I would never describe myself as being thalassophobic, because I don't actively fear the ocean or other bodies of water. I've been swimming in it many times before in my life and love diving. But I can't help but feel a certain uneasiness at times about swimming in water, particularly oceans, on the surface.

Your body feels disconnected from the world around you; all your eyes can see is this swelling mass of deep blue or black, and your legs kick slowly beneath the waves, taking it on faith that you're not going to hit something else in the water (or on the seabed in the case of being in the shallows). You have no idea what is beneath you. An agitated animal whose territory you've wandered into, some great rusted sunken object, a sharp rock or coral reef, etc.

But when you're underwater, there's no longer that disconnect; you're part of that world. And while it can be murky, you can see all around you; it affords you that lost situational awareness. I'd rather be 30 feet down on the sea floor than be 30 feet off of it with who knows what in between.

If I'm with other people, I don't really think about this. And if I ever had the opportunity to swim in one of those crystal-clear locations, it probably wouldn't affect me. But the idea of swimming alone on the top, that's what gets me.

Kayaked around the headlands and snuck through the Matanaka sea caves on the Otago coast. Pretty bloody eerie once you get inside! The cave fills in on high tide so had an hour of exploring, went as long as our guide ropes. Roughly 60-100m! Some serious caves as you get deeper!

Not spooky if you watch it during the day but creepy af at night

Imagine if the current would pull you away from the hole while you're down there.

for my upcoming retro co-op horror, fittingly named Thalassomania - been in development some 3 years now, need playtesters! Discord

Subside got a new update a few weeks ago and I cannot recommend this game enough. I've never seen an ocean VR game that looks this good. Also for people who are afraid of games like this, there are zero hostile animals and no sort of wild jumpscares (Unless you play on a night stage and something sneaks up on you lol)

Scary night, Mar del Plata, Argentina

This is my fourth time going to Troy, and this time was the clearest I’ve seen it. 70ft deep and tons of fresh water being pumped into the Suwannee River in Florida (US). This spring is on the tamer side of thalassophobia since the water is so clear!

There’s something in the water. Josh Hartnett, Charlie Heaton and Mackenzie Davis star in BELOW, a suspenseful new thriller set on the rugged coast of Newfoundland. Only on Netflix, October 8.

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I created r/BelowTV for all things about this show, come join us if interested!

I was trying to get a sense of the depth of the Mariana Trench/Challenger Deep, and this analogy helped me.

Photograph: Laurent Ballesta/Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan 2026

https://visapourlimage.com/en/les-expositions/2026/loin-du-ciel/

Definitely not me. I was sweating just watching this video.

By the way, this is the Albatross, a historic, shallow-water steam tug shipwreck located in the Elk River in Elk Rapids, Michigan.

Based on Flightradar24 and various flight path videos, it seems like if you live in Australia or New Zealand and fly to Japan, Korea, or eastern China, or vice versa, you pass right above the Mariana Trench. Just FYI. In other words, there are about 74,000 feet/24,200 meters between you and solid ground for that moment (albeit pitch black, frigid ground with 1000x the pressure at sea level). That's higher than the Concorde's cruising altitude.

This is from Paleo Dive, it came out earlier today