Fear of Deep Water-How to Conquer it!

It’s not uncommon to have hesitations or even a phobia of deep water. Not being able to see the bottom can throw even the most experienced snorkelers. I know that every time I jump in the open blue water to try and swim with a pod of dolphins or whale sharks and there is nothing but blue water below me I have to make a slight adjustment to my mental state and just remind myself that floating in the blue is no different to floating just above a reef. I know, easier said than done since phobias such as this are irrational and your typical pragmatism on land goes right out the window the moment you lose sight of the bottom. This fear doesn’t always have to control us though, and if we take the proper approach that involves both mentally and physically preparing ourselves, we can hopefully find ourselves confident and comfortable snorkeling in deep water. Here are a few steps that we have found to be helpful.

Become Accustomed to the Environment

Learning about the ocean is a great first step in helping control your deep water phobia. In understanding what is actually going on below you as you snorkel should then help curb any unwarranted fears by cultivating a positive state of mind about the ocean and deep water.

My Octopus Teacher

There are some really amazing underwater documentary movies and series which do an amazing job of capturing the beauty and reality of the underwater world. Some of the best ones are My Octopus Teacher, BBC Blue Planet I & II, BBC Planet Earth,  and Oceans. I highly suggest NOT watching NatGeo’s Shark Week or Sharkfest as they really tend to only sensationalize the fear based around sharks and shark attacks and not the reality of a shark’s normal response to snorkelers, which is to either ignore us or swim away. You are more likely to be injured by your toilet than by a shark by huge margin.

Slowly Introduce Yourself to the Environment

Snorkeler with life ring

Rather than just plunge yourself into the open blue water, I highly recommend starting off by slowly introducing yourself to it by letting yourself get accustomed to the shallow reefs and sandy bays first. If your phobia is quite strong, the shallow end of a pool is best and then work your way up to larger bodies of water. As you progress to deeper waters you may want to use an inflatable snorkel vest, a life jacket, or even additional flotation ring to give yourself an added layer of comfort. Also, don’t forget to do this with a snorkel buddy who’s already very comfortable in the water.

Mental Game Plan

Cow fish swimming right up to the camera with snorkeler behind

Even as your confidence with the water grows, it’s a great idea to have a mental game plan just incase that irrational fear does start to creep back in. Before each snorkel session make a little plan to help calm yourself down and regain control of your emotions. What I mean by this is, the moment you start to feel the panic coming back you need to give your brain something else to do, like count to one-hundred, identifying ten different species of fish, or just concentrating on a steady rhythm of breathing. It helps if you pick just one thing as too many different options can lead back to a non-focused state of mind and then the fear comes back. For me, I focus on listening to every inhale and exhale to keep them as steady and relaxed as possible. As I do this, I slowly swim back to a more comfortable depth until I feel like I’m back in control again.

10 New Year’s Resolutions for Snorkelers

The new year is just around the corner and as per the annual tradition of making positive goals for the upcoming year we’ve put together a list of snorkeling related New Year Resolutions, just incase you hadn’t come up with any yet and needed a bit of help.

10. Check all Snorkeling Equipment

It’s always a good idea to routinely check through your snorkeling equipment, particularly if it’s been a while since you’ve used it. One very important thing to check is to see if your mask still properly seals around your face. If you are not quite sure how to do that we have a quick tutorial here. Another thing to look over are your fins, especially those of you with the full foot fins (the kind without straps), and to make sure that the rubber pocket your foot goes into hasn’t dried out and become brittle. If that’s the case, it might be time to look at purchasing a new pair of fins.

Snorkeling equipment

9. Research Top Snorkeling Destinations

Instead of just swiping through facebook and the other social media apps for hours, why not put that otherwise “wasted” time to good use and do a bit of research on where the best snorkeling destinations are. We have a full inventory of trip reviews, videos, and destination guides on our blog here.

snorkeler swimming through overhang in reef

8. Practice Duck Diving

Why not hit the ground running on your next snorkeling holiday by already having the art of the duck dive perfected. If you don’t have access to snorkeling sites you can easily practice at a nearby gym or friend’s pool. A pool is actually an ideal place to practice diving down underwater and equalizing as there aren’t any waves or current and it’s a very familiar and controlled environment.

Snorkeler duck diving

7. Find  Snorkeling/Travel Buddy

If you just don’t seem to have any friends who share the same passion for snorkeling  as you do and you just don’t like the idea of traveling alone, there are still plenty of ways to meet fellow snorkelers like you who are eager to have a buddy to share the adventure with. A quick search on Facebook or other online snorkeling forums will reveal groups full of likeminded individuals.

6. Buy an Underwater Camera

Why not treat yourself to a little gift this year for making it though one of the most historic years in modern history. As camera technology progresses there are a ton of very affordable camera options, many of which are already waterproof and come with fantastic underwater modes for shooting amazing photos and videos.

Olympus TG5 sitting on beach

5. Practice or Study Underwater Photography Tips

If you haven’t done much practicing with your underwater camera lately why not take a few of your kids toys and your snorkeling buddy to a friends pool and toss them in and then let have a bit of creative fun pretending that Barbie is a porcupine fish. It might sound a bit silly but one of the best way to learn how your camera works is just time in the water with it. If there’s just nowhere to snorkel, even a pool, then I’d suggest reading some underwater photography tips so that once you do hit the water you have all the knowledge fresh in your mind.

Photographer photographing river scene

4. Purchase a New Piece of Snorkeling Equipment

There are some really amazing new pieces of snorkeling gear on the market now, from snorkels that don’t let water in to exposure suits that keep you just as warm as a five millimeter wetsuit but weigh the same as a sweater. Similarly, there are a lot of really amazing eco-friendly options for snorkeling gear now that companies like Fourth Element have started using textiles made from recycled ghost nets and old car tires.

3. Conquer that Fear of Deep Water

It’s not uncommon to have a phobia of open or deep water. Many people do. Rather than let this control you though, there are some very simple and practical steps you can take to help curb this fear, most of which just involve becoming more familiar with that particular environment. Some things we’d suggest doing are watching some uplifting underwater documentaries like My Octopus Teacher, or any of the BBC Blue Planet episodes as they will help give you a more real idea of what happens in the ocean. Something else to help relieve any anxieties about deep water is to just spend time in it, start with the shallow end of the pool and then slowly progressing to the deep end, and then eventually to lakes and protected bays if you have access to bodies of water like that. While we aren’t phycologists by any means, we understand that a fear of something will generally comes from just being unfamiliar with whatever it is you are afraid of, so the best thing you can do is take gradual and controlled steps to expand your understanding of the thing you fear.

Swimming underwater in a swimming pool

2. Get Back into Good Snorkeling Shape

While our snorkeling trips are pretty relaxed with guests being able to take the snorkeling sessions at their own pace, it’s not a bad idea to do a little bit of training prior to your trip. You don’t have to re-enact the pre-fight training montage from the movie Rocky, but  by just jumping in a pool with a mask, snorkel, and fins on and doing a few laps every now and then you’ll be doing yourself a favor as we use muscles while snorkeling you wouldn’t otherwise use while walking or ruining. Basically, anything that helps stimulates muscle movement and increases your overall stamina in the slightest bit will just help make you more comfortable while on a snorkeling tour.

1. Book a Once in a Lifetime  Snorkeling Adventure

If you’ve been saying for months or even years that “one of these days I’ll book a snorkeling trip” then right now is a pretty ideal time, especially since we’ve all been cooped up in our homes for the past ten months. You can find a full list of the guide-led group snorkeling safaris that we offer here.

Snorkeler Surrounded by Manta Rays

Snorkeling with Walking Sharks

On just about all of our snorkeling safari’s we will always try to offer night or sunset snorkeling so you can see that amazing transition in specie’s behavior as day turns to night. If you are at all curious about what night snorkeling is like you can find out more here. For this particular blog though, we’re going to highlight one particular night snorkeling subject which can be found in both Triton Bay and throughout Raja Ampat once the sun sets, and that subject is a walking shark.

At this point you are probably wondering what I mean by “walking shark.” Well, as it turns out, there is a species of shark which actually prefer to use their pectoral fins to walk across the reef, rather than to swim. They are a type of epaulette shark, but are commonly known to us snorkelers as walking sharks. They are found in the shallow reef of northern Australia as well as New Guinea, with one particular species endemic to Raja Ampat and another to the Triton Bay area.

Epaulette walking shark on the sand

As both the Raja epaulette walking shark and the Triton epaulette walking shark are nocturnal species we don’t often find them in the afternoon snorkeling sessions because the burry themselves in the reef, but just after sunset is when they come out to hunt for small benthic creatures and small fish. As snorkelers we have the best vantage point for finding these unusual sharks since they usually are found right up in the shallow reefs, and even in tide pools at times. As you can see from the photos these are not your typical shark with their elongated body—which is mostly tail and decorated with a spattering of ornamental spots, not to mention the general sense of cuteness these sharks exude.

So there you have it folks, sharks can not only be comically cute, but also walk, and the best places to snorkel with them just happen to be Raja Ampat and Triton Bay in Indonesia!

Check out this short video to see just how these sharks walk, even on land! This particular species, which is nearly identical in appearance to the ones found in Raja Ampat and Triton bay is from Australia. The behavior is the same however. 

Five Tips for Getting the Perfect Over-Under Photo

coral reef below the surface with island above

The over-under or split shot, where in a single image the photographer has managed to photograph something underwater while also capturing what’s happening above the water, is a real crowd pleaser. These types of photos look incredibly difficult to do, but actually they are quite simple if you follow a few simple steps.

5. Large Dome Port

Photographer photographing river scene

In order to capture what’s going on above and below the water we not only need a wide angle lens, but also a larger dome port to provide maximum surface area were we can really get that division of land and underwater. If you are using a smaller compact camera where the lens surface areas is about an inch in diameter the chances of capturing a split shot are not very good. However, if are using a camera housing that allows for a larger dome port than you just need to follow the next steps.

4. Shallow subject

split shot of hard coral reef and raja ampat islands

The best results will be when you have a subject in shallow shallow water, anywhere from a few inches in depth to a couple feet. Anything deeper than four feet or so makes it difficult to capture the subject in nice natural light, but also makes it challenging to include both the topside and underwater subject in the same frame.

3. Balancing the Natural Light

split shot of hard coral reef and raja ampat islands
An example of a correctly balanced image. Photo taken at mid day with full sun. 

Light is key for this type of photo as we rapidly run short of light underwater, even in just a few feet. If we want to have balanced light throughout the photo, where the topside and underwater subject share a similar exposure, we need a nice sunny day and also to remember to keep the sun behind us. If we start facing into the sun or shooting too early in the day or too late in the afternoon where the light not as strong ,our exposure throughout the frame won’t match, leaving us with a blown out landscape or a very dark underwater subject. Bright light in shallow water is best.

Over under with reefscape below and island above
An example of a photo where the light is incorrectly balanced. Photo taken at mid day but conditions were overcast and balancing the light was impossible with out artificial lighting.

2. Water Line

coral reef below blue sky

Aside from what you choose to include in the photos, getting the water line just right is one of the aspects of the image which will either make or break it. As the underwater subject will general be the stronger of the two subjects I try to favor it by giving it a bit more space in the frame. If you look at most over under shots you’ll see that roughly two-thirds of the frame are underwater, with the remaining third above water. Something else to consider with the water line is weather you want it to be a smooth water line or a bit wavy. Of course, a lot of this will depend on the surface conditions, but you can experiment a bit with this for some varied results of the same subjects. Also, something really important to note is that the longer you leave the lens/port out of the water, the more water droplets will form. For best results have your camera submerged until you’re ready to take the shot (have the composition already planned in your head) and then quickly but smoothly bring it out of the water until you have the composition you intended, and click the shutter. This whole process should take not much longer than a couple seconds. The final thing I’d like to add is that a healthy amount of spit spread over the lens and then rinsed off will keep water droplets from building up on your drying port.

1. Subject Selection

Mangrove scene with coral reef below

Subject selection is paramount here as we are now selecting two subjects which can be combined in a similar image. Many times I’ll find a fantastic shallow reefscape that would be ideal for including in a split shot, but then there’s nothing to include in the above portion. While I think it’s usually best to have both an interesting above water and underwater subject, there is a way to still get an interesting split shot with no above ground subject. If there is just nothing to include above the water, you can try to make an interesting water line by rocking the camera forward and back while still keeping it half submerged as I press the shutter. This way you’ll have a bit of blue sky and clouds, some turbulent water washing across the lens, and then a brilliant reefscape below.

Underwater Photography Etiquette for Marine Life

underwater camera sitting on the beach

Camera SD cards are massive now, and quite cheap. While all this extra data storage space should ensure that you always have room on your card for that magical underwater moment, it also tends to encourage people to adopt a ‘spray and pray’ approach to their underwater photography endeavors. As someone who leads underwater photography workshops I always urge those who do tend to have a heavy ‘trigger finger’ to plan their shots a bit more, not only to save themselves time later when organizing their photos, but also to give marine life a break from a rapid fire flash.

While I haven’t actually spoken to the fish and asked them their true opinions on being photographed, after years of working with a camera in the ocean and witnessing their reoccurring behavior when confronted with a camera, particularly when the flash is engaged, I feel confident when I say they “they don’t love it.” It is for this reason that we, the Snorkel Venture guides, have put together this little etiquette guide for photographing marine life. This little guide will not only give some respite to shy marine creatures, but should also help you get a better photo as consider your subject and how might want to approach it so as to get the best shot with the least number of attempts.

Large Marine Life: Flash Off

Snorkeler photographing whale shark

Larger marine creatures like turtles and mantas are basically too big to fully illuminate with a flash, particularly if you are using a smaller compact camera. Not only that, but it’s quite likely they will quickly disappear into the blue if you start to pester them with a flash. For the best interactions and photos of larger marine life we always suggest using the fish mode on your camera, or a custom white balance, and just turn off the flash and let the sun bathe them in that beautiful dapple light.

Larger Marine Life: Flash On

hawksbill turtle looking into camera lens

I’d be a big hypocrite if I said that you should only photograph larger subjects like mantas and turtles without a flash, as I regularly photograph subjects such as these with a flash. However, when I do approach a subject that I intend to photograph with my two large flashes, it’s not without considering the behavior of the individual I wish to photograph. Not all species or individuals within a species will be overly bothered by the camera’s flash. If the animal is clearly unbothered by my presence and allows me to photograph it at a reasonable distance with out my flashes, I will then turn my flash on and check the exposure on a rock to make sure that I have all my settings dialed in. This way I can take the two or three photos I need before moving on. Even the most complacent subjects will eventually get annoyed and disappear, so be sparing with your photos so others may enjoy the same wonderful creature.

Smaller Marine Life: Flash On

mandarin fish

Smaller reef fish tend to be a lot faster and just shy in general, which means that flash is almost necessary to get a nice clear picture as the blitz from the flash freezes any motion.  When you are photographing reef fish please keep in mind that they don’t have eye lids to block the bright light of the flash. We strongly urge those who love photographing smaller reef fish to keep your shots per individual fish to a minimum, two to three photos each is advised for the well being of our ocean friends. Also something to keep in mind is that the flash is only effective from a few inches to about two feet from the camera, so make sure that if you are using a flash that you get in close to the subject, with out bothering it, before you take your shot.

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