E094 Florian Symoens - "Transitioning to a Full Time Instructor"

Hey, great to bring you Episode 94 Florian Symoens - "Transitioning to a Full Time Instructor" with the support of our show sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support which helps to make this show possible. Well, there must be something in the water in Belgium. For such a small country, located in northern Europe… there seem to be so many divers from there doing great things. To date I've interviewed David DeBruyne 48, Laurent Miroult 63, Sanne Volja 74, and Ellen Cuylaerts 91… and for some time now I've been following the exploits of Florian Symoens. Florian is an ISE Tech and Cave instructor who for many years juggled his diving passion with his hospitality business. Surprisingly during COVID while his "nightlife business" was in lockdown, Florian's diving activities boomed with more courses and the time to explore the mines in Belgium with Sanne. As the world opened up so did the possibility that Florian could transition from his nightlife business to becoming a full-time Technical Diving instructor. As Florian and I discuss, there are so many of us who juggle our careers and diving so it was outstanding to hear his story and his plans for the future. In this episode, Florian and I discuss his diving background, the Inner Space Explorers or ISE Agency, and ISE's take on sidemount diving. We get into how Florian became a cave instructor and given that much of the diving in Belgium is mines, we contrast cave, wreck and mine diving, covering the similarities and the differences we need to be aware of. Florian takes us through the sale of his business and his progression to a full-time Tech instructor. We talk mine exploration in Belgium and then the tools required including the KISS Sidewinder rebreather on which Florian is now an instructor. Florian has experience on a bunch of rebreathers so we compare and contrast a few, in particular, the Dive Soft Liberty before we share our excitement on the upcoming release of the second generation KISS Sidewinder or Sidewinder 2.0 We close on Florian's plans for this year and beyond. Enjoy :) Steve