Sipadan’s a riot, a swirling, fish-drunk mess that’ll leave you reeling. Walls of coral tumble from this small inland into the impossibly blue, teeming with so many turtles they cause traffic jams. Schools of jackfish swirl like underwater tornadoes, thousands strong, parting to reveal patrolling sharks. Then there’s the muck, the weird stuff—frogfish, seahorses, and other minute creatures. It’s Barracuda Point, though, that’s the main event.
Local diving led Alexandra Gillespie to a globetrotting stint taking dozens of dives in cool places and writing about them afterward. Now a freelancer for Outside, she covers water and travel. Her writing has also appeared in NPR, National Geographic, Scuba Diving, and other national outlets. Krill, the lifeblood of the Southern Ocean, paints the water a cloudy red. This bounty draws colossal whales, their mournful songs echoing through the water column. Other great performance features include the easy-to-use 18-speed index shifters integrated with the Shimano rear derailleur for a smooth performance ride.
And all around coral explodes in color, a testament to the volcanic soil’s rich nutrients and the deep water’s bounty. Forget the overfished reefs and crowded coral walkways. Nestled at the intersection of the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Somali Current, the Seychelles offers solitude on land and vivid adventure below.
Drift dives generally offer the best opportunities to encounter these big animals, as the currents bring in nutrients that pull them in from the blue. Photographers will delight in the candyland that’s Rainbow Reef, which bustles between islands in the Malé Atoll. Although the currents at famous sites like the Santa Rosa Wall dictate your dive, it’s like floating along in an underwater lazy river, not a riptide. You get to kick back, breathe deep from your regulator, and watch ocean life hustle by.
E-MTBs get their design features from a traditional human-powered mountain bike, so you’re not compromising on ride or style. Our ladies’ electric MTBs are made by acclaimed brands such as Basis and Stilus and allow you to experience the fun of mountain bike touring, with less effort. So large it’s visible from space, the Great Barrier Reef is the beating heart of the ocean, wild and unforgettable. You could spend a lifetime scuba diving here and still not see it all. Volcanic fury sculpted these islands, and their handiwork is visible in the blue (after all, the islands are just the portion of the eruptions that broke sea level). Lava tubes—underwater caverns and tunnels—weave through the reef, remnants of its fiery creation.
The slope starts at the shore of the Monterey Peninsula and quickly plummets more than a mile. This is why the Monterey Bay Aquarium constantly releases amazing huffy nighthawk deep sea footage so often—the deep is their backyard. Life was never the same after getting dive certified in the 54°F waters of a flooded Ohio quarry.
This immense archipelago is the epicenter of the Coral Triangle, a global hotspot of marine biodiversity, and home to some of the best scuba diving in the world. The world’s second-largest barrier reef is a riot of life—nearly 1,400 species call this UNESCO world heritage site home. Green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles all scuttle around here, as well as angelfish, blennies, seahorses, and parrotfish. They spend their days weaving in and out of a rich tapestry of hard and soft corals that stretches for 190-miles. Shark aficionados will be delighted with the chance to encounter several shark species, including lemon, nurse, and Caribbean reef sharks.
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