I am Corinne Bourbeillon and Bubbles Underwater & Beyond is my personal blog. I publish my underwater photos and videos, tell about my diving trips, and also give advice to those who, like me, love to go somewhere else to blow bubbles with the fishes! I especially try to share my wonder at the beauty of the ocean, to show what this other world looks like under the surface, so fragile and unknown...
Bubbles Underwater & Beyond in a Nutshell
Blog created in: 2006
Author: Corinne Bourbeillon
Topics: scuba diving and travel
Destinations: most likely where the water is warm
Contact: corinne@petitesbullesdailleurs.fr
Who Is Running This Blog?
Corinne Bourbeillon. I live in Rennes, Brittany, where I'm a journalist for the daily paper Ouest-France for over twenty years. I am currently on duty at the digital evening edition digital, one of the newspaper's Internet services. Before that, I also worked for various magazines and publishing houses in Paris. I was also a literary translator (English → French) for about ten years.
When I'm not working, I go diving and photograph fish... Some colleagues have nicknamed me "the Coco Palm Leaf" or, more elegantly, "the naiad". It is this double passion for diving and underwater photography that I share here.
Bubbles Underwater & Beyond is my blog personI'm holding it for fun, independently. So what I publish in it has nothing to do with the newspaper I work for or my "real life" of everyday life. Still, I always look much better in the water than I do at the office...
Dive Blogger
I started posting my first blog posts in 2006, as a holiday hobby.to give news to my family and friends during my travels and my dives at the end of the world. Since then, the Bubbles Underwater & Beyond has grown a lot! Without realizing it, I became a "scuba diving and travel blogger"...
This blog is neither my livelihood nor a business. But it's still a kind of "showcase", and it has allowed me to publish articles, reports and underwater photos in other media.
Not a little proud of myself... My photo of Matt free diving in front of mantas has been published in this National Geographic book (2019).
100 Dives of a Lifetime from National Geographic (2019). The cover photo, taken in the cenotes of Mexico, is signed by the great British photographer Alex Mustard.
Not a little proud & #8230; My photo of a freediver facing the mantas of Komodo in Indonesia (above left) has been published in this National Geographic book, entitled 100 Dives of A Lifetime (2019).
A Diver (with bubbles and sometimes without)
I have been scuba diving for over twenty years. My very first underwater bubbles date back to a vacation in Thailand in 1999. A revelation! Since then, every time I go back under the surface, it's a renewed, immense, intense happiness!
I have more than 1,000 tank dives to date and my level is that of a PA40 (scuba diver up to 40 meters). I did my "leisure" training a bit at the FFESSM and many at PADI up to the Rescue Diver certification + Deep Diver + Enriched Air Diver. Professionally, I hold a Hyperbaric Capability Certification (French CAH, Class 1 mention B) (limited to 30 meters). I have also learned a little bit about freediving (level AIDA 2).
I'm very cold and I definitely prefer warm seas to Brittany's waters. (but I've recently switched to the dry suit, which gives me new perspectives). My favourite spots? The archipelagos of the Indo-Pacific zone (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines) in the heart of the fabulous Coral Triangle.
An Underwater Photographer
The beauty of the aquatic world never ceases to amaze me and underwater photography became my passion. I started in 2005, as a self-taughtduring my travels in Southeast Asia, with a modest digital compact camera.
In 2010, I switched to DSLR, with the Canon Eos 7D which I'm taking underwater in a suitable waterproof case. It accompanies me from now on in all my dives! I also talk about it here on my other site:
→ About Corinne Bourbeillon, underwater photographer
Protect The Ocean
"We love what has amazed us, we protect what we love ..." This quote attributed to Cousteau sums up what should animate the divers tourists. Through my images and my reports underwater, I'm trying to show the beauty and fragility of the oceanon which all life on Earth depends: 50 % of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean...
→ Diving and protecting the ocean
I've been scuba diving for a long time, I've travelled a lot to dive, and I think I'm lucky to have been able to admire so many species underwater in their natural environment. This may not be the case for the next generations.
I am already observing, in the space of a few years, on my modest scale, the impact of overfishing, pollution and global warming on fish density and coral ecosystems. The impact of tourism, too. Which brings me back to my own contradictions on each of my far-flung journeys. I'm well aware of my excessive carbon footprint when I fly...
Independent Traveler
I no longer travel in “backpack” mode as when I was 20, but I continue to organize most of my small diving expeditions on my own, without going through an agency or a tour operator. I like my independence and the internet makes things easy. In general, some exchanges of emails with the structures on site are enough to stall my reservations of accommodation and dives. And then, to prepare a trip, it is already to travel ...
Of course, with the Covid-19 pandemic, everything changed... I still don't know how I will organize my next diving trips. I will probably take care of the possibilities of free cancellation and special coronavirus insurance included. Perhaps it will be more prudent to go through an agency or a tour operator before incurring costs? To be continued...
My Breakaway Bubble
So I publish articles on Bubbles Underwater & Beyond in my free time, without constraint, according to my inspiration, my desires, my destinations ... This blog is my bubble of freedom, my bubble of escape!
I enjoy telling about my escapades at the end of the world for scuba diving, live or recorded. To be discussed with those of you who leave me a comment. As I continue to blog between two trips, even under the Breton drizzle, some people take me for a full-time globe-trotting diver. I love the idea and I maintain the myth.
Photos and Copyright
Unless otherwise stated, I am the author of the photos published on Bubbles Underwater & Beyond. These images are not free of rights and it is forbidden to use them without my consent.
I generally authorize the use of an image for a mention or a short quote, provided that my name, Corinne Bourbeillon, is on credit, with a link to the source. For any other request for use of photos, please do not hesitate to contact me!
