Descending Television Show

Descending Teaser – Introducing The World

Penetrating deep within remote shipwrecks, free diving with whales and descending to over 1,000 feet beneath the oceans surface – is ‘just another day in the office’ for Scott and Ellis as they discover our planet one ocean at a time.

‘Descending’ is a 13-part adventure travel, dive series spanning well over one year, 16 countries and 5 continents around the globe.

 

 

A Life Long Journey Begins

 

New Zealand is a sub tropical divers mecca. Being two relatively small islands positioned between the South Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. New Zealand’s long and narrow shape covers a sizeable latitude for such a small country. This equates to a wide range of currents and water temperatures. The waters are rich in nutrients; in many places the seabed plunges deep into the ocean very close to shore, causing an up-welling of currents. These currents supply an enormous amount of food to support the immense biodiversity of marine life that lives around New Zealand’s coastline.

Over the past 20 or so years Ellis has accumulated over one thousand dives to his credit, the bulk of these as a recreational diver. He describes himself as ‘just a cray-diver’, alluding to the huge crayfish (New Zealand lobster) that he usually catches while diving. But as many fishermen, sailors and divers alike know, to do your time in New Zealand waters, means that you have experienced and endured a vast array of adverse conditions.

 

New Zealand is renowned for its very unpredictable climate and seasons, and frequent storms can sweep the coastline at any time of year, whipping the ocean to a terrifying fury.

Scott Wilson and Andre Dupuis have known Ellis for over ten years. They have travelled together, worked together and shared many adventures all around the world together.

 

In 2005 when Scott and Andre first came to New Zealand, to film their pilot for Departures, Ellis took them diving. While at the time neither of them had their dive certificates, they were happy to wait on shore, stoking the bonfire, for the huge feed of crayfish, which Ellis was hunting for beneath the oceans surface.

 

As their travel show Departures drew to an end in 2009 they began thinking forward to their next project. They began to look to the oceans. All of this time they had been exploring our world, on land, then they suddenly realised that they had overlooked the biggest part – WATER! 

And so ‘Descending’ was born!

 

 

 

 

From The Descending Team

For more than three years our team has shared countless exhilarating adventures with millions of people around the world through our highly acclaimed television program, Departures. Now we are about to embark upon a new global adventure to share with an even greater audience.

The core team from Departures is moving on to a more challenging project now. Having experienced every continent on the planet, we are turning our focus to the greater portion of the earth’s surface: the water. Harnessing the same wanderlust that was established with Departures, the new show – Descending– travels to some of the most fascinating dive sites in the world, encountering historic wrecks, exhilarating creature encounters and forgotten cultures, all while showcasing the interaction of man and water. This comes at a time when awareness of the fragility of our rivers, lakes and oceans has never been greater. 

While accomplished divers, the hosts, Scott Wilson and Ellis Emmett, are not scientists or expert ‘tech divers’. They are simply, real people who enthusiastically seek out new experiences and challenges, both above and below the surface. 

Each episode will feature the challenges and rewards of getting to the destinations as well as thrills and experiences enjoyed at the destination itself. Throughout the season, the skills of the team as divers continue to grow on camera enabling ever more unique and challenging dives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Show

Nearly three quarters of our planet is water.  No matter how tall the highest peak, how vast the broadest desert or how inhospitable the polar caps, they’re all insignificant compared to what lies beneath the waves.

Descending is a 13-part documentary that will take viewers on a year-long journey exploring the submerged treasures of our planet (both natural and man-made) with breathtaking beauty and life-threatening excitement possible on every descent.

Descendings well-travelled hosts, Scott Wilson and Ellis Emmett, aim to awaken the adventurous spirit in all of us as they experience stunning environments and fascinating cultures around the globe, connecting the world on land to the one undersea.

An aquatic adventure series for a new generation, Descending is shot in stunning High Definition by award-winning cinematographer Andre Dupuis and pushes the boundaries of existing digital camera technology.

 

 

 

 

SEASON 1 OVERVIEW

Episodes

Episode 101: “The Rest of the Map”

Seasoned travellers Scott Wilson and Andre Dupuis begin a new journey descending into the world beneath the waves. They travel to New Zealand to recruit friend and fellow explorer Ellis Emmett for the adventure. But equipment challenges and harsh weather impede the team’s first dives.

 

 

 

Episode 102: “The Poor Knights”

Scott and Ellis cross New Zealand’s North Island to board a sunken cruise ship, push their limits in a cave dive, and are awestruck by the vibrant and healthy marine reserve at the Poor Knights Islands.

 

 

 

Episode 103: “The Sea Less Travelled”

The team ventures to Djibouti to swim with the world’s largest fish, but must then overcome frustrating travel challenges to get to Sudan and dive Cousteau’s Conshelf II and a WWII wreck with a deadly cargo.

 

 

 

Episode 104: “The Emerald Sea” 

Scott brings Ellis and the Descending team home to Canada for some cold-water diving off Vancouver Island. Scott and Ellis make friends with some questionable creatures and then pilot a jet at 80ft below the surface. Above the water, the team is put to work preparing a ship for scuttling.

 

 

 

Episode 105: “The Dive God” 

While island-hopping in the Caribbean, Scott and Ellis meet the ‘Dive God’. But there is trouble in paradise as the team learns of a poisonous, invasive species that threatens these beautiful blue waters.

 

 

 

Episode 106: “The Deep” 

Continuing their Caribbean island hopping, the Descending team contemplates underwater art in Grenada, comes face to face with the ocean’s largest carnivore in Dominica, and then goes deeper (1000 ft!) than they ever have before.

 

 

 

Episode 107: “The Big Six” 

Scott and Ellis visit South Africa to face their fears and brave some of the most notorious shark-filled waters in the world. Disaster strikes on what should have been an easy dive.

 

 

 

Episode 108: “The Hunt for the Red Devil” 

Scott and Ellis are in Los Angeles to see if vibrant marine life can exist off the highly developed coast of Southern California. After meeting up with a pair of eco-warriors, the team scours the Sea of Cortez in search of the elusive and fearsome “diablos rojos”.

 

 

 

Episode 109: “The Smoking Earth” 

Facing frigid waters, the Descending team travels to Iceland to witness the newest part of our planet being formed. Scott and Ellis touch two continents at once in some of the world’s clearest water and attempt to dive where no one has gone before.

 

 

 

Episode 110: “The Pacific Theatre”

History fanatic Scott talks Ellis into diving the shark-infested waters off the coast of the Solomon Islands. This tiny South Pacific nation played a strategic role during WWII and she still has the scars…and wrecks…to prove it.

 

 

 

Episode 111: “The Great Lakes”

For centuries, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes have shaped the story of Canada. The team takes a trip through history and visits the world’s best collection of freshwater shipwrecks to discover what makes this water so great.

 

 

 

Episode 112: “The Four Kings”

In Indonesia, Scott and Ellis experience Raja Ampat – a reserve rich in beauty, diversity and culture. Ellis befriends a local Papuan who teaches him to fish like a local and the divers have a close encounter with Giant Manta Rays. A terrifying accident shakes the confidence of the team.

 

 

Episode 113: “The Underworld”

Following a terrifying accident, Scott finds the strength to dive again. In Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait, the mission is to film as many strange creatures as they can find. The team concludes their year-long journey on the remote island of Vanuatu to dive one of the greatest shipwrecks in the world and reflect on their underwater adventures.