Dark Side of the Reel

Technical Diving · Wreck Exploration · CCR

Dark Side of the Reel

Where the light ends, exploration begins.

Watch the dives Subscribe on YouTube
Disciplines
OC · CCR · Deco
Targets
Wrecks · Walls · Reefs
Regions
Florida Keys · NJ · Bonaire · TCI
Status
Descending
Begin descent

10 m The Dark Side

Beyond the reef.
Beneath the surface.

Most dives end where the reef ends. Ours start there.

Dark Side of the Reel follows technical dives past normal recreational limits: onto shipwrecks, down deep walls, on rebreathers, and into water where the light fades out.

You won't find a highlight reel here. Every dive gets its planning, its gear and its gas, and afterwards an honest look at what went right, what didn't, and what we'd change next time.

18 m Featured Dives

Watch the descent

Full dives, straight from the helmet cam: the plan, the descent, the bottom time and the long way back up.

Watch on YouTube

Key Largo, FLWreckDeep

Spiegel Grove: 510 feet of navy steel

A penetration-minded tour of one of the largest artificial reefs in the world. We cover the gas plan, the current and the scale of a ship you can't see end to end.

Watch on YouTube

New JerseyCCRIncident

One Forgotten Step

My rebreather accident on the USS Algol: one missed step in the pre-dive routine and what it cost on the bottom.

Watch on YouTube

New JerseyWreckCold water

Algol: green water, Jersey Shore

Atlantic wreck diving: cold, dark and low-vis, and worth every minute.

Watch on YouTube

BonaireWreck

Hilma Hooker: the smuggler's wreck

A cargo ship with a colourful past, lying on her side off Bonaire's shore.

Watch on YouTube

BonaireCCRSkills

Technical skills at Captain Don's Habitat

Bailouts, valve drills and trim work on the house reef until they become muscle memory.

All videos on YouTube

20 m Coming Soon

Still in the edit bay

The next story we're cutting right now. Subscribe and you'll catch it the day it drops.

Coming soon

CuraçaoShore divingLionfish

Curaçao

“He Just Got Open Water Certified… Then We Went Lionfish Hunting.”

A freshly certified diver, a week of Curaçao shore dives, and a lionfish hunt.

Release Coming soon

25 m Marine Life

The locals down here

Wrecks turn into reefs, and reefs are full of life. These are the animals that share the water with us, from Caribbean walls to Atlantic steel.

Bobby on a rebreather with a camera rig on the Bonaire reef slope, open blue water behind

Bonaire

Slopes that drop into blue

The reef falls away into open water, and the big animals come in from the deep.

Stephen and Frank on rebreathers gliding over a Bonaire coral reef

Bonaire

Shore-diving reefs

A protected marine park with healthy coral, a thousand small details and room to slow down.

Bobby on a rebreather over the growth-covered deck of the Miss Lourdes wreck

Every wreck

Steel turned reef

Schooling fish, encrusted railings and the animals that move into a ship after it sinks.

40 m Wreck Exploration

The wreck files

Every wreck has a history, a layout and a set of hazards. Here's the file on each ship we've dived.

File 01

Spiegel Grove

Location
Key Largo, Florida Keys
Type
US Navy dock landing ship (LSD-32)
Length
510 ft / 155 m
Sunk
2002, as an artificial reef
Depth
~60–130 ft / 18–40 m

She rolled over when she sank early during scuttling. Hurricane Dennis pushed her upright in 2005.

File 02

SS Benwood

Location
Key Largo, Florida Keys
Type
Steel-hulled freighter, built 1910
Sunk
April 1942, collision during wartime blackout
Depth
~25–45 ft / 8–14 m

Running without lights to avoid U-boats, she collided with another darkened ship.

File 03

USS Algol

Location
Off the Jersey Shore
Type
WWII-era US Navy attack cargo ship
Status
Artificial reef
Depth
See video

North Atlantic conditions: cold water, limited light and a wreck you have to earn.

File 04

Hilma Hooker

Location
Kralendijk, Bonaire
Type
Cargo freighter, 236 ft / 72 m
Sunk
September 1984
Depth
~60–100 ft / 18–30 m

Impounded in 1984 with a hidden cargo of drugs, she later sank at her mooring.

60 m Technical Diving

Past the limits, by design

Technical diving isn't reckless. It's deliberate: more gas, more redundancy, more planning and more practice than recreational diving needs.

  • CCR

    Closed-circuit rebreathers

    Scrubbed, recycled gas at a controlled PO₂, giving long bottom times with almost no bubbles. It demands constant attention.

  • GAS

    Gas planning

    Mixes, reserves, turn pressures and bailout, all worked out on the surface before anyone gets wet.

  • DECO

    Decompression

    The dive isn't over at the bottom. Stops, ascent profiles and patience on the way back up.

  • RDN

    Redundancy & bailout

    If one thing fails, a backup takes over. Two of everything that matters.

  • SKL

    Skills & drills

    Valve drills, bailout ascents and trim, practised at places like Captain Don's Habitat in Bonaire.

  • TEAM

    Team & checks

    Briefings, buddy checks and a shared plan. Nobody dives the dark side alone.

  • rEvo closed-circuit rebreather on the bench, front view with counterlungs and handset

    rEvo CCR · Front

  • Three rebreathers built and hanging in the tech equipment area in Bonaire

    Built & ready · Bonaire

  • Back of the rEvo rebreather showing twin scrubber canisters and cylinders

    rEvo CCR · Back

  • Bobby holding a deco stop on the rebreather over a sand bottom in Bonaire

    Deco stop · Bonaire

  • Bobby standing in front of a multiplace hyperbaric chamber

    Hyperbaric chamber

  • View through the hatch into a hyperbaric chamber with seats and medical equipment

    Inside the chamber

Safety note: Technical and rebreather diving need specific training, certification and experience. Nothing on this channel is instruction. Get trained by a qualified instructor.

70 m Dive Calculators

Run the numbers.
Before you get wet.

Work out your surface air consumption (SAC) and RMV from a real dive: starting and ending pressure, tank size, depth and time.

Check the maximum operating depth of any nitrox or trimix at PO₂ 1.4 and 1.6, or enter a planned depth to get the best nitrox and trimix that keep you inside your PO₂ and END limits. Every result shows the equation behind it, so you can check the maths yourself.

Open the calculators

80 m Dive Logs

Stories from the logbook

The parts that don't fit in a video: the planning, the dive that got called, and the lessons that came home with us.

Log
#—
Site
Spiegel Grove
Max
— m
Run
— min

Planning a dive on a ship you can't see

On a 510-foot wreck, navigation is gas management. This log is about how we plan the route, the turn and the way back.

Lesson Plan the exit before the entry.

Full story coming soon

Log
#—
Site
Algol
Max
— m
Run
— min

Green water and cold steel

Atlantic wreck diving with limited visibility, cold water and currents, and the prep that keeps it fun.

Lesson Visibility is a plan input, not a surprise.

Full story coming soon

Log
#—
Site
Bonaire
Max
— m
Run
— min

Skills week on the rebreather

Drills on repeat on a forgiving reef, because muscle memory is built long before you need it.

Lesson Practise failures where failure is cheap.

Full story coming soon

Log
#—
Site
—
Max
— m
Run
— min

The dive we called

Sometimes the best decision of the day is to end the dive. A look at thumbing a dive and why it's never a failure.

Lesson Any diver, any time, any reason.

Full story coming soon

95 m Game

Baby Narc Deep.
Play the dive.

Clip in to the rebreather and drop onto the Andrea Doria. Collect artifacts from the wreck, dodge the sharks and keep your PO₂ in range.

Pick your gas mix, watch your loop and do your deco stops on the way back up. Runs in the browser on desktop and mobile.

Play Baby Narc Deep

05 m Surface interval

Behind the reel

Dark Side of the Reel is made by a technical diver and wreck enthusiast who carries a camera everywhere the dive plan allows.

The channel started as a way to relive the dives. It turned into a record of learning: new gear, new training, new wrecks, and honest notes on the mistakes along the way.

If you're working toward tech, already on a rebreather, or just curious what's down there, welcome aboard.

Platform
Open circuit & CCR
Focus
Wrecks, deep & technical
Home waters
New Jersey
Certifications
Technical Divemaster
Cameras
Insta360 X5 · Insta360 Ace Pro 2 · Olympus TG-7
Lights
Leton Pro · 9,000 lumens each
Dark Side of the Reel logo: a rebreather diver over a shipwreck, seen through an orange porthole