DIVE TALK
DIVE TALK
Woody Alpern and Gus Gonzalez
Woody and Gus love exploring underwater caves and discussing all things Scuba. Woody has been diving since the 70s and is also an Instructor Trainer and a Normoxic Kiss Spirit CCR instructor. He has earned 12 PADI Awards of Excellence as an instructor, and has a staggering 7,500+ dives under his weight belt. Gus started diving in 2018, became an instructor in 2020, and cave diver in 2021. Our address/PO Box: Dive Talk 3605 Sandy Plains Road Suite 240-500 Marietta, GA 30066 USA
Episode 35: The Jeremy Wade Reaction Debrief
A few weeks ago we filmed a reaction to a video of Jeremy Wade facing some challenges during a night dive on a rebreather where he was trying to film extremely rare Oarfish. The original episode can be found HERE. 
Sep 10, 2025
34 min
Episode 34: An Update on our Cave DPV Certification
The Cave DPV Certification is one of the toughest technical diving certifications to attain! Those of you who have followed our podcast/ YouTube channel for a while are probably aware that we tried to achieve this certification earlier in 2021 and it was a total disaster. We discussed this on great detail the last episode of this podcast. Today we give you all an update on our progress and share our stories on the toughest scuba diving credential we've ever worked for.
Dec 31, 2021
1 hr 14 min
Episode 33: Complete DISASTER during our Cave DPV Class
A few months ago Woody and Gus bought some amazing DPVs (Diver Propulsion Vehicles) with the intent of using them when diving the Florida caves which in most cases are springs and a bit of a workout to swim against. So the guys showed up to class, with minimal practice, a leaky dry suit, and new dive gear configurations, what can possible go wrong? Well, apparently, everything!
Apr 23, 2021
54 min
Episode 32: Diving in 'Cave Country'
Central Florida is the home of 'Cave Country' and since we live only 4-5 hours away we get to cave dive there often, but we have many friends who live in Cave Country and dive their caves constantly, almost daily in some cases. We were wondering why we and thousands of other people continue to dive the same sites over and over, and also, how come 'Cave Country' attracts so many non-cave divers? We interview Joe Cocozza, a local cave diver who is also the owner of the Pod Diver Lodge and host of Pod Diver Radio. Joe is an amazing host, a scuba instructor, and a huge wealth of knowledge regarding cave diving and scuba diving in general. Links: Pod Diver Lodge: https://www.poddiverlodge.com/ Pod Diver Radio: http://poddiver.org  
Apr 9, 2021
42 min
Episode 31: How do you know if you are a good diver?
This episode was recorded on video too! If you are interested in seeing our pretty faces and hand signals you should head to our YouTube channel and check it out! Today we talk about the main pillars of scuba diving and what can you do to conduct a self-assessment of your skills as a diver and determine whether you are a good diver and/or what areas you need to work on in order to take your skills to the next level!
Mar 20, 2021
40 min
Episode 30: DIVER'S CEMETERY
In this episode we discuss "Diver's Cemetery" which is located in Dahab, Egypt. We discuss why it is so dangerous, why should some people stay away from the site, and why we would absolutely love to dive it!
Mar 5, 2021
49 min
Episode 29: DIVING COLD
We had the wonderful idea to go diving in the Gulf of Mexico, in February, on wet suits. The water temperature was 63 degrees (17 celsius) and lets just say we had some problems... We learned our lesson and wanted to share with you what happened and how you can avoid running into some of these issues.
Feb 19, 2021
59 min
Episode 28: DEEP DIVING
It is no secret that we are addicted to diving. And just like many divers out there we are members of Facebook groups and forums where diving is discussed 24/7. Occasionally you see questions from people asking about the limits of diving on air. We see things like "Has anybody gone past 130 ft/40 m on air? There are some wrecks I want to see but they are below those limits so I wonder what would happen if I just went for it on air?" And of course, a question like that is only followed by a jungle of misinformation led in some cases by "experts" who are happy to announce how often they dive "super deep on air without issues" because "they never get narked". We like diving deep, so we understand why other divers want to go below recreational depths, but we do it safely! We wanted to discuss what it takes to dive deep and share some potentially lifesaving knowledge and facts with divers that want to be able to dive deep like us.
Feb 5, 2021
46 min
Episode 27: SEPARATED DIVER
On this episode we talk about our plans over the next couple of weeks, exciting news about DPVs and lights, a failed rebreather experiment, and we cover a story detailing what happens when a diver surfaces and is separated from his boat. We also talk about the gear we use to mitigate this risk.
Jan 22, 2021
51 min
Episode 26: CAVE DIVING
For our One Year Anniversary episode we wanted to talk about something we are super passionate about, Cave Diving! We spent a week in Cozumel with an amazing group of divers from the KISS Rebreathers Tech Diving Team, so we invited 3 world-class Cave Divers to join us on this episode. We discuss what's the path to become a cave diver, cave diving unbreakable rules, what happened to most people who died in caves, and shared some funny and interesting stories from dives in the past. Our guests for this show are Doug Ebersole, Bryan Buescher, and Mike Young who in addition to being one of the world's greatest cave divers and explorers, he invented the rebreathers we all dive and absolutely LOVE.
Jan 8, 2021
57 min
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