Tracking dive site interests

Not all dive sites are equal. Each one has its own character: what you came to see, and the reason you planned the dive in the first place. Today I'm rolling out a change that lets you capture exactly that, by adding interests to any dive site.

An interest is a short, deliberate label for what a dive site is known for. The catalogue is intentionally small: a finite, easy-to-scan classification rather than an overwhelming pile of tags. In this first version there are five:

• Wreck: sunken ships, planes, statues, or any artificial structure on the bottom.
• Cave: any overhead environment, from caverns and tunnels to swim-throughs and full caves.
• Pinnacle: an underwater spire or seamount rising from a deeper bottom (what Italian divers call a secca).
• Wall: a vertical or near-vertical drop-off.
• Reef: coral, rocky reef, or boulder fields.

Interests show up in your dive site list, right next to the name, so the kind of dive is obvious at a glance.

They also appear on the dive site page itself, at the top alongside the name, so the moment you open a site you know whether you're looking at a wreck, a wall, or a reef.

You can add zero or more interests to any site. My recommendation: keep it to two at most. Interests are intentionally broad, and they work best when they are genuinely representative.

Say you have a wreck you reach from shore, with a little plateau where you hang your decompression stop. Don't flag it as wreck + reef; just wreck. The question to ask yourself is simple: what is the reason I plan this dive? That answer is your interest.

Finally, interests come into their own on the map. They make it easy to read the character of an entire area at a glance and to navigate the dive sites around you. Here's a map of dive sites near Civitavecchia, Italy: a nice mix of wrecks, reefs, and other opportunities.

The blue pin is the dive site you're currently looking at; every other site is plotted in the colour of its primary interest, so the map captures the essence of that territory at a glance.

Interests are a small addition, but they change how quickly you can size up a site and plan around it. Add a couple to your favourite spots, and let the map do the rest. Until next time, dive safe! 🤿