Meeting Legendary Shipwreck Explorers Richie & Katy Kohler – Part 2 of 2
Hey everyone! We’re back! Here is the rest of my story about my day visiting Richie and Katy Kohler (@KatyKuhls & @11th.Hour_imaging). My last blog talked a lot about Richie so now let’s start by talking about Katy because she is really cool and does some amazing work that I can’t give too much details on because it’s top secret so she didn’t even tell me. Katy dives all the time to find all kinds of things, sometimes things for museums to display which is just so cool that she gets to go look for all the things. It’s like a treasure hunt.
I asked her what was her favorite wreck to dive and she told me that she could never choose since all of them are special. She loves the Orissa in Ireland and really wants to go back. It sank there when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the war. Katy is an amazing photographer and most of her pictures she could not show me because a lot of her work is a secret. But she also wants to do some fun dives to take pictures of sea animals.
Katy is a really great diver and she only started diving like 8 years ago. She can dive as deep as Richie and they do a lot of diving together. Katy also got to visit the German U-boat 869 and she went all the way through it to the bow on her first dive! She said when she visited the submarine it was a lot different than years ago when Richie found it. We have all updated equipment now that makes it so much easier now. Katy used a rebreather so there were no bubbles and she could stay down there for a lot longer than 15 minutes. Then the different gasses that didn’t exist for divers back then but these days people can use them and not get narcosis.
Katy and Richie both give lots of presentations at dive shows. And I asked them what kind of topics they talk about. Katy is an expert of diver safety and she gives a lot of talks about that. And advice on what she has learned through diving in different parts of the world and different rules.
Richie does all kinds of presentations sometimes he talks about jobs that scuba divers can do to earn money. He also does presentations on shipwrecks, history of the deep blue sea, technical diving, tips on making underwater videos that he learned when he made his shows for the History Channel series. And even did some presentations on cave diving.
They have done a ton of diving, more than I can imagine so I had to know if either of them has ever seen a great white shark. They have not but I asked what the scariest animal they ever encountered was and Katy had a surprise answer… other humans! Because if you are diving with some people who are not being careful and following the rules then you can be in danger because of them.
Richie said that he’s not really into wild life because he really likes to focus on shipwrecks and mysteries but he did see a sperm whale that he said was amazing. Also whale sharks, hammerheads, and seals and they even go really deep which I didn’t know but Richie and Katy saw a seal when they were exploring a real deep wreck and they never expected to see it. It kind of sawm by and looked at them.
At a decompression stop from the U-boat 869 Richie saw the biggest shark he has seen and didn’t know what kind of shark it was. They were stuck underwater with it for an hour while they did their decompression not knowing the kind of shark that was swimming all around them. They came up to the surface and found out it was a basking shark, and there were a whole bunch of them! If you don’t know, basking sharks are really kind and harmless but they are gigantic.
I got a lot of great advice from them while we were there:
- Diving with better divers than I am will make me a better diver because I can learn by watching what they do and get their advice on how to be better.
- Richie said that you should be defined meaning don’t try to do everything at once, focus on one certain thing and make it perfect.
- If you’re doing a video don’t move fast and video everything, focus on one thing, move slowly, and get a good shot by aiming the camera from the blue of the ocean then move it to the thing you are filming, slowly move all around it, and then go back into the blue.
- If you’re looking for a career in diving make it plan b or c and have it as a passion because it’s very limited and a lot of work. You are limited to do work dives instead of fun relaxing dives.
- Katy said never ever breathe from a tank that you have not seen what’s in it. Or ask an adult. They do all kinds of diving so they have different tanks filled with different gasses and it would be really dangerous to use a tank that you don’t know what’s in it.
- Take your time and enjoy it. You never get to do the same dive twice, even if it’s the same location, it’s always a different experience
After I interviewed Richie and Katy we got to see his office where he keeps tons of artifacts. He showed me the oldest item he has ever found and it was a jar that was from the Ming Dynasty. People would put oil in it and wear it around their necks. He has pieces of china that he pulled up from the Afrique. We took pictures and I got to keep a singed copy of the book he wrote called Mystery of the Last Olympian. The image on the cover of the book is the picture hanging on the wall in his office so we stood in front of it for the picture. I am so amazed by all the things I got to see. There was so much cool relics.
Katy and Richie met each other through diving. They were both at a diving show and they met in an elevator then Richie drove Katy to an event at the show. She even had already read the Shadow Divers book but didn’t know it was Richie Kohler standing right in front of her! I love that they can share their passions together and seeing them in their home. After we left my mom asked me if I was star struck and I totally was.
Click here to learn more about Richie Kohler.
If you didn’t know already, on my 12th birthday I became the youngest female PADI master scuba diver in the USA. I love diving and everything about the sea. Please continue to read my blog and you can also follow me on Instagram @underwaterwithmia.
Thank you for reading my blog, Peace out! Sea you next time!
