Sue Crowe – OZTek Diving Conference & OZDive Expo ’22

SPEAKERS

Matt Waters, Sue Crowe

Matt Waters  00:06

There we go. We’re off and running. First of all, Sue Crowe Welcome to the show.

Sue Crowe  00:10

Well, it’s lovely to be here feel completely unprepared and a bit short notice Wasn’t it

Matt Waters  00:16

just a bit just for those people who are listening Sue has just finished on one of Gareth locks or should I say Mike Mason’s course now his first human factors cost a living in Australia. And I just happened to see that Sue was on the course I think it was yesterday and pinged her a message and said, Hey, you’re in town, come into the studio. Let’s talk about OZtech and the dive show. So Sue, do you fancy giving people a little bit of background on who you are, and why we’re in the studio now.

Sue Crowe  00:44

Well, I think probably today most people would if they know me at all would know me through the show. So that would be awesome tech, the advanced conference. And now we’re doing the Oz dive show. So we’re going recreational prior to that, I’ve been in the diving industry for a long, long time, but always sort of behind the scenes. I learned to dive in 1990. So there’s a long time ago, and I was in Jamaica doing hurricane aid relief. And I learned for all the wrong reasons. Basically, I had a boyfriend who was doing Highline repair. So we were all there helping out after a hurricane obviously. And they worked six days a week. And when I got there, on the seventh, they just learned to dive. So for the first week, I decided, well, you’re working all week, and then they go off diving, I better learn to drive better jump on board. So I did. And it was a well, apart from failure was a brilliant place to learn. My instructor was just awesome. That was a tiny little course, the reef was amazing. And, and that was the beginning of the end, really, from my perspective. So I spent all my spare time, my time diving, which became a bit of an issue for him. So it was very amusing anyway, and I was over there waiting for visas and bits and pieces to come back to Australia. So when I came back to Australia, I picked up the diving and decided I’d like to do more. So I became an instructor. I was working as a journalist, a journalist by trade. And on the weekends, I worked down at pro diving, cushy teaching, and did that for a long, long time. And then a girlfriend of mine sent me a little snippet and it said, Sue, there’s the perfect job for you. And it was the editor of Scuba diver magazine. Okay, and I’d only ever been a journalist life was quite new. And I thought, well, you know, I can’t I’ve never done that. How would I do that? But I applied anyway. Because what have you got to lose? Right? Yeah, got the job? And thought, Oh, no. But I had another friend who was an editor and I’d ring her up and say what’s a pagination? Because in those days, you know, everything was done on a piece of paper? Oh, yeah, we’ll do it on a computer or anything like that. So the designers did, but you had to put a little piece of paper and we’ll put an advertisement here and an article here. And so anyway, struggled that I did that for about seven nearly eight years, and absolutely loved it. So that threw me headlong into the diving industry, I guess. So, you know, you learn you learn a lot about the industry and you meet lots of people and you get to see lots of new things like this perfect job thing like that. And then there were quite a lot of changes and the magazine went offshore, got bought initially by Michael Lau so and that went off and that has is now still Scuba diver, Asia diver and then Michael branched out to do so they’re all still got their fingers in the magazine pie. And I floated about for a bit and did a bit of marketing on my own. And then I was approached by Tabata, Australia to go and work for them as a sort of general manager, again, nothing that I had ever done before. But I think their logic was that I was fairly neutral. You know, whilst I knew a lot of people in the diving industry, I wasn’t aligned in any shape, way or form, so it can be quite political. And so anyway, I gave it a shot to get on board. It’s a Japanese company, I had to put in my resume without telling anybody whether I was a male or a female, which was interesting, okay. But anyway, I got that job and I worked then I had to learn about the sort of distribution part of the industry. So then it was wholesale distribution, much more interaction with I’ve shops and how that all works. And we went through the emergence of online shopping, which was very painful for everybody. And the changes through that. So I, you know, I’ve always been, it’s quite an interesting journey in that I can see I’ve seen lots of different sides of the diving industry. And then when that changed, I was really floating around, not really quite sure what I wanted to do, I’d been to every single AWS tech. The first one I went to as a journalist with my little journalist hat on thinking, Oh, this is gonna be terrible. Just gonna be all blokes in black neoprene, you know, thumping their chests, technical rubbish, and was completely and utterly blown away by the stories. I’m not I’m still not a technical diver in any, you know, serious sense. So I just love the stories and the things that people were doing. I didn’t necessarily need to be at the bottom of that cave, or, you know, tromping through the jungle to discover snow days or you know, I just bit the stories were completely captivating and the characters and just the energy and the effort that they put into the passion of what they were doing, I was smitten so so I think the first few I went as a journalist and then I was an exhibitor for with our with two sir and Tabata and what have you. And then I was asked to be an MC, which was nice. So I went into bein MC and then basically David decided to sell. Okay, and so he had, it’s quite taxing, running it. It’s a bit of a labour of love. Anything in the diving industry, people would understand that, I think. And so I thought, Well, I’ve been there. I’ve I’ve I know quite a lot of people strike us gonna give me a hand. I’m talking about David’s strike, of course. And, and so I took it on, and I’ve been doing it. And that was just after the 2013 event, and I’ve been running it ever since. So yeah, here we are. COVID has been interesting to hear about to embark on 2022 and we’re off to Melbourne. So very exciting.

Matt Waters  07:30

Well, I got a I was on the course with Gareth actually on Friday, excuse me. And the message message means she said she booked her hotel, we’re good to go for Melbourne. Where that one came out came right out of left field. It must have just been something that popped up in her mind when she was in the office or something. But it seems like it’s getting Uber busy because it’s finals weekend down there as well

Sue Crowe  07:52

as the weekend before I was it is the finals weekend. Thankfully, I think there is a I think there is a rugby league or something going on because somebody said to me, Sue, I just can’t believe it’s like, well, everybody, because of COVID the dates were almost impossible to even, you know, tie it in Yeah, because everybody now wants to get back and be face to face. The the online space has been fantastic. And it’s definitely I think we’ve all grown and I think that’s a real positive. But there’s nothing quite like being with a whole pile of people who are as passionate and they haven’t seen for a long time and you know, learning new stories or listening to someone directly face to face is is great. And then you know the dining industry is so brilliant in so much as everybody’s I would say fairly normal. There aren’t too many people who are you know, Simon Mitchell who is like a guru in the in the medical space or the research space, he’ll come down and he’ll chat and you know, all the speakers are like that. They’re just only too happy to chat and get in there and answer questions and meet people. And that’s pretty special.

Matt Waters  09:16

Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it as so many names that I recognise and good friends that I’ve known him for years as well because of COVID Yes, exactly. Yeah, really looking forward to it. Because the first one I went to was 2018 Right so I did the dive show or went to the dive show when it’s don’t show time which is effectively this weekend in 2018 and was a little bit disappointed because was quite small.

Sue Crowe  09:39

And it was lost the boat show well yeah, yes. It was kind of lost

Matt Waters  09:42

in the middle of the boat show. And then oz tech came along and oh, that’s a big difference you know as much more like trumpet here but much more organised and you know, it was all about the diving it wasn’t about boats and which which shoes you need to be wearing on deck and

Sue Crowe  09:59

yeah I think that’s always going to be the problem. I mean, obviously, they get more people at the boat show. And that’s an appeal and for, for some in the diving industry, that’s probably works quite well. So if you’re trying to attract a new diver, for example, you know, maybe somebody who likes boats, but we used to have a show in at the boat show for years. And it never picked just, it’s, it’s, it should be compatible. We should be completely compatible. But actually, we’re not.

Matt Waters  10:31

No, I couldn’t think of anything more further afield. You know, when you look at Sydney Harbour, Oh, darling, darling, her Darlinghurst Darling Harbour, whatever it’s called. Yeah, well, it partner boats. It’s all people with a lot of money that want to go drink champagne and wear loafers. It’s not someone who wants to get into a load of rubbish. Slap a tank on the back and dive into a cave of mud.

Sue Crowe  10:53

No, there’s, there’s lots of things you can say about diving. But being glamorous isn’t one. Exactly. When you’re on your, you know, your white boat. Yeah. And you know, everybody’s all very tanned and toned. Yes, just cover it all up with big neoprene and then disappear off into the depths for a few hours doesn’t quite work, does it? No, no, no. No. So, yeah. So who we are

Matt Waters  11:17

and who we are. Yes. And is there going to be because I had a very quick look on the website. But I saw that there was a link to Scuba dive show. Is that? Is that the link to the one that’s in Sydney? Or is that going to be?

Sue Crowe  11:31

Where were completely separate? Also? Yeah, ness runs the one at the boat show. And she also runs the Malaysian dive show which phenomenally successful really good. Yeah. So you know, I? Um, it’s very tricky and very difficult for her particularly this year, because she’s overseas. Yeah. So very hard. But no, we’re separate perspective. Yeah. But we are embracing a more recreational field partly because, you know, just like myself, when I first went, I didn’t, I had an image of what I thought it was going to be. And I was completely wrong. And I and it’s a very hard thing to explain to people that there are there are going to be if you if you don’t die of a rebreather, it probably not going to want to go and listen to you know, say Paul Toomer talking about bailouts, for example, or, you know, so there aren’t going to be those talks that you you don’t have to go to. Right. Fair enough. But, you know, do you want to hear Dawn, talk about, you know, working with the astronauts and using Scuba and all the things that she does to get them up into space and talk about human resilience? Well, that’s, that’s pretty good. And, you know, we’ve got so many people who are who do extraordinary things, you don’t ever really have to be there to listen and get infected by the passion that they have. And so that’s, you know, there are photographers who do amazing things and videographers who do extraordinary things. You know, Natalie nasally, and she’s in Canada, and she’s doing the most amazing things up there under the eyes then in an extraordinary conditions that, frankly, you wouldn’t, I would not want to be there. Not want to do it. But I just I’m so impressed that she does that takes this I mean, they just went through a blizzard there. They had all these tents on the ice, and they were there. Well, I’ll let her explain what they’re doing. But that is a massive snowstorm Blizzard came through and they’re just the most horrific pictures of them all huddled and screaming. So not looking as comfortable. I just thought oh, no, thanks. But great to hear. Yeah. So yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a really good thing, but we are making a bit more recreational. So there are a few of the talks that we’re going to open up to people who just come to the show. And when I say the show, I’m talking about the dive show, which is really the exhibition part of the show and this is where you’ve got your travel and your your training agencies and all the equipment’s lot of equipment. And we have JD, Zed and Wayne who are doing a virtual cave. I don’t know if you did that last time. It’s hilarious. It’s really clever. So it’s virtual. You can go on a virtual cane. It’s a local Mount Gambier cave. And in 2019, you had to walk along a line so it was like so you had your thing on and you had your headset on and you can walk along and look at the cave as if you were anyway, JD said tells me this year they’ve perfected it now. So you have to lie on a table. And you can go through the cave. But I mean, it’s a spectator sport, if you’re in it, or if you’re watching someone else do it. Yeah. You know, looking around with virtual headsets and the kids love it. Yes. So good. I watched

Matt Waters  15:18

Chris Haslam having a go at the one that you just explained where you’re following the line by walking. Yeah. And just watching him go around that for five minutes was hilarious. I wish I wish I put it on camera to be honest. It’s

Sue Crowe  15:29

right. It’s it’s not only that, but so it’s Yeah, so there’ll be lots for everybody. We’ve got a lot of photography workshops. So we’ve got several, you know, very professional photographers, so Matty Smith, and Matt Cremins. He’s a local professional down there. Vanessa Torres macho from dive centre. Yeah. Right. Yeah, she’s doing free diving. She has a lot of free diving photography. So and of course, Pete mostly he’s he does he loves to do he will be talking. He’s going to be talking about his recent experience where the boat disappeared under the water. Yep. So that will be very interesting. Because let’s face it, how many of us have ever had that happen? Where it was? Now? I can’t remember. It was just recently a boat that sank in New Castle. No, no, this was in this is in the Cocos Islands or somewhere? Really, you only had a big, he had a big group with him. And they were all off for a trip of a lifetime. Which it definitely turned out to be

Matt Waters  16:40

like the one that had the fire on it. Yeah.

Sue Crowe  16:41

And sank. And so you know, it was a fascinating. So he’s going to be talking about that and the things that happened and the things that they learned, and the things that he’s taken away from that real life and knowing Pete it’ll be very amusing, whilst also very sobering. Yeah, I imagine. But the flip side of that is because he does, he’s very well known for his wreck photography. And a big part of any wreck photography is the lighting and how you get the lighting and how you do this. So he’s doing a workshop on lighting and, you know, to pick up tips and tricks from from the pros that that do this all the time. is invaluable. Really, and they’re so generous with their, you know, advice. And Matt he’s doing. He’s specialises in over and under. Yeah, you know, we’ve all seen a lot of his photography.

Matt Waters  17:34

I need to I need to catch up with him. I’ve never met him. Oh, I’ll catch the show. Because I want to jump on one of his courses. Yeah. Yeah. He’s not far from here. No,

Sue Crowe  17:40

no, he’s lives in the south coast, just south of Sydney. He’s a UK dive Photographer of the Year. Yeah, plus all the other mega awards that he’s had. So he’s going to do that Matt is loves black and white photography. So that’s quite an interesting time. And sometimes that’s from taking a colour photo and making it into black and white. Yeah. So he’ll be talking about that. And those those workshops will be available for someone who just comes to the show. Yeah. So that’s why the general access your general access, so in the general access, which is $45, to come in, you can do all your photography, or your workshops with, we’ll have all our photography, competition just finished. So now they will, we’ll go through the judging process, print all the winners, and they’ll all be on show. Plus, there’s a couple of girls who have commenced liquid lens, which is a essentially, it’s a more of a support group for not went to a support group. That sounds tragic. But it’s a space where for essentially women, because a lot of women photographers, and we’re not always quite as forthright as we might like to be. So it’s a bit of a safe space. And they had also started a competition. So the winners of their competition will also be up on the wall to encourage people to get into photography and give it a go and not be, you know, put off by I don’t know, perceive that they might not be good enough or something. Yeah, it’s all

Matt Waters  19:20

I think that’s it. That’s one of the big things that we photography, it doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female, but, you know, you start taking good photos, and there’s still that apprehension to put into a competition because you look at this stuff and go, Holy crap, that stuff is it’s just next level.

Sue Crowe  19:35

Yeah, that’s right. Well, you say that, but you kind of have to start, don’t you? I think one of the changes that we made, it always used to be an open so people from everywhere could could enter. But what we found or what I found was that we had the same brilliant photographers from not, you know, not in Australia necessarily. One all the time. Yeah, it’s Not all that’s we’re not really it’s not that I don’t want to encourage anyone else. I’m all up for everybody doing everything. But hey, we are in Australia, and New Zealand. So we’ve made it now predominantly, there’s only one category that’s open, good. And everything else is for Australia and New Zealand. And that that brought a whole load of new photographers. And I that was really gratifying to see that. Yeah, I it’ll be interesting this year, because of course, we’ve had two years of people not really being able to move around much. So I think that will be quite interesting to see what comes out. It’ll it’ll affect it to agree, but from the ones that I’ve seen so far, I’m pretty excited to get them up there.

Matt Waters  20:46

Yeah, I think it’s actually an advantage. Because the local divers because you’ve been restricted to dive in locally, you just got better and better and better. At the particular shots you’re looking at. Yeah, knowing your environment. And I think that’s a key part of taking a good photo is knowing your environment. Yeah, absolutely. I’m just thinking of like this the Sydney versus Facebook group here, there’s like, over six and a half 1000 people in it now. And I’ve got a little group for snapping shots of sea slugs. nudibranchs. Yeah. And the shots that are coming in are just insanely good. And it’s all people that, you know, wouldn’t necessarily put up a photo two years ago, and now they’re winning competition.

Sue Crowe  21:22

I know, it’s so good. I really, you know, enjoy that. And this year, I put in a creative category, okay? Because, you know, we, you do use Photoshop a lot more people using Photoshop a lot more, and there’s nowhere to put some of this. And when I mean creative, I mean, not just fixing up a photograph, I’m actually creating something, maybe melding or slicing pictures together. And I had no idea how that was gonna go. I just thought, well, we’ll bang it out there. We’ll see what happens. And you know, but there’s some very, very interesting images that are coming in through that. And one photographer said to me, well, actually, Susan is really good, because I spent a lot of COVID time messing around on the computer with my photos, making stuff making images that you couldn’t ever shoot, because it’s would be impossible. But I’ve got nowhere. nowhere to put them. Yeah, yeah, I’d say them anywhere.

Matt Waters  22:30

It gives you a kind of break point as well, because I think we’re, we’re now in that we’re now in that point where the digital era, you’ve got photos, and you’ve got images. And there’s there’s a very grey line between where a photo stops and an image starts. Yeah. So I think that’s a very good shrewd move.

Producer of Scuba GOAT  22:50

good listeners, Rod, the producer here, just wanted to take 30 seconds and highlight that Scuba goat is working with AWS tech. So you can purchase your tickets direct from the show notes. Matt’s going to be at the show both days, don’t forget to drop by and say hi, and see if he’s carrying any free goodies. Finally, if you’re not already, we’d appreciate a follow like or share via social media, whether Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, as you go, you can search for Scuba goat, or click the links in the show notes. We’ll see you there.

Sue Crowe  23:20

Well, I mean, I, you know, I love I think that’s partly because of my history of journalism and being on the magazine and everything. Obviously, images are very, very important. So you’re always looking for that front cover or, you know, the story and you know, without the images and without the video, most of the speakers would, wouldn’t even you wouldn’t know about them. Yeah, you’d never hear about what they say. Imagery is incredibly important part of any type of diving, whether it’s just bringing home look what I saw today, that’s so fantastic. Now, the video and the images that you can take pretty well right off the bat are super high. They’re really good. So it’s highly addictive, isn’t it highly addictive? Even for you know, I love video, partly because I’m not a particularly good photographer and I don’t have the patience. And I don’t have the time. You know, I just You got to really work to be a proper photographer, you really got to put a lot of time in when it’s my little video, you know? And then I can edit that and it’s but gee, I’m thrilled with what I come back with something. Yes,

Matt Waters  24:31

it’s just terrific. Is there a particular camera that you tend to use?

Sue Crowe  24:35

No, I started with a camera that could take photos and had quite a big rig if you like, you know, I’m Austin. Yeah. And I had a you know, so, I had an SLR in a in I mean initially I started with a little Sony snapshot thing and then I migrated into a proper, I say proper SLR inner I’m in a housing with, you know, strobes and camera and video and everything and I got sick of lugging it around. And I remember going diving with Pete mostly in New Zealand for his birthday had a significant birthday and, and we were all over there and Samir, who is also very good, and, you know, technical diver, they’re all on rebreathers. And I’m just in my normal, you know, Scuba equipment. And he comes along with this little tiny rig that he taken off his SLR with a GoPro in the middle and two small video cameras. And off he goes, comes back was amazing. I’m like, What am I doing? carrying me? Okay, if I was a professional, it’s a whole different ballgame. Then what am I doing with this enormous lugging this stuff around? So I ditched it all. And kept, only kept the frame and did pretty much what Samir has done and had loved it ever since I do have a, just a little GoPro and two little video lights. And a little frame makes it really easy in its ways. Nothing. It’s great.

Matt Waters  26:06

To be honest. Couple years ago, when I was in the Galapagos, I took my big rig, the message took a few GoPros. And about four or five dives into it. Definitely by the time we got up to Darwin’s arch, I’d ditch my rag and just use one of the GoPros it was just so much easier. And the stability now. I think it was the GoPro seven we had. So the stability, the auto stabilisation had just been brought in. Yes. So it just made everything really simple, especially for strong currents. Yeah,

Sue Crowe  26:31

it is. And you can see now, you know, I think the my original GoPro you couldn’t see what you would do. Yeah, just point and shoot. I just can’t do that. Yeah, that makes no sense to me. Yeah. So it’s really great that you can, you’ve got a little screen on the back that you can see, at least you’ve got whatever it is you’re trying to take in the shot somewhere.

Matt Waters  26:52

Yeah. Well, the the issue of seeing what you were doing was amplified for me a couple of years ago when the eyes started to fade, yes. And then having to use readers to look at the back of the camera. And the amount of configurations I went through before I decided to purchase some mask lenses was ridiculous.

Sue Crowe  27:08

I know. It’s sad really isn’t this but but, but Gee, what a difference you think, wow, I’ve probably done several years now not being able to see properly. Yeah. And wondering why. You know, that wasn’t quite in focus.

Matt Waters  27:21

Yeah, yeah. It under the water, take the shot thing. That’s gonna be brilliant, especially when it’s little Yeah.

Sue Crowe  27:29

Yeah, so so there’s a lot of that. So there’s a lot of encouraging people, and there’ll be equipment, then people to ask questions and answer questions, really, and, and the photographers are all really great in that respect, are incredibly generous with their time and their, you know, wanting people to learn and, and what have you. So yeah, so there’s so there’s that side. So we’re encouraging a lot more people to, you know, merge, come and find out, don’t be put off, like I was or think that you might be put off. I mean, there there are definitely going to be some some talks, you you probably would, you know, you might want to go and see, but there’s gonna be a lot more that you will Yeah, you know, we’ve got John Garvin and Kurt crack, both of which have worked in movies forever. John has worked with James Cameron, and on most of his last one that he’s the integral sort of diving coordinator, he runs all the diving for all James Cameron’s, and then Then last avatar to which you know, about to come out. And he’s the one who adapts all the equipment and works with all the manufacturers to you know, make it happen. And so, you know, just fascinating stories that and Kirk, you know, brought in because they decided to do it have the, the the main actors freediving works much better on a green screen and let them tell you all about that. Yeah. And you know, so he taught a lot of, you know, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet and all that how to dive and and why they do it and how they do it. And they use a lot of nitrox. And you know, mix gas. So there’s, there’s loads of sort of interesting parts, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re not a diver, or you’ve just started to dive or you’re interested in how they do it from a technical perspective, using the gases that they do. And there’s something in that for everybody. So that’s what we’re hoping to do is really just get people enthusiastic, and, and open. It’s amazing how, you know, we’ve got JP Imbert, who is essentially a commercial diver but obsessed with algorithms to try and make it safer. But he does a lot of work in the tunnelling space, you know, where they tunnel under, you know, water And you know, that depth essentially to create roads and what have you. And of course, a lot of the workers then are at depth. So they they’re using mix gas, man, they flood the tunnels with mix gas to keep everybody safer. And, and you know who were never going to do that. You and I are never going to go down there and do that. Oh, no. Hell no. But fascinating. Yeah, fascinating because most of its autonomous, you know that, you know, but they all have to be worked on and you’ve got engineers, and you’ve got people to fix it. And you know, they can’t be going in in a spacesuit. Try and do that. So So what do you do? Yeah, so yeah, so there’s, there’s a vast range of, you know, areas where diving is, is a very important part of, of the business, if you like, or the

Matt Waters  30:51

everyday life affects everyday life

Sue Crowe  30:53

that we just often don’t know about. Yeah. So it’s, it’s very good, very interesting.

Matt Waters  30:59

But one of the things that I’ve brought up a few times now is that bridging the gap between recreational and technical diving, because even even as a multi agency, recreational diver, I don’t know that much about the tech side of things apart from you know, having chats with the likes of Chris and Paul Toomer and Geoffrey Glen, and it’s, it’s just chit chat stuff that you pick up and the obvious stuff that you can see from SDI TDI online. I’m actually at the moment, I’m toying with the idea of putting myself through the lower levels of technical training and recording it all and documenting it, kind of making a video out of

Sue Crowe  31:37

1. I think, I think that would be a very good, I mean, interesting enough, I’ve been diving consistently for a long time. And one of the things I said in Garrus, is that, you know, when I think about the sort of diving that we did when I was you know, knew nothing or not enough, you know, don’t know what you don’t know type stuff was makes me feel physically ill No, because we are so we are so much safer. Yes. And so I consider myself extremely lucky to be here. But it’s all horses for courses. I mean, what is a technical divers? So for me, I’ve done ice diving, and I dive in a dry suits have done for years, because I’m a complete wimp and get really cold. So you know, and I’ve done lots of different courses. But I’ve I’ve never needed or felt that I wanted to pick up all that technical, partly because I’m not very good at maths for a start, right? I think there is you do. It helps if you have a certain brain. And then I booked a call and booked a trip that I’d wanted to go on forever to dive in Antarctica and had never, never done and put off and too expensive or it’s this or it’s that. And then I decided, right? Just do it and then got decided why if I’m gonna go and do this trip, I need to make sure that I’m, I’m not going to blow it when I get there. I don’t want to get there and find that I haven’t done enough training, and I haven’t done enough. So I’m a bit like you. I’ve interviewed lots of people. And I know lots of people who do extraordinary things, and I’ve never really done it myself. So I thought well, okay, I’ll go and do the GE fundamentals. That seems like a pretty good place to start. Everyone says what a good course it is that you learn a lot out of it. It’s good for trim. So off we go to my GE fundamentals. And it was a real I loved the learning. It’s probably the first course I’d done in maybe 1015 years, like as a complete student. And I really loved it. But I found it difficult, because I dived a certain way for 30 years. And they wanted me to dive in a different way. And I had to unlearn a lot of stuff. Not everything. Not that it was bad. It’s just a different way of doing it because they’re basically teaching you to do more technical, more expedition. You know, the whole idea is that you get the fundamentals for that journey. Yeah. And I’d never been on that journey, per se. And I’ll tell you, it’s completely addictive. Yeah, I love the learning. I loved the being challenged. I didn’t like not being able to do it. So I’ve continued on and ironically, I’ve I’ve gone down this sort of slightly technical, more technical path, because I wanted to continue the learning, mostly to do the training. Yeah. Because ultimately, the more training you do, the more practice you do, the more comfortable you are. And you can go anywhere. Well within reason and Do I recommend you know pretty well, recreation all around the planet and be be be comfortable? And that’s a good thing? I think so yeah. So I would recommend that you do that.

Matt Waters  35:10

Yeah. Well, I think one of my fears that has prevented me from doing it so far is that I do have an addictive kind of personality, where if I get excited about something, I am a kid at Christmas. Yeah. And looking at the costs of the tech side of things. I could see the missus frowning quite a bit.

Sue Crowe  35:30

Yeah. And it’s that I completely understand like, I, I would I have a real draw to rebreathers? But I’m not sure I, you have to do you have to do what the sort of diving that you do. And the reality is the majority of my diving doesn’t really warrant having a rebreather and, and there are big patches where I don’t go diving like, you know, in the lead up towards tech. If I’m lucky, I might get a couple of dives in and I’m not diving as regularly as you’d like. And one thing you do need to do with a rebreather is you know, keep up the hours and keep up your skills. And this that now this time, not just did. I still haven’t exactly written off a recreational robbery. But yeah, because that’s much simpler. Of course. Yeah. So there’s, there’s lots of and then would that make me a technical diver, if I had a recreational rebreather, ie you only fill it with nitrox. And I mean, years ago, nitrox was fully technical. That was and now it’s every day and every day, I guess. So we’re already merging.

Matt Waters  36:37

So I’m I’m Simon diver. Is that operational or? Technical? Technical? Yeah. But um, some most people look at it and go, Ah, it’s just two tanks. One other side. It’s not like you say a rebreather or

Sue Crowe  36:50

that it’s, it’s a different way. It’s it’s not the single tank on the back. Yeah, if you if you dive in twins is the technical side. Alright, so now I do dive in twins. And I really

Matt Waters  37:05

fun carrying them down to the dark.

Sue Crowe  37:08

It’s not. And the NS I’m getting not a spring chicken anymore. I do think sometimes, okay, well, you know, if I’m going to, you know, I’m going to, I’ll be in smaller cylinders. I’m not going to be lugging those things around it, because it’s that makes it not fun. Yeah, you know, and I don’t want it to be not fun. I just want to be able to have a bit more time, do slightly deeper dives, and see the things that I you know, safely. Yes. about safety, actually, because it’s not that I haven’t been down there. It’s just that I don’t think I ever really did it safely. When when I was younger. And I think a lot of older divers would agree.

Matt Waters  37:49

Yeah, don’t come across a lot of old and bold. This is how we’ve always done it kind of thing.

Sue Crowe  37:53

Yeah, no, I’m not I’m not that I’m not an older Well, I’m old, but I’m not. I like to be safe. Yeah. You know, I’d like to think that I’ve learned something over the years. you’d hope so. That’s exactly, yeah, but and that’s what I was talking about. I’ll take and the odds dive show is about learning what’s out there. It’s about poking your toe in to see listen to the story, see if it’s gonna be interesting for you. Even crossing it off the list. I don’t think we ever cross anything off completely. But it’s an it’s it’s just fascinating looking at all the different types of diving that people are doing out there. So

Matt Waters  38:35

Well, I think the thing with a weather weather show is that you get the opinion of so many people, you know, when you when you go on a liveaboard. And there’s someone there that’s a technical diver and you’ve only got that one person’s opinion on a particular type of equipment or style of diving, dive show, you can talk to as many people as you want. And people that are there are there because they want to talk about their experiences and, you know, their their advice on the different styles of equipment and styles of diving that they’re doing.

Sue Crowe  39:04

I think most people, most people today are in the shops and the you know, the training agencies are way more open. You know, they’re not, in a lot of ways. We’d quite like to get rid of the word technical. Yeah, and just stick to maybe advanced. Because, you know, you’re a sidemount So theoretically, you’re a technical diver. Yeah. And I’ve I’ve, I mean, I don’t know, I dive twins now, not always, but if I want to practice and, and I’m off to do something a bit deeper, and I want to take more guests with me. As Paul Toomer says you can no one ever dies of not having enough gas. So you might as well take it with you if you can. Does that make me a technical diver? I don’t know. Probably more, a little bit more. But I would say learning to adapt learning new skills learning to work with different people to DAPT is is really, that’s fun.

Matt Waters  40:03

Yeah, yeah. And the huge advantages as well, I mean that you can look at the differences of recreational to tech by, you know, extending that depth or extending that reach into a cage and Kevin’s extending that that bottom time. But then there’s the stuff that makes it even greater is, as a photographer, do you want to spend three hours at 1520 metres, in which case, you need to be looking at the, you know, the rebreather kind of thing to get close to whatever you want to photograph and stay there for the duration

Sue Crowe  40:33

or aim. And you might not even want to be a photo photographer, you might just want to go down there and be with animals. And just be there, no bubbles, and have because, you know, apparently, the interaction is, is incredible. When you’re on a rebreather.

Matt Waters  40:53

I saw it firsthand at Fish rock a couple of years ago, and my mate was on his rebury that I’m on a standard single cylinder. And just the great nurses that were there. As soon as they got near me, if I breathe, they disappear. Barney’s just swimming around doing his own thing. And it’s as though he wasn’t there. They were oblivious to him being

Sue Crowe  41:11

there. It’s incredible. I did I was very lucky and did a trip to French Polynesia. And we did the the what was it called? We were down at Fakarava. And you’ve got the sort of cabbage tree grow peppers, and they have this huge. Do the mating ritual. Yeah, that mating ritual which has a word which I’ve forgotten, you know, one of those moments. And we were all there and we that’s got this massive shark gutters and like 13,000 fish are all in there quite big, you know, that are all doing their thing and milling around and getting excited about what’s about to happen or not about to happen or is happening. And of course it brings in about 700 Sharks. So it’s full on like there’s action everywhere. And we were because we had bubbles, we were only allowed to sit at the top of the this sort of shark, gutter, big shark gutter, which was pretty good. I’m not complaining. It was brilliant. But interestingly, loron Walesa, who you know, is big French. He’s marine biologist photographer, rebreather, very technical. Certainly other he, they had a film crew down there, and they were filming a documentary, and they were all in ligases. Like, they were all down there. And they rebreathers and red wetsuits looking very cool. And and not disturbing anything. Yeah. So you know, that has a massive appeal. For I reckon, any recreational diver

Matt Waters  42:46

and the conservation side of things, the conservation

Sue Crowe  42:48

side of it, yes. Bubbles, you know, everything. Yeah, there’s a lot to be, there’s a lot to be said. In fact, we’re having a panel on what the panel is more about whether rebreathers are going to overtake deep, technical, open circuit diving, because, you know, and I don’t, well, I’ve got my own opinion, but we’ll let the experts do a panel. It’ll be very interesting. Who’s on the panel and the panel will be well, there’ll be Michael Mendocino who is facilitating it. There’ll be Paul Toomer, Richard Taylor, who’s a big advocate for Definitely not. And I’m not quite sure who might be Simon Mitchell or, you know, so basically, the there are pros and cons, of course, as there are to everything. And then, and it’s a bit like the other discussion with Bill stone that they’re going to have is our robots gonna overtake exploration? Because how far can humans actually go? That will be a fascinating one. But you know, maybe the very top end, but it will never stop people exploring or trying or I don’t think

Matt Waters  44:01

people think it’s in our nature to curious a creature, not to Yeah,

Sue Crowe  44:07

I think it’s, yeah,

Matt Waters  44:08

I know, everyone’s living their life through a six by three inch screen nowadays. But there’s a lot to be said for seeing things with your own eyes.

Sue Crowe  44:15

Oh, yeah. Can’t be nothing like it. I like moments

Matt Waters  44:19

where my camera’s gone tits up underwater. And that initial couple of minutes of being gutted, is overtaken very quickly by the reality of where you are. Yeah. And sometimes you lose that.

Sue Crowe  44:31

Sometimes it’s nice not to have one. Yeah, yeah,

Matt Waters  44:34

definitely. So when the we’ve got it open just the Saturday and Sunday or you got the trade decided things on a Thursday Friday? Oh,

Sue Crowe  44:42

no, we’re really limited this time. Because of the you know, squeezing lots of different events into a space so it’s just the Saturday Sunday it’s it’s open to everybody. There’s no I mean trade COMM But mostly because of divers I think, obviously there’s a trade there because the equipment and tray or travel as a travel will be, I think a little bit less this time because there’s still there were an area that was very affected. That’s the

Matt Waters  45:20

one I’ve got my own business. Martin got the curtain overwritten. Well, just just lifting the curtain in, in the next month. That’s exactly

Sue Crowe  45:26

right. So, and for a lot of the resorts, but there’s still plenty coming, which is really good. And of course, the good thing, I think, is that from Australian diving perspective, COVID was was actually quite, quite useful. I mean, even though we were all limited to wherever we lived, or states predominantly, I think local, what we have is very underrated. We don’t we often don’t realise just how fantastic the diving is. And I think a lot of people have discovered that actually, a lot of the diving close by them is pretty amazing. It’s ridiculously good. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know how many people have never been to, you know, Southwest rocks, or fish rocks or solitary islands, or,

Matt Waters  46:19

you know, three times we’ve tried to mean a message of trying to go to solitary. And every time it’s the weather’s got in the way and

Sue Crowe  46:27

this year has been particularly naff hasn’t it’s it’s been really so they have they those have definitely suffered anything with the need to boat definitely suffered. I think Sydney has been quite lucky actually. Because they’ve done a lot of well, you’ve got more shore diving.

Matt Waters  46:42

Yeah, it’s still been very, very pants. To be honest. I’m I’ve not dive now and Sydney for over three months.

Sue Crowe  46:50

Yeah. It’s bit like where I am. Yeah, it’s, it’s so but we do we have a lot and one of the interesting things is okay, this year, we’ve taken the show to Melbourne. Now we haven’t we’ve been once to Melbourne. Well strikey took it to Melbourne a long, long time ago. And I think we felt that we needed a bit of a change needed a bit of a change of space. The facility there is brilliant. Yeah, so it’s the MCC which is the Jeff shed, but with Reno Reno of Jeff shade, and and all the speaking spaces are dedicated and and really well done. We were in the ICC, I think we’ll get there. But they don’t facilitate our type of show, though. It’s all very well, if you’re a massive corporate. Yeah, that now that squillions of dollars. But you know, the reality is that that’s not the diving industry. And so, in 2019, we actually had to physically build the theatres where we wanted the theatres to be on the, on the floor, because we wanted everybody to be in amongst everything. Whereas Melbourne’s much more organised so they have already built a theatre inside an exhibition hall, a proper Theatre, which is which will be the sort of the main theatre, and then they have all these other speaking spaces, which are dedicated, much more comfortable and 2019. If you won’t, but everybody had to wear headsets?

Matt Waters  48:23

No, I’ve not been to a show since since 2018.

Sue Crowe  48:27

Yeah. So yeah, it’s it’s, and it was good. It worked. But it was it was it’s nice and not to have to wear one. Yeah. You know, if

Matt Waters  48:36

so, how many? How many speakers out there and so on? I think we’ve

Sue Crowe  48:38

got about 44. Wow. So there’s a lot of speakers. And this is, this is why I’d say don’t not come because you think there’s going to be all rebreather and tech and oh my god, you know, it’s not, it’s not going to have a look at who’s coming and what the speaker topics will be up shortly. And we’re wrestling with the shedule at the moment, because obviously you don’t want you want to be able to try and put different talks, not back to back or next door to each other so that somebody wants to go and see, you know, ice diving over here. And yeah, it doesn’t. You haven’t got to at the same time.

Matt Waters  49:19

Yeah, you don’t want to be kind of having to make that choice, which has been

Sue Crowe  49:23

a big complaint about us over the years is that you can’t be in more than one place at once. And so you do have to pick it but this year that’s that will be different. Because whilst you will still have to do that, if you physically come, we are filming all the speakers. And so it the all of the talks from us tech conference will be available afterwards. So it means that if you’ve if you’ve splashed out on conference tickets, and you can still only see a third of the speakers because it’s physically impossible not to be there you can ink Add in that ticket is is your on demand, run and it’s being professionally run. So you’re going to have several months after that to catch up on all the other speakers. So it’ll be a proper broadcast. Really, it’s a really lovely platform, which we’re about to announce. So you’re the first one to officially hear that. Yeah,

Matt Waters  50:21

we’ll put that out there. Yeah. So

Sue Crowe  50:23

that is very exciting. So you’re not going to be like, you can see everything.

Matt Waters  50:28

Yes. Yeah. And of course, there’s, I did notice that there’s a little after party as well, at the show.

Sue Crowe  50:34

Yes. Well, traditionally, we’ve had this very, sort of, I wouldn’t say posh, because we’re the diving industry, but gala dinner, you know, the awards and everything. And the awards are coming up. And we do do some awards for people who are doing extraordinary things. And and that’s good. But I wanted, I wanted to bear in mind that people have had a tough time, particularly in Melbourne, they’ve had a bit of a tough time. And, you know, a traditional gala awards, you know, meat or fish or whatever, is expensive, very expensive. And so I thought, well, I just don’t want to do that I want to do something that’s a bit more cash a bit more fun. So we’ve got the decompression party, it’s we’re taking over the Melbourne public, which is this divine, big converted sort of wool shed type cross pub thing. Yeah. Which is right next door to the actual conference centre. So you know, from and all the hotels. So from a stagger perspective, it’s really good. We’ve always previously been kicked out of a formal gala dinner at sort of 10 or 11 and had to find somewhere else to party on. Whereas this one, we can get in at six and get out at one which I think will probably enough for

Matt Waters  51:56

that’s not actually from the casino if people want to go next

Sue Crowe  51:59

door, it’s next door to the casino pretty much so if people really need to move on the casinos open 24 hours. And and so that will be great. Because it will be we can get a lot more people in it. It’s a lot. It’s a lot less expensive. The early people will get the what we call the full table. So that will be you know, booze and food and the awards presentation. And then if you busy or you’re you don’t want you’re not you don’t want to do that you can come later and join us after 830 and get you know three drinks included and buy your own food if they’re gonna keep the kitchens open and what have you. Yeah, but we have you know, we have our own rock band called The Aztecs and they are all divers. So John Garvin, who’s a professional musician. Apart from doing all his film work is our lead thing and lead guitar player Michael Mann Dino’s professional bass player. Samia does the drums. And then we have a sort of a collection of other divers who will play music and they’re busy practising away. So it’s great fun.

Matt Waters  53:10

You do know that Paul Toomer used to be in a band as well in it.

Sue Crowe  53:12

Yes, I’m sure he’ll get up. And I have no doubt.

Matt Waters  53:17

I’m hearing all this. We’re going to be in a pub, having some food. Yeah, there’s no real dress code so he can put his Doc Martens on. There’s live band

Sue Crowe  53:24

nine open heaven. Yeah, yeah, it’ll be it’ll be I’m actually really excited about that. They always get a bit stressed out about the goal or didn’t and because, you know, and this, I think, is more in tune with us. And really the whole idea that the bits that people like most about the garlic dinner was getting together with everybody. And you know, you don’t need all the beans that go with it. I don’t think

Matt Waters  53:52

I’m the first one to put my hand in the air, especially if there’s a beer involved or a whiskey. super keen on that. Yeah. So

Sue Crowe  53:57

that will be really good. And that’s on the Sunday nights. Now for Victorians. It’s not a public holiday. But it is for us. Yes. So for anyone hitting into Melbourne, you’ve got the Monday to go and do something else and recover from our decompression party. And you know, making make a weekend but yeah, so I think it’ll be it’ll, it’ll work well.

Matt Waters  54:20

Yeah, I think we’re gonna get we’re gonna have a good few days. I think we go that fly down on a Thursday evening and stay through to the Tuesday morning

Sue Crowe  54:27

and we’ve had brilliant buy in from the local shops, cyber really been fantastic. There are a lot of the local stores are going to be there. The charter operators there have all brought out specials if somebody wants to come in to Melbourne and sample a bit of Melbourne diving. So that’s worth looking out for on the website. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Because Melbourne has brilliant diving. Yeah, it’s got everything. It’s got, you know, it’s a bit so it’s got the whole gamut. And it’s very underrated. It is temperate, you know, there so that’s probably why.

Matt Waters  55:08

Well, I learned very quickly when it comes to this country that Melbourne can get four seasons in one day. Indeed, literally. Yeah,

Sue Crowe  55:14

that’s right. And But ironically, underwater, it’s reflected. So you’ve got all the corals and, you know, some really super, you know, reefs and, and ledges and what have you and seals and all of that. But you’ve also got a lot of Rex, you’ve got all submarines. They’ve got it, Canberra. HMS Canberra, I think, I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ve got a big, one of the big, you know, ships, as well as a whole load of other wrecks and everything. Yeah, that’s right. There’s a lot of archaeology. So we’ve got some mighty cars from Dan that way, you know, yeah, Matt, Matt’s down there. So he’s talking, he’ll be talking about his latest projects. And he tells me, he’s got a big announcement that’s going to blow us all away. I can’t even tell you what that is. But that will be good. But we’ve also got two scientists from the Marine maritime museum here. So Kieran hosty and James Hunter, who were integral in the discovery of the Endeavour over in America. And there’s a bit of contention around that you remember that? And they’ll tell us all about how that was discovered. Because that’s significant from an Australian perspective. But also there’s a bit of interesting manoeuvring political politically around that which they’ll, you know, tell us all about no doubt. Yeah. So that’s very interesting. So there’s a lot of there’s a lot of very interesting topics that there is something for everybody.

Matt Waters  56:44

On the display side of things, how many people are turning out and having booths as it were, I know, Gareth and Mike O’Connor booth. Yeah,

Sue Crowe  56:52

go go with them. I’ve got a booth. It’s, as I said, there’s a great turnout from Melbourne. We’ve got the a lot of equipment there from sort of a up from so TISA Tabata range of things, Halcyon Santi lot of dry seats. Of course, it’s you know, drysuit is for Melbourne heights would be more I can’t imagine not having, frankly, if you were a regular diver in Melbourne, I’m sure there’s still some very tough people who get in their 10 Mill wetsuits and go off. So yeah, there’s a lot of that there’s, we’ve got jewellery, we’ve got apparel for sentiment, you know, there’s a whole there’s a whole range. Probably not everybody will be there. But that’s just how it works sometimes. Yeah,

Matt Waters  57:46

it’s gonna be good. It’s just the first proper gathering, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah, two and a half years now.

Sue Crowe  57:52

Yeah, two and a half years so that the last proper gathering really was probably want to take in 2019? I would say. So we’re all really looking forward to it. And everybody down there is really excited, which is great. And I’m really pleased that. And I think also, it’s worth noting that the Melbourne or Victorian Government, were the first to come out with COVID event cancellation insurance, because it’s a big risk. Yeah. And, you know, maybe you can afford it if you’re a big corporate. But if you’re a small business, it’s pretty tough. And so if it all goes pear shaped, you’d be out of business. But the Victorian Government recognised that and so they brought out specific COVID event cancellation insurance so that if if something happened, you everybody gets the money back. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s important, because I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of money floating around in various credits and flight credits and bits and pieces. So it’s good to know that it actually will come back to you.

Matt Waters  59:04

Yeah. And that’s, that’s why I closed down nematic Scuba soon. As soon as all the lockdown started, people wanting to book and I flatly refused to say no, we’re not doing anything until we know the reality of what’s going on. And I’m glad we did that. Yeah. Very wise. It’s a bit a little bit detrimental to the, you know, the growth of the business, but I hope Yeah, you know, we just start again. Yeah. But no one’s losing money. That’s the main thing. Yeah,

Sue Crowe  59:30

that’s very important. And it’s good if you you know, because if you’re coming from New New South Wales, you’ve got to get to Melbourne and you’ve got to stay somewhere and we do have some deals on the website. So but Melbourne itself is let’s face it bit more exciting than Sydney at the moment. Yeah, they have I’ve really enjoyed going down there and working out you know, where, where everything’s being and their nightlife is much more vibrant than ours and they They’ve got great food and pumps all over the place and little laneways coffee, their coffee. You know, it’s just fantastic. So the whole atmosphere is really

Matt Waters  1:00:15

it’s just alive. It’s set up for socialising isn’t it sets

Sue Crowe  1:00:18

up for just having a great time with people. It’s very pretty, you know, Melbourne where you know, we’re on the river, you can pretty well walk anywhere. So it’s, it’s, it’s very, it’s great. I’m really looking forward to it. Because everyone said, Oh, Melbourne site. Well, they they’ve come to the party. Yeah, you know, we’re all here. It’s the they’ve all been coming up to Sydney all these years. Yeah. Why not? Change time for change? I think it’s good.

Matt Waters  1:00:50

And people can book tickets online. Obviously,

Sue Crowe  1:00:53

tickets can be booked online yet, no problem at all. If you, you can come and buy tickets. And also will have single speaker tickets. So if you’re not sure you want to buy a conference ticket, then you can come in and pay your 45. And if there’s that one speaker or two speakers you really want to do then you can buy a single speaker ticket and just go and see that one and then it would be but i i I reckon that if you did that, you’d come straight back out and buyer. Yeah, day pass or whatever.

Matt Waters  1:01:28

They were taking the plunge? Yeah, just turn both days. And after party. Yeah. It’s sort of job like, yes.

Sue Crowe  1:01:33

Yeah. You won’t, you won’t be disappointed.

Matt Waters  1:01:36

Yeah. Well, we’ll put a we’ll put a link in the show notes as well, so that you can we can direct people straight to purchasing tickets. Get your tickets now. Yes. What we haven’t mentioned is a fact that AWS tech actually has its own podcast, isn’t it?

Sue Crowe  1:01:52

Oh, yes, we do. We so this started when we decided that we were going to do on demand. And in 2019, whilst we didn’t film everything, because there just wasn’t the budget. We weren’t quite there. The platform’s weren’t there yet, not good ones anyway. But we did take all the audio from the speakers. And so we’ve created this podcast that now plays back some of the talks that we’ve had in 2019. Now, bearing in mind that it’s surprising how well they translate, considering that they’re actually given on a on a stage with pictures. So you’re hearing the audio, but you obviously can’t see the pictures apart from the few bits and bobs that I put in to the you know, the information or what have you. Yeah, and we can give you lines to go off and this that the other, but they’ve been really good, and I’ve really enjoyed listening back to them. I think the latest one was Paul Toomer. And he did. And he’s so you know, such a straight shooter. Yeah. That and he’s a very good presenter, and he doesn’t care. I mean, okay. He is a member of, you know, a high profile Training Agency, but he doesn’t care about that. No, he just wants people to get out there get diving be safe. And that’s one thing that I really I really admire about him. He’s always first in saying, Yeah, well, we’ll give it a go. And, and it’s consequently, he’s a very entertaining and good speaker and doesn’t mess around. You know, he’s very passionate about it, and very passionate about it. It’s very good. So we’ve had some great talks that have were, you know, presented in 2019. And it was a good excuse to introduce some people to a little bit of what you might expect. Yeah.

Matt Waters  1:03:51

Well, you can put it out there. If on your podcast if you want anyone is going down to present this year. They’re more than welcome to hit me up and come on here as well.

Sue Crowe  1:03:59

I will. I will, and I will

Matt Waters  1:04:02

$1,000 a minute. I don’t charge much.

Sue Crowe  1:04:06

I should be queuing. That’s it. Well, no. And there’s and we do have a lot of we have so much talent in this country. I mean, we have brought in obviously, talent from outside. But really, we punch well above our weight, especially if you include New Zealand. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it’s phenomenal. So we do pretty well down here. It’s good. And it’s nice to know that actually oz tech is very well thought of in other countries as well. So hopefully, with the being able to actually see it all now on demand, we’ll get a lot more international interest in the Australian diving industry because there’ll be able to just see what we do have here.

Matt Waters  1:04:52

That’s a bit that’s actually a very good point because, again, thinking back to when I first came to Australia, you know, there’s There’s locations that you can go dive in. But trying to find that information online isn’t necessarily that easy, because there’s just so much information online nowadays. That’s right. So to have something like a, for example, podcast or dive show, to somewhere that you can get hold of the accurate information, it’s, it’s paramount, we need to change the way everything’s going at the moment so that people can find that information.

Sue Crowe  1:05:26

And also, not only just the information but the right place to go and get. Yeah, and go, you know, go to the right people. Yeah. So yeah, it’s pretty exciting. And it’s a bit daunting, the whole online thing to because you think more. But I think from an international perspective, they haven’t had a show since way before. So for all of the people, internationally who are interested, there’ll be tuning in I have no doubt and so it’s a pretty good opportunity for us to to to flog Australia, and Melbourne and everything else. So that was a bit of luck. There all come and do some diving down here.

Matt Waters  1:06:10

Yeah, right.

Sue Crowe  1:06:12

I should yeah, meat. I agree totally.

Matt Waters  1:06:15

Well, suit we’ve been going for around about an hour or so. About a rounded up, I’ll wrap it up and let you hotfoot it back up home. Is there anything that we’ve not covered that you’d like to cover before we close down?

Sue Crowe  1:06:27

I don’t think so. We will be we’re going to be asking people to vote on a t shirt design. We’ve had a t shirt design competition. So we need everybody to have a look at that. And we will be putting out nominations for awards. So keep your eyes peeled on that. But otherwise, you know, keep watching the websites and book those tickets.

Matt Waters  1:06:48

Get your tickets. Yeah, that’s a sell out. Yes. Yeah. Give me all those details. I’ll put them in the show notes as well. Lovely, happy days. Thank you so much for dropping by. Oh, well.

Sue Crowe  1:06:57

Thank you for having me. It’s been a delight. And we’ll have several beers in October. Yes, several. Good. Thanks for listening folks. Bye for now. Bye.