I was always obsessed with the underwater world.
As a child, I’d spend hours at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, pressing my face into the glass to stare schools of tuna and the pancake-like ocean sunfish.
Whenever my family would visit the beach, by the end of the day they’d have to rip me away from the tide pools.
Once I was old enough to travel the world, I’d get curious about what lies beneath the ocean everywhere I went.
Finally, in 2018 I decided to give scuba diving a try.
While I’d like to say that it was love at first dive, that would be an exaggeration.
I was certified in San Francisco at Bamboo Reef Diving Center, and then did my checkout dive in Monterey — a day with maybe 1 feet of visibility, “milky” water, and 55 degree Fahrenheit water.
I was exhausted by the cold temperature, strong currents, and I didn’t see anything because of the frothy water. I was worried I made a mistake in trying diving!
Luckily, I was proven wrong.
And I think that’s important to remind all beginner divers and people interested in learning how to dive: it can be hard or even frustrating when you start scuba diving.
It’s hard to remember how to put your gear together, how to have the correct buoyancy underwater, and how to breathe properly to conserve air.
But if you keep trying — eventually you’ll learn to relax, enjoy the view, and explore the wonders of the sea!
My first dive trip was to the Similan Islands in Thailand on a liveaboard, and I was blown away by what I saw (and the warmer water temperature helped!).
I marveled at clown fish, schools of tropical fish, pufferfish, and a day octopus. I tried swim throughs, and explored fun topography with purple coral.
Since then, I’ve dived in Cabo San Lucas and saw a school of hundreds of young hammerhead sharks.
I’ve gone to La Paz to swim with whale sharks and sea lion pups (who liked to nibble on my fins!).
Recently I’ve dived in Kona, Hawaii to see manta rays at night.
And in Tahiti and Moorea (in French Polynesia), I saw an embarrassing number of green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles on every dive and pristine coral systems.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and I went from getting my Open Water certification with SSI to and Advanced Certification with PADI and Nitrox in a few months.
My goal is to demonstrate the beauty of our oceans and help beginner divers get excited about scuba diving!
I have started this blog out of my love for marine life, but also because of my writing experience.
I have an undergraduate degree in English Literature and Rhetoric from UC Berkeley, and used to write for my college newspaper. By day, I have a career in digital marketing and partnerships.
My hope is to make dive information about fun spots around the world easier to find, and record some of the best experiences I’ve had to help you have amazing experiences, too.
After all, more than 70% of the Earth is ocean — so if you never go diving, you’ll never be able to properly say ‘you’ve seen the world’!