From Tenerife to Antarctica: Adventure Is Out There
Adventure is out there. Let's go see the world together 🌎🤿
When I started planning the first Seaira Dives group trip in 2024, I had a pretty simple goal: bring the world of diving to more people.
There is SO much ocean out there. So many different ecosystems, animals, cultures and styles of diving to experience. I never wanted Seaira Dives travel to be about going back to the same destination year after year and doing the same dives. I wanted to take people to places that would completely change the way they dive and the way they see the ocean.
Sometimes that means your first real experience diving in current. Sometimes it means coming face to face with an animal you’ve dreamed about seeing for years. Sometimes it means learning to identify the fish you've swum past a hundred times and suddenly realizing how much was happening on the reef that you never noticed before.
And sometimes it means traveling halfway around the world with a group of people you barely know and coming home with lifelong dive buddies.
That has always been the goal of Seaira Dives: adventure, education and community.
Since our first trip to Tenerife, we’ve rung in the New Year in Curaçao, drifted through the Maldives, spent a week surrounded by sharks at Tiger Beach, had whale sharks crash our dives in Thailand and brought 27 people together for an incredible week in Fiji.
Next we're going even farther. Galápagos. Palau. Komodo. Raja Ampat. Antarctica.
Adventure is out there, and we intend to find it.
Tenerife: Where the Adventure Began
Our first official Seaira Dives group trip took us to Tenerife in the Canary Islands in May 2024. I started planning months before we ever got on the plane, researching dive operators, resorts, transportation, flights, activities and all the little details that can make or break an international dive trip.
Then we finally got there, and Tenerife DELIVERED.
We saw close to 20 cuttlefish, more octopus than I could keep track of, enormous stingrays, turtles, Spanish dancers and two critically endangered angel sharks. One was buried in the sand during a night dive at Marina San Miguel, and another was completely out in the open at Abades. Seeing such an incredible and threatened animal in the wild was already special. Getting to experience it with the very first Seaira Dives group made it even better.
Tenerife also started traditions that are now just part of traveling with Seaira Dives. Before we left, we got together for a virtual Fishinar to learn about the fish, turtles, invertebrates and other marine life we might encounter. Everyone received REEF survey materials, and we incorporated Sea Turtle Awareness into our preparation.
I didn't want us to simply look at the ocean. I wanted us to understand a little more about what we were seeing.
That philosophy has stuck with me on every trip since.
Curaçao: Ringing in the New Year With Dive Buddies
For our second adventure, 15 of us headed to Curaçao to ring in 2025 together.
Curaçao gave us warm Caribbean water, beautiful reefs and a pretty fantastic way to celebrate the New Year, but what I remember most are the milestones. Two of our divers earned their PADI Divemaster certifications and three completed their first night dives.
I LOVE that part of group travel.
Yes, we're there to have an incredible vacation. But we're also there to grow. Watching someone accomplish something they've been working toward, try a new kind of diving or surface absolutely beaming because they just did something that used to make them nervous never gets old.
Those moments have become just as important to me as the destination itself.
Maldives: Learning to Go With the Flow
A couple of months later, we went farther.
Much farther.
The Maldives introduced us to the Indian Ocean and a completely different kind of diving. Instead of the easy Caribbean diving we had just experienced, we were drifting through channels and around thilas with the current doing a whole lot of the work for us.
We encountered leopard sharks, whitetips, blacktips, grey reef sharks, nurse sharks, mobula rays, turtles, Napoleon wrasse and huge schools of fish. Dolphins even showed up between dives because apparently the Maldives needed to show off a little more.
This is exactly why I choose destinations that offer something different.
Diving in current changes you as a diver. You learn to stop fighting the ocean and start understanding it. You become more aware of your positioning, your buddy, your surroundings and your equipment. You start building skills that open the door to even more incredible diving around the world.
Every destination should add something to your diving toolbox.
The Maldives certainly did.
Tiger Beach: Getting to Know Sharks
Then came our first Seaira Dives liveaboard.
Naturally, we decided to spend it surrounded by sharks.
Tiger Beach in the Bahamas was absolutely incredible. We had tiger sharks and reef sharks cruising around us while we got to spend dive after dive simply observing these animals in their own environment.
Being underwater with a tiger shark is difficult to describe. They're huge and unbelievably powerful, but watching them move so calmly and effortlessly through the water is completely different from the version of sharks most of us grew up seeing.
That is one of the reasons education is such an important part of Seaira Dives trips.
If we're going to travel halfway around the world to see an animal, I want us to know something about it.
Over the years, we've incorporated fun scuba training and conservation education including PADI AWARE, Sea Turtle Awareness, Shark and Ray Conservation, Whale Shark Awareness, Fish Identification, Underwater Naturalist and more. The training changes depending on where we're going and what we're likely to experience.
We are always leveling up our diving.
Sometimes that means earning a certification. Sometimes it's becoming more comfortable in current or learning a new skill. Sometimes it's sitting around after a dive with a fish book trying to figure out WHAT THE HECK WE JUST SAW.
All are acceptable forms of continuing education.
Thailand: When Dive Buddies Became a Dive Family
Thailand was our fifth Seaira Dives international adventure, and this trip felt different.
People were coming back.
Divers who had met on previous Seaira Dives trips were signing up to travel together again. New people joined the group and quickly became part of it. We had experienced divers diving alongside someone earning his Open Water certification, eight veterans traveling together and people celebrating first ocean dives, first night dives and new milestones.
Then Koh Tao decided to casually give us two whale sharks on two separate dives.
TWO.
Naturally, we incorporated Whale Shark Awareness into the adventure because there was absolutely no chance we were going to see whale sharks and not nerd out about whale sharks.
We celebrated another New Year's Eve together on Koh Tao, but one of my favorite things about Thailand wasn't a particular dive or even the whale sharks.
This trip was about looking around and seeing people who had originally met because they booked a Seaira Dives trip together now traveling the world as friends.
This was exactly the community I had been working to build.
Fiji: 27 People, One Pretty Incredible Week
Then 27 of us went to Fiji.
Seeing 27 Seaira Dives travelers together at Paradise Taveuni was pretty freaking awesome. Some had traveled with me before. Some came with friends or partners. Others joined the trip without really knowing anyone.
That didn't last long.
Fiji gave us some of the most beautiful diving in the world. We explored Rainbow Reef, the Great White Wall, Purple Wall and some truly incredible reefs filled with the soft corals Fiji is famous for. We encountered mantas, spinner dolphins and pilot whales, while those of us who are incapable of swimming past a tiny weird creature were busy finding octopus, frogfish, ghost pipefish, ribbon eels, mantis shrimp, nudibranchs and a teeny tiny Pontho's pygmy seahorse.
We also kept learning. There were new Open Water divers, Advanced Open Water divers, Fish Identification certifications, freediving, milestone dives and plenty of opportunities to become stronger, more confident divers.
But my favorite memories from Fiji aren't only underwater.
They're 27 people laughing around the dinner table. They're the conversations on the dive boats, everyone cheering for someone's certification, people running over to show each other photos and a group of travelers who arrived with very different backgrounds and experience levels becoming friends.
By the end of the week, people were already talking about where they wanted to go together next.
That's Seaira Dives.
The Trip Starts Long Before We Get in the Water
One of the things I care about most is making sure people feel taken care of when they travel with me.
International dive travel can be intimidating, especially if you're heading somewhere you've never been before. What route should you fly? How early should you arrive? What wetsuit do you need? How much dive gear should you bring? What happens if your luggage gets delayed? Is there somewhere cool to stop on the way? Can you turn a week of diving into a bigger adventure?
I don't want you to hand me a deposit and then spend the next eight months trying to figure all of that out by yourself.
Every Seaira Dives adventure comes with a detailed travel guide designed to answer the questions I know you're going to have. I include packing lists and gear recommendations, travel routes, stopover ideas, destination information, trip add-ons, diving conditions and all of the little things I've learned from traveling around the world with scuba gear.
If we're already flying halfway across the planet, let's make the most of it.
I spend a LOT of time researching these trips because I want you to feel prepared before you leave home. People regularly tell me they feel taken care of when they travel with Seaira Dives, and that means a lot to me. You should be able to focus on being ridiculously excited about where we're going instead of wondering how you're going to get there.
Then we get to the fun stuff.
Before most trips, we have our Fishinar, where we get together virtually and start learning about the destination and what we might encounter underwater. I genuinely think knowing what you're looking at changes diving. Once you start recognizing fish families, behaviors and relationships on the reef, you stop simply looking at fish and start actually seeing them.
Then there is the swag reveal, which is ALWAYS one of my favorite parts. I probably have way too much fun planning the custom swag for every adventure, but every destination has its own personality and I love creating something special for the group.
And then there's the famous Seaira Dives WhatsApp chat.
Technically, it's for important travel information, trip updates and questions.
Technically.
In reality, it becomes countdowns, packing questions, flight plans, scuba talk, memes, excitement, animal sightings we're manifesting and general dive buddy chaos.
By the time we arrive, it already feels like a group.
That is intentional.
You Don't Need to Bring Your Own Dive Buddy
This might be one of the most important things I can tell someone thinking about joining a Seaira Dives trip.
You can come by yourself.
Some people travel with partners. Some come with friends. Some join knowing people from previous adventures. Plenty of people join without knowing anyone.
You don't have to wait until you find someone who has the same vacation dates, budget and burning desire to fly halfway around the world to look for a specific shark.
Come anyway.
We'll make sure you're part of the group.
I have worked hard to build a community where people feel welcomed and supported, whether they're newer divers or have thousands of dives. You don't have to be the best diver on the boat. You should come excited to dive, excited to learn and ready for an adventure.
You don't need to bring the group. This is the group.
The best proof I have that this works is watching people come back.
Divers meet on one Seaira Dives trip and sign up for another together. They stay friends after we get home. They celebrate each other's certifications and life milestones. They plan future adventures together.
Those lifelong bonds aren't a side effect of what we're doing.
They're part of the entire reason I built this.
Where We're Going Next
The next chapter of Seaira Dives travel is taking us to destinations that will push that idea even farther.
In November 2026, we're heading to Galápagos, where we'll be liveaboard diving out toward Wolf and Darwin. This is big animal diving: schooling hammerheads, whale sharks, sea lions, marine iguanas and an ecosystem unlike anywhere else on Earth.
Then we're heading to Palau in April 2027, where current, walls, sharks and iconic Pacific dive sites will give us another completely different experience.
In July 2027, we're taking PADI Women's Dive Day to Komodo aboard the Komodo Aggressor. This isn't your run-of-the-mill dive trip. We're building an experience around incredible diving, friendship and continuing education with a group of women who want to explore one of the most biodiverse places on the planet together.
Then we'll ring in 2028 in Raja Ampat, surrounded by some of the greatest marine biodiversity on Earth.
And after that?
Antarctica.
In February 2028, we'll travel from Ushuaia across the Drake Passage and into the Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea. For qualified cold-water divers, there will even be the opportunity to dive beneath the surface in one of the most remote environments on Earth. For everyone else, there are penguins, whales, seals, zodiac excursions, kayaking, snorkeling, science and a continent that very few people ever get to experience.
From seeing critically endangered angel sharks on our first trip in Tenerife to heading for the seventh continent four years later.
That is exactly what I dreamed Seaira Dives travel could become.
Adventure Is Out There
I built Seaira Dives because I wanted to bring the world of diving to people.
Not the same reef over and over again. Not the same vacation every year.
The world.
I want to take you somewhere that changes the way you see the ocean. Somewhere that teaches you something. Somewhere that makes you a stronger diver. Somewhere you finally encounter the animal you've had on your bucket list for years or discover some tiny weird critter you didn't even know existed until your dive buddy starts frantically pointing at it.
I want you to experience different cultures, different oceans and different styles of diving. I want you to feel prepared and taken care of while we do it. I want you to learn, laugh, eat good food, wear ridiculous matching swag, send way too many messages in the WhatsApp chat and surface from at least one dive completely losing your mind over what we just saw.
Most of all, I want you to find your people.
Because the places we travel are incredible, but the community we've built while exploring them is what makes me most proud.
Tenerife. Curaçao. Maldives. Tiger Beach. Thailand. Fiji.
Next up: Galápagos, Palau, Komodo, Raja Ampat and Antarctica.
There is a whole lot of ocean left to explore, and we're nowhere near done.
Dive safe, explore passionately, and remember…
