Diving in French Polynesia: a first-timer guide
Here we go for a final round of travel tips to go scuba diving in French Polynesia! I wanted …
Successes & failures of an aspiring responsible diver
We all heard it from our first Open Water class “Only leave bubbles”. Scuba divers have the incredible privilege to witness the beauty of the 71% of the planet that most people will never see. We are a crowd aware of the fragility of our environment with repeated coral bleaching events and marine life choking on plastic. However, to be a responsible diver, the …
Outlaw vs Rogue: full review of Aqualung minimalist BCDs
“No, Florine, it’s not a travel BCD, it’s a minimalist BCD”. You should have seen my face when at Paris Dive Show 2017, Aqualung’s product manager introduced me to the prototype of their brand new concept, the Outlaw. Too late, I was already in love. Minimalism is not something I fancy, it’s my way of living (says the girl who carry 20 kg of …
How to edit underwater photos with the free editor Gimp
Following my blog post which aim was to show the basic techniques on how to take pictures underwater, here are the details of my routine to edit underwater photos. With the open-source editing software Gimp, it is easy (and free) to learn how to edit your underwater pictures to enhance your best scuba diving memories. Even if you couldn’t manage to take beautiful photos, this …
How to take pictures underwater: my top 5 tips for beginners
There’s no greater pleasure for me than to bring back underwater memories from my scuba diving trips whether they are tropical destinations or local dive sites. I love the diversity of aquatic ecosystems. For us, scuba divers, it feels natural to share with family and friends the absolute beauty that lies below the surface. Especially since we are the only ones to witness the …
Diving Yonaguni: Mission Hammerhead Sharks
After my first trip to Okinawa in June last year, I decided to delay my visit to the islands of Yonaguni and Ishigaki to the beginning of this year. Knowing that winter is not the best season for diving Yonaguni because of the winds and currents, why would I do this? The reason I went so early in the season was to see the hammerhead …
Yonaguni Monument : diving a mysterious underwater city in Okinawa
How to go diving in Yonaguni and not exploring the world-famous underwater Yonaguni Monument? On a mission to observe the hammerhead sharks migrating near Yonaguni Island, I got a single opportunity to finally see the mysterious Yonaguni monument. In the middle of the winters when the winds and currents are the strongest, I went scuba diving in a site that had been on my Okinawa …
The 5 truths about my solo scuba diving travels
“And you go… alone?” You have no idea how many time I have been asked this question. So often, that at some point I made up the answer everyone wanted to hear by saying I was joining friends over there. What they didn’t know is that my friends were people I didn’t know yet. I’m not a very good liar and I am tired …
10 reasons to go diving in Ishigaki and the Yaeyama Islands
At 1,956 km from Tokyo, Ishigaki is closer to Taiwan than to its own country’s mainland. The “stone wall island” is the gateway to the archipelago it forms with the islands of Iriomote, Taketomi, Hateruma, Kuroshima and Yonaguni. Ishigaki and the Yaeyama Islands are part of the Okinawa Prefecture, but the vibe here differs. It would be understandable to explore Okinawa Honto (the main …