Below the Surface

Whatever the ocean has me thinking about. Day-to-day diving, underwater photography, the films and writing that shape how I see the sea, the creatures I keep coming back to, certifications and apnea, and the in-between stories.

16 stories

Below the Surface

Muck Diving, Explained

No reef, no walls, no big blue. Just a patch of sand and some of the strangest and other-worldly animals in the ocean.

Below the Surface

The 8 Best Places to Dive With Manta Rays

Eight manta destinations with the real seasons and conditions. Reef or oceanic, dive or snorkel, and the month you should actually go.

Below the Surface

Diving With Manta Rays: Giant, Curious, Harmless

Giant, curious and utterly harmless. What to know before you meet one underwater, and why restraint is what gets a manta close to you.

Below the Surface

Best Ocean Documentaries on Disney+ / Nat Geo

Attenborough's Ocean, Cameron's OceanXplorers, and the films that made real marine reserves. Sixteen of them, ranked, on Disney+ and Nat Geo.

Below the Surface

How Much Does It Cost to Learn to Scuba Dive?

Open Water runs $280 in Koh Tao and $850 in California. What the price covers, what it leaves out, and how to avoid paying twice.

Below the Surface

Scuba Diving Verde Island: The Philippines' Best Reef

More marine life per square metre than the Caribbean or the Great Barrier Reef, dived with the operator working to protect it.

Below the Surface

How to Find Nudibranchs, Underwater Photography

Sea slugs that look like alien spacecraft. Most divers swim past hundreds of them on every reef dive. How to find and photograph them.

Below the Surface

8 Ocean Documentaries Not on Netflix

Ocean with David Attenborough, Blue Planet II, Becoming Cousteau and Fathom: eight ocean films worth chasing off Netflix.

Below the Surface

Scuba Diving in Colombia Is Massively Underrated

Two coasts, two oceans, and every level of diver. From Santa Marta's reefs to Malpelo's hammerhead schools, the world's most underrated dive country.

Below the Surface

The 7 Best Ocean Documentaries on Netflix, Ranked (2026)

Netflix's ocean documentary catalogue, ranked: Mission Blue, My Octopus Teacher, Our Oceans, and four more. What each one gets right.

Below the Surface

The Experience of Diving Malpelo with DivingLife

Eight days at sea on the Sea Wolf: the dives, the orcas that made Colombian national news, and why DivingLife for Malpelo.

Below the Surface

Diving with Whale Sharks in Koh Tao, Thailand

Meeting whale sharks on the dive sites of Koh Tao, one of the best places on earth to get in the water with the ocean's gentle giants.

Below the Surface

Diving with Bull Sharks in Playa del Carmen

Every winter, big female bull sharks gather off Playa del Carmen in one of the most accessible big-animal dives anywhere in diving.

Below the Surface

Getting Into Freediving: A Beginner's Guide

What freediving is, the gear you need, which certification to choose, and how to find your calm on a single breath. Everything to start.

Below the Surface

Diving the Salem Express

A passenger ferry that sank off Safaga in 1991, lying intact on the reef floor. One of the most haunting wreck dives anywhere in the world.

Below the Surface

How to Become a Certified Scuba Diver

From your first Discover Scuba session to Open Water certification, the complete step-by-step path, and what each stage of it costs.