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Justin Carmack: a journey along his 100 dive list

Justin is a divemaster and world traveler on a mission to dive and document the top 100 dive sites in the world. We interviewed him, as part of our #WhyWeDoIt campaign, to understand why he set off on this incredible journey.

Why did you leave it all behind?

I was in University studying business and history, and I didn’t really know what I was going to do. We ended up going on an international trip, and I instantly knew I just wanted to travel the world.

On that trip I got scuba certified with PADI in Mozambique. I encountered whale sharks and giant manta rays – and I instantly fell in love with the sport. I knew it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, so I started studying how to make it a business and, after a while, it started working.

Diving completely changed my life. I was forging along the normal path, and somehow managed to alter my trajectory, and found something that makes me feel completely whole. No matter how many problems I may go through in a day, I don’t care whatā€™s going on – I jump into the water and I don’t think about a single one of those things. Some people do yoga, some people go meditate all day – I just go diving.

Walk us through your first dive experience.

It was the main turning point in my life. I felt at one with the ocean. I had joined a large university group, I recall us going straight to the bottom and someone was having a problem so the instructor asked me to stay put – and I loved it. They said I was a natural. So while they were trying to help these guys I was just searching around, exploring, coming across various marine life. I didn’t even know how to go beyond 10 meters, but I was just hooked. That was history. It just went on from there.

“No matter how many problems I may go through in a day, I jump into the water and Ā I don’t think about a single one of those things”

 

What do you feel every time you go underwater?

Iā€™ve managed to turn this into a career, but that hasnā€™t tainted my passion for the sport. I just had to find a way to turn it into a living. On land, Iā€™m not going to climb a mountain, and Iā€™m certainly not the most agile – I must admit Iā€™m pretty clumsy!

But when I get in the water, Iā€™m like a turtle, itā€™s my world. Iā€™m completely comfortable and can dive with the best of them. I feel like an explorer every time I dive. I have been all over the world, and I truly feel that the only real frontier left is the ocean. I can go on 100 dives in the same spot and still see something new every time, and itā€™s amazing. Itā€™s stuff that 90% of people on earth will not see.

Was there a particular dive that spurred your passion to go along this 100 dive project?

Not really. It just naturally came together whilst I was traveling the world. My love is traveling and diving. Thereā€™s no better combination really. Thatā€™s how I started getting a following – after sharing crazy photos and videos around the world. I started to get feedback from people telling me – you need to go here, you need to go there! And it got me thinkingā€¦ actually yes, I do! So I started to compile the 100 dive list that was recommended to me, and here I am along the journey.

Through my blog I want to show the whole world whatā€™s out there. Be it the wrecks in Egypt or marine life in the Maldives. People are naturally curious and will, hopefully, want to see it for themselves. If I manage to spark curiosity and a sense of adventure in their lives, then I feel Iā€™ve managed to get my message across.

What is the most exciting thing youā€™ve seen underwater?

There isnā€™t one single memory. Every time I head underwater I get excited. In Egypt I really get excited when I see little sea slugs, or in the Philippines, every day is exciting as the sea slugs are completely different. From blue ones to fluorescent ones. I find this all fascinating. The uglier or the weirder looking, the more I love it!

Whale sharks. They are the other thing I truly love. Iā€™ve seen them in Mexico, in the Philippines – those things are crazy. They are truly majestic, and you just want to be around them.Ā 

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“I have been all over the world, and I truly feel that the only real frontier left is the ocean”

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What have you learnt from all these experiences?

In all brutal honesty, what Iā€™ve come to learn is rather sad. I travel to the most exotic places, and right on land there are a million people who do not care about the ocean. Iā€™ll step off the beaten track into the ocean, and discover a whole ecosystem that not one of these people would have seen, or even cares about.

This is one of the main reasons why I started this, to show people what there is out there. As Jacques Cousteau said: ā€œYou have to love something before you can care about it or save itā€.

Find that passion and make that your lifestyle, instead of putting it off for your whole life. You have to find what you love, because that will make your life a thousand times better, no matter what it is.

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