The first reaction was instant and entirely human.

“Gosh… I look so young.”

Jim Standing had just revisited the old interview and profile we had published in 2005. His co-founder, fellow director and visionary, Paul Strike (“Strikey”), had expressed pretty much the same sentiment when we put the old article in front of him. Both men, who built Fourth Element from the ground up, were looking back, not just at themselves, but at the early articulation of an idea we were now returning to, two decades on, to revisit and reassess.

The Republic of Palau is a country consisting of a collection of islands spread over a large area of the western Pacific Ocean. It lies east of the Philippines and north of the huge island of New Guinea. Geographically, it is part of the Caroline Islands, which in turn form part of a region known as Micronesia.

I clearly remember the day I reached out to Arlindo. I accidentally stumbled across a post or advertisement for the inaugural Diving Talks conference in Portugal, and it caught my attention and made me pause. I immediately, or perhaps instinctively, sensed that here was something fresh, new and out of the ordinary in the making, a project that needed all the support it could get. So, I reached out and offered our assistance, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Norway: two sides of the same coin. Tell us about winter diving beyond the Arctic Circle.

Last December, in the middle of winter, I organised a dive trip to the wrecks of Narvik in Norway. There, amidst snowstorms, ice, cold and the darkness of the polar night, my team and I dived to film what remains of the warships sunk during World War II.

Alex Buttigieg’s name has become synonymous with conservation efforts of the ocean’s most enigmatic creatures, particularly sharks. Through his unique blend of expertise in diving, passion for marine life and unwavering commitment to conservation, Buttigieg has earned the respect of divers, conservationists and ocean enthusiasts around the world.

In the 21st century, is it still possible to build a dive resort at the edge of the world in an area that very few people have heard of, more forgotten than the nearby region known as the Forgotten Islands, where the nearest airport is hours away, where almost no one has ever dived (and then only from passing boats), where there are no contacts, no facilities of any sort and you have to start from absolute zero?

Let’s start with the humble beginnings. Do you recall the moment you wanted to become a diver?