Seaweed Rebels Anonymous

I am a citizen of another world. This land is not one everyone ventures into, and even fewer make a home within it. It is a world with mystery and magic, unimaginable creatures and portals that lead to the stuff of dreams. Some call us divers, others just call us crazy, but I prefer the term coined by the journalist and fellow adventurer David Helvarg; Seaweed Rebels.

"Seaweed Rebels" refers to the breed that decides to shed the limitations of land and venture into the cool, blue depths of the Earth. Inhibitions are yielded to the tides as soon as I begin to sink beneath the waves lapping at the top of my head. For a Seaweed Rebel, it is rarely the conditions that make it a perfect dive. Even the days when the rain is unyielding, the storm clouds unwavering, and the waves relentless, the moment you sink beneath the tumbling water the real world is gone. The angst, the babel, the normality. All the flaws of the surface are lost once you begin your descent. When I am diving I reach a point of perfect, uninterrupted happiness. Freed from the anxieties of the surface, I am no longer the nail-biting, klutzy kid I normally am. The stress of the real world has no presence here. The trivial nonsense of the day to day means nothing. It’...