Underwater Cave Diving | Best Job Ever

When you tell people that you do tape tiling, they say, "Oh, you must be an adrenaline junkie!" But in fact, it's the exact opposite. When I get underground and underwater, it's a hundred percent focus, and all you hear is really the sound of your own breath. You're in kind of a, for me, what some people call the flow or the Zen. It's this whole experience of calmness.

When all's going well, all systems go, you just feel like really you're on this magic carpet ride through the underworld. You know, the flip side of being in this otherworldly environment is the danger, and it's a pretty good challenge to go into an underwater cave and come out alive. I've had a lot of friends who died in these caves.

In the moment, you don't let these outside thoughts come in about stream danger. You really just focus on making sure all your systems are going, on navigating. Then you start adding the science: the building, collecting data, taking pictures, different sorts of sampling. It's really a multitasking challenge.

When people ask me what I like best about going into a cave or what's the neatest thing I found, it's less about what I found and more about the experience. I guess the greatest thing I ever found underwater was an ability to keep myself calm. I try to take that and bring it to the surface.

I realized that we're really just scratching the surface of what is really here. I didn't expect anything that beautiful to exist.