh. Yeah, I have
to ask you, Steviny, didyou ever picture you'd be doing something like
this. We're a kid, youknow, you know I did. I
did as a young kid, andeven in high school, I had a
(27:18):
pickup truck and I always kept abikini in my pickup truck, and after
class I would go over to thebeach and put on snorkel gear and I'd
be snorkeling around. But it justnever dawned on me that it was possible
to do this with your life.I was always taught that, you know,
society teaches you like, you goto school, you go to college,
you get a master as you getyou get a job, you climb
the corporate ladder as high as youcan, and you try to get that
(27:41):
title in that paycheck. And ifyou wanted to just buy a boat and
sail away and go play with orcasand sharks, like, that's not that's
not a real job. That's notthat's not something you can live off of,
Like, that's not something you do. So it just never occurred to
me that it was possible until Ihad kind of my aham and I said,
but why not? It's like,why, why is it impossible?
(28:03):
Well, you had me a pickuptruck, and I thought that was cool.
So yeah, I mean, yes, everything just amazed me. You
are just an amazing our lady.And you are such a inspiration for everyone,
but mainly for women and menly forme. And you said so many
(28:26):
like amazing stuff like fears, alack of knowledge and being vulnerable in a
healthier way. That's just so amazingand so oppressive. And I'm sure you
promote lots of good changes in manypeople's life. That's amazing. Thank you.
Yeah, but well we have somepictures and videos, she looked up.
(28:51):
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This is where every Jackson kayak isborn, built by hand with a focus
on innovation. We are Jackie Kayak. We are, we are, we
are Jackson kaya we are we are, We're Jackson kah We agree, we
are Jackson Kayak. And we're backwith our guest, Stephanie. Should let's
(31:27):
take a look at some of thosephotos that Stephanie sent us and we'll they
have her tell us a little bitwell big yeah. So we just sailed
over to Panama from the Bahamas andwe went through the Panama Canal over to
the Pacific side of Panama and wecouldn't stop catching mahi. We were catching
(31:51):
mahi mahi. It was it wasmayhem. But we actually ended up keeping
this one. We only keep probablyone out of every five that we catch
the sunding on our space and ourfridge, so this was a really nice
one. That's amazing. That's abeautiful fish. By the way, he's
stunning colors. Yeah, well,yeah, that's beautiful. That's so impressive.
(32:21):
This was fun. So I becamefriends on social media with a Bahamian
underwater photographer. His name's Andre Musgrove. He's a super talented young man who's
from the Bahamas, and we wenton our first trip together to Bimini and
we jumped in the water are wewere planning on diving with hammerheads, and
(32:42):
there just so happened to be atiger shark there. And this tiger shark's
name is Joker, and this wasthe first season that Joker was spotted in
Biminy and wasn't really super familiar withhumans and didn't have didn't have her manners
down, so she she so fun. Fact, sharks are actually somewhat drawn
to the color yellow. We callit young young yellow. So I wore
(33:02):
a yellow bikini on purpose because Iwanted the sharks to come closer. And
Joker loved my bikini, came rightup. I left the surface because when
a shark is approaching you, youwant to dive down towards the shark,
and I met Joker midway and shecame right into me, so I put
my hand on her nose to redirecther, and she Tiger sharks do something
(33:24):
called exploratory bites, so they closedtheir nictitating membrane, which protects their eyeballs,
and then they take a couple ofbites to see what it is that
they're bumping into. It's not withthe intention of eating you. But that's
why you had that experience. Holysmokes, whoa, I'm never going to
wear yellow anymore. She did iton purpose? Oh my god. Yeah,
(33:52):
so here again you can the yellow. This was the experience I described
of being nose to nose with thefemale shark that came in, and yeah,
she would have just kept going.You could see she also closed her
next tadium membrane. You can seeyour eyes white. That's the membrane over
her eye for protection. But thisone didn't take any explored tory bites because
(34:15):
she's really familiar with humans. Itry to avoid interaction when I can.
Now I move out of the waymore. This was my first experience there,
and I just wanted to see whatshe would do, and that's why
I ended up having this experience.Annah, what happens when they bite to
just to check it up. Imean, well, you don't want them
(34:37):
to bite you. So with ashark, their mouth is under their nose,
like on the bottom side of theirbody. So as long as you
have your hand on top of theirnose, what you want to do is
pushed down in away from you sothat their teeth stay below you. And
it's kind of like similar to adog. When you're asserting dominance, by
just showing that you're dominant, you'rekind of like the pack leader away the
(35:00):
sharks will tend to just say okay. And with Joker that last photo when
she did the exploratory bites, Istayed in the water with her for two
to three hours and never had aninteraction again. She just swam around peacefully
with us and understood what I wasand I wasn't a threat and we had
a great time. So with ashark, if it comes in at you
(35:22):
on top of its head or ontop of its nose, flat hand pushed
down in a way, and you'llbe fine. You'll be absolutely fine.
So I did hear that somewhere youput there on there and then you know
you don't believe I don't believe everythingI hear. Yeah, true, I'm
the same. I heard that,but I didn't believe it. Yeah,
yeah, it's true. Okay,good to know. And how crazy you
(35:46):
playing? Like? Okay, beingdominant with a shark? Yeah right,
I love it. Oh my god, that's yellow bikini. Nonetheless, Yeah,
I think The biggest thing to notetoo is in all of these situations
the sharks, it's very clear water, there's not a lot of disturbance.
(36:07):
I'm with very experienced people. I'mexperienced myself, and we're not doing any
shark feeding, so there's no chumin the water, there's no feeding that's
taking place. The sharks aren't inthe feeding mentality, so their behavior is
going to be a lot different.You can see these two sharks. Their
pectoral fins are flat straight out,like parallel to the bottom. Once they
(36:29):
drop their peck fins, that's whenthey go into predatory mode. So they
start being frenzied like sporadic with theirbehavior. They start swimming a lot faster.
If you ever see a shark that'sacting like that, you want to
remove yourself from the water as quicklyas possible. But don't kick and create
bubbles because that's a very That's whatbaitfish do, is they create bubbles.
(36:51):
So always choose the situation where you'reminimizing risk and you're putting yourself in a
position to have a positive experience.But people who are educated, the reason
why we have most of our sharkbites is because it's at the beach in
the shore break with surfers. It'snot clear water and they're thrashing around and
it's sharks mistake them for fish.So I've never been mistaken there. It's
(37:15):
it's very obvious in these situations thatI'm not food to them. Yeah,
well, well that feed huge.It is your size. Yeah, that
is a nice waho that we gotand that one. Typically it's just my
(37:39):
boyfriend on board and my my twopuppies and my one puppy just passed,
and not just one puppy, butwe have friends who come visit all the
time and we love to give fishback to the locals. We have all
the gear, we have all theexperience where I caught this one on a
rod and reel, But a lotof times we're diving in and spear fishing,
and a lot of times the localsdon't have access to the equipment or
(38:02):
to the skills or then know howthat we do. So a lot of
times we'll get a fish and thenthis fish in particular, we ended up
donating the entire fish to the localsat the dock when we pulled up to
the marina and the Bahamas. That'sa way to make friends fast man.
Yeah, and it feels good.We're in their waters, in their land,
giving back. It's a way toreally feel good and create good karma.
(38:25):
Yeah. Absolutely, that's a beautifulcolored fish too. I mean,
hey, what you got? Whatwas that a flounder? You said?
Oh? Wahoo, yeah, wahoo. Yeah, that's a hog fish.
So this is kind of if youwere to say there's one fish of the
Bahamas, this is the fish ofthe Bahamas. It's a big male Bahamian
(38:49):
hog fish and they're a nice white, flaky meat. They're super delicious pretty
much every way that you eat them, and there are a great fish for
beginners because they kind of just sitthere and let you shoot them. They're
not they're not very challenging, butthey're really challenging to catch on rod and
reel, so you really can you'regoing to have the most luck spear fishing
(39:10):
for them in the Bahamas. Youcan't scooba dive, you only have to
free dive, and you can't usethe gun. You can only use the
poll spirit or sling, so there'sdefinitely some challenges. The populations are really
strong in the Bahamas, which Ilove seeing. But yeah, they're They're
one of my favorite fish for beginnersbecause it's really rewarding to get get a
(39:30):
hog fish. Yeah, that's whatthey want. Let you have some success,
I'm sure at first when you're learningsome things, right, absolutely.
Yeah, So this is probably thefish I'm most proud of. This is
another wahoo. It's eighty four pointsix pounds. You can kind of see
(39:52):
the scale about the top there.So the reason why this fish is such
a big deal is because I landedthis fish free diving on a pul spear,
and with a pul spear you canonly shoot about four to five feet
distance. So with wahoo, they'rea pelagic fish and they're really smart,
and they're really fast, and they'rereally powerful, and it's extremely hard to
(40:15):
get close to them. And thisfish ended up not only being the woman's
world record on pul sphere, butit also beat the men's world record on
pul sphere, and today it's thelargest wah who ever recorded landed in history
on a pole spear. Yeah,that's super impressive. I met you had
(40:37):
a beer at the end of that. We had quite the celebration. Yeah,
that was we were in super remoteBahamas with a bunch of locals.
One of my local friends drove myWe were diving off my catam ran,
which is also really special because typicallyyou're on a big, fancy sport fish
boat with all this high end equipment, and here we are on my catamaran
(40:58):
with a pull sphere, and itwas just a special day all around.
Meant to be, meant to him. Yep, yeah, yeah, that's
the same fish. When I broughtit on my boat, I was really
excited, really beautiful. Whoa,there we go. There's my family.
(41:22):
This is my family. So Finnis my puppy. So that's the one
chasing the sand. He. Irescued him from the Bahamas. Uh.
He's a potcake puppy, so they'recalled Royal Beahaviian potcakes. It's a breed
of dog and they're just the streetdogs in the Bahamas. But he had
been rescued. He was about noteven two pounds when I got him,
(41:44):
maybe four weeks old, had justbeen thrown into the bush to die,
and he was rescued and given toa shelter and I took my dog of
well, he was twelve at thetime, Zeke, who lived on board
with me, and we went tothe shelter and I said, I really
want to rescue a potcake puppy becauseI started my adventure here in the Bahamas.
Were about to leave to go sailaround the world, and this would
(42:06):
be such a great way for meto take a piece of the Bahamas with
me, and also like taking adog that needs a home. And my
dog, Zeki, had been diagnosedwith cancer, so I knew he didn't
have long so it was just agreat way to keep him young and train
Finn. And then that's my boyfriendCole. This is in Panama. This
is after we made it across thecanal. That's a wonderful story and thank
(42:28):
you for sharing that too. It'sit's such a lovely family. Yeah,
thank you. Oh this is cool. Yeah. So this is a statue
by the magician David Copperfield. Heput this right off of his priland in
the Bahamas and the Zumas for hiswife. I think it's his wife.
(42:52):
Her name's Chloe. And this conceptwas an idea that Andre Musgrove, the
underwater photographer, had to go downand have me pretend to play the piano
and address and he put some musicto it. It ended up going a
bit viral, but it was oneof my most favorite underwater photo shoots.
Just the concept was beautiful and itwas a way for people, regardless of
(43:14):
their understanding of the ocean, tokind of relate through seeing this photo.
That's so cool, so cool,like there is no words, just crib
it was. It was very cold, it was very cold that day.
I was wow, I love that. That's awesome. Is that the last
(43:36):
picture we get? Oh? Okay, yeah, sorry, I was awesome
pictures. By the way, thoseare those are amazing? Really well,
what of all the things you're involvedin? What would you say of all
of those things? Is probably thebiggest, most misconceived by people. I
(43:59):
mean, yeah, everything about mylife is misconceived by people, right Yeah.
The beginning, people think free divingsand is crazy that we're insane,
that we're going to go brain deadby holding our breath so long. So
that's a misconception. People think mebeing I bought the boat by myself,
(44:21):
so I was a single woman onthe boat just with my one dog,
Zeeke. The fact that I'm afemale captain doing that, people think that's
crazy that I left a corporate careerto sell everything and buy a boat bust
out another thousand, like, you'renot going to be successful. They think
that was crazy. Shark diving isis severely. There's a misconception with that
(44:42):
that they're just going to eat you, that they're mindless killers. Huge misconception
there. And then with spear fishing, just it's the most sustainable and ethical
way to land fish and provide proteinfor yourself. So it's it's hard to
pick which part of my life isthe most most misunderstood. It's my whole
life is misunderstood. Well, Igot to tell you something. If if
(45:05):
people, you know, there's awe got a lot of I got a
lot of feedback to a lot ofcomments on you on this episode time,
and people are like, that isso cool. I gotta tell you,
I would imagine that anyone that meetsyou or knows who you are, gets
to know you, has to atleast think if they don't say, gosh,
(45:27):
I really envy her, I mean, gosh, if I could do
that, if I had the gutsor if I had that, I mean,
that's impressive. And it's kind tomake you feel good that you can
be an influence to people. Alot of people. Yeah, and I
feel like the misconception comes from upthe luck, the luck off the card
(45:47):
to do the same and follow thedreams. Yeah, absolutely, well,
mind it down here in a coupleof minutes. Let me ask you real
quickly, Steph, what's the questionyou've always wanted to be asked but no
one has asked it yet? Oh? You're there? Sorry? Yeah,
did you hear my question? No? Sorry, I lost her at courage.
(46:08):
That's okay, we'll get I justwe're winding it out in about two
minutes here real quickly. What isthe question that you've always wanted to be
asked but no one's ever asked it? You got one of those? Yeah,
absolutely. Everybody asks me like whatare you doing? What is this?
(46:29):
What is that? But how areyou doing this? But they never
asked me why? Like why didyou make this change? Why did you
make the jump? Why are youon a sailboat? And that's the question
I wish more people would ask.And the answer is kind of simple.
Why not? Like we have onelife, We have one life to live
and I get to do what Iwant to do with who I want to
(46:51):
do it, when I want todo it, where I want to do
it. I mean This is theultimate freedom, and it's possible, and
it's not just possible for me,it's possible for any single person out there
who has this dream or any dreamsimilar, and it is possible to break
out of the matrix and the ratrace. And that's my why I do
this because I want that freedom,but I also want to show other people
(47:15):
that that freedom can exist for themas well. I think I think I'm
going to speak for you and myselfboth and say we both envy you for
doing this, because we were talkingabout doing something not quite a bad degree,
but for us it would be huge. And it's just amazing. You
are an amazing lady. And tosay the least, Yeah, and thanks
(47:36):
thanks for speak for me because I'mspeechful as a raino. So yeah,
that's just so impressive and so amazing. Thank you very much for share with
the world your dreams and I everthink you are able to do and uh
for people see more and know moreabout you when you're adventories. Where can
(48:00):
people find you online? Yeah?So probably the most is Instagram. Free
divers stuff is my Instagram handle.And then if you want to watch any
of the videos of our adventure,I don't do too much. But on
YouTube it's say Lovey, which isthe name of my boat, so you
can check me out there as well. That's fantastic. Well, Steph,
listen, we want to thank youso much for coming on the show and
(48:22):
be our guest here this evening.It was absolute pleasure and really a privilege
to have you on the show.I get to know you. Thank you
both very much for this time.I appreciate it. It was so nice
game to know you guys, andI can't wait to have you on board.
So let's talk about it. Let'smake it happen. Ye. Yes,
(48:44):
I cannot thank you enough, andyou know couple bent you enough,
So thank you again for being here. And we'd also like to thank each
of our sponsors, so bring youtonight's show, Ruta Bag up at it
Sport, Ken Ground's Views, DallasPack and Jackson Kayak. Be sure to
tune in for next week's episode,The Wonderful World of Dragon Boating with our
(49:07):
special guests Rosa Abdalla and Mark Applewaitealong with Marya mar Zaki. This is
CW guests saying thanks for tuning into Outdoors people. We'll see you next
week. Choo
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