As someone who’s serious about diving and always trying to improve skills and safety, The Great Dive Podcast has been an awesome companion. James and Brandon do a killer job blending dive history, training philosophy, and real-world lessons with humor and zero pretension. It’s the kind of podcast that makes you think critically about your own approach to diving—while still cracking up at the same time. Whether I’m driving to the springs with my sidemount rig in the back or just doing gear maintenance, it’s my go-to listen. It’s like sitting around with smart, sarcastic dive buddies who’ve been through it all. Can’t recommend it enough.

Filled with lots of good information. Highly recommended.

I have been listening since the beginning and I am still hooked. As a instructor and course director I always recommend my students listen to these guys.

Episode 369 - Shadow Divers Exposed is the greatest podcast that has ever been podcasted. I can listen to it over and over again! BTW, ol’ Jamesy and Brando are way funnier than they think they are, and don’t spend nearly enough time on their protracted tangents.

I’m late to the game with this podcast, but have loved the latest episodes and it has been a blast starting up from the beginning. Quite the dynamic duo. I started late in life to diving and part of the joy for me is learning about scuba safety, scuba physiology, and helping me stay dive ready when I’m out of the water. Thanks for making my drives to and from work entertaining and informative!

I could not be less interested in going scuba diving, open water diving, or any sort of underwater activity. But I CAN’T STOP BINGING THIS PODCAST. The stories are crazy, Brando and James are hilarious, the voices imitations are top tier, the info is super detailed (as far as this diving virgin can tell) so interesting and now I know a lot of random stuff about an activity I have no interest in actually doing myself.

I thank you for your wonderful podcast it gives me something to look forward too on my hour drive and hour back to work every day and on top of that I take your knowledge you share to hart. Thank you and I look forward to your up load every Friday. Thank you. Sincerely Steve swartz.

I enjoy listening to these two talk about how other people being stupid. As a barista I experience those people who think going into a shipwreck with no training for “just a peak” is a good idea. I also love having all this information about diving, even though I have yet to dive ever. But I hope too. Cheers to you guys!

James and Brando know diving. As a lover of all things diving, I love this show. Its a mix of dive history, dive theory, dive talk, and dive fun all rolled into one. The most fun you can have while dry.

Interesting informative and entertaining

My wife and I are new divers. We have listened to the entire series, such great content, fun stories, and interesting lessons to be learned. Love listening, keep up the great work.

Listening to these two men banter is immensely enjoyable and entertaining. I laugh every episode. The friendship between them shines through. I am a new diver and you can gain a lot from just listening to this. I feel like I take quite a bit away from the show and I really love hearing the stories that are told. Diving can be dangerous, take it seriously and appreciate their honesty. I have been in law enforcement for 15 years and you get a feel for when someone has experience and you need to listen and take heed, I feel that here on this show. Maybe it is my career choice but I completely dig their humor, mine is much the same. So sit back, come with an open mind and soak it all in.

A great podcast. Don’t listen to the whiny whiners

TGDP is simply the best diving podcast around. James and Brando are absolute legends and I have personally bought them a number of beverages of the adult variety just to pretend I am talking to them on their show. They have incredible content, are hilarious and I hope to dive with those well-groomed fellas.

The Great Dive Podcast is indeed great. I just love Gus and Woody!

I have been listening to this podcast for the past year. During this time I have listened to over 100 of the episodes. James and Brando week in and week out bring insightful commentary and hilarious banter about the articles and topics they talk about.

I have now listened to every episode up to #321. I guess I liked it. James and Brando provide a great mix of facts, opinions informed by experience, and humor.

If you liked “Car Talk” on NPR and you’re a diver, you’ll love The Great Dive Podcast! While Jamesy and Brando sometimes take the long way to get to a point, it all comes together in the end. It’s the same sort of talk you have with buddies at lunch after morning dives. These are real guys with real world experience just having a chat on a different topic each week. Congratulations on making it to Episode 300!

My son and I listen when we drive home some days. Humor is dry but funny and you can’t help but laugh. Keep ‘‘em coming.

Some good episodes at first and enjoyed listening to a few, then they made jokes at trans people. Not funny, that stings, I will not be tuning in again. Yuck (from a diver who is not easily grossed out). Also promoted invasive quaggas/zebes = not cool

4 stars F you Brando!!! I love the podcast, content and humor. Great job James and Brando! This is a 5 star review. Just wanted to bust Brando’s balls with the 4 stars.

I’m a diver who just returned from Hawaii and love the sea life there! Wanted to tune in to a good dive-related podcast. Stumbled upon The Great Dive Podcast and thought the episode on women who dive with sharks (“shark chicks”) sounded like a perfect first episode to enjoy. Not 2 minutes in to the podcast, the hosts began talking about the women. But they were not discussing the women’s adventure, their gear, or their skill. No, their opener was talking about how the women looked, their appearance, how good-looking they are. I shut it down immediately. Hard pass. Guys, if you want to attract a larger audience, please stop “rating” women based on looks, especially in a skilled pursuit. That’s not a welcoming space for us. We’ve had a lifetime of it and need a break, especially here. If, OTOH, you aim to cultivate an audience of straight men, keep up the good work.

Their gallows humor on this episode was disgusting. Rather than talk about the dive and what can be learned from it they just shredded all the people involved.

Awesome podcast! I’ve been listening for over a year now and I love it. I am a newbie and trying to take in as much info as I can before I find a dive shop in Jacksonville, Fla. and hopefully an instructor who wants to teach and not just hand out a card. You guys are awesome!

I’m going to send you guys an email entitled “Ten things I hate about TGDP (the backhanded compliment edition)”. First off, to listeners, know this, ego is your enemy and it could kill you. So if this podcast offends your ego, because like me, you’ve done some of the things Jamesey and Brando make fun of, well there is a reason, A REAL LIFE REASON the grey beards (did you read that Brando?) are pointing that out. They use dark, crass, sometimes rough language and humor to make this point… This is much like how higher risk, technical, military professionals interact. If you don’t have a thick skin, strike that… …thick wetsuit, and take yourself (and the mistakes you and others make) too seriously, and get offended by someone describing mistakes… or maybe get offended easily… this isn’t for you. However, sense of humor equals intelligence. I’m not knew to technical things where mistakes can kill me, but I am new to scuba and I can tell you the wisdom in TGDP is SOLID, the sarcasm is thick and rich and equal opportunity and fair and refreshingly politically incorrect. Ego is the enemy and it can get you killed and this podcast will inflame injuries to ego, ESPECIALLY if you don’t have competence…. Plus, the lessons learned in scuba come from terrible disasters, serious topics, but it would be super draining emotionally to listen to some of these stories, if there wasn’t dark humor to pull us back from the darkness… this is why combat veterans have dark humor. I so enjoy this podcast and learn so much from these guys! I hope I can dive with them one day, but I’ve got a lot of diving to do to get the fundamentals locked in, otherwise I’d be a bore of a dive buddy to these guys… THIS PODCAST HAS MADE ME A BETTER DIVER! End of story… RLTW! —-Grant

The content is good, but these guys think they’re funnier than they actually are. I constantly find myself fast forwarding through their protracted stand-up tangents, especially when they get in a drawn out back-and-forth of cracking each other up by recycling the same joke over, and over, and over. (The Dr. Feeley episode is an example of one that was equally annoying as insightful. The idling motor with fog horn sound effect, which I believe was in that one, was almost maddening. The point was made. Don’t beat it to death. Five seconds of the sound effect will do it.) Plus an over-the-top, lighthearted attitude toward people getting injured or killed scuba diving can be off putting. Scale back the humor and focus more on relevant content. The episodes will be shorter, more efficiently informative, and far less annoying.

The best podcast out there… James and Brando are not only extremely informative about the key aspects of diving but inject just enough raunchy humor to keep you entertained. Not to mention, TGDP also share my core values… family, diving and berating our ill informed, useless and incompetent government politicians. Keep it up fellas!

New to diving. I was looking at different podcasts, to learn from experienced divers. And you both, have created an informative format, while keeping it interesting! I can’t wait to get into the water!

These guys go off on tangents like no other. And if the podcast has something about Australia in it, prepare yourself for a nearly sickening amount of accents and overuse of the phrase “shrimp on the bah-bie.” Otherwise, they’re a great easy listen that is part of my Friday commute every week. Thanks for all the content fellas! Semper Fi.

Brando and James entertain. A good mix of knowledge and funny. TGDP is clearly a product of permanent narcosis. Some folks with an underdeveloped sense of humor my not get it. If that’s the case, just aim your split-Finns in another direction.

Freaking love these guys. Hilarious and intelligent. A quick fix during extended surface intervals.

I am not one to complain but as much as I would love to love this podcast I just can’t. I have only finished 65 episodes so there is hope for change. The information and stories for the most part are good but the delivery is less that what is desired. One of the host is enjoyable and quite the pleasure to listen to but opposite to him is what I could only describe as immature and unnecessary. The latter I do believe has a ton of knowledge for the industry and the sport but resort to making crud preteen and sexist “jokes” as well as burst of yelling that continues to bust my eardrums at any sporadic moment. I hate that there are only so many options for scuba related podcasts and this is the best they can do. I will try to listen more and hope I have the ability to change my opinion on this.

Wow !! Great job James and Brando. I enjoy the show because the show can go from an instructor who's been instructing like myself for over 15 years to somebody who is just thinking about becoming an open water scuba diver. From a Tech Guy to a traveling person and even the guy who enjoy splashing in the quarry. And still keeping it fun. I am glad I came across this podcast it's like hanging out with a bunch of buddies at the dive shop A place where everybody can get something out of it. RU4SCUBA Don

Love the podcast; Brando literally needs to stop mumbling or speak louder. We can’t hear the end of his sentence half the time. Otherwise great :)

Started listening to the show in June and have listened nearly everyday since. Old Jamesey and older Brando share great scuba and scuba adjacent articles and add hilarious but well informed insights. As a new diver they’ve helped me ask my instructors questions that never would have occurred to me. Thanks guys!

This is a lot of what it sounds like being aboard a Great Lakes wreck diving boat. I was on my share of them in the 1990’s, so I know a bit about that. You learned a lot, you laughed a whole hell of a lot and you had the time of your life while doing both. Oh and you went diving, too. Wiseassery was a language unto itself and the most sardonic practitioners of it were pulling on drysuits above cold freshwater shipwrecks on hot August Saturday afternoons. Sounds like home. Thanks to James & Brando for taking me there while I’m boiling my PA ass off in SW FL.

I have just finished the entire TGDP catalog and figured I should update my review. So here goes: I don’t care if you are a SCUBA Diver or not if you aren’t listening to The Great Dive Podcast you’re dumb.

Funny and informative, Been binge listening to catch up starting at first episode in the fall, can’t imagine to soon have to wait a whole week between shows. Greetings from upstate NY, where I dive Lake George, which was exciting to hear mentioned in the episode about one of the guys that started PADI. Also if you like scuba article reviews from the 70s and 80s you’re going to love this show

Great guys, funny and informative. I’m a total newbie and learning a lot from these guys! Thanks!

James and Brando are just a couple of dudes being bros. I could listen to these 2 read a phone book. Learned a bit, laughed a lot. Great listen for my commute to work. 10/10 would recommend.

Yea the diving stuff is cool and all, i just wanna hear about Ms. Moneypennies Split-fin while i touch my snorkel.....

Very good; experienced guys

The Great Dive Podcast is thoroughly enjoyable! I found it to be an intelligent, thoughtful, and thought provoking journey into the technical and behavioral aspects of diving. Don’t waste your time with the other so called diving podcasts. This is where you wanna be.

I just added an air mcdoodle and deep air snorkel, just waiting for my red cap and Speedo......then I’ll be an advanced master snorkel dive instructor, all with only 10 dives in my logbook! Hey can I log these podcasts in my logbook? I need the logged experience.

Its silly at times, sure, but that makes it fun and the content is totally solid and even historically informed. I highly recommend!

Since I have stumbled upon this podcast, I have been binge listening to them trying to catch up. My take is that these guys tend to be more into the technical dives but even recreational divers can learn a few things from them since they are the types of folks who tend to develop new methods and test new products. With thousands of dives between them anyone can learn something from them. Open your ears, shut your mouth and decide for yourself!

Quite simply the best diving podcast out there. From an old sea dog.

I look forward with anticipation to the yearly “New Technology in Snorkels “ episode but the rest of the episodes are just as good. Great show!

The best diving podcast out there that is recorded, I can only assume, from a THC saturated hiperbaric enviroment. Informative for the recreational diver and reassuring for all those disaffected instructors ans divemasters out there.

If you’re reading this review 👍🏻