Shore diving can be the ultimate do-it-yourself adventure. Beyond choosing your schedule, planning your profile, and staying down as long as you please, you can access sites that some commercial operators wouldn’t touch. We asked locals about eight of the most extreme shore dives on the planet, from British Columbia to Bonaire, Maui, Vanuatu and beyond. Are you up to the challenge?

There are a lot of deadbeat dads in the animal kingdom, but an exceptional few ocean species swing the other way entirely. These standup fathers go above and beyond to birth their young amid the bustle and danger of the oceans.

Go eye to eye with one of the ocean’s mightiest apex predators, the great white shark. 

Alexandra Swanson wins lIve-aboard trip to the Great Barrier Reef for her scuba diving certification from PADI