One of the greatest features of KAUST is its proximity to the Red Sea. In fact, when I look out of my apartment window, I see water in the harbor a mere 30 meters away. The campus beach is all of a 10-minute ride away. Countless afternoons friends and I have decided that we don’t need to go back to the office today and that our time might be better spent snorkeling on the reef.

Skin diving is great by virtue about its accessibility. Strictly speaking you just need goggles, but that’s easily augmented with a snorkel and fins - all things you can just throw in a backpack. And in fact, some people can hold their breath for relatively long periods of time. At least, long enough to go down, see something interesting and come back up. However, there are others that take it to a whole different level:

via WonderHowTo

While I’ll continue to work on holding my breath, I think a pony bottle or bailout bottle would be an interesting addition to all this.