Scuba X Travel & SXT Adventures

09/14/2026

Sam called sh***un. Passenger Seat brought the stories. 🐾🚗

Niki stepped away from flying, digging in the dirt, planning trips, and her approximately 50 other jobs. Rusty traded California diving for mountain views. They left for Colorado on Friday, with Sam along to supervise, and now they’re exploring.

Their extra travel companion? Passenger Seat.

Ever passed an old building, an unusual landmark, or a little town and wondered, “What’s the story there?” Usually, the question disappears in the rearview mirror.

Passenger Seat is an app for iPhone and Android that finds interesting places along your drive and tells you their stories out loud. Local history, landmarks, and details you’d otherwise miss, without someone spending the whole drive Googling.

Before you set off, open the app and turn on Live monitoring. Then let the stories come to you.

Niki and Rusty are loving it and asked us to share. On Sunday alone, it brought up nine discoveries along their drive. The screenshot in this graphic is one Niki sent us: a story playing while the place was still four miles ahead.

Try it on a road trip, a weekend adventure, or the scenic way home.

Comment SAM and we’ll send you the link to try Passenger Seat free. 🐾

09/14/2026

More on Cocos, since a few of you wrote in after the last one 🦈

What makes it special is honestly also what makes it demanding. It sits a long way offshore in the eastern Pacific, so getting there is a proper crossing, not a quick hop. And that distance is the entire point. It is what keeps the place wild. Hammerheads school here in a way that is genuinely rare anywhere else, and whale sharks move through.

This is an expedition for divers comfortable in current and at depth, Advanced Open Water recommended. Ten nights aboard plus a hotel night, seven days of diving, up to 21 dives. July 7 to 18, 2027. From $9,899.

And if you are working TOWARD a trip like this rather than ready for it today? Talk to me anyway. I am very happy to tell you honestly whether you are ready and what to work on first.

Trip page: https://sxt.travel/ci27

09/11/2026

Join SSA and SXT Adventures on the First Ever Manta Ray Safari in SoCal! The warm water, 80 degrees, has brought these gentle giants to our waters! Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dive with them at San Clemente Island.
Here's your link to purchase your ticket:
https://conta.cc/4xp2QRH

09/11/2026

"I get seasick. Should I just not book a liveaboard?"

No. But I am not going to pretend it is nothing either 🌊

Here is the honest version. Most people who think they get seasick are fine on a liveaboard, because the boat is usually anchored or moving slowly between sites, not pounding through open ocean. The rough bit is generally the crossing, and that is often overnight while you are asleep.

What actually works, in the order I recommend it: start your medication BEFORE you leave the dock, not when you already feel green. Stay on deck and look at the horizon. Eat something plain. Get in the water, because underwater there is no motion at all and people are consistently amazed by this.

What does not work: toughing it out, going below to lie down, or having four drinks the night before the crossing.

And if a particular trip has a genuinely rough crossing, I will tell you before you book. Cocos, for example, is a real crossing. That is a fair thing to know in advance.

Are you a seasick diver who cracked it? Share your trick in the comments, because somebody here needs it 😌

09/10/2026

People are always a bit surprised that we run a trip straight through the holidays. Here is why I keep doing it.

There is something about spending New Year's somewhere warm, with a small group that started the week as strangers and ends it as friends, that genuinely resets you for the year ahead. No rush, no crowds, no obligations. Just good diving, good food, and a quiet kind of celebration most people never get 🌴

December 26 to January 7. 20 dives, oceanview rooms, meals handled, plus a few SXT touches like the reef-building dive and a massage built into the week.

$5,495 per diver, double occupancy. Open Water and up.

If a different kind of new year sounds right to you, tell me. It is my favorite trip to run and I am not even slightly objective about it 😊

Trip details: https://sxt.travel/pn26

09/09/2026

"My partner does not dive. Is there any point in us coming?"

Genuinely one of my favorite questions, because the answer is a very enthusiastic yes 🌴

Some of our trips are brilliant for a non-diver and some are honestly not. That is the whole trick, and it is why I would rather you ask me than guess.

The Philippines and the Bahamas are both great for it. There is a beach, there is a boat, there are kayaks and paddleboards and shore excursions and a perfectly good chair with your name on it. Africa is even easier because nobody is diving at all.

A remote liveaboard where the boat is at sea for a week and the only activity is diving? That is a harder sell, and I will tell you so rather than take your money and let you find out.

We even have a name for the happiest version of this. Deck ornament. Said with love, usually by the deck ornament themselves, holding a drink 🍹

So tell me: are you the diver, or the deck ornament? And has your person ever been converted?

09/08/2026

THE DIVING NEWS FOR THIS WEEK IS HERE! CHECK OUT THE NEWEST IN CUSTOM WETSUITS FROM Z90
https://conta.cc/4idib46

Email from Scuba Schools of America & Swim The Diving News for This Week is Here! All new custom Z90 Wetsuit Designer is here!     THE MOST ACTIVE DIVE STORE IN THE GALAXY!!! MORE THAN JUST A DIVE ST

09/08/2026

The Bahamas trip is the one our travelers rebook before they have even unpacked. I am not exaggerating, it usually happens on the flight home 🏝️

I think it is the mix. Up to 26 dives across seven nights, sharks and reefs and wrecks, free Nitrox that we include, and then kayaks and paddleboards and shore time for the hours you are not underwater. Easy diving, easy company, and people come back for both.

April 3 to 10, 2027. From $4,395, Open Water and up, with triple and quad cabins if you are bringing your people.

If you came last time, you already know. If you have not been... tell me and I will give you the completely unfiltered version of what to expect 😊

Details: https://sxt.travel/rb27

09/08/2026

TUESDAY TRIP TALES 🐢

Rusty took this in the Galapagos, September 2024.

Look past the turtle for a second and look at the WALL. All that orange and purple and yellow crust is living animal: sponges, tunicates, cup corals, all of it feeding on the cold nutrient-rich water that gets pushed up around these islands.

That is the strange thing about Galapagos diving that nobody warns you about. It is not a warm bathwater tropical reef. It is cold, it is often green, there is frequently current, and it is absolutely teeming because of exactly those things. Bring the thicker wetsuit. Genuinely.

And the animals there have no real fear of people, so a turtle like this just... stays. Carries on with its day while six humans hover politely nearby 😊

What is the place that looked completely different underwater than you expected going in?

Photo: Rusty Berry

Where we are headed next: https://sxt.travel/trips

09/07/2026

One thing came through loud and clear during our webinar: SXT adventures do not always need tanks.

The live poll showed real excitement for hiking, food, culture, wildlife, and land-based travel alongside the dive trips you already know us for. Tour du Mont Blanc, Italy, Australia, East Africa, Peru, and more are all part of the conversation.

So we want to keep the question going: if your next SXT trip did not include scuba, where would you want us to take you?

Tell us in the comments. Your answer may help decide what gets built next.

Want to hear the full discussion first? Watch the recording from the first comment.