Skip to content

The Grey NATO – 384 – Face to Face! Wind Up In A Lake (And A Watch Wound Up On The Bottom!)

Published on Thu, 16 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Grey NATO (Episode 384), hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacy record together in person from Chicago during Windup Watch Fair. The weekend featured their citizen-sponsored TGN meetup at Forbidden Root, the Windup show itself, and the highlight: Windup in the Lake dive event.

The dive day became legendary when James lost his vintage Citizen Aqualand Duplex overboard at the start of the dive to the Wells Burt shipwreck in Lake Michigan. In an improbable turn of events, fellow diver Jeff Garrett spotted and recovered the watch from the lake bottom during the dive, returning it to a grateful James topside. The hosts discuss the show, their new gear experiences (Jason with the Citizen EcoZilla, James with his recovered Aqualand on its proper bracelet), and the incredible diving conditions with 70-degree water at 40 feet. They also cover the various hangouts including a pre-dive barbecue, sushi feast, and evening event. The episode concludes with final notes about Orca Torch dive lights and Ombraz armless sunglasses, both received as event swag. The hosts announce they're taking two weeks off and will return in early August.

Show Notes

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grey NATO. The Gravel NATO. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grey NATO, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 384, and it's proudly brought to you by the Always Growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you'd like to support the show, please visit the newly redesigned and launched website at the Grainado.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton, and I'm joined as ever, but seldom in person, by my friend and co-host James Stacy, who happens to be sitting right across from me. James, here we are.
James Stacy Here we are, yeah. And
Jason Heaton breathing bottled bottled air too, which uh dries you out a bit
James Stacy I hope uh I hope everybody's good with an extra gravelly sort of uh sort of run on the show here. There's a f but yeah, we're here in Chicago. We're here for uh wind up and uh the wind up in a lake and a bunch of hangouts and a great event with Citizen. Where do we start? I mean, this won't be a normal sort of episode. We should probably remind everybody that we're going to take two weeks off after this episode. So we get to hang out together here in Chicago this weekend, and then we're taking the rest of July off. We'll be back something like August 6th, I think was that. Whatever that first Thursday in August is, we'll be back. Uh so we appreciate people kind of allowing us the time to take a little break. It's nice to do in the summer. Uh but Jason, I mean with Chicago, it's it feels like a show we've been to before.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's good to be back, you know, and it's always uh you know, we just got back from a walk for a coffee and it's uh it's hot and humid, you know, I mean it's it it's kind of classicic Chago July. Um it was good to get out on the water yesterday and that you know, um get underwater, cool off a bit. And uh yeah, it's it it it in some ways it feels so familiar and every time we come it's something new, new a few new people, uh obviously some new watches and and it's just it's exciting. I love being here.
James Stacy Yeah, and a a new one for me 'cause it's the first time I've done the wind up in a lake.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. First time I've done any major actual
James Stacy diving, certainly off a boat in um Great Lake.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. Uh so definitely we'll
James Stacy get to all of that uh in a moment. It was uh it was a full day, that's for sure. Do you want to kick it off with a quick uh
Jason Heaton Sure. Yeah, very fitting one for both of us here. Um I am wearing the watch that uh I got to take diving yesterday, which is the Citizen ProMaster Diver, the uh legendary EcoZilla. It's uh the BJ 8050-08E uh in steel with the Destro Crown cro, um just a massive thing uh with the the big long rubber strap which uh didn't even need an extension to fit over my seven mil wetsuit sleeve yesterday. Um just incredible loom. We torched it up on the boat on our evening cruise back yesterday. Everybody was kind of doing that with their citizens because uh citizen was kind enough to sponsor that uh that dive outing yesterday that wind up in a lake, and so everybody had these bright, glowing citizens on the boat, which was really cool. Um, but yeah, that's what I've got on. You know, this watch brings back a lot of memories because I um back in my kind of early days of collecting, I remember it and I'm sure you do too on the forums, this was one of those watches that people just um
James Stacy Yeah, the Orca and Orzilla. Yeah,
Jason Heaton the Orca. I forgot about the Orca. I had an Orca too, right. And it had an AutoZilla, which was kind of the more exotic cousin of this one, which was a little beefier and it had a bigger crown. It was less less comfortable. It was heavier because it had this mechanical movement in and whatever. Um and I think I had an ecozilla for like five minutes. Um so it's it's really good to have it back on the wrist. It's it's a fun watch. It just looks like nothing else. And uh and um you know our buddy uh Brock Stevens, who was along for for the dive yesterday and taking some underwater photos, uh snapped a couple photos of of me wearing this and just from a distance, this watch just like pops off the wrist. It's just
James Stacy yeah, there's nothing quite like the EcoZilla stuff or the Orca to be fair. It's a combination of the case, the kind of diminutive dial size versus the size of the case. There's so much of it's meant for bezel. And then the way that you know the lugless connection
Jason Heaton yeah uh really makes a a huge
James Stacy watch sit real tight down on the wrist.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And maybe it doesn't necessarily
James Stacy make day-to-day sense with a t-shirt.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Certainly during Chicago wind-up,
James Stacy why not? Yeah. Um, but on a over a wetsuit,
Jason Heaton yeah, it looks right. It looks right at home. And and I I remember also from back in the forum days that the thing that people would do is um get these aftermarket strap adapters that you could wear a conventional strap and you were just telling me like you said I could 3D printing. Yeah, probably I'm sure it's out there somewhere, right? Some kind of a template for it. But uh that that's really coming full circle in my collecting career. Well it wouldn't surprise
James Stacy me if somebody listening has some of those strap adapters in it for or remembers the name of the fellow that was producing them, right? Yeah. Yeah, good. I'm wearing my uh now storied. We will get to this story. It's an insane story. This is something that you can't make up, and I'm sure some people won't believe us. Um, but my now storied uh citizen Aqualan duplex, so it's from the the mid-late 90s, it's a C five oh six Q double seven eleven T A, which is kind of cool because yesterday was seven eleven and that's in its in its reference number. And yesterday was quite a big day for this watch. It had uh I would say uh certainly a longer dive than I did. Hey everybody, James here just cutting in because we had some sort of a problem with interference on the mics, and no matter how much I tried to coat over it uh with uh software, I really couldn't make it listenable to so I'll fill you in. Basically I was giving you a bit of a background on how I got the watch, which is uh this Aqualand came to me via Foglark. Uh our good buddy Devin uh was the one that sorted that uh and got it to me. Uh he wanted it because it came on like a waterborne, I think it's called like a vintage style special collectible NATO. And uh and yeah, so uh shout out to uh Devin, it was great to see you at uh Chicago, of course. And now let's jump back into the tape. Anyway, so I've been wearing this for a while and then I was planning to bring it out because I wanted to take it diving. And then as luck would have it, our good buddy Ben uh at the submersible wrist, he reached out and said, I actually have the bracelet, the real bracelet for that watch. And it turns out that he owns a duplex as well. And he hunted around quite difficult to find one of these bracelets. They're on obtainum, if you allow me to use the term. And then once he got it, he didn't like it. Oh uh he said never could get the sizing right on his wrist or the comfort or whatever. So he passed it on to me. I made him a little trade with some swag I had floating around the office, uh, as I like to do. Gets rid of some swag, I get a bracelet, everything's good. And uh and so yeah, that's what I'm wearing. I think it looks so period it's like a car on on the right wheels.
Jason Heaton Yeah. You know what I mean? Cause like I
James Stacy I I like every like I've said before, everything looks good on T E's or whatever. But a nineties Merc on monoblocks is a special thing, and this kind of in is in that vibe. It looks extra Japanese now. Yeah. And it's got a little bit of a rattle to it because they're uh hollow end links and I don't have I brought a lot of tools so I could size it. I sized it at the bar during our citizen event when when he gave it to me. But um I didn't bring like something to like fine adjust the little tabs. Oh yeah. But it's not bad. For titanium, it looks uh essentially unworn until I banged it up yesterday, as you're gonna do, and it had a an adventure of its own. Um but yeah I uh I love it. I love it on the bracelet. It's uh you know, it's just they don't make watches that look like this anymore. Maybe for good reason. I'm not saying this is a pretty watch.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But I do really like it. Well it's such a function first piece that that just was from an era when dive computers were still in their infancy and uh you know the that watch did what it was supposed to do and yesterday would you know proved that out so
James Stacy for sure yeah I I I in addition to this
Jason Heaton one I was wearing my old Aqualand my kind of first gen 1985 Aqualand and uh I was a little nervous, you know, uh we talk more about it when we get into the dive, but I um I I decided not to wear my dive computer because I had this Aqualand on that tracks your depth and dive time. And um we were doing a single dive so I didn't worry too much about you know repetitive diving and that sort of stuff. Yeah, and um but I was a little nervous because I I do the battery changes myself and it's got like eight little tiny screws on the back and then it's thin little gasket that's shaped funny like the shape of the case and
James Stacy it looks like a manifold gasket for like a weird motor.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I I thought to myself, did I do it right last time? Because I hope it's watertight. Um and it it held its own. It did fine, tracked the dive fine, or whatever. I think so. Yeah. I
James Stacy mean it it was a I I didn't get a chance to do that. Okay. We got to get into
Jason Heaton that shortly here. You
James Stacy know, we we got in Friday and I went to the show that's where we met up. Yeah um the show this year I a big shout out to the wind up team of course and the team at Warren Wound we're huge fans um we come to this show and and you know just, just so that everybody's clear, like we did an event with Citizen, but Jason and I paid our own flights to get out here and our and our Airbnb. Like we love being here. And uh yeah, the show was uh great, huge, yeah. Like considerably larger.
Jason Heaton Nice venue. It's a place called Morgan MFG or Morgan Manufacturing. I think it's like an old, you know, old industrial space warehouse or something. And uh
James Stacy Great AC. Yeah, good AC,
Jason Heaton great natural light. Great natural light. Great for
James Stacy photos. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And they had
Jason Heaton a uh you know, they had a nice uh nice bar and they had, you know, Citizen was right inside the door with kind of a cool display. It's uh fifty years of EcoDrive, which was kind of fun to see them celebrating with these this kind of funky light display. Um and uh yeah just you know having just been so this is an interesting year for me because having only done wind up Chicago in the past, I did San Francisco back in whenever it was, May. And uh so it's kind of cool to do a second show. I mean, in some ways it was a bit repetitive because I saw a lot of the same brands and booths and things. Um but it it it it's just nice to see and then um I don't know if we want to give it away, but we you and I'll be doing a little something in New York uh in October at w wind up New York. So it'll be fun to kind of compare three different shows uh for the first time. So Yeah,
James Stacy it's not it's not looking like there'll be an event, but if you know Wind Up New York, like an event like a party. Yeah. If you know Wind Up New York, um it's part of New York Watch Week and there is twenty parties every night. Oh
Jason Heaton yeah. That's very diminishing returns. It's
James Stacy an incredibly difficult city to get people to show up if there's other things going on. Uh so uh we're not sure that's the mode, but there should be a cool event um in as soon as um any sort of an RSVP or more details come live. That's that's around. But if you're gonna be in um in uh in uh if you're gonna be in New York in October, uh that's gonna be really good. Uh any anything stand out at the show? We did a quick it was maybe there for an hour and a half, something like that.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean uh it was great to uh to swing by the doxa booth um and check out the new T graph a little further. You know, I saw it briefly in San Francisco before it was even released And um uh, you know, chat with those folks and and just catch up with, you know, VJ from Oris and Mike from from Christopher Ward. I the one that kind of stood out that you and I kind of lingered over um for a while was uh was from prevail this uh small brand um that's doing these uh these funky kind of just very simple but but very functional looking field watches. The like two hundred seventy-five dollars. Um kind of kind of punk rock, sort of, you know. It's yeah, it's sort of
James Stacy yeah, it's a little bit um sci-fi. There's like there's an element of like geeker in there.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. Um I I don't really know
James Stacy how to describe them. I would recommend hit the show notes, check them out if you don't know Prevail. They were selling watches for 275 bucks. They have these sort of wild-looking cases, smaller dials, and then a very nice sort of either application of more of like an explorer style dial, so 12369, or more of uh an angular futuristic sort of dial. Uh a few different colors I really like. They're all like sandblasted, like very uh like hyper matte cases, and then that like yellow orange color I thought was quite successful. Um yeah I I they call it uh sunshine orange which that works for me. I thought these are really cool not that big like I wouldn't call them small because of the K shape. If again, see the photos and and and you'll get an idea. But yeah, I thought the Prevail stuff looked really cool. They've been around for a couple years, I guess, but new to
Jason Heaton me. Yeah, same here. Yeah. Um what else stood out? What else? Uh you know, I I'll be honest. I I uh it was more about meeting folks. I mean it was just every corner you turn, someone says hello and you pose for a photo and chat with people and had a nice chat with
James Stacy uh Jonathan from Brew. That's always a treat. Um our good buddy Tom from uh from Hassler was there uh and he he had stuff. I mean I went to say hi to him and there were people just like literally there was a man with like a wad of cash in his hands going, I just want to buy this one. Yeah. And he he's like I'm trying to I was just like he's I mean he's like it just wants to and and so he's doing very well. And his stuff, there's nothing like it. Yeah. It's the absolute Rolls-Royce of Spring Bars.
Jason Heaton That first year you and I did Wind Up Chicago was his first year doing Wind Up. And I remember his booth was around the corner from us and he crushed it there as well. I
James Stacy think he sold everything. And he's got he's got a wait
Jason Heaton list now. I mean the guy's just it's been fun to see the trajectory of his of his product. Um he's just
James Stacy it's such it's such a high end product.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Made by some made by the
James Stacy solar like in his home in his home. We'll put that in the show notes, of course, if you don't know the Hassler instruments uh spring bar tool. It's it's overkill, but it in the best way possible. Um, the one that stood out for me, and I bought a bunch of uh little buckles from them, is the Fitwell microadjust buckle. I need to be clear, uh I, I got the show discount. I didn't ask it for no additional dis I paid my own money for it, but I haven't put them on a strap yet. I've only had them for a couple days. If you're on watch Instagram, you've seen these ads. It's a it's a tang style buckle that has uh like a detente system where with a bit of pressure it can extend another couple of millimeters or go in, I guess depending on which one. It's probably not I don't know the uh exact uh amount of adjust. Um so I bought a twenty and an eighteen in steel and a twenty in titanium and stay tuned for a future report. But that was one where I probably wasn't gonna just buy them off of an Instagram ad, but when I saw it in person and I was like, well I'm right here.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And it was either they had a fifteen
James Stacy percent off show discount or something. Easy to carry.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Easy to get to take home, tiny
James Stacy for sure. But yeah, that was the uh the other one I did. And then look after that, we uh we boogied over to our sushi spot. We eat an absolute mountain of sushi.
Jason Heaton I I y I mean yeah, we a we ate an absurd amount of food. We're gonna
James Stacy need a few more subscribers after that build.
Jason Heaton Yes, please, please sign up at the Great NATO.com. Um yeah, fund our sushi habit. Um between this and and the place in Toronto, um this this twice a year sushi thing we got. Already looking forward to September. I woke up this morning actually thinking about that uh about uh Tosonhi, the place where we go on Randolph here in Chicago. Highly recommend. Our our waiter was great. He just kind of kept us kept us busy with uh plate after plate stuff we ordered and um I I'm always struck by sushi in that you can just eat so much of it without feeling full until an hour later. Oh, you're full,
James Stacy but I never feel gross. Yeah. Yeah. Like
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean I just could have kept going. Oh yeah. Like I just could have kept going. It's just it's wild. It was it's crazy. So
James Stacy yeah, I got like a second stomach for Toro and Uno.
Jason Heaton Oh gosh. So good. Um so then after after our sushi dinner, um, you know, where we solved the problems of the world while stuffing ourselves. Um we uh we made our way over to Forbidden Root for our TGN citizen evening event, our meetup, and uh huge success. But you know, go just quickly following up on the sushi feast, I I just I didn't have e any extra space in my stomach for any of the food that they served there. They they put out a nice spread. I'll
James Stacy it was awesome. Big thanks to Forbidden Root. You know,
Jason Heaton we chatted with Brian who's uh the CEO uh last week to kind of put the final touches on our event and then um I sorry I don't remember the general manager's name but um everybody there was was super helpful it was great it was very easy it was a nice venue um really well attended the um and and the food spread looked good even, though I didn't people people seem to to like all the the stuff they put out.
James Stacy A couple hours in, like towards the what what would have been the normal end, it went a little later than than we had kind of billed for it. But a couple hours in I went to find a chicken wing and they were all gone. So
Jason Heaton that's a good thing. Yeah. I tried some of the bar snacks and
James Stacy it was all delicious. Popcorn and things like that.
Jason Heaton That's great. Yeah. I mean, I think we had RSVPs, you know, 80 plus, you know, 90 people, whatever, and people really did hang out a long time and it was fun. It was uh you know I I I'd I'd list some names of people but I then I'd forget people and I don't want to do that. But it was just such a great crowd. Met new people. Um apologies for not remembering names. I mean it you know, these are uh having not been to Chicago last year and come the year before um and then you know a couple times before that, uh I I just there's so many familiar faces here. These people that keep keep coming back and and uh it's always good to see them and and see some of the watch collections and the generosity of some folks. You know, we got we each got some coffee to to bring back with us. Um uh just uh just a a really good time and and thanks to citizen we and we we had two watches to give away as well.
James Stacy Two watches, hats. Hats custom hat, which I'm wearing and really like. I love the use out of it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's a cool uh cool gray cap. Uh Citizen
James Stacy was great. Raffled two watches. I thought we were doing one so that they had two watches, both great dive options. Um and uh and yeah, I I thought it was just a like another perfect sort of party. Like if people came out, everybody understands the vibe. I got to size a bracelet on the bar with a great IPA. Yeah. I'm a happy guy. Like it was it was all right. And I gotta be kind of like I I just sound like an old man when I say this. Even with it blowing well past nine, I was in bed before midnight. Oh
Jason Heaton yeah. That's not bad. Yeah. Yeah. That's not bad.
James Stacy And then that takes us to Saturday, where the basically the whole day was was doing this stuff for the diving, but we got invited to sort of a pre event hangout. Yeah, I don't I don't know how is that a sea that's not a secret event, maybe? No,
Jason Heaton it's invite only. It's at someone's
James Stacy home. Yeah, it's uh so Ben Ben
Jason Heaton Lowry's uh father lives in Oak Park, it's suburb of Chicago, and uh w this was our first year uh attending this little you
James Stacy know, dive preview thing.
Jason Heaton It was a the this time it was a barbecue. Um Greg is his name, uh Ben's dad, and uh he's he's a fellow nerd like all of us, and and uh I love how Chris Sowell um put it. Uh it's the nerd sanctuary, his house, and he was generous enough to open his home to us and and grill up some some good food and and serve some really truly horrible uh beverages. Um I
James Stacy avoided the Mallort. I was I was sticking with Kelly's. I thought
Jason Heaton everybody was having the Mallort and then this tray comes out and I'm looking around, I'm like, Really? You you had that? I didn't have that. But just
James Stacy blown away. When somebody's like, Oh, He didn't really struggle like put it down.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I was like, Wait, He didn't 'cause
James Stacy w you and I had Miller years ago. Shout out Clark. Horrible.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Uh and I
James Stacy I don't know that I I don't mind like I'm I'm not here to say that I would dr ever buy it and drink it, but like it's the aftertaste. It's the twenty minutes later.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it is. Where it's ruined your mouth. Yeah. I had I had to suck down like four pieces of watermelon just to do that. Yeah, you need
James Stacy a new mouth after that for sure. So yeah, we're there and and you know it's it's hanging out in the backyard in the sun, chit chatting, setting up dive gear a little bit, like people getting ready for that, eating some brats and hot dogs and some pretty tasty potato salad, never never not happy to see
Jason Heaton a potato salad on the menu.
James Stacy And then I look over and in the living room, there's just how many watches are on that table? There's a small ish coffee table with every square inch was really cool. I took a
Jason Heaton top down photo. I'd I I should I should uh I should do a count and just see how many watches were on that table. Some had appeared the night before uh at our event um at Forbidden Root. Um, but but a lot were new and and were there and and it was um yeah a, truly crazy collection. There were a few that really stood out. Um Tom Place and I were exchanging uh messages this morning. Um and he I I had posted a photo of this Hoyer Regatta piece and uh said that that was it was kind of the blacked-out version, just a pristine example. Um and I said that that one was probably my favorite on the table and he concurred. But then there was also that IWC Aqua Timer, the GST titanium.
James Stacy That I think that's a thirty five eighty six, or it might be the one before that.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Um the one without
James Stacy the no black yellow, the captive bezel, yeah. Yeah,
Jason Heaton the GST version. Yeah, not the not the dual crown.
James Stacy Yeah, yeah. Um but the the bezel that you
Jason Heaton have to push to turn. I mean, just to I it just reminded me of how great IWC was back in the you know late 80s, early 90s. And um that one was probably the winner for me. But yeah, it was it was quite it was quite the collection. There were just a ton of doxes and just and some really weird stuff on the table and yeah, it was a good crowd. Everybody just kind of threw their watches in this pile, which which I always love. You know, it's the watches and then the the watches kind of are vehicles for conversation and stories and and just such a great crowd there. Um and and then, you know, by I don't know that we were there about noon and then around a little after two we all had to pack up and make the the long drive over to Indiana, over to Hammond just across the border to uh to to get on the dive boat at you know I think we were supposed to be on the boat by about three for the for the journey out of the
James Stacy probably four vehicles of gear maybe more and everybody you know got as much gear as they could on this boat and kind of strapped it down best we could. And then we went underway and they said it would be something like an hour, and it was something like two hours. And it was like fairly choppy. It
Jason Heaton was choppy. It was getting tossed around. It was like a north wind blowing right down the lake, and uh we set off and they said they said, Oh, it should be about an hour of motoring, and we're like, okay, easy.
James Stacy I remember looking like okay, an hour, and then it was like
Jason Heaton an hour five, hour ten. I thought we must be almost there. But I just just kind of bashing against that kind of oncoming swell um and and wind, I think just kind of slowed us down. And yeah, it was it was two hours almost to the to the to the minute there and we didn't arrive at the site um this wreck that we were diving um until it was a little after five thirty probably didn't get in the water till six.
James Stacy I have my story of my own of course in a moment, but do you ha do you want to talk through the the wreck itself, the Wells Burt?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. Yeah, so we we dove a we dove a wreck that sank in eighteen eighty three. It was called the Wells Burt. Uh it was uh uh two hundred foot um bulk carrier, so a freighter from from back in the day that uh uh started to take on water during a storm and sank. And um uh intact is the wrong word for a wreck like that, but you know, uh definitely recognizable as a as a ship, a former ship, uh now a wreck, um obviously made of wood back in the day. Um there was a uh a big capstan kind of winch at the front uh at the bow, uh bow end uh for raising and lowering the anchor, presumably, um that was that was still visible, as well as a lot of dead eyes, which are the um uh how do you say the sort of uh bits along the side that that they run the the ropes through for raising and lowering sails. Those are still there were quite a few of those intact along the the gunnels. Um some cargo holes that were open, although you know to swim through them you're you're just going through you know, a floor that's largely disintegrated. Um but uh yeah it was fun to kind of swim back up and back. The visibility was fairly decent. We had um you know, I think some people were saying twenty feet that that might be a little generous, but you know, not bad for for Great Lakes. I didn't
James Stacy see twenty feet 'cause there was a couple times where I was two fin kicks.
Jason Heaton Oh. I was also having a blast. We'll get we
James Stacy can talk gear in a moment. I was maybe two fin kicks and I would roll over and you weren't and I could just barely see the shadow of your existence. Oh, yeah. It was maybe twelve feet.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the the real story for for me, for for for everybody like diving that's done great lakes diving is like somebody said it was seventy degrees Fahrenheit water. All the way to the bottom. Now, granted, it was it was only a forty-foot deep wreck, so I'm sure at some point if you go deeper, there's gonna be a thermal climb and it's gonna be a lot colder. But that is fairly unheard of for for any any diving in the Great Lakes. I
James Stacy definitely could have been no gloves, no hood.
Jason Heaton I I've always dived except my first couple of dives many years ago. I've always dived dry, you know, in a dry suit in the Great Lakes, and I'm glad I just brought my wetsuit this time. It was a dry suit would have been overkill. Um, yeah, Brock was in a three mil um and said he was comfortable. Uh Landon, um, who we'll talk about in a bit here, um, didn't wear a hood. Some guys were without gloves. I mean, totally was doable. And uh it just it kind of made it pleasurable. I mean, a lot of what inhibits uh Great Lakes diving is just how you know you get that ice cream headache after, you know, twenty minutes and you're just ready to come up and it was a good forty to forty five minute minute dive and I still had plenty of air left at the end. So it was uh it was a good time.. Yeah, it was great And you know, double action diving, the the charter um on the boat, um, the sequest two was uh was a good time. It's a it's a good boat, plenty of room on the on the dive deck even for I think we had eleven level guest diving.
James Stacy Lot of tanks, a lot of gear. A lot of gear. A lot of windsuits everywhere. Fins.
Jason Heaton It's it to me, like this this this weekend that even just I don't know, 36 hours of it, or just it's it's kind of everything that's good, you know. You got you've got gear, you've got you're on out a boat, up doing something active outdoors, gear and diving, and then the you throw in the watch element, and just uh Kelly uh beer nigh um from Fathead Brewing uh brought up some beers for us. Um we had Jimmy Johns for for lunch after the dive. And it's just great to you know shoot the breeze with people that you just don't see that often. I mean, Chris Scott, who's the local guy, is a dive instructor here in Chicago, and he kind of helps organize every year. Always good to catch up with him. You know, I hadn't seen him in a couple of years. Um I don't know. It's I it's everything I love about this this doing this event.
James Stacy Well we're we're burying the watch lead. Yeah. Uh so let's get to it. So uh I really wanted to dive this Aqualan, this nineties Aqualan that I've already talked about, the 506. Um, and let's be clear, I probably should have just left it on the NATO that I wore it out here on. Um I was diving in Chris Soles seven mil suit, which has double cuffs. So I had the first cuff pulled all the way up and then I was just able to get the watch on the bracelet. It has a ratcheting dive extension. I was just able to get it on my wrist. And I was like, all right, we're good there. It was snug. I thought we were fine. I had my garment on my right wrist. So if I'm running my inflator, I can still look at the computer.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And um and
James Stacy so uh get in the water and you and I I was I don't really like sitting in that much gear any longer than I have to. I had just get me in the water. And I I don't think that's rare. That's probably how most people feel. So as soon as they were like, all right, let's start getting I was like, you want to go? And you're like, yeah, let's go. So I think we were the third or fourth people in the water. And what I didn't realize was they were gonna they expected us all to like hang out on the surface for a photo. So we had to wait like quite some time. Yeah. So I'm just kind of fending around trying to stay somewhere near you or keep you within some sort of an eye line. I'm wearing gear I've never used before, including brand new type of gear, which we can get to after this fun story. And so I'm just kind of fitting around and then I feel the bracelet release. And I stick my mask in the water and I see my aqua land kind of skit skittering down, like you know, kind of shimmying its way down. And I go, ah, I lost the watch. And everybody's like, no, no. And I was like, Well, uh, what are you gonna do? Like it those are gonna be twelve people on the rack in a moment. So if it's gonna if it could be found,
Jason Heaton yeah. And I was like, and then in a minute about
James Stacy I didn't even finish that sentence in my mind. I said, Nope, that watch is
James Stacy gone. Well and and where we where we jumped off,
Jason Heaton you know, we go off the starboard side of the boat, um and and the boat was uh anchored near the wreck. So the you know, the as the wind was blowing, we're kind of off the wreck. And I thought where we were kind of floating around waiting for people to jump in the water, I thought we were way off where the wreck would be. So I thought to look for the watch would require swimming off into the blue in this, you know, generous fifteen-foot visibility, kind of looking around in the clay bottom for this watch. And I thought there's just the chances are next to none, none that you'll you'll be able to find something like this. Plus you'd have to leave the wreck and go do this like search for it. Yeah.
James Stacy And it in that scenario, you could leave the wreck and not come back and find it. Yeah. Right. You know, I'm I'm not a navigation diver. Uh you know, I'm not that sharp on those skills. So uh I was just kind of um I didn't want to ruin anybody's mood. So I just let it go. I was like, oh the watch is gone. Um that's really sad. It was a very cool thing. Thankfully I'm not out a ton of money or whatever, like but very disappointing. And tried to focus on enjoying the dive. Of course, you know, we we got uh we were gifted these incredible flashlights, which we can talk about in a moment. So I was using mine to just kind of sweeping back and forth. I'm like, hey, maybe I'll catch an eye on it. I have no idea. Like, cause the viz wasn't enough where you could tell where the boat was above us. Yeah. So I couldn't orient myself. I knew that I must have dropped it over the wreck. Yeah. Uh because when we dropped, we were still on the wreck.
Jason Heaton Oh, were we? Oh, okay. Like when we when we
James Stacy came well, when we came it down. Oh yeah. We were right on the nose of the wreck.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And uh and so you
James Stacy know, swam around. Um I was uh I can fill in uh a few things here. So one of the fellows who Jason mentioned, uh Landon owns uh deep six gear, which is a dive equipment manufacturer. And when I told Chris Sowell that I would just rent whatever was needed. He decided, you know, he spoke with Landon. So I was essentially uh borrowed a brand new backplate and wing, brand new fins, brand new brand new bunch of stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh you're unwrapping it. Like but
James Stacy like I've never dove a backplate and wing. I've always I've own I own a jacket which is back in flate. Yeah, which is kind of like a middle ground, but you're still, you know, you're wearing a vest. Yeah. With this, it's just a couple of straps of like webbing, a big NATO's uh kind of holding it on, and then you have a wing and they look like very little gear. And then like this wing is I think with thirty five pounds of lift or thirty pounds of lift, which is more than my stiletto. Yeah. Which I think is 22 pounds. And very simple thing to kind of understand. You get to use a steel plate in this case, made sense. So that that can be part of your weight allotment. Really incredible. Like I had no I didn't really know what to expect. I knew that people like them because it feels like you're wearing very little gear. And also they're designed to make trimming as simple as possible.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um trimming where you're
James Stacy you're floating fully horizontal and you can keep your ankles up. Yeah. And man, I'm as soon as we got to the bottom and I'd like I'd made two small hits to the inflator and I was like, oh my God, I'm just hanging.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's like there's no gear on me. Yeah.
James Stacy Uh so I I may be uh w once I figure out what the mix would be for travel, because that's the type of diving that I I'm gonna I like to do or will do in the future, I I'm I think I'm converted. Oh yeah. It's just it's it fee it felt so free. I can't imagine what it would be like in a rash guard in a bathing suit
Jason Heaton to have just that. Right. Yeah. It must have been like
James Stacy what it was you know, those basic rigs back in the sixties. Um, you know, reaching for my J valve if the uh couple of straps and a tank on your back,
Jason Heaton really. Yeah. Uh so huge shout out to
James Stacy uh deep six and to landon uh who not only loaned me that gear for the dive, but also like helped me set it up and size it and explained how to do the weighting, because I didn't know how much weight to bring. I was uh I was kind of guessing where I would land. Um
Jason Heaton Yeah, he was he was great and and uh the deep six look gear looked great and yeah the
James Stacy fins were crazy. And he also um
Jason Heaton I I've got this as a final note, so I'll I'll kind of hold off on this, but he also uh kind of facilitated the procurement of the the some of the swag that all of us got on the boat that we're diving, um, which is this great uh dive torch that we all used uh but I'll get to that later in the final notes. But yeah, he was uh he was a great part, great addition to the group. This was his first year coming up for it. He's based in Florida, he has an interesting background and his company's uh looks really great. So yeah, it was funny.
James Stacy And w I was boring the Finns as well, which are kind of like Apex style.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, but he was like they're a little bit
James Stacy more rigid, even more rigid than Apex. Yeah. And uh and I've dove Apex before, fantastic fin, well regarded. These are so rigid I couldn't flutter kick. Yeah, it like immediately made one of my knees burn.
Jason Heaton Oh. So I had to frog kick. And then as soon
James Stacy as I started frogging or even just little like shuffles,
Jason Heaton yeah. It was you're just
James Stacy an absolute motor. And then the coolest thing is they're so rigid that when I wanted if I wanted to roll over to see where you were or where anybody else was, it was like one kick and you were on your back and one and you were back on your belly. Oh yeah. It was just really nice. Uh I it was delightful gear. I would love to try stuff like that in Mexico. Oh yeah. Like something something like that. So uh I'm I'm uh very interested in uh in the backplate and wing thing if it if it can be you know kind of fine-tuned for some lighter travel.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But yeah, that was uh that
James Stacy was a fun one. And then we get back on the boat. You know, it's a whole process to get back on the boat. The water's quite choppy. There's a technique to getting out. Um it was nice because I was able to find you because you had a yellow tank which was helpful. Yeah. And you have those force fins.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So it's very easy to tell you
James Stacy from somebody else. Yeah, you were easy too, because your straps
Jason Heaton were white. And white white. It's so easy to just like
James Stacy and uh because everybody has a flashlight. Yeah. Tom Place had like eight flashlights. I'm joking, of course, but he had more than one. At one point I saw Tom just kind of hovering just over the bottom but standing like vertical. Oh yeah. And he had his flashlights were all pointed downward and it looked very uh
Jason Heaton cinematic. But yeah, so we get
James Stacy back on the boat and then people start going, Did somebody lost a watch? And I was like, Yeah, it was me. I lost my aqua, and the I think a spring bar popped or something like that. And then people are still getting back on the boat, and I'm still kind of commiserating. Again, I'm trying not to bring the mood down, trying to keep it light. I'm bummed. It's a watch. I like it. And it's kind of embarrassing. You know, you lost your watch on the dive. Uh, and that sort of thing. And then as I'm talking, um, Jeff, uh, watch cows dive, as you know from Instagram, he sits down, takes his mask off, and like cuts me off, and he goes, This one and pulls it out of his pocket. And I was like, there's no possible way. And so yeah, he he had he had been um filming. Yeah. And then I guess once people started to leave, he had a bunch of air left, and he figured, oh, I'll take a I'll actually spend a minute on the rack. And he said he did a little lap of the mid-section, maybe mid-back third. Yeah. And just saw it
Jason Heaton sitting. Unreal. Yeah. So grabbed
James Stacy it and brought it up. And uh and I just like I could I couldn't even believe it. Cause the at the moment that when he was getting back on the boat, a bunch of the guys were saying, Oh, we all have a thousand pounds left. We'll go back in and find it. Like let's go have some fun. Yeah. And the captain was like, Well, let's let's they were trying to figure out roll call for a second recovery. I was out of my dry wetsuit by that. I wasn't going back in. Yeah. Um and then he just pops it out of his pocket with this like look of sh just such a grin. Yeah. And you're like, man, what a guy. So yeah, Jeff found it. Uh shout out to Jeff. I I will have to find some way of repaying the kindness.
Jason Heaton You can't script that. No, it was it was an insane
James Stacy moment. Uh but we did learn what happened. It wasn't a spring bar. Spring bars are intact. Uh, at the end of the dive extension of the ratcheting, we I think we shouldn't call it a dive extension anymore. At the end of the ratcheting extension, if you go beyond the last tooth, it's just held on by a bit of tension.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So if you give it a tug, it just opens. It
James Stacy just opens. So that that's what happens. So I have it back on my wrist and uh and I have the watch recovered. I mean, I think that I think we all know stories of people who have lost watches in bodies of water. Tom Place.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Right. You know, has spent years looking for
James Stacy his. The fact that this thing was gone and then back in all the the exact bottom time was a second over sixty minutes. Yeah. And I think you and I were in the water for like my
Jason Heaton aqua. Yeah.
James Stacy So it was yeah, because we floated on the water for a while and then we were probably on the boat for four, five, six minutes before
Jason Heaton Jeff brought it back. Yeah. So I
James Stacy can't believe it. It's uh I there will be there will be people who are listening to this that won't believe it, but I've got lots of witnesses. And uh and actually uh now that I think of it, I'll see Jeff later today. If I can get him to tell the story just like into the phone, I'll include that audio clip. So may maybe we'll drop that here if we can get it. All right, Jeff. Uh I've already
James Stacy rambled on about my side of losing my Aqualand and then you returning it to me. What was your side? What was it like when you, I don't know were swimming around and spotted
Jason Heaton it? Yeah, well, you know, we were topside
Jeff Garrett for quite a bit and it was so dang hot. And uh uh sitting there waiting, you know, for the rest of the crew to get into the water. Um, but yeah, heard heard you yelling something and somebody
James Stacy were just staging. Yeah, when we were when we were yeah,
Jeff Garrett we hadn't descended yet. We were waiting for a group photo up on top. Um, I thought you had lost your new light, um, didn't realize it was a watch at all. So, anyways, yeah, um, I had my camera down there uh taking some pictures for citizen. And um towards the end of the dive, I meet up with uh with Derek and Tom place, and uh I see that everyone else is starting to head back up. So I signal to the other guys, hey, how much air do you have left? And we all had about a thousand PSI. And I was like, you know what? You know, I've been spending so much time concentrating on photos I haven't really looked and appreciated the wreck um so I signaled to the guys hey let's do one last lap around so and it was only like a third of the way back from the bow of the boat. And it was in silt. Um, it wasn't on top of wood or anything. Uh, but it was right on top. I mean, maybe maybe a half of it was kind of pressed into the silt a little bit, but it was obviously there. Um and and that was surprising. So when I picked it up, I didn't realize it was yours. I didn't, you know, I didn't know whose it was, but obviously it was from one of us. So I put it in my pocket. The other guys didn't see me. Um but I'll tell you what, you know, so you know we were with SHIPS, which stands for uh sub aquatic historical interest and preservation society. And this is a shipwreck in the Great Lakes. You don't take anything from a shipwreck. So there was part of me for a split second I was like, I need to leave that there. I I'm not allowed to pick that up and touch it. But I did. But I did. So yeah, we so, you know, we I put it in my pocket. We got back on the boat. Captain did the roll roll call and he said, yeah, let's finish this roll call before people get back in the water and I'm like wait we're only doing one dive what what what's going on? And uh yeah come to find out that you lost a watch so I reached in my pocket and I'm like, hey you, mean this guy?
James Stacy I couldn't believe it. It was quite a moment, man.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It was it was great. It was And
James Stacy I've got the dive record on the on the watch. Oh nice. Sixty minutes and one second. Sat down there. Oh
Jeff Garrett really? Yeah, I man, I can't thank you enough for finding it.
James Stacy It was uh uh I'm really thankful. It
Jeff Garrett was uh the first real treasure that I found on a shipwreck. So I've I've
James Stacy dive to over needs a second home, it'll be yours.
Jeff Garrett Excellent. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, they it was great finally diving with you.
James Stacy But yeah, after that, had the watch back on my wrist, uh, you know, cleaned up a little bit of gear, grabbed a Jimmy Johns, and uh I got a shout-out um Fatheads Brewery uh that Kelly brought, uh the hazy headhunter IPA, if you can find it, absolutely fantastic. Uh I would have I I I didn't need any more beers than I had, but had there been more of those, I would have had another one. Uh and otherwise we just kind of drove back. It was a much faster ride coming back, I guess, with the wind.
Jason Heaton Yeah. We did take a little detour past the skyline uh in the evening and we had a trailing wind and waves, so it wasn't choppy as badly and and and to kind of cruise and it was a lovely warm night too, even out on the water. And you know, being out on the lake there can be quite cold. I was just in still in my shorts and dry shirt, um, and just kind of cruising past Navy Pier. There was a concert going on and lots of boats out on the water, and the skyline was all lit up. It just felt like everything was sort of set up just for us. And then um and as we were approaching the marina, there were fireworks shot off. It was it was like the welcome back for us, um, and a lot of kind of drunken revelers on the on the on the dock in in the marina there. Um and and quite the chaotic scene kind of getting the stuff unloaded in the dark. I mean it was a it turned into a late night.
James Stacy Yeah, it did. Yeah, and I mean the so the dock is literally next yeah
Jason Heaton to a huge casino um
James Stacy and then where we where the marina is but the actual dock where we port like you could you could hook a piece of dive gear and hit a window yeah of the of this horseshoe casino, I think it was called. And uh and so there's a lot of people and noise and and things happening and then just us all like dead tired carrying gear out to cars. And at one point like Chris and I walked to get his car and it had to have been a mile.
Jason Heaton Wow. It was just way out. Wow. To get the
James Stacy huge parking lot. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it was a it was a full day, man. By the time we got back here, I'd been like, oh, you know, because there was a gonna be a hangout going on at Chris's place. And I was like, oh, maybe I've got a third wind. I was like, no, you know, just go to bed. You gotta you gotta do a show in the morning and and you know, you're you're you're heading to the airport in a few minutes. Yeah. Um, and then I'm gonna go head to the show and hang out with uh Tom and Ken and a few other folks for the afternoon. I have a later flight. Yeah. Um but yeah, so just a a full day. I I just I don't even know where to start with thanks. Obviously uh Jeff Garrett's
Jason Heaton yeah for finding my watch. Watch
James Stacy cows dive, give them a follow. He's actually but you know, he's been such a nice guy to know for several years. He gave us those uh that fidget spinner.
Jason Heaton Yes, that's right that's lived on my desk
James Stacy for several years. It's like um uh ship's wheel,
Jason Heaton yeah, yeah. Uh made m outade of out brass.
James Stacy And uh I love I love that. And now now I've got the the the Garrett's recovered Aqualand.
Jason Heaton Incredible. Uh which I love. Uh but a huge
James Stacy shout out to Chris Soul, uh to Landon, to everybody from Citizen, yeah, to Neil uh from Citizen to uh Mary and
Jason Heaton MJ. Yeah, Mary and MJ and
James Stacy uh and certainly to Kyle Snar for helping kind of put out on and have everybody dialed in and then a huge shout out to um to uh Ben for giving me a faulty bracelet that put my watch on the bottom of the lake but also a great barbecue and a and a re very cool hangout and and some the camaraderie level was just very high last night
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's it's it it it will it will sustain me for a while and it's uh um despite the the gravelly voices and the fatigue, um I mean everything from start to finish. I mean just from meeting folks at the show and then and then sushi and our hangout and the watches and you know Greg's barbecue and uh and the dive um to to doing a show in person. I mean, I love it. This is so
James Stacy nice. It's great. We've got our 3D printed DJI handles.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's kind of weird. Like I remember we were setting up to do this, and I was like, this something's missing. Like I, you know, I've just I feel so naked here. I don't have I don't have headphones on, I don't have my laptop even. I'm looking at notes on my phone. Not
James Stacy adjusting any levels. Yeah, right. Yeah. Not doing any sound checks. Yeah. It's brave new
Jason Heaton world. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah no this is uh
James Stacy this has been great um an absolute banner weekend. Uh you know, it's sometimes you wonder, you know, I'm coming you come in Friday, you leave Sunday, that really gives you that one day. Yeah. And I don't think we could have made more out of yesterday.
Jason Heaton No. Yeah. Right. You know. It's it's funny because you know, we come here kind of under the auspices of going to to wind up and and certainly we did and you're gonna go back today, but um to spend a whole day out on the water it's still it's still watch adjacent, um actually quite watch adjacent. Um but but you're I I love the mix of activity with the watch. That that to me that's that's that's totally my wheelhouse.
James Stacy Well and then I was I was we're riding back in the boat. It's now after sunset. Uh I've got the the tailing end of a delicious beer in hand. I'm chatting with Ben Lowry and he goes, This must be so different than all of the other watch events that you go to. Yeah. As press, I'm like, yeah, there's no champagne, there's no like crudettes, that you know, there's just people I really like and respect uh having a good time in a way that doesn't feel even remotely performative.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Not at all. Yeah, no, it's it's
James Stacy this is like I said, I don't I don't know how else to put it. It's the kind of event and the kind of day that will sustain me for a long time. And the dive was f good, fine. Yeah. I almost indifferent to the dive. It's everything that's kind of wrapped around it. It's fun. Um, to get in the water, it's been a it's been a minute for me. Um, and to be able to test test out some new gear again, the the deep six stuff was awesome. That was all a delight. Yeah.
Jason Heaton So there's there's just so much to kind of unpack.
James Stacy Yeah. You can you can ramble on and it's nice to do it in the same room. But
Jason Heaton yeah, I feel like it, you know, we we'll be referencing
James Stacy yesterday for many episodes to come. Um and I'm very much looking forward to this afternoon. I um I I do the I think I've talked about this before. I always just if I'm somewhere I'll just tip I'll buy the last flight. And then if I run out of steam I just go to the
Jason Heaton airport and see about oh yeah. Like Chicago to
James Stacy Toronto there's like six or seven flights today. So if I want to go back
Jason Heaton if there's nothing going on. But I'm sure there'll be something going to
James Stacy Ken Ken Lamb will get me into some trouble. So yeah, no, just an absolutely incredible one and and just a huge thank you to everybody who made it fun, um made it uh an easy thing to do, made it a valuable thing to do. And then, you know, citizen for being open to do the party. It's one of our favorite things to do is to sit and chat and have a have a have a nice time with folks face to face and and you know the added benefit of getting to do this live with you is just such a treat. Yeah. I it it's fine over Zoom. I'm not against it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. This is so nice. And just you know,
James Stacy go for a walk to get coffee this morning. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's you and I have such an I
James Stacy think maybe maybe less uncommon than it used to be, but ten years ago this would be an exceptionally weird relationship, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Like we know each other really
James Stacy well. Yeah. Talk every week. But hardly ever see each
Jason Heaton other. Hardly ever see each other. Yeah. Like I guess
James Stacy the equivalent of pen pals or something. Yeah. Right. But uh yeah, a delight for sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well look, with that mostly covered
James Stacy and hopefully a fun little uh piece of audio from Jeff that I'll I'll be able to drop in. Um you want to jump into some final notes?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. You want to go first because you we've
James Stacy hinted yours already. Yeah, so
Jason Heaton um, you know, uh really cool uh kind of it's not even watch swag, it's it's it's dive swag. It's um swag that uh Chris Sol organized with Landon from Deep Six for all of us who were diving yesterday and it is uh it's a dive torch from a brand called Orca Torch. And um I had never heard of OrcaTorch before. Um, but we all got an Orca Torch Orca 7, uh 3000 lumen uh six degree narrow beam angle uh little handheld dive torch that just weighs next to nothing. It's it's just beautifully machined, um little thing with a uh re uh USB-C rechargeable battery that you just unscrew the the the barrel of the of the of the torch and and plug it in and and it it charges up and um I was impressed with uh with how bright it was for for the color. I was honestly
James Stacy it was blown away. Yeah. Yeah. Um really
Jason Heaton great. Um came in different colors and little case, um, some nice kind of dimpling and knurling on the on the barrel that made it easy to grip. Um kind of a wrist strap that that I you know quickly just kind of put around my wrist and used and just weighed nothing, just didn't get in the way um and made everybody very visible and it was great in kind of the murky conditions. Um and then what was really cool is that that they were all engraved with our names and the wind U inp a Lake uh 2026 um uh kind of name uh uh on it as well. So um so I'm not gonna go into the details, we'll throw a link in the show notes. Um but it's uh it's a it's a really great you know, I've had a lot of dive torches over the years. Uh I also had a Hollis with me and I've had a Kraken and some others. They're all great. Um, but for kind of lumens to size to kind of form factor, this this is really um one of the nicest ones I've used and it's uh so it's 149.95 uh on uh orchitorch store dot com. So um yeah I'm super impressed with with these. So it's great.
James Stacy Yeah no I I what color did you get? Gray.
Jason Heaton Yeah, same. Yeah, I think they gave us both gray for obvious
James Stacy obvious re reasons. Um but yeah, no the the swag scenario was kind of nuts. Um and and that's even in a world where there's a lot of swag that can go on and the you know, like merch like you know, gifts or whatever that come with it. And obviously Jason and I are kind of interlopers uh on the boat. Um but uh obviously super happy to be there. But uh I thought the the flashlight was incredible and the other thing, I mean there was a bunch of stuff that we got, but the other thing I got that I have I had known about previously, but probably never would have made the leap are these Ombra's armless sunglasses. Yeah. So everybody got a set a pair of these a set of these ombra sunglasses, and there it's just the front of the sunglasses, and then there's like a paracord with a slider at the back. And I've seen them on you know, we've talked about Josh Fenn and his YouTube channel before. Josh Fenn wears these, I've seen them on his thing. And I remember going to their website and being like oh I'm you know I am curious of this it's kind of like splitting or not splitting the difference it's going full full way on like the crookies yeah to keep you know because you can have them hang around your neck. Yeah. Um so we got a set of these and I put them on and like in two minutes I forgot that they weren't just normal sunglasses.
Jason Heaton Oh, sure. And the boat was throwing us
James Stacy around, there was wind, it was difficult to keep a hat on if you were on the top deck, that sort of thing. No issue at all with these. Very comfortable. They weigh nothing. I was just very impressed. Again, like uh much like with the torch, didn't pay for it. Uh it was a gift uh for those on the boat. So these sell for $160. And in the world of sunglasses, I guess that's kind of middle range these days. That's in that you're in the range of a Ray Ban or something like that. I was super impressed. I I I like them a lot. They're very comfortable. I will get lots of use out of them. So if you're on the fence and you're interested and you're and you're you know fine with that price point, uh I think you'd be impressed as well. Uh I you know you see them, I think maybe it's the kind of idea that maybe started with like fishing or something like that and now has got become more casual, but uh the ones I got are called the dolomite in uh in a tortoiseshell sort of frame and yeah I'm I'm a fan uh and very thankful for uh a chance to try a pair uh as part of the swag for that uh that boat trip.
Jason Heaton Yeah these, are these are cool. I I remember seeing um uh when I was at uh out in California a couple months ago and I met Kyle there as well for another wind up dive thing. Um he was wearing these there and he was kind of uh really touting them to me as well and and I'm impressed. I but but just looking at them, I mean they they they they sell a number of accessories. There's a nose nose pad riser, some side shields like if you're gonna use them as you know for skiing or or mountaineering or something like that. And then a floaty so which I suppose would have been uh apt on a on a dive boat as well. But uh yeah, really cool product. Um, you know, uh between that and the torch and then we got some uh cool snow peak uh titanium water bottles from Sydney. It's like
James Stacy Christmas on a dive boat. Totally was, yeah.
Jason Heaton And all very easy to easy to take home too. So yeah. Yeah.
James Stacy Very wild stuff. Hugely thankful to um to yeah, the folks from Citizen, the folks from uh from uh Wind Up and Warnerwound and and like I said to uh Chris Sowell as well for the uh extending the invite and the and the hospitality. It was a great day.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it was great. Yeah. All right. Well,
James Stacy I think that's a whole episode. I think you're right. Thanks so much for listening. If you would like to support the show, you can hit up thegreynato.com for more details. You can get into the TGN Slack, you can get yourself a TGN sign NATO, and uh you can come out to a future hangout. We've got one uh slated uh September uh for the Toronto uh timepiece show great party that's gonna be the Saturday night with Marathon and then we're working on plans for wind up in New York uh which should be very exciting and when we have anything actually concrete to share for any of that, RSVPs or otherwise. You'll hear about it on the show, and if you're in the TGN Slack crew, you'll probably hear about it a little bit earlier there first. Thanks so much for listening.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Music as always is by Jazz R via the Free Music Archive. And uh just a reminder that we will be off for the next couple of weeks, and so we will be back in early August. And we leave you with this quote from Mark Twain, who said, She is always a novelty, for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.