Setting a Scuba Diving Record on All 7 Continents with Barrington Scott

0:02When I'm diving, it forces me to be more present. I have to be more in the moment because it's peaceful. It's peaceful in the world. Like, OK, there's times where you have the chaos from life and you get into the ocean. It's like all that kind of just washes away.

0:19Barrington Scott didn't learn to swim until he enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18 years old. That decision set him on an unlikely path to become a scuba diver. Beneath the surface of the water, surrounded by coral, sea creatures and caves, Barrington discovered a deep sense of peace and connection. Over the last decade, he's dedicated his life to exploring the underwater world through snorkeling, scuba, and freediving. Barrington has since lived in coastal towns all over the world, diving as much as possible. In 2024, he even set a Guinness World Record for scuba diving on all seven continents.

0:55I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.

1:11Barrington Scott, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living all the way from Thailand. You're like one of our furthest guests this year. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. What are you doing in Thailand right now? You know, a little bit of everything, a little bit of nothing, relaxing, chilling. Um, kind of taking a break. So where'd you grow up? Because you got this great, I mean, you're not, you're not from Thailand. No, absolutely not. Um, I'm originally from, I'm originally from Bronx, New York. Yeah. Born and raised. Um, and I spent some time in other parts of New York, like Brooklyn, uh, Queens.

1:45I was raised in foster care, so I kind of bounced all over. And then I moved to the South in my teens, around like 13, 13, 14, um, and finished off my high school year. Where in the South did you go? South Carolina. My, uh, my adoptive mother wanted us in a more quieter environment where we can focus on our grades and just, you know, just staying out of trouble. And so, yeah, she moved us to the middle of the woods. I was indoors for the first year because I wasn't used to the gnats, the mosquitoes, the deers, the bears, the snakes. So, um, yeah, I kind of stayed indoors for the first summer and then I, you know, creeped my toe out the next summer and I started doing more outdoor things.

2:23So is that how you found your love of the outdoors and nature? Well, it started like, I think my interest started like, I was a little bit of a nerd growing up. So I kind of like my outlet was watching a lot of Nat Geo, a lot of Discovery. But it wasn't until I moved to the South where I had that exposure of like the outdoors and like going out into the woods and the ponds and the lakes and all that good stuff. It's where it's kind of like it piqued my interest in wanting to, you know, be outdoors more. And then during my senior year of high school, I kind of was slacking off. Because, you know, it's the last year of high school.

2:53You kind of like, oh, you know, I made it this far. It's like, oh, yeah, I can slack off a little bit. And I ended up with my GPA and just took a tumble. And then a couple weeks later, I had this recruiter in his dress blues. You know, I remember he came to the school and he was like, you know, he put me over. He's like, are you parenting? I was like, yeah. He was like, do you ever think about joining the Marines? And I said, no, it wasn't. It's not my goal to join the Marines. I'm going to finish high school, go up to college, da, da, da. But then he's like, all right, I'm going to come back.

3:22I'm going to come back some other time. So during this time, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to study architecture. But my GPA wasn't high enough at the time just because, again, I was slacking off my senior year. So I didn't get any scholarships. And I didn't want any student loans. And so when the recruiter came back, I was like, well, tell me again about the Marines. Tell me, give me some more information. And so, you know, he's telling me, he kind of led with, oh, you have the GI Bill, they pay for college, and you go with these benefits. And I was like, wait, back up, so I can go to school for free?

3:55He was like, yeah. I was like, oh, sign me up, you should have led with that at the first meeting. A month after high school, Barrington entered Marine Corps boot camp. The training was brutal. But his hardest challenge wasn't the long runs or the drills, it was the water. Barrington couldn't swim, but in basic training, he had to face his fears head on.

4:23I'm curious how you learned to swim so quickly. Did the Marines teach you? So swim crawl was two days long. The first day, they taught us the basics. And I was able to pick it up because I only failed one portion of the swim crawl, which was the treading water portion. I just couldn't grasp that down the first day. Yeah, it takes most people a lot longer than one day to learn how to swim. I remember vividly, actually. We was on this platform and we had to jump off and tread water for two minutes. So I'm at the edge of this platform and my dream shop is saying, okay, okay, recruit, I need you to move.

4:59I need you to move. I need you to jump. And I'm looking like, I'm scared. All I know is he pushed me. He pushed me into the pool. And I'm trying to tread water, but I was sinking like a rock. And one of the main things they tell you to do during safety training is do not hold on to the next Marine, right? If you're drowning or you're having trouble, just kind of like swim to the edge or whatever, wait for help. When you're panicking, you forget the protocol. You forget, oh, well, I'm supposed to do A, B, and C. I see this guy. He's floating in treading water so effortlessly. So I'm like, oh, I'm going to grab onto you.

5:38So I grabbed onto him, and we were both drowning. So they had to save us both.

5:49Barrington finished boot camp and was immediately deployed to Afghanistan. The experience was intense and often overwhelming. He struggled to manage the stress. Six months into his deployment, Barrington needed a break, so he booked a cruise to the Bahamas. On that trip, he discovered the underwater world for the very first time.

6:12It was my first cruise. I didn't know what to expect. First time, like, officially out of the country outside of my deployment. So I was just excited to be out, you know, to kind of just, you know, experience it all. Just drinking everything, you know, just having, like, the drinks, pouring it back. We were just, like, enjoying the cruise. And we get to the Bahamas. You were, like, 21 years old, 22? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like, 21. Yeah, I was 21. and we got to the Bahamas and I remember the ship offering a scuba diving excursion and I was like, oh, scuba diving. I was like, oh, that sounds epic, you know, sign me up.

6:42So normally to get scuba certified, you go through, it's called open water certification, right? And it can be between three to five days, a three to five day certification, which you learn how, you learn all the basics, how to like take a mask off, breathe, like the whole nine. And so they teach you all of the techniques. And after, you know, your five days, you pretty much certify for life. So you just do that one time, you're certified for life. Now, for people who is vaguely interested in wanting to know about scuba or wanting to experience scuba without having to do the certifications, and they take half of the day to teach you all of the basics, and they take you out into the ocean.

7:22And you're not going that deep. You're going anywhere from like 10 to 15 feet, maybe a little bit deeper if you're really comfortable. And yeah, you get to experience scuba diving for the first time. And for me, it was the most amazing thing up until that point because I was like, oh, this is like I'm underwater for the first time this long. And I'm seeing all this marine life and there's so much going on. And I was slightly overstimulated, but I was so excited, you know, and it was just so magical. Tell me more. What did you see? It was such a long time ago, but I remember seeing like, you know, just different species of fish, some stingrays, sea turtles.

7:58The coral was nicely bright and healthy. It piqued my interest in wanting to get certified and wanting to have more of these experiences.

8:11After his vacation, Barrington finished his enlistment, moved to North Carolina, and enrolled in culinary school. His days were filled with classes, kitchen work, and long hours training to become a chef. Once he graduated, Barrington bought a house and he fell into a comfortable routine. But something felt off. The trauma of his past started creeping in and his mental health began to suffer.

8:39I was in this weird space in my life where I was depressed. I was dealing with so many mental health elements. I was dealing with PTSD, depression, and just trauma from my childhood, from the military, from deployment. just everything was crashing on me at once you know and I felt like I was suffocating I couldn't breathe I just felt it was so many emotions at once and I felt like I needed to get away I needed to escape and what was initially a three-week trip turned into like a gap year that kind of like changed the trajectory of my whole life so as I was planning my three-week trip to Southeast Asia I was stumbled upon this thing called gap year right and at the time I was like what is the gap year I never heard of it up until then and it's like oh you know you take a year off.

9:22It's like a year sabbatical of life. And you just go enjoy life. You go frolic any way you want for a year, which I was like, oh, this sounds amazing. Why haven't I heard about this? And so I was like, oh, this sounds more like my speed. I'll maybe take a year off and figure out what I want to do with my next stage of life and just figure some things out. And so I was like, you know what? It's not going to be three weeks. I'm going to take a year off. And so by that time, I had a house. I had a car. I just finished graduating college. I had my partner, a dog, the picket fence. So I had the American dream, right?

9:56Mind you, I was like 20, 24, 25. That's incredible. Where was your house? In North Carolina, in Charlotte. Amazing. Yeah, and it's like, I was like, well, at the same time, on top of like this dealing with all this, I was like, I felt like I was rushing to this point, right? This point in my life where I was like, okay, is this it? Is this what I obtained this, you know, this American dream? It's a dream, right? And I was like, I'm only 25. You know? So, again, I was just kind of like really confused, like I said, in a really weird space. And so I ended up selling my house, selling my car, pretty much selling everything.

10:31I was like, you know, everything has to go. I tell my partner, hey, I'm selling the house. You know, you don't got to go home, but I'm selling this house. So you got to figure out some place to live. I was just ready to get away, just pretty much get away, right? And so anyway, he was like, okay, well, you can sell a house. You can sell everything. But we're staying together, right? I was like, okay, fine. We have to figure it out, but I'm leaving. Anyway, I ended up buying a one-way ticket to Malaysia. Everything happened so fast that when I landed in Malaysia, I didn't have a place to stay. I'm at the airport.

11:03I have a photo of me with my hat, my little backpack. And it's like, what did I just do? I'm here in Malaysia. No plans. No place to stay for tonight. Like, I just, I'm just here, right? And so I sat down with myself a little bit and I cried for a second because, like, I really did it. Like, I'm here. And I had, like, a little, like I said, just a little moment with myself. And I was like, okay, well, we figure out a place to stay for tonight first. And I can figure life out from here. But, like, the whole year was, I was just, I said to myself, I'm going to be a yes man. Everything, anything I want to do, I had all this lumps of my money from selling my house and selling everything.

11:43So I was like, you know, whatever I want to do, I'm just going to do it. And so that's what I did.

11:51During that year in Malaysia, Barrington fully embraced a life of adventure, island hopping, eating street food, and encountering local wildlife. Best of all, he was able to scuba dive as much as he wanted. Just a few months into his time in Malaysia, he earned his advanced scuba certification and began to understand the ocean on a deeper level. What about some of the most amazing dives you did then? Yeah, my most amazing dive. I want to say it was Roger Ampar because Roger Ampar even to this day is like one of the top tier dive locations in the world. So I did a diving on the island. It was beautiful.

12:30I think there was like two to three islands surrounding us, right? It was so shallow at some points where you can literally just essentially walk to the other island if you want to. But because they have so much coral, you just kind of like snorkel. So you can literally just snuggle through the other island. So it was amazing. Can you just imagine that? There's nothing but coral in between the islands. You just swim in. You see the sea turtles and many species of fish. It's alive, right? And I think what was most amazing is that at that point, there was a drop-off where you could just see white-tipped sharks, black-tipped sharks, some octopus, which let me tell you, it's rare to see octopus.

13:06I probably, out of all of my dives, I've probably seen octopus probably like twice. I've seen many species of sharks, like other species, but like octopus is really ready to catch them. So crystal clear, you can see like 50 meters down. It was, like I say, it was pristine, pristine, pristine. What does diving do for you? I'm like curious. You know, you kind of had struggled with mental health for this year. I think a lot of young 20-year-olds do. I mean, you achieved the American dream and you're like, huh, this is what it is. Like, I'm not into this. It's not making me happy. And you had found diving, you know, pretty young.

13:42But what does it do for you, like mentally, emotionally? Yeah, so diving at the time, it was really therapeutic for me, right? On land, I'm really high energy. A tiny bit of anxiety. But for the most part, I'm high energy like I am. I'm always on 100, right? And so when I'm diving, it forces me to be the complete opposite. I have to be more present. I have to really be more aware of how my body's moving. And it forces me to also be more reflective. It's peace.

14:21Diving beneath the surface and looking for aquatic life gave Barrington something he couldn't find on land. It provided him space to breathe, to think, and to imagine what might come next.

14:37Barrington's sabbatical evolved into a nomadic life abroad. Most recently, Barrington was living in Thailand, where he watched a documentary that sparked his wildest idea yet.

14:57In 2024, Barrington Scott set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to scuba dive on all seven continents. Long before his record, Barrington was already living an adventurous life, traveling around the world and diving in some of the most stunning locations. But the inspiration for this particular challenge came from an unexpected source, a film about the legendary swimmer and past Wild Ideas guest, Diana Nyad.

15:27I want to talk about this wild idea you had, which is how we found you. You broke the Guinness record for scuba diving in all seven continents. A kid who couldn't swim until he was 18 has a Guinness record for diving. It's really cool. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. When did this wild idea even happen? So last year, February. And I was watching a Netflix documentary called Nayyad. Have you heard of it? Of Diana? I think that's her name, right? Diana Nayyad, the swimmer? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, we've interviewed her. Yes. Oh my God I'm a big fan So I'm watching her documentary On Netflix My lazy ass Sitting on his couch Watching this woman Swim from Cuba To Florida And I want to do something As epic as this And so I'm calling my friend I just finished watching This documentary This woman swam from Freaking Cuba To Florida Non-stop 25 hours This is incredible So I was like I want to do something Just as you know I want to have An incredible adventure Like this right And so My friend He's like Well why don't you do a Guinness record or something.

16:31I was like, a Guinness record? I was like, oh. I took a pause for a second because I was like, oh, I didn't think about just doing a Guinness record. I didn't know you could just, oh, just wake up, just do a Guinness record, right? He's like, no, just go on the website, type in Scuba or whatever you want to do and just do it. I was like, oh, I didn't know you can do this. Again, mine's all new to me, right? So I was like, me, I don't waste no time. So I'm on a Guinness website. And so I type in Scuba and I'm looking through the records of what has been done, what hasn't been done. I was like, okay, what's feasible?

17:02What's affordable? And I stumbled upon like, oh, fastest time to Scooby-Dobble Seven Continents. And I was like, oh, this seems very doable. Like very doable. I can Scooby-Dobble Seven Continents. That doesn't seem that hard. So I was like, okay, well, the biggest issue is how the hell am I going to afford this?

17:24So I applied to do the record, which if people don't know is that if you see a record that you want to complete you can apply and they'll send you like the parameters regarding you know the record and you just adhere to the parameters and you just complete the record and whatever evidence that they ask for you just send it right so that's pretty much what happened with this record um I sent over my itinerary which took me all of a few days to plan out thanks to chat gpt um work smarter not harder right? So I had chat to BC. I was like, hey, what would be the fastest route, the fastest altruiterary to Diablo 7 continents?

18:01And so they sent me a couple of plans. I kind of like tweaked some locations. Anyway, sent it to them. They approved it. And the next obstacle was for me, which is to kind of raise the money. I was like, I can't afford this right now completely. So I ended up starting a GoFundMe, which raised about$4 ,500. And I had some friends send me some money personally on the side. And then I had Cressy sponsored all of my gear. Cressy makes really nice dive masks. They do. And so with all of that, it saved me about like 10 grand. And so I ended up putting up out of my personal money, personal savings, like another 15 grand.

18:40For me, it's like one of the things like money comes, right? Money will come. I'm still young. Whatever. I just want to enjoy my life. And so, yeah, I set off on this expedition.

18:55It took Barrington 19 days, 19 hours, and 40 minutes to scuba dive on every continent. At each location, he needed to be underwater for at least 15 minutes and descend 5 meters or 16 feet below the surface. His journey began in Australia, then continued through Thailand, Egypt, and Malta, which is an island off the coast of Italy. He then crossed the Atlantic to dive in Florida and Argentina before setting the record in Antarctica. The travel alone was a logistical puzzle, but each dive was memorable in its own way. Tell me a little bit about some of these dives. Like, which one is the most memorable?

19:37You talked about a cemetery underwater in Miami. What does that even look like? What kind of cemetery is underwater? It was the most significant for me, I think, because, well, two things. One is the only official underwater cemetery where you can get cremated. And what happens is that they take your remains and I guess they make some kind of like special cement. And they turn you into a marine animal of your choosing. You just you can plan ahead of time. So like if you plan to be a dolphin, they turn you into a dolphin and they set up like a little space for you underwater. They plant your statue.

20:12and what happens is that you can pay upwards from like anywhere from like I think 15 grand to like a couple million dollars because you can actually build a whole mausoleum yeah it's actually pretty incredible so I changed my will I was like hey turn me into octopus okay when I die use some of my money turn me into octopus I want to be underwater oh fun fact you know Julia Chow yeah she's buried there really the famous chef and culinary like amazing yeah so she's buried there which that was pretty cool to know. I think the most second interesting dive was, I don't want to put them in any particular order, but diving in Antarctica itself, I feel like it's a very exclusive experience because not a lot of people get to experience Antarctica and then also dive in Antarctica.