The underwater world can be peaceful and serene or wildly thrilling. Scuba diving among colorful coral and fantastic marine wildlife is an aquatic adventure that will exhilarate and inspire awe. Water covers over two-fifths of our earth, so there is unlimited exploration waiting out there. Here are three top picks for thrills and adventure under water.

Great Blue Hole, Belize Great Barrier Reef – Jacques-Yves Cousteau declared it one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. 60 miles and a two hour boat ride off the mainland, the Great Blue Hole lies in the Lighthouse Reef Atoll. Trips leave early in the morning and the open water portion of the ride can be a rough ride. The collapsed limestone vertical cave is over 1,000 feet in diameter and over 400 feet deep. The crystal clear water has 200-foot visibility and virtually no current. While there are very few fish to see other than the occasional shark, the walls of this former cavern are overhangs and ledges, covered in ancient stalactites, stalagmites and columns. Scuba diving in the Great Blue Hole is a rare and wonderful experience, but not one for inexperienced or resort-qualified divers. It is a technical category decompression dive, typically going to a depth of 150 feet for eight minutes and excellent buoyancy control is required. I don’t have the diving skills to do this one, but for those who do, the drama of the sheer walls and swimming among the huge stalactites has been compared to a religious experience!

Manta Ray Night Dive, Kona, Hawaii – Viewing huge manta rays swooping gracefully through the water is an enchanting experience that is considered one of the great wonders of the underwater world and there is no better place to do it than the Big Island of Hawaii. The Pacific manta ray wing span averages five to eight feet but they can reach well over 14 feet. They don’t have teeth or stingers and are quite harmless, so it is an entirely safe thrill. Scuba divers descend about 25 feet to rest motionless on the ocean floor and shine flash lights up into the dark water to draw masses of plankton that the rays feed on. Snorkelers can do the same floating on the top, shining lights downward, but the trick for both is to stay still because the manta rays are shy. The huge and graceful manta rays fly into the shaft of light, funneling water into their wide-open mouths with their cephalic fins. I can attest that their dance is nothing short of magical!

Shark Diving, Tiger Beach, Bahamas – For truly thrilling dive adventure, take a dip with the ocean’s most fearsome predators in the shark diving mecca near Freeport, Grand Bahama. Tiger sharks are, well, sharks and they can be curious and aggressive toward humans so they deserve a great deal of respect. But divers can safely view 10-15 foot Tiger sharks with the use of cages and a reputable dive operator. Caribbean Reef sharks and Lemon Sharks are regarded as a bit “safer”, so divers can do cage-less dives with a safety diver in place in certain areas. I’m game to try shark diving, but I think I’ll stick to the cages. The season is September through November and the early season tends to have higher concentrations of sharks, but the larger sharks appear during late season. You must be a certified scuba diver to shark dive, but snorkelers can enjoy frolicking with wild spotted dolphins in the Bahamas too!

So grab your regulator and fins and pick your next dive adventure. Let Covington’s adventure advisors arrange all the details for a fabulous dive trip that will make all the land lubbers jealous.