50ft below notes for divers
50ft

About

Honest dive notes from a diver who pays attention.

Who's writing this

I'm Mac. I dive — about ten years now, came to it late, worked up the stack the long way. I'm not a dive pro and I don't work in the industry. What I am is someone who's spent thirty years walking into rooms full of experts in things I didn't know yet — hardware, code, building events, coaching a robotics team, raising goats that don't read the manual — reading hard, trying things, and sharing what I figured out. Diving's just the most recent one. I'm not the foremost authority on any of this. I'm a guy who pays attention, and I'll tell you which parts I'm sure of and which I'm still working out.

Why this exists

The dive industry has a gatekeeping problem. New divers hit a wall of know-it-alls. Lapsed divers get told they need a $150 course before anyone will let them back in the water. I built this to be the opposite of that. Every piece gets one question: did this lower the bar for someone, or raise it? If it raised it, I rewrite it or kill it.

What I don't write about

This isn't for everyone, and that's fine. I don't do technical-diving content, I don't do underwater photography tips, and I don't do conservation as activism. Plenty of people do those well. If you're a new diver, a lapsed diver, or someone curious about getting in the water, this is written for you.

How I handle gear and money

A word on gear and money, because it matters. I run a small dive-gear business on the side (Rosemont Scuba). As this grows, companies will probably start sending me things to test. Here's the deal: if something was sent to me, I'll say so. If I'm pointing you at something I sell, I'll say that too. Either way the take doesn't change — if a piece of kit isn't worth your money, I'll tell you, mine included. Nobody buys the opinion. That's the whole thing.

The kinds of notes

The notes range across honest takes on the industry, gear reality checks, safety briefs worth learning from, trip notes from places I've actually been, conservation without the guilt-trip, and a lot of writing aimed squarely at people coming back or just starting out.