Twenty-five years ago, I opened a dive center in Guam called Professional Sports Divers. This was the first dedicated technical diving center in the Western Pacific, but we also taught people to dive and took fun divers out to see Guam’s reefs and wrecks.

After a smooth night crossing from San Diego, I awoke to the sound of a freed anchor and the gentle tug as it sat firm in the sand. I rose to the deck, eyes wide once the morning’s coffee was prepared, to an almost glass-like sea near the southern tip of San Clemente Island. Cloudy skies presented a grayness over the ocean, but it was no indication of the vibrance and solitude I would soon find beneath the waves.

The two-hour drive south had ended with a spectacular sunrise, saturating the coast in a deep pink that one could feel and breathe. I arrived early to ensure I could find a much-coveted parking space. It was clear and calm—the reason I picked today for a dive trip down the coast.

This first dive would be solo, shallow and relaxing. I wandered back to the car to begin laying out my gear: a 7mm wetsuit, 5mm hooded vest, gloves, booties and, of course, my trusty camera, with wide-angle lens and dome port attached.

An avid diver for over 20 years, Brent Durand is a widely published underwater photographer and dive writer who has served as editor-in-chief of the Underwater Photography Guide and imaging expert at Scuba Diving Magazine and Sport Diver. With a reputation for insightful-yet-simple reviews and tutorial articles, he has written for most of the top dive publications. Helping hundreds of divers “take their photography to the next level,” Durand has led underwater photography workshops in California, the Bahamas, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The manta rays in Kona waters belong to the Mobula alfredi species. These are reef mantas and, unlike other species, these mantas do not migrate. They spend their lives in the coastal waters of Hawaii. This is the second largest species of mantas and can have a fin span of up to 5.5m (18ft).

Just like all manta rays, they are filter feeders. Mantas swim with their mouth open and take in large amounts of zooplankton. At night, light attracts the zooplankton, and the plankton attracts the mantas.

The parking lot was empty as we unloaded and set up our gear on a downed redwood tree trunk. Today would be a wetsuit dive, since my dive buddy and I would be doing a lot of swimming. The cool steel 117 (15L) tanks were filled to the max. Ziiiiiip.

Snap. Clip. Clip. Zzzzzzzz. Hoooofff.

“OK. Let’s do it.”

Sand tiger sharks (Carcharias taurus) look mean but in reality, they are quite docile. As I watched, at least 12 sharks crisscrossed the Caribsea wreck; they almost seemed to be in a perfect state of Zen. Easily identifiable by their pointy, cone-shaped heads (and also by their jagged and fierce-looking teeth, which show even when their mouths are closed), the tops of their bodies are a dark gray with darker colored spots, and their undersides are bright white. Their tails also have the unique characteristic of a notched upper lobe.

Wreck diving is one of my favorite types of diving because I love the history of how the wrecks came to be underwater, and North Carolina has plenty of that. The history of more than 2,000 wrecks lie in the waters off this eastern state and the stories range from pirates, the Civil War, World Wars, hurricanes, storms and other maritime mistakes that took down good ships. The Graveyard extends along the entire North Carolina coast.

The Yukon. The ship entered service in 1963. The Yukon was mostly used as a training ship. Built on the west coast in North Vancouver, the Yukon was immediately transferred to the east coast. Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia she remained on the east coast for a year, as part of the First Canadian Escort Squadron. The Yukon escorted Queen Elizabeth II aboard the HMY Britannia on visits to several Canadian port cities. She returned to the Pacific in 1965.

Visibility varies but can be more than 30m (100ft). The best diving conditions are between June and October, with late June to early August being the best.

Because of the sea conditions and the German “artificial reef program” of World War I and II, this area is nicknamed the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” More than 1,000 vessels have been confirmed in the shipwreck inventory conducted at the Outer Banks History Center on Roanoke Island. There are many more wrecks that have not been discovered or identified yet. Many of these wrecks are in diveable waters.

Thanks go to Atlantis Charters and Olympus Dive Center.