06/08/2026
Next trip, Cocos 2026.
Cocos is considered by many as the “Mecca” of scuba diving. I have been preparing for this trip for 2 years, and as I always assure my dive buddies —I don’t organize to places I have never been.
My first experience in Cocos was magical: first time to be surrounded by hundreds of hammerhead without chasing them. I had lots of opportunities to shoot them face to face. And just being able to dive a site so far and exotic just add to that excitement (ehem, 36hrs of crossing the open sea made me puke more than 10x despite drinking all types of meds).
I have also wondered how Jacques Cousteau must have felt when he first saw these beautiful sites: the discovery of a new place —only fellow explorers will ever understand. That struggle of wanting to share it to the world, but also wanting to protect it. The growth of how we perceive nature as we travel and gain more affinity with it.
Cocos is the most exclusive dive site I’ve ever seen, because only 10 divers are allowed at a time (plus guides). You will never see it anywhere else in the world. This was done decisively to protect the behavior of sharks, the reef, and most importantly the tiny heroes often unnoticed—the cleaner fish, without them, sharks won’t go there.
Anything can happen there —including nothing. It could mean the wildest experience of your life: where a tiger shark jumps in your speed boat, and will be taken out by an orca to be eaten (yes this happened!), or could be a normal dive with a few sharks here and there.
This part, I have no control over. This part, I just let nature unfolds itself. This part also reveals what kind of diver we are: do we think nature performs for us underwater, or are we merely just visiting to observe?
