PADI Rescue Diver
Liz is a full-time traveler and a PADI Rescue Diver. She loves to explore new places in and out of the water and share her experiences with others.
Liz is a PADI Rescue Diver and a full-time traveler. She covers the scuba side of OutsiderView — certification routes, dive planning and the safety questions new divers ask before their first descent.
15 guides
Scuba divingTutorial
A prescription dive mask is a different purchase from a snorkel mask, and depth is the least of it. Reading a computer is close work, and masks come off.
Series: Snorkeling with glasses
DivingDestination
Located near Perth, Rottnest Island has a unique mix of tropical and cold-water marine life. Here's how to decide when and where to go.
SnorkelingDestination
Roatán sits on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, and bleaching and disease changed what is down there. What each site offers now, the park tag, and when to come.
SnorkelingDestination
Curaçao is shore snorkeling, and half the good entries sit behind a gate with an opening time and a price. Which coast, and what each beach charges now.
Series: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao
Scuba divingTutorial
Nitrox buys you longer no-stop times, but on a standard cylinder you run out of gas before you run out of table at every depth shallower than about 100 feet. The arithmetic, the depth limits, and what fourteen dive shops charged on 10 August 2026.
Series: Getting into scuba
SnorkelingDestination
Bonaire is the best shore-entry snorkeling in the Caribbean: park at a yellow stone and walk in. The $40 nature fee is compulsory, and bleaching changed it.
Series: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao
Scuba divingTutorial
Asthma stopped being a blanket bar to recreational diving years ago; an individual assessment replaced it. What the form asks, and where guidance differs.
Series: Getting into scuba
Scuba divingProduct
A recompression table costs about $1,340 at Medicare rates and the median case needs three of them, before the $20,000 ride to the chamber. DAN, DiveAssure and World Nomads compared on the clauses that decide a claim — checked against the 2026 policy documents.
Series: Getting into scuba
Scuba divingDestination
Rawa is a private island inside Malaysia's largest marine park, with one dive center, one reef and no way to visit for a day. The season, the RM30 fee, what the 2024 bleaching did, and whether you should go to Tioman instead.
Scuba divingTutorial
You have booked a first dive and nobody said what it involves. The age, medical and swimming gates as agencies write them, and what goes wrong on a descent.
Series: Getting into scuba
Scuba divingTutorial
Twelve hours after one dive, eighteen after several — DAN's numbers. What each agency publishes, why driving counts as flying, and what if time has run out.
Series: Getting into scuba
SnorkelingDestination
Dominica's snorkeling is shore-entry, volcanic and deep, and mostly inside one reserve charging US$2 at the water's edge. Where each site is, and what it costs.
SnorkelingDestination
Grenada's snorkeling turns on one site: an underwater sculpture park you need a boat to reach, inside a marine protected area whose fee doubles on 1 October 2026. Where the sculptures are, what a snorkeler can see, and when to come.
Scuba divingTutorial
About $400 to $1,200 to get certified, and where you do it matters most. Every figure comes from a named dive shop or agency price list, read on 31 July 2026.
Series: Getting into scuba
SnorkelingTutorial
One needs a course, a certification and a swim test. The other needs ten minutes and a mask. What each gives you, and why snorkelers often see more reef.
Series: Getting into scuba
