April 26, 2023 • 19 mins
For years, Issy Warner had dreams of going diving and getting scuba certified. She settled on Belize, home to the largest barrier reef in the Northern hemisphere, and second in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Within the intricate reef reserve system lies the Great Blue Hole, a giant marine sinkhole that was once ranked by the Discovery Channel as the number one on its list of "The 10 Most Amazing Places on Earth". Issy takes us on her journey of discovering the beauty down below as a first-time diver.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:13):
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh and
diverse perspectives from traveling enthusiasts all overthe world. Here at the Globetrotters Podcast,
we hope to show that travel wasso much more than how it's represented
on social media and television by bringingyou real stories, thoughtful discussions on ethical
issues, and investigations into how youcan make the most of an adventure without
(00:36):
breaking the bank. I'm your cohost, Jonathan Otto, and if you
missed our last episode, we hadanother edition of the Layover, the monthly
show where we delve into the latesttravel headlines, give practical travel tips,
and every once in a while we'llinvestigate a questionable social media trend so you
don't have to now. It mayseem that the last few episodes we've been
(00:58):
obsessed with the ocean. Truthfully,we kind of are. Interestingly enough,
four of the last five episodes haverevolved around the ocean or scuba diving in
some travel capacity. We've discussed lostunderwater cities that you can visit, scuba
tips and tricks, diving with sharks, and studying abroad at sea, and
(01:19):
today we're releasing the conversation that ledto a lot of these thoughtful discussions.
Most of the time we have experttravelers and professionals on the show to discuss
topics that can inspire others to followsuit. While our guest today is equally
well traveled, she was embarking ona new adventure and trying something that she
hadn't done before, but was curiousenough to finally go out there and do
(01:42):
it like most of us wish wecould. Naturally, we wanted to share
her experience with others who may findher a bit more relatable as prospective first
timers who always wanted to take theplunge but didn't know what to expect.
And that is why we have buoyantyexpert and freshly certified diver Izzie Warner on
the show. Is He it's apleasure to have you on the show.
(02:06):
Thank you for having me. Whatan in trope boyants the expert. I'll
take that is he tell her guestsa little bit about yourself. So,
yep, as you guess, myname is Izzie. I'm from the UK,
originally from a tiny village in thesouthwest of England, but now living
in Berlin. In Germany and recentlygot patty certified in December in Belize.
(02:28):
I had always wanted to do it. It had been top of my bucket
list for a long time, sowhen I found out a friend was doing
it, I jumped to the chance. And is he what made scuba diving
such an attractive sport for you?Yes, that's a good question. I've
done a lot of sport, butvery much all on land. I think
I was then just intrigued, havingread more also from the Sustainable Aspect about
(02:53):
the Ocean, about coral reeves,was very keen to explore the underwater sport
and just had no idea what toexpect. I then was working closely with
someone who, like your previous guest, is an absolute you know, Paddy
Master goes to Egypt three times ayear. I could see her looking up
different wetsuits on her computer and herbreaks. So I think having that energy
(03:17):
near me it kind of made methink, okay, right, you'd be
wanting to do this for probably adecade time to actually prioritize it and see
what it's like in real life.You know. One of the first questions
that I get from people when they'reinterested in scuba diving is like, how
do they research this, how dothey look at it one diving school versus
(03:37):
the other, and how did yougo about making that decision? Because ultimately
we met at Frenchies Diving School,but it wasn't the only diving center in
the island or in that vicinity.Googling, I knew some friends also who
had actually been to Belies and didsome snorkeling trips with French Chies Diving School,
so it was already top of mymind. So when I again saw
(03:58):
it, kind of recommended a fewblogs. I also thoroughly read the reviews
to go into you know, wasit highly rated just because of the snorkeling.
You know, my mom as soonas I said I was going scuba
diving, was like, it needsto be the JITs, it needs to
be safe. So really reading thereviews and they would name drop instructors and
they just seemed like it was bothreally safe, really professional, but also
(04:21):
a very fun school to do iton. So yeah, it came highly
recommended, and if anyone's think you'regoing, I would also, yeah,
double down on that recommendation and shoutout to see him. Definitely highly recommend
him one of the key differences betweenyour scuba certification and mine. You did
some of the bookwork ahead of time. What are some of the advantages in
(04:44):
disadvantages if any, of doing that. Yes. So another thing I was
looking into was how long these coursestook. I know, when I've been
traveling before and wanted to see ifI could kind of last minute quickly do
my course. Maybe that was verynaive. It would always looked like it
was kind of four or five days. So when I saw friends who was
three days, I was like,perfect, that gives us, especially if
(05:04):
you're on a short time budget,as it were, gave us extra time
to then do some dives afterwards.So already I was looking at three days,
and then I was emailing them theymentioned, you know that was quite
one of those days. Was reallyfocused on watching videos, and as my
friend and I were doing some separatetraveling together, both traveling alone, I
(05:26):
knew that we would have plenty oftime on transport, especially coming from Berlin
it's not a short flight. SoI just quickly messaged them saying, is
it possible to do it in advance? It also meant we could kind of
space it out. I don't knowhow you felt, but it was like
a lot of content. Can youtell our listeners what they should expect on
the first day, maybe even thenight before if you want to take it
(05:47):
there, just because on my endthere was a little bit of anxiety,
even though I had gone on afew discovery towards before. But you know,
it's still, like you said,very unnatural to breathe underwater. One
part WHI shouldn't help was as Imeant, and we were kind of cramming.
It felt like throwback to school andunique cramming for exams, and night
before my friend also made the graveerror of googling everything that could go wrong
(06:10):
on a dive, which I don'tthink helped either of our nerves. So
it definitely advised against that. Butonce we got there, yeah, I
think my main concern was we haddone a snorkeling tour and there was one
part where you could just dive down, you know, not with diveing equipment,
through a cave, and my earswere kind of felt like a lot
of pressure, So I was like, oh, my gosh, maybe this
(06:31):
means it's going to really hurt whenI go diving. Fortune that was not
the case. As soon as wegot there, I think the instructor Sam
as you mentioned, just made usfeel really safe. He was taking us
through everything, including you know,how to make sure you don't build up
pressure, which was actually one partwhich was a lot easier than I expected.
(06:51):
One thing I was surprised about washow quickly we were in the water.
I think I'd seen the videos,Yeah, the people training in a
swimming pool. No, in Frenchiesdiving, they just cool a part of
the ocean swimming pool and that's whywe were training it. They were immediately
taking us through all the equipment andI was like, oh my god,
(07:12):
I don't think I can remember everything. But he had just a lot of
confidence with us. I think itwas kind of good. It was really,
I mean, for want of abetter metaphor, kind of threw us
into deep water, but it wasquite shallow, you know. I do
want to talk a few about thetechnical skills that they make you master before
they actually you know, let yougo out on like a free dive or
some of what we did towards thevery end, you know, and some
(07:34):
of these included removing your goggles whileyou're fully you know, underwater, controlling
your buoyancy, which for me wasthe most difficult, and kind of using
like how to use your second valveor your second respirator in case anything does
go wrong or there's obstructions from thosetechnical skills. What was the most difficult
(07:55):
for you to master and what waseasier than you would have thought. I'm
going to the easiest one, andI'm trying not to laugh because I know
exactly what my most difficult one was. But the easiest one was I think
just going descending for me, justlike breathing and being able to kind of
sink was the easiest part. Ithink at one point he took weights off
(08:16):
because he was like, you seemvery calm and was allowing me to kind
of go down. The trickier partwas then control. Yeah. Two,
actually one was controlling my way up. I think it seems super counterintuitive that
you need to deflate your let's notcalled life jacket, You'll be so disappointed.
I forgotten the name, But youneed to deflate as you're going up
(08:37):
because just the pressure increases the airin your jacket. So that was a
bit counterintuitive to start with, andit meant I went up too quickly and
then the second one he said wasa buoyancy. I was very good at
going down, but I remember oneskill where he just wanted us to kind
of sit underwater and just kind offloat in one position. I was just
rotating like a rotisserie chicken, andhe kept laughing me, which is really
(09:00):
hard when you're underwater to suppress laughter. But again, like him laughing,
I was like, Okay, it'snot the worst skill to be bad at,
you know. I was fine withthe transferring air, being able to
take off and put on my equipment, but it did surprise me how terrible
my bounces underwater. I knew itwas bad on land, but I thought
(09:22):
the water would help. And that'sthe insider joke of why we call her
the buoy and see master. Butto anyone listening, I think it's very
important to stress this. We werea group of four in this diving school
that was getting certified, and Ithink all of us struggled with something that
the rest of us found easy,and so that made it very easy for
me early on just to see thatanybody that's doing this, there's just going
(09:43):
to be some things that you're intuitivelybetter at than some of the other technical
skills. But going back to this, how long did it take you,
would you say, to start feelingcomfortable just being underwater breathing regularly. Yeah,
I think the breathing part came alot more naturally, So I think
even within the first day and doingall the skills, I was quite comfortable
(10:05):
with how to get set up,and you know what part you needed a
check before going in. I thinkthe buoyancy part, like really especially going
up at a good pace and evenwhen you're down there and you're moving around,
being able to kind of navigate thecoral reeves in a really smooth way.
That took probably another two days toget like really good at just being
(10:26):
able to control everything with my breathinstead of moving my flippers or using my
arms. Because I was really watchingour instructor Sam. He just had his
hands kind of held him in frontof him, and it looks so easy.
So that's another thing. Do younot get you put down? If
your instructor just looks like he's floatingthrough super easily. I would then look
(10:48):
behind and all of us would havelimbs everywhere, like you feel very inelegant
to start with, So that definitelytook I think a few days to get
used to. And so you mentionedat the very beginning of this episode that
you went with the intention of goingto Beliefs because it's the second longest coral
reef in the world's second biggest inthe world after the Great Barrier Reef in
(11:11):
Australia. What were some of yourbest diving experiences in Belize and what was
the first one that you were like, wow, I can't like, this
is what diving is like that thatjust sticks in your head when you think
about those moments. Yeah, Ithink in all honestly, right from the
first trip, it just blew mymind. I was so surprised also how
(11:35):
calm it was. I've really Againmaybe it's because I'm from the UK and
people try and avoid the cold water, but I'd hardly done any underwater like
water sports, let alone under thewater sports. So I think even though
when I'm going on the boat thewater was maybe a bit choppy, just
the calm, the quiet and justhaving all the wildlife so curious about you
(11:58):
instead of going way I wasn't expecting. I thought we were maybe going to
have to kind of really look forwildlife, like you know, I've been
on a few jungle tracks, andthere you're really trying to kind of locate
it, and you're having to bereally quiet, whereas diving or the wildlife
is just swimming past you, doesn'tseem too bothered about you, so it
allows you to really get insight intothat. But I have to say the
(12:22):
standout dive was the one to theaptly named Great Blue Hole. For those
listening who aren't, where is aboutI think two kilometers away off the coast
from Belize, and it's the sinkhole that's one hundred and twenty seven meters
deep, and you don't so muchgo there for the wildlife, it actually
(12:43):
has. It's more for geology,so it's called the stalagmites and stalagtites,
and it felt like descending into space. It was also where we are allowed
to go down kind of like thirtyplus meters and then there would just be
the occasional reef shark circling. Itwas so surreal, really really cool.
We were so deep that bubbles comingup from other divers kind of turned into
(13:05):
these silver discs. It was veryputuristic. And then you know we'd also
got up at I don't god knowshow early four am, so I think
that also added to the whole senseof this adventure. It took us two
hours with you know, fifteen otherdivers and then but then that was followed
by a dive afterwards called the Aquarium, and that was then the opposite.
(13:26):
That was I think the best wildlife we saw, and that was really
swimming like in and out the coralreeves. You would see these giant eagle
rays, sharks, colorful fish,and one again was something which I kind
of hadn't plocked when going in,was you can't talk underwater. Sounds obvious
now, so instead you'd just listenout for them, like tapping their air
(13:46):
tank. You'd look around and you'retrying to remember all the hand signals for
you know, what's an eagle ray, what's a seahorse, what's the shark,
and getting used to kind of Ithink it really heightens your sense because
you are already just like listening andhearing and not speaking. So I think
those two dives back to back verydifferent, but I think it has definitely
(14:09):
set the barb very high. Someof my first exploratory dives were in very
exotic countries and the dive sites werea world renowned, but I have to
say to this day that aquarium diveto me is the greatest and the epitome
of what diving could be. Youknow, just being able to see very
clearly for maybe what was it,twenty five thirty meters out and going through
(14:33):
these what felt like massive corridors ofjust reef and swimming right through the middle
of it and seeing you, know, you, and a few of the
other divers in front of me.I just remember having this feeling of I
cannot believe that I am here rightnow. And I think when we saw
the nerve shark or the nerve sharkswimming right over us. Anytime I think
(14:56):
about our diving experience, that isthe video that is playing on replay from
me just looking at the turtle,seeing you point up and looking at this
massive shark just swimming overhead. Incredible, It really really was. And so
hindsight, what were some of theexpectations that you had with regards to the
training, certification process or dives thatdiffered from what you actually experience. So
(15:22):
I think I just didn't quite knowhow many skills and that I would need
to learn. I mean, it'sgreat because you do then feel so prepared
for all these different scenarios. Ithink I was surprised how quickly we were
really doing that all under water,And I think we came out even the
first day just feeling pretty confident.We were like, damn, I can't
believe that's been our first day inthe water, and we can already you
(15:46):
know, give air to someone ifthey need it, we can already take
off all our equipment and put itback on. All of this, I
think I wasn't, yeah, quiteexpecting. I thought it was going to
take like a lot more. Ithought we were going to do more training
on the land, but no,we were literally just thrown into it.
And I think that was the kindof best way to really get a sense
of how to build those skills.So I think that was, yeah,
(16:10):
definitely something I was very grateful forin terms of like how they taught us.
Now that you've gone scuba diving,will you do it again? One
thousand percent? I'm worried just nowgoing to become I'm going to make it
part of my personality. You know, every trip I do, I'm gonna
be like I'm going scuba diving.But yeah, it's definitely informing my travels
(16:32):
going forwards. Is there already anext location that you have in mind?
There is, Fortunately, I've I'vebeen at my coving for nearly four years,
and when you reach the four yourmark, you get a month sabbatical
kind of for free. So inSeptember I'm already plotting where to go,
and diving is definitely going to beat the heart of it. And currently
looking at Tanzania as yeah, Iwas. I was tempted to climb Mount
(16:56):
Killamanjaro and then thought, what's theopposite of that? Also go diving,
and Tanzania has got yeah, justthe most incredible variety of landscape, so
yeah, you can climb mountains.The scuba diving apparently is also incredible,
and then there's obviously safari, soit'd be a real nature wildlife trip.
(17:17):
If I could do do all ofthat, that sounds so incredible. And
so if our listeners want to keeptabs on you and see you go to
Tanzania and do all these wild adventures, where can they find you? They
can find me on Instagram? Ishe dot Warner is spelled why? I
don't know why, but spell itlike that, So yeah, I think
it's just dot wood Warner, you'renow testing my social media knowledge. But
(17:42):
yeah, it will be largely terriblejokes and hopefully a lot of travel travel
content and a lot of interesting hashtagslash hero life. Right exactly, well
is he? I want to thankyou so much for being on this podcast
and informing people who might be lookingto go on a dive or get certified,
(18:03):
you know, the fun aspect ofit. As much as I love
Laura's episode, I do think fora lot of people it can be a
little bit intense when you're talking aboutdiving and just doing dives around sharks,
especially hammerheads and tiger sharks. SoI think you did a great job at
painting like a very scenic and idyllicpicture of what scuba diving could be.
Yeah, and thank you for havingme. Really would highly recommend it.
(18:27):
It's definitely the most surreal experience ofmy life. Can be quite daunting,
but definitely definitely welcome. And ifyou want to know a little bit more
about us, you can find usat www dot GTS podcast dot com.
Thanks for listening. Wh
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh and
diverse perspectives from traveling enthusiasts all overthe world. Here at the Globetrotters Podcast,
we hope to show that travel wasso much more than how it's represented
on social media and television by bringingyou real stories, thoughtful discussions on ethical
issues, and investigations into how youcan make the most of an adventure without
(00:36):
breaking the bank. I'm your cohost, Jonathan Otto, and if you
missed our last episode, we hadanother edition of the Layover, the monthly
show where we delve into the latesttravel headlines, give practical travel tips,
and every once in a while we'llinvestigate a questionable social media trend so you
don't have to now. It mayseem that the last few episodes we've been
(00:58):
obsessed with the ocean. Truthfully,we kind of are. Interestingly enough,
four of the last five episodes haverevolved around the ocean or scuba diving in
some travel capacity. We've discussed lostunderwater cities that you can visit, scuba
tips and tricks, diving with sharks, and studying abroad at sea, and
(01:19):
today we're releasing the conversation that ledto a lot of these thoughtful discussions.
Most of the time we have experttravelers and professionals on the show to discuss
topics that can inspire others to followsuit. While our guest today is equally
well traveled, she was embarking ona new adventure and trying something that she
hadn't done before, but was curiousenough to finally go out there and do
(01:42):
it like most of us wish wecould. Naturally, we wanted to share
her experience with others who may findher a bit more relatable as prospective first
timers who always wanted to take theplunge but didn't know what to expect.
And that is why we have buoyantyexpert and freshly certified diver Izzie Warner on
the show. Is He it's apleasure to have you on the show.
(02:06):
Thank you for having me. Whatan in trope boyants the expert. I'll
take that is he tell her guestsa little bit about yourself. So,
yep, as you guess, myname is Izzie. I'm from the UK,
originally from a tiny village in thesouthwest of England, but now living
in Berlin. In Germany and recentlygot patty certified in December in Belize.
(02:28):
I had always wanted to do it. It had been top of my bucket
list for a long time, sowhen I found out a friend was doing
it, I jumped to the chance. And is he what made scuba diving
such an attractive sport for you?Yes, that's a good question. I've
done a lot of sport, butvery much all on land. I think
I was then just intrigued, havingread more also from the Sustainable Aspect about
(02:53):
the Ocean, about coral reeves,was very keen to explore the underwater sport
and just had no idea what toexpect. I then was working closely with
someone who, like your previous guest, is an absolute you know, Paddy
Master goes to Egypt three times ayear. I could see her looking up
different wetsuits on her computer and herbreaks. So I think having that energy
(03:17):
near me it kind of made methink, okay, right, you'd be
wanting to do this for probably adecade time to actually prioritize it and see
what it's like in real life.You know. One of the first questions
that I get from people when they'reinterested in scuba diving is like, how
do they research this, how dothey look at it one diving school versus
(03:37):
the other, and how did yougo about making that decision? Because ultimately
we met at Frenchies Diving School,but it wasn't the only diving center in
the island or in that vicinity.Googling, I knew some friends also who
had actually been to Belies and didsome snorkeling trips with French Chies Diving School,
so it was already top of mymind. So when I again saw
(03:58):
it, kind of recommended a fewblogs. I also thoroughly read the reviews
to go into you know, wasit highly rated just because of the snorkeling.
You know, my mom as soonas I said I was going scuba
diving, was like, it needsto be the JITs, it needs to
be safe. So really reading thereviews and they would name drop instructors and
they just seemed like it was bothreally safe, really professional, but also
(04:21):
a very fun school to do iton. So yeah, it came highly
recommended, and if anyone's think you'regoing, I would also, yeah,
double down on that recommendation and shoutout to see him. Definitely highly recommend
him one of the key differences betweenyour scuba certification and mine. You did
some of the bookwork ahead of time. What are some of the advantages in
(04:44):
disadvantages if any, of doing that. Yes. So another thing I was
looking into was how long these coursestook. I know, when I've been
traveling before and wanted to see ifI could kind of last minute quickly do
my course. Maybe that was verynaive. It would always looked like it
was kind of four or five days. So when I saw friends who was
three days, I was like,perfect, that gives us, especially if
(05:04):
you're on a short time budget,as it were, gave us extra time
to then do some dives afterwards.So already I was looking at three days,
and then I was emailing them theymentioned, you know that was quite
one of those days. Was reallyfocused on watching videos, and as my
friend and I were doing some separatetraveling together, both traveling alone, I
(05:26):
knew that we would have plenty oftime on transport, especially coming from Berlin
it's not a short flight. SoI just quickly messaged them saying, is
it possible to do it in advance? It also meant we could kind of
space it out. I don't knowhow you felt, but it was like
a lot of content. Can youtell our listeners what they should expect on
the first day, maybe even thenight before if you want to take it
(05:47):
there, just because on my endthere was a little bit of anxiety,
even though I had gone on afew discovery towards before. But you know,
it's still, like you said,very unnatural to breathe underwater. One
part WHI shouldn't help was as Imeant, and we were kind of cramming.
It felt like throwback to school andunique cramming for exams, and night
before my friend also made the graveerror of googling everything that could go wrong
(06:10):
on a dive, which I don'tthink helped either of our nerves. So
it definitely advised against that. Butonce we got there, yeah, I
think my main concern was we haddone a snorkeling tour and there was one
part where you could just dive down, you know, not with diveing equipment,
through a cave, and my earswere kind of felt like a lot
of pressure, So I was like, oh, my gosh, maybe this
(06:31):
means it's going to really hurt whenI go diving. Fortune that was not
the case. As soon as wegot there, I think the instructor Sam
as you mentioned, just made usfeel really safe. He was taking us
through everything, including you know,how to make sure you don't build up
pressure, which was actually one partwhich was a lot easier than I expected.
(06:51):
One thing I was surprised about washow quickly we were in the water.
I think I'd seen the videos,Yeah, the people training in a
swimming pool. No, in Frenchiesdiving, they just cool a part of
the ocean swimming pool and that's whywe were training it. They were immediately
taking us through all the equipment andI was like, oh my god,
(07:12):
I don't think I can remember everything. But he had just a lot of
confidence with us. I think itwas kind of good. It was really,
I mean, for want of abetter metaphor, kind of threw us
into deep water, but it wasquite shallow, you know. I do
want to talk a few about thetechnical skills that they make you master before
they actually you know, let yougo out on like a free dive or
some of what we did towards thevery end, you know, and some
(07:34):
of these included removing your goggles whileyou're fully you know, underwater, controlling
your buoyancy, which for me wasthe most difficult, and kind of using
like how to use your second valveor your second respirator in case anything does
go wrong or there's obstructions from thosetechnical skills. What was the most difficult
(07:55):
for you to master and what waseasier than you would have thought. I'm
going to the easiest one, andI'm trying not to laugh because I know
exactly what my most difficult one was. But the easiest one was I think
just going descending for me, justlike breathing and being able to kind of
sink was the easiest part. Ithink at one point he took weights off
(08:16):
because he was like, you seemvery calm and was allowing me to kind
of go down. The trickier partwas then control. Yeah. Two,
actually one was controlling my way up. I think it seems super counterintuitive that
you need to deflate your let's notcalled life jacket, You'll be so disappointed.
I forgotten the name, But youneed to deflate as you're going up
(08:37):
because just the pressure increases the airin your jacket. So that was a
bit counterintuitive to start with, andit meant I went up too quickly and
then the second one he said wasa buoyancy. I was very good at
going down, but I remember oneskill where he just wanted us to kind
of sit underwater and just kind offloat in one position. I was just
rotating like a rotisserie chicken, andhe kept laughing me, which is really
(09:00):
hard when you're underwater to suppress laughter. But again, like him laughing,
I was like, Okay, it'snot the worst skill to be bad at,
you know. I was fine withthe transferring air, being able to
take off and put on my equipment, but it did surprise me how terrible
my bounces underwater. I knew itwas bad on land, but I thought
(09:22):
the water would help. And that'sthe insider joke of why we call her
the buoy and see master. Butto anyone listening, I think it's very
important to stress this. We werea group of four in this diving school
that was getting certified, and Ithink all of us struggled with something that
the rest of us found easy,and so that made it very easy for
me early on just to see thatanybody that's doing this, there's just going
(09:43):
to be some things that you're intuitivelybetter at than some of the other technical
skills. But going back to this, how long did it take you,
would you say, to start feelingcomfortable just being underwater breathing regularly. Yeah,
I think the breathing part came alot more naturally, So I think
even within the first day and doingall the skills, I was quite comfortable
(10:05):
with how to get set up,and you know what part you needed a
check before going in. I thinkthe buoyancy part, like really especially going
up at a good pace and evenwhen you're down there and you're moving around,
being able to kind of navigate thecoral reeves in a really smooth way.
That took probably another two days toget like really good at just being
(10:26):
able to control everything with my breathinstead of moving my flippers or using my
arms. Because I was really watchingour instructor Sam. He just had his
hands kind of held him in frontof him, and it looks so easy.
So that's another thing. Do younot get you put down? If
your instructor just looks like he's floatingthrough super easily. I would then look
(10:48):
behind and all of us would havelimbs everywhere, like you feel very inelegant
to start with, So that definitelytook I think a few days to get
used to. And so you mentionedat the very beginning of this episode that
you went with the intention of goingto Beliefs because it's the second longest coral
reef in the world's second biggest inthe world after the Great Barrier Reef in
(11:11):
Australia. What were some of yourbest diving experiences in Belize and what was
the first one that you were like, wow, I can't like, this
is what diving is like that thatjust sticks in your head when you think
about those moments. Yeah, Ithink in all honestly, right from the
first trip, it just blew mymind. I was so surprised also how
(11:35):
calm it was. I've really Againmaybe it's because I'm from the UK and
people try and avoid the cold water, but I'd hardly done any underwater like
water sports, let alone under thewater sports. So I think even though
when I'm going on the boat thewater was maybe a bit choppy, just
the calm, the quiet and justhaving all the wildlife so curious about you
(11:58):
instead of going way I wasn't expecting. I thought we were maybe going to
have to kind of really look forwildlife, like you know, I've been
on a few jungle tracks, andthere you're really trying to kind of locate
it, and you're having to bereally quiet, whereas diving or the wildlife
is just swimming past you, doesn'tseem too bothered about you, so it
allows you to really get insight intothat. But I have to say the
(12:22):
standout dive was the one to theaptly named Great Blue Hole. For those
listening who aren't, where is aboutI think two kilometers away off the coast
from Belize, and it's the sinkhole that's one hundred and twenty seven meters
deep, and you don't so muchgo there for the wildlife, it actually
(12:43):
has. It's more for geology,so it's called the stalagmites and stalagtites,
and it felt like descending into space. It was also where we are allowed
to go down kind of like thirtyplus meters and then there would just be
the occasional reef shark circling. Itwas so surreal, really really cool.
We were so deep that bubbles comingup from other divers kind of turned into
(13:05):
these silver discs. It was veryputuristic. And then you know we'd also
got up at I don't god knowshow early four am, so I think
that also added to the whole senseof this adventure. It took us two
hours with you know, fifteen otherdivers and then but then that was followed
by a dive afterwards called the Aquarium, and that was then the opposite.
(13:26):
That was I think the best wildlife we saw, and that was really
swimming like in and out the coralreeves. You would see these giant eagle
rays, sharks, colorful fish,and one again was something which I kind
of hadn't plocked when going in,was you can't talk underwater. Sounds obvious
now, so instead you'd just listenout for them, like tapping their air
(13:46):
tank. You'd look around and you'retrying to remember all the hand signals for
you know, what's an eagle ray, what's a seahorse, what's the shark,
and getting used to kind of Ithink it really heightens your sense because
you are already just like listening andhearing and not speaking. So I think
those two dives back to back verydifferent, but I think it has definitely
(14:09):
set the barb very high. Someof my first exploratory dives were in very
exotic countries and the dive sites werea world renowned, but I have to
say to this day that aquarium diveto me is the greatest and the epitome
of what diving could be. Youknow, just being able to see very
clearly for maybe what was it,twenty five thirty meters out and going through
(14:33):
these what felt like massive corridors ofjust reef and swimming right through the middle
of it and seeing you, know, you, and a few of the
other divers in front of me.I just remember having this feeling of I
cannot believe that I am here rightnow. And I think when we saw
the nerve shark or the nerve sharkswimming right over us. Anytime I think
(14:56):
about our diving experience, that isthe video that is playing on replay from
me just looking at the turtle,seeing you point up and looking at this
massive shark just swimming overhead. Incredible, It really really was. And so
hindsight, what were some of theexpectations that you had with regards to the
training, certification process or dives thatdiffered from what you actually experience. So
(15:22):
I think I just didn't quite knowhow many skills and that I would need
to learn. I mean, it'sgreat because you do then feel so prepared
for all these different scenarios. Ithink I was surprised how quickly we were
really doing that all under water,And I think we came out even the
first day just feeling pretty confident.We were like, damn, I can't
believe that's been our first day inthe water, and we can already you
(15:46):
know, give air to someone ifthey need it, we can already take
off all our equipment and put itback on. All of this, I
think I wasn't, yeah, quiteexpecting. I thought it was going to
take like a lot more. Ithought we were going to do more training
on the land, but no,we were literally just thrown into it.
And I think that was the kindof best way to really get a sense
of how to build those skills.So I think that was, yeah,
(16:10):
definitely something I was very grateful forin terms of like how they taught us.
Now that you've gone scuba diving,will you do it again? One
thousand percent? I'm worried just nowgoing to become I'm going to make it
part of my personality. You know, every trip I do, I'm gonna
be like I'm going scuba diving.But yeah, it's definitely informing my travels
(16:32):
going forwards. Is there already anext location that you have in mind?
There is, Fortunately, I've I'vebeen at my coving for nearly four years,
and when you reach the four yourmark, you get a month sabbatical
kind of for free. So inSeptember I'm already plotting where to go,
and diving is definitely going to beat the heart of it. And currently
looking at Tanzania as yeah, Iwas. I was tempted to climb Mount
(16:56):
Killamanjaro and then thought, what's theopposite of that? Also go diving,
and Tanzania has got yeah, justthe most incredible variety of landscape, so
yeah, you can climb mountains.The scuba diving apparently is also incredible,
and then there's obviously safari, soit'd be a real nature wildlife trip.
(17:17):
If I could do do all ofthat, that sounds so incredible. And
so if our listeners want to keeptabs on you and see you go to
Tanzania and do all these wild adventures, where can they find you? They
can find me on Instagram? Ishe dot Warner is spelled why? I
don't know why, but spell itlike that, So yeah, I think
it's just dot wood Warner, you'renow testing my social media knowledge. But
(17:42):
yeah, it will be largely terriblejokes and hopefully a lot of travel travel
content and a lot of interesting hashtagslash hero life. Right exactly, well
is he? I want to thankyou so much for being on this podcast
and informing people who might be lookingto go on a dive or get certified,
(18:03):
you know, the fun aspect ofit. As much as I love
Laura's episode, I do think fora lot of people it can be a
little bit intense when you're talking aboutdiving and just doing dives around sharks,
especially hammerheads and tiger sharks. SoI think you did a great job at
painting like a very scenic and idyllicpicture of what scuba diving could be.
Yeah, and thank you for havingme. Really would highly recommend it.
(18:27):
It's definitely the most surreal experience ofmy life. Can be quite daunting,
but definitely definitely welcome. And ifyou want to know a little bit more
about us, you can find usat www dot GTS podcast dot com.
Thanks for listening. Wh
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