Snorkeling points, scuba, swimming and freediving — mapped

Tools

Snorkel and dive points

Every named point from the atlas — filter by snorkel, scuba, freedive, surf or swim.

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Which water activity fits you?

Twelve questions, twenty-four topics. Priorities across access, craft, kit, risk, season and wow reorder the list.

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Compare water topics

Put up to six topics side by side on accessibility, skill ceiling, gear, risk, seasonality and wow.

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Best-of water-play rankings

Every topic ranked by one score axis at a time.

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Water-play head-to-heads

Snorkel versus scuba, Palau versus Raja Ampat, pool versus open water.

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Water-play glossary

Score axes and nicknames used across this atlas.

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Cross-cutting

Point atlas

Every named snorkel and dive point in this atlas, filterable.

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Safety

Cross-cutting hazards, red flags and first response.

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Season

Wind, monsoon, vis and why calendars beat slogans.

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Browse topics

🏊 Swim

4

🏊

Pool swimming

Lane discipline, stroke mechanics and public-bath access — the lowest-friction way most people first meet structured water time.

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🌊

Open-water swimming

Lakes, rivers and seas without a wall — sighting, temperature and the difference between a lido and a 10 km World Aquatics race.

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🧒

Kids swimming

The public-health version of swimming — staged lessons, touch supervision and the long gap between a 10-metre badge and a safe beach.

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🏅

Competitive swimming

World Aquatics rulebook swimming — four strokes, a pace clock, and the gap between a club heat and an Olympic final.

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🤿 Snorkel

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🤿

Snorkeling

Mask, snorkel and fins at the surface — the highest-wow, lowest-gear way to see a reef without a cylinder.

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🪸

Reef etiquette

The rulebook that sits under every snorkel and dive — no standing, no chasing, no souvenirs, and why parks now say it in five languages.

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🫧 Scuba

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🫧

Recreational scuba

Open-water scuba to 18–40 m — PADI, SSI and the difference between a holiday course and a craft.

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🚢

Wreck diving

Ships as reefs and as overhead environments — from the Yongala and Thistlegorm exteriors to cavern-style penetration risk.

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🌙

Night diving

Scuba after civil twilight — lights, buddy distance and a risk score that sits with wrecks, not with pool lanes.

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🫁 Freedive

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🫁

Freediving

Breath-hold depth as a craft — AIDA and CMAS sport, plus the recreational duck-dive that is not a blackout contest.

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🛟

Freedive safety

The buddy, the surface protocol and why hyperventilation is not a trick — a safety chapter, not a medical manual.

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🏄 Surface

3

🏄

Surfing

Riding breaking waves on a board — Polynesian roots, a high skill ceiling, and a seasonality score that follows swell, not a pool timetable.

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🛶

Stand-up paddle

Standing on a wide board with a long paddle: Hawaiian beach-boy roots, a mid-skill flat-water craft, and a surf variant that is not a shortboard.

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🦺

Water safety

Flags, barriers and supervision: the public-health layer under every swim, snorkel and paddle, scored for access rather than spectacle.

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🗺️ Points of the world

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🐠

Great Barrier Reef

The world's largest coral-reef system: GBRMPA zoning, a 1981 UNESCO listing, and snorkel pontoons that sit beside wrecks like the Yongala.

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🪼

Palau

Micronesian reefs and a jellyfish lake: Blue Corner currents, a 2009 shark sanctuary, and the Palau Pledge stamped in 2017.

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🏝️

Maldives

Twenty-six atolls of thilas and channels: house reefs, Hanifaru manta season, and a resort geography that is not a single lagoon.

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🦜

Raja Ampat

The Four Kings of West Papua: Cape Kri fish counts, manta sanctuaries, a PIN entry ticket, and reefs that set the wow-factor ceiling of this atlas.

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🌅

Red Sea

A rift-sea of walls and wrecks: Ras Mohammed, the Thistlegorm, Dahab's Blue Hole, and a year-round seasonality score that still bows to wind.

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🌺

Hawaii

A volcanic archipelago of bays and breaks: Hanauma tickets, Kona manta nights, Kealakekua walls, and a 2018 sunscreen statute.

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🌴

Caribbean

A sea of walls, wrecks and marine parks: Hol Chan, Palancar, Bloody Bay Wall, Bonaire shore tags, and a Kittiwake that was sunk on purpose.

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🌋

Jeju

A volcanic Korean island of haenyeo coasts: Munseom, Beomseom, Udo, and a 2016 UNESCO listing for women divers who work on one breath.

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🐬

Philippines

An archipelago of community reefs and wrecks: Apo Island, Coron, Tubbataha, Malapascua threshers, and a March-June park season in the Sulu Sea.

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🐢

Okinawa

A Ryukyu chain of parks and limestone: Kerama National Park, Ishigaki manta water, the Blue Cave at Cape Maeda, and a temperate-to-subtropical season.

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