Ultimate Adventure Bucket List 2012 #1: Explorer Enric Sala's Dream Diving Trips

For our second annual Ultimate Adventure Bucket List, 20 of the world's top athletes and explorers share their wildest dream trips—a dazzling list of never attempted feats daunting to even these world-class competitors. For the rest of us, consider their must-do adventures—and start planning.

As a countdown to the new year, we will be sharing two adventurers' dream trip pairings every day to hopefully inspire you to plan some great adventures for 2012.


Photograph by Norbert Wu, Minden Pictures II/Getty Images

Dream Trip: Dive the Poles

Enric Sala, Marine Ecologist and Diver

Most divers gravitate to tropical waters teeming with corals, colorful reef fish, and sharks. Not Enric Sala. The marine ecologist and seasoned diver daydreams of something a little more remote. “I dream of diving in two places where I have not been yet,” he says. “One is Antarctica, because of its crystal clear waters and amazing fauna, in addition to the ice cathedrals. The other is the Arctic, where I'd like to see the northernmost kelp forests.”

Diving in polar regions comes with its dangers, like utterly frigid waters and the possibility of getting trapped under the ice, but Sala is lured by the promise of Antarctica’s wild creatures, like giant crustaceans, and astounding underwater visibility. “It’s like flying,” he says. As for the Arctic, he doesn’t know what to expect, which is a large part of the draw. “It’s a poorly known ecosystem, so it’s pure exploration.”


Photograph by Flip Nicklin, Minden Pictures/Getty Images

Must-Do Trip: Dive Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Enric Sala, Marine Ecologist and Diver

Three hundred miles—and a 36-hour boat ride—southwest of mainland Costa Rica, a lush volcanic island rears up improbably out of the Pacific Ocean. Cocos is at once a geological anomaly, a stopover for big pelagics like sharks, rays, and whales, and a divine gift for recreational divers willing to make the schlep. “It's the last place where one can always see big schools of large fish, including hammerhead sharks, whitetip sharks, and trevally,” says Enric Sala.

At the dive site Dos Amigos Grande, divers swim through an enormous underwater arch and see schools of hammerheads and mating eagle rays, or at Manuelita, a night dive might reveal hundreds of darting whitetip sharks. “It’s hard to find another place in the ocean with the same tons of large animals per hectare,” says Sala. “If it's not a school of 200 hammerhead sharks, it is a bait ball attacked by Galápagos sharks, dolphins, and seabirds.”

Undersea Hunter Group offers ten-day liveaboard dive trips to Cocos Island from San Jose, Costa Rica starting at $4,895.

 

Best Adventure Destinations for 2012

Our list is out: Each of these ten best adventure destinations for 2012 has new access, be it new parks, trails, hotels, crazy weather patterns, or cosmic events. Combined, it's enough to make a well-traveled world feel full of new frontiers again.

And the best adventure destinations are...

Skiing + Snowboarding Mammoth Mountain, California
Rafting the Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers, Idaho
Mountain Biking Bosnia and Herzegovina
Snorkeling the Ningaloo Coast, Australia
Surfing Todos Santos, Baja, Mexico
Exploring Maya Culture, Belize
Climbing Mustagata, China
Hiking Newfoundland, Canada
Canoeing the Susquehanna River Water Trail, Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania
Kayak Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

Get Trip Details >>

Photograph courtesy Jay Graham, Rancho Pescadero


 

Adventure Video: Cave Diver Sets Record in Search of New Zealand River's Source

Cave diving may be the most dangerous of adventure sports. But it's also an area where true exploration, going where no one has gone before, is still possible. This Australian team, led by diving physician Richard Harris, is searching for the source of a river that emerges from a cave on New Zealand's South Island. While in pursuit of the waterway's origin, diver Craig Challen set a new depth record—194 meters or 636 feet. See how the divers deal with the extreme and sometimes deadly conditions in this video.

Sanctum: Making the 3-D Cave Diving Adventure (Yes, a Gigantic Fish Tank Was Involved)

Photograph courtesy Universal Pictures

SANCTUM EXTREME ADVENTURE CONTEST: Share your best adventure story and photo for a chance to win great prizes! Find out more here.

Alister Grierson, director of the new adventure film Sanctum, had never donned flippers and an oxygen tank before he signed on to join 3-D pioneers James Cameron and Andrew Wight's underwater thriller about a cave diving expedition gone wrong. The premise (which Wight describes in this interview): The world’s largest cave system is being mapped by divers when a tropical storm dislodges rocks that block the entrance. The team, which includes two tagalongs who are not experienced cave divers, is forced to find another way out, if they can survive. This study of human behavior under pressure is something that fascinates Greierson, who made his first film Kokoda about a WWII invasion in Australia, to great box office success. Here Grierson gives a fresh take on the submersive, high stakes world of cave diving and how they replicated it for the film (yes, a 130-foot fish tank was involved).—Mary Anne Potts

ADVENTURE: What did you know about cave diving before this movie came along?
Alister Grierson: Very little. It’s one of those sports you hear about, but usually you only when someone dies in a cave. Then you say to yourself, why the hell were they down there?

Tell us about going diving for the first time?
It was before pre-production had begun. We all agreed I needed to get into a cave to have the experience and translate that for the film. But I wasn’t a diver at all, so I had to learn to scuba dive. I did a two-day intense course with John Galvin, who wrote the screenplay. He’s a master diver and he taught all the actors to drive. On day three they put me in the cave in a place called Mount Gambier in South Australia.

It must have been shocking to go from learning to dive one day to dropping into a cave the next?
I have always been adventurous and keen to try new things. So I was willing. I was very confident that it would be safe, that they wouldn’t push me to do anything too risky. I mean cave diving is inherently risky, but I knew I had a good team to look after me. I picked up on the diving pretty quickly.

Sanctum: The True Story Behind the Epic 3-D Adventure

Photograph courtesy Universal Pictures

SANCTUM EXTREME ADVENTURE CONTEST: Share your best adventure story and photo for a chance to win great prizes! Find out more here.

When Australian producer and renowned caver Andrew Wight (Ghosts of the Abyss, Aliens of the Deep) led a cave diving expedition beneath Australia’s Nullarbor Plain in 1988, he had a near-death experience that truly changed his life. Not only did it inspire the new 3-D adventure film Sanctum, it sparked a successful filmmaking career which led to a highly productive friendship with fellow 3-D pioneer James Cameron, the executive producer of the new film. Here Wight describes the lure of this dangerous sport, how extreme situations effect human dynamics, diving the Titanic, and how was able to turn his hobby into a life of adventure.

 —By Mary Anne Potts

ADVENTURE: You’ve been cave diving all over the world, from Alaska to the Dominican Republic, for the last 30 years. Where’s your favorite spot?
Andrew Wight: I’d say the most spectacular place I have dived was the Yucatán. The caves there were once dry caves that flooded after the last Ice Age. They are full of stalagtites, stalagmites, and other decorations that would only normally be found in a dry cave. 



What is the lure of cave diving when it is obviously so dangerous?
The main thing that draws people in is the beauty of it. The water is incredibly clear. It feels like floating through air or being in outer space. It’s a great sensation of flight and freedom. Cave diving takes you places places few, if anyone, has ever been before. That becomes a very seductive, powerful part of exploring caves. The danger is seductive, too. On one hand, when you are doing it and nothing happens, it’s not dangerous, is it? But the consequences of not following the rules or not being properly prepared are very dangerous. As we like to say, there are no accidents in cave diving, just fatalities.

Yikes. This idea of how extreme circumstances can make seemingly simple decisions a matter of life or death is prominent in Sanctum.
Absolutely. We’ve lost touch of he concept that if I do something the consequences could be really grave. In a primitive society, if a hunter and gather broke his leg, he’d die. Most people are not really prepared to take responsibility for their own actions. And now we have a generation of kids that only plays video games. They just press reset, and it’s all back to normal again.

Swedish Free Diver Annelie Pompe on What She Loves About Oxygen Deprivation (Interview)

By Tetsuhiko Endo; Photograph by Stephane Bailliez

The Scandinavians have long been known for their polar exploration so it came as a surprise to us when a Swedish woman named Annelie Pompe snatched the new free diving world record in the Variable Weight Apnea class in October. The smiley 29-year-old rode a weighted sled 126 meters down into the Red Sea, then ascended back to the surface along a line. That’s 413 feet, underwater, with nothing but a mask and some flippers.

 And it doesn’t stop there. An accomplished mountaineer, Pompe is planning to take on Mount Everest in May. Assuming all goes well, she’ll then set her lungs to the task of breaking Nat Geo Adventure favorite, Tanya Streeter’s No Limit class free-dive world record. (For an explanation of the different competitive classes, check out the free diving wikipedia page.)

Clearly, we had to talk to this lady and figure out what she loves so much about oxygen deprivation. We tracked her down to her home in Sweden this week for a few questions. English may not be her first language but she had a lot of interesting things to say.

When people think of free diving, Sweden isn’t the first country that springs to mind. How did you get into the sport?

There's actually quite a lot of divers in Sweden. I grew up close by the sea and I've always felt at home in the ocean. I don't think that feeling has any continental boundaries.

Since I loved being in the sea I got a scuba certification as soon as I was allowed to—and I really enjoyed it. Though I realized after a few years that the best feeling was diving in the water without any clumsy equipment. So I took up free diving and found a free-diving course. I was immediately captured by the challenge of diving as deep as possible on one breath. It's not only a physical challenge. For deep free diving you have to take your mind and mental strength to new levels.

Best American Adventures: Dive Freshwater Caves

 

We've just updated our popular America's Best Adventures feature with 50 new trips, bringing our grand total to 100 iconic escapes (see the map, state-by-state list, and photo gallery, too). So no matter what your pleasure—hiking, heli-skiing, surfing, climbing, biking, or paddling—we've got the perfect adventure for you. Check in each day for a new, out-the-backdoor adventure highlighted here on our blog.

By Kate Siber; Photograph by Wes C. Skiles, National Geographic

Little known fact: Florida’s best diving isn’t in its saltwater. It’s hidden in the northwestern corner of the state, which is riddled with freshwater springs that flow through mazes of limestone passageways. Few people ever witness the strange sights of these underwater chambers—fossils, sunlight beaming in from holes in the cave ceilings, and even ancient mastodon tusks—because the only way to see it all is by donning a mask and flippers. Cave diving is rife with potential dangers. The good news is beyond good training, all it really necessitates is a little nerve.

Test the waters at Ginnie Springs Cavern, a beginner cave that Jacques Cousteau once described as “visibility forever.” It requires only an open-water diver certification. From an aquamarine, cypress-lined pool, descend and enter a chamber called the Ballroom, 130 feet (40 meters) long and 55 feet (17 meters) deep. There you can see water’s artwork in the limestone formations and feel the force of 30-plus million gallons of water per day pouring out of the inner cave entrance.

To graduate to the 6.5 miles (10 kilometers) of passageways in the Devil’s cave system, take a cavern or cave certification course at Ginnie Springs. Claustrophobes be forewarned: The tiniest swim-throughs require divers to take off their tanks to squeeze through. But the reward of these contortions is witnessing a vast watery underworld, some of which still remains unmapped.

Need to Know: Ginnie Springs Outdoors (www.ginniespringsoutdoors.com) is a certified PADI dive center and offers guided dives as well as cave-diving training. Diving Ginnie Springs itself doesn’t require a guide and costs $30 for open-water divers.

Best New Trips in the World: Dive off the Coast of Montserrat

For our annual Adventure Travel issue, we scoured the globe to find the 25 Best New Trips in the World for 2010, complete with a Best Trips photo gallery. Today, we present Montserrat. The world's far corners are now well within reach.

MONTSERRAT: Dusting Off a Volcano 

Fourteen years after Soufrière Hills Volcano first sent pyroclastic debris flying and two-thirds of Montserrat’s population fleeing, the Caribbean island is hanging out its shingle for tourism again. Along the northern (and nonvolcanic) coast, a new airport, hotel, and dive shop are in place to lure visitors to Montserrat’s black-sand beaches and pristine coral reefs. “Montserrat is still the way the Caribbean was 20 years ago,” says Melody Schroer, co-owner of the Green Monkey Dive Shop. “You won’t walk down the beach and get asked if you want your hair braided.” Green Monkey’s new multisport trip puts you on the front lines of the island’s resurgence.

Click here to continue reading "Best New Trips in the World: Montserrat"

Hawaii Protects Coral Reefs With Hefty Fines

Text by Joe Battle

Home to 84 percent of American coral, Hawaii is a must-see destination for snorkelers and divers who come to see the spectacular marine life. Healthy coral reefs are essential to Hawaii's ecosystem—and its number one industry, tourism. To ensure their future, the State of Hawaii is cracking down to protect its greatest resource.

A recent article in the New York Times, “Ruining Coral Draws Fines in Hawaii,” discusses the hefty fines that Hawaii is giving out to anyone who causes damage. No exceptions, not even the US Navy, which the state plans to sue over coral ruined when a guided missile cruiser ran aground near Pearl Harbor in February.

Initially, Hawaii decided to educate people on the consequences of damaging coral rather than using fines. Clearly the polite route did not have as much of an effect as hitting the offenders where it hurts… their wallets. Now tourists and tour companies alike will have to tread carefully unless they want to pay the big bucks.

Beluga Whale Saves Drowning Diver

Text by Laura Buckley

Tack on another reason why we love whales. Last week, a beluga named Mila saved a drowning diver in Harbin, northeast China, the Telegraph reports.

Yang Yun, 26, was competing in a free diving contest to become a whale trainer at the Polar Land Aquarium when her legs suddenly felt paralyzed. In the test, divers had to sink to the bottom of the 20-foot, beluga-filled, arctic pool and stay underwater for as long as possible without breathing equipment. To her horror, Yun's legs cramped in the icy water, making her unable to swim to surface. "I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me – I was dead," Yun said. 

Enter Mila. The beluga spotted Yun and guided her to safety by placing Yun's leg in her mouth (see the video, top, and sorry for the cheese factor). "I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface," Yun said. An organizer of the event credited Mila with saving Yun's life: "She's a sensitive animal who works closely with humans and I think this girl owes her life." Belugas, also called white whales, are social animals and very vocal communicators.