Miles BelowJoin the waitlist
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Sweetlips under a table coral, Misool
The scored guide to dive destinations

Miles Below

keeps an honest record of the ocean, and tells the truth about where to dive it.

95 · Misoolthe best of them · below
01Where

Where should you go?

Ranked by the reef. Each with the months it is at its best; the operator has its own score on the guide.

01MisoolSouthern Raja Ampat, Indonesia · AdvancedBest Oct–Apr9502Dampier StraitNorthern Raja Ampat, Indonesia · AdvancedBest Nov–Mar9303GalápagosEcuador · ExpeditionBest Jun–Oct9004WakatobiSoutheast Sulawesi, Indonesia · IntermediateBest Apr–Jun8705God's PocketBrowning Pass · Port Hardy, British Columbia · DemandingBest Mar–Apr8506Bangka ArchipelagoNorth Sulawesi, Indonesia · AdvancedBest Apr–Oct80
Every destination, ranked for you
02This month
This month

Somewhere is always at its best

Resorts close, seas turn, plankton comes and brings the mantas with it. The bar is how many places are at their best that month; the list is which. This month is .

    03The trip
    Misool
    Trip · Nov 2030 · Waitlist open

    Dive Misool with the person who scored it

    The northwest season has settled by November and the reserve is at its most reliable. Mantas are on the cleaning stations, the soft coral is open, and the water has not yet gone milky.

    95 place97 Misool ResortAdvanced10 guestsTen days
    The trip, the money and the termsRead the guide

    Also in the works: God's Pocket 2028 TBC · Maldives 2028 TBC

    04Prints
    Fine prints

    The ones worth looking at twice

    Every frame came off a dive on this site. Signed editions of twenty, ten and five — the bigger the print, the fewer there are. Open editions from $150 USD.

    Soft coral crab, Misool
    Soft coral crabSigned edition of 20 · $300
    Sweetlips table coral, Misool
    Sweetlips table coralSigned edition of 20 · $300
    Whip coral goby, Apo Island
    Whip coral gobySigned edition of 20 · $300
    Orangutan crab anemone close, Bangka Archipelago
    Orangutan crab anemone closeSigned edition of 20 · $300
    The library
    05Who
    Miles Nurse

    A recommendation is only worth something from somebody willing to publish a bad review

    Thirty years underwater, seven thousand dives, five of those years working the boats. Every score here was arrived at wet, on a trip I paid for, and published whether or not it flattered the place; the lowest is on the page next to the highest.

    Nothing here is arranged. No animal is fed, baited, handled or moved to make a picture, and no destination is sold on commission.

    Who is scoring, and the record
    Miles Nurse with camera and twin video lights, framed in a coral swim-through, Raja Ampat
    06The list
    The list

    Trips are announced to this list first

    Small groups, filled from this list first. Plus each new guide as it is finished. Four or five emails a year.

    Unsubscribe in one click. The address goes nowhere else.
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