Welcome to Scoop shack Radio season 6, episode
142
recorded Monday, 07/15/2024.
Well, hello again, everyone. And as always, thank
you so very much for tuning into this
latest episode of Scoop shack radio. I'm your
host Jeff Pin.
I hope your July fourth holiday went well,
and it's you're staying cool.
Where Smack dab in the middle of July,
and it seems a dog days a summer
of Come early for most of the country.
I saw that a temperature in Death Valley
last week was reading a hundred and 33
degrees. This
Wow, that is hot.
Now, we're just about a month away from
our trip to the Sea Cortez. And our
week on board the Roche roadshow Del mar.
We'll again be exploring the mid filings.
Donna and I are both looking forward to
this adventure. We had a lot of fun
last year and we do need a little
time away since we haven't had any time
off since January.
30 days until vacation.
Well, today marks another milestone
as this will be my last episode of
Shock radio.
This was not an easy decision to make
since I put so much into a podcast
over the last 5 plus years.
But as with life, we go through various
changes. And sometimes those changes being that you
need to leave things behind.
So for this final episode, I thought I
do another, bit of a re... Retrospective kinda
like I did at the beginning of the
year on Scooby shack radio.
And then give you a little bit of
a look ahead.
It was Saint Patrick's Day 2019
when I first turned on the microphone to
record
episode 1 of Scoop shack radio.
Now I've been thinking about this for several
months and finally got up the nerve to
record.
Back then, it didn't seem that there were
a lot of scuba related podcast podcasts that
were consistently publishing new content.
I found a a lot had done several
installments and then seemed to have stop.
Yes. There were several, and I thought I
could add my voice to the podcasting world
with something that might be a little bit
different. Now I don't know if Shock radio
turned out to be different, but I tried.
I've gone back and listened to some of
those first podcasts and my goodness. I couldn't
believe how bad they were.
I'm surprised anyone listened to after that.
But fortunately for me, there were those who
started to follow each episode.
Back then, I would do a short segment
on various topics like dive computers or other
gear wet suits things like that, and the
value of certain equipment,
as and training,
as well as short segments on ocean related
topics and current issues facing our ecosystems.
I quickly determined that I needed to have
a little more structure around the show and
went to a 3 segment format.
The first segment would always be a scuba
related topic. Topics like a digital versus analog
compass or a discussion on regulator, pressures
intermediate pressure cracking pressure things like that.
The middle subject was always about some ocean
conservation or environmental
issue.
Some of those topics included things like the
state of wind power in the United States
or the Ocean based climate Solutions Act back
in 2020.
The the topic for the third segment of
each show would be on a rotational basis.
1 of these topics would be about the
history of Scuba.
That was where I had to do a
lot of research. I learned a lot about
the early days of the dive industry in
the United States by doing a series on
the original. Dive equipment providers. I covered V
health, day decor, Us divers.
This research covered some of the Pioneers who
made the industry what it is today. There
was people like James K Hill, Ed Lincoln
and Diver dick Anderson.
And then there was Fe Johnson.
I was so ghost in the story that
I ended up doing a 3 part series
on his life.
Contributions to the Navy U
innovation and underwater photography and is ultimate owning
and running a full service dive shop,
not very far from where I grew up.
This was by far the most intense research
that I did.
I got a great deal of information on
Ben Johnson from Sid mack of the historical
diving society
and from the archives at Dr University.
I was en gross in his life and
felt that this was a great story to
tell on the podcast.
The second rotational topic was your next dive
where I would take you to the various
locations that I had the fortunate of visiting.
Originally, I thought that your next dive would
be a standalone podcast, but thought better of
that given the time commitments of Sc shock
radio.
I started your next dive in October 2019,
and the first place I took you was
to Maui.
Now we were fortunate to have made about
15 trips out to the island. And and
every year we would get in at least
a week of diving
across 4 different islands. Maui, Lana I Mo
and Mo
some very fond memories of Maui and definitely
a great place to start your next dive.
The segment inspired me to write a book,
Your next dive, my adventures in Scuba diving.
I started writing in late 2021,
and ultimately published in mid 2022.
At the time, I thought there would be
a volume 2 as this only covered, half
my adventures.
Let me say. It does cost a lot
in time and money to self publish a
book. And, like Kenny Rogers said, you gotta
know when to fold them. So there would
be no volume too.
And then there was sea hunt. 1 of
my favorite shows when I was a very
young, Probably too young, to really understand what
Mike Nelson was up to, but young enough
to be me by the under idea of
being underwater
to I started by taking us back to
the movie that inspired C hunt underwater warriors.
The movie is based on the book
by 1 of the early pioneers of the
navy under what a demolition team, Doug was
Fe.
Then it was time for more research on
the history of Sea hunt, and what better
place than the old journal of diving,
journals of diving history.
That paved way for Sea hunt. It's still
alive on Scuba radio,
Every third show I would pick out an
episode and give you all the play by
play of mike Mike's exploits.
I started
the series
with the end of the show,
Sea hunt with the final episode of Sea
hunt, and that was titled roundup.
And it certainly was a roundup up of
the many scenes or from over the years.
By my account, I have
done 34 installments of Sea hunt, it's still
alive over the years here on K shack
Radio.
Now with the start of the new Year,
I decided to put Sea hunt and Mike
Nelson's adventures on Hiatus.
With episode 53 in February 2021,
I introduced wet note my news and information
segment.
This also signaled the change from the 3
segment show to 2.
Also right around that time,
I did a 2 part series on C
lab 1 the C lab 1 report, and
I was digging into all the details as
the Navy saw.
That was really interesting to read just a
facts.
Along the way I dabble in interviews. That
wasn't my forte,
I decided that I wouldn't make interviews a
part of the show. Occasionally, I would do
some. I also tried to do a remote
broadcast once, but from the Boston Sea rover
show back in 2020,
right before the pandemic. That also wasn't a
sweet spot for me, from So I kept
the show to the 2 segment format up
until this year when I started back with
3 segments, shop updates, wet notes and a
new commentary segment.
The commentary segment which
allow me to specifically dive a little deeper
into some of my thought related to the
state of the dive industry as well as
the current challenges facing our ocean and planet.
It's And now
midway through 2024,
I think the time is right to wrap
up Scuba shack radio.
I believe that I achieved what I had
set out to do when I start at
way back in 2019.
Little did I know how our life would
be up ended by the pandemic. And how
scary a time that was for people and
the survival of small businesses.
Sc shack radio was an outlet for me
to stay connected at a time when we
all felt disconnected.
So what lies ahead?
While Sc shack radio is coming to an
end, I still plan to stay connected to
the dive and just... 3 as I remain
a member of the Dim Board of Directors
and continue to serve on several of their
committee supporting the Dim Show. Therese I plan
also to contribute... I I also plan to
continue to contribute to Scuba diving industry magazine
through various articles related to the diving business.
Hopefully, you will hear my voice on the
level up podcast
produced by the magazine as well.
Don and I will us be at this
dive shop with our retail sales and travel.
The 1 thing that we've learned about active
divers is that they'd like to come to
the shop, consult with us on dive gear
and make sure that they're getting exactly what
they want and need at a fair price.
We also learned that they love to travel
with a group and have a connectedness with
their fellow divers.
They also like the convenience of the trip
being planned and coordinated.
So Donna and I will also focus on
keeping our travel program up and running
So for 1 final time,
I want to thank all of you have
been loyal listeners to the show over the
years.
In particular,
I wanna thank Donna for providing me support
and encouragement,
not only for Scuba shock radio,
but also throughout our 41 years of marriage
and for putting up with all my crazy
ideas over those years.
I got some more in my head.
With that, I will say adios to Scuba
shack radio
and wish you all well.
Goodbye.