Trip Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

These terms apply to adventure trips run by Justin Tucker Lutsky, doing business as Submerge Underwater (“Submerge”, “we”, “us”), at 4273 W Oak Ave, Fullerton, California 92833. “You” means each person named on a booking. “The trip” means everything listed on that trip’s page.

These terms cover what Submerge provides: the modeling workshop, the photography sessions, the photo and video add-ons, and our team on the trip. The travel itself (your room, meals, transfers, diving and tours) is arranged and sold by Deep Blue Adventures, as section 2 explains.

2. How trips are arranged

Our travel partner, Deep Blue Adventures, arranges, invoices and takes payment for the travel on our trips, together with the resorts, dive operators, transport companies and tour operators named on each trip page. Deep Blue Adventures is a registered seller of travel in California (CSOT# 2104067-40) and Florida (FSOT# ST39041), holds IATA# 36629655, and keeps client payments in a client trust account.

Deep Blue Adventures’ Terms and Conditions apply to the travel and to your payments to them, including their deposit, balance, change and cancellation terms. Please read them before you book. Where their terms and ours differ on the travel, theirs apply to the travel. Ours apply to the workshop, the sessions and the add-ons. We are not the owner or operator of any resort, boat, aircraft or vehicle.

3. Prices

Travel prices on a trip page are Deep Blue Adventures’ prices, per person and including taxes, based on the room and diving option shown. Single rooms, extensions and upgrades are priced separately. Our workshop and add-on prices are shown separately and are Submerge’s. Recommended gratuities are shown as a guide and are not part of any price.

Travel prices can change until Deep Blue confirms your booking, and Deep Blue’s terms govern any change after that. Once we confirm your workshop and add-ons, their price will not change.

4. Booking and payment

The modeling workshop and photo add-ons are invoiced separately and paid to Submerge. Your travel is confirmed under Deep Blue’s terms. Your workshop place is confirmed when we receive the payment shown on our invoice and you have accepted these terms. The workshop is an add-on to a diver booking, so it depends on that travel booking staying in place.

Travel payments are due on the dates in Deep Blue’s invoice. Our payments are due on the dates in ours. We accept card, bank transfer, Zelle and check, with no added fee. If a payment to us is more than 7 days late, we may treat the workshop booking as cancelled by you under section 6. Paying us means you accept these terms.

5. Changes you ask for

Changes to your travel (room type, name, dates) go through Deep Blue Adventures, and their terms set any charges. If you want to change your workshop or add-ons, we will try to help, subject to availability, and we will pass on any charge made by the resort or operator. Bookings cannot be transferred to another person without our written agreement, and without Deep Blue’s for the travel.

6. If you cancel

Travel. Cancel through Deep Blue Adventures. Whether travel payments are refunded, and how much, depends on Deep Blue’s terms and on what the resort and other suppliers refund to them. We cannot refund money that has been paid to Deep Blue or to a supplier.

Workshop and photo add-ons. Cancel in writing to [email protected]. The workshop has a small, fixed number of places and we hold yours for you, so what we can refund depends on when we hear from you. Your Submerge invoice covers our photo services and workshop fees only; the boats, dive crew and the rest of the travel are on Deep Blue’s invoice. Your workshop booking starts with a $150 non-refundable deposit, credited to your total and shown on your invoice. In practice:

Before the final payment date on your Submerge invoice: a refund of everything you have paid us except the $150 deposit.
From the final payment date: no refund. If another traveler takes your place, we refund what we recover, less the $150 deposit.

There is no refund or credit for any part of the trip you do not use. We strongly recommend travel insurance that covers cancellation.

7. If we change or cancel the trip

We may need to change a trip (dates, schedule, dive sites, resort or activities) for safety, weather, sea conditions or reasons outside our control. We will offer a comparable alternative where we can. If we cancel the workshop for reasons within our control, or move a trip to a later year because it has not reached the numbers it needs, you can choose a full refund of what you have paid us or a transfer to the new date. If a trip is cancelled because of an event outside anyone’s control (section 8), we will refund the payments we are able to recover from our suppliers, less costs we have already paid to them, or, if you prefer, offer you a credit toward a later trip. For travel payments, Deep Blue’s terms apply.

8. Events outside our control

We are not responsible for failing to provide any part of a trip because of events outside our reasonable control, including severe weather, natural disasters, epidemics, government action, strikes, war or civil unrest, or a failure by an airline or other supplier. In those cases we may change or cancel the affected part of the trip.

9. Diving, modeling and your health

Divers must hold the certification shown on the trip page (Open Water for models on our trips, Advanced Open Water for some optional dives) and carry their certification card.
You must complete the PADI medical questionnaire and the liability release before diving or modeling, and get a doctor’s sign-off if the questionnaire calls for one.
Our crew, the safety divers and the dive operator may stop you from diving or modeling at any time for safety reasons, and their decision is final.
You are responsible for your own fitness to dive and for following the briefings and instructions of the crew.

10. Insurance

Divers: dive accident insurance is required (for example through Divers Alert Network).
Non-divers: travel insurance with medical and evacuation cover is recommended.
Everyone: trip cancellation insurance is strongly recommended, and Deep Blue Adventures recommends it too.

11. Travel documents

You are responsible for your own passport, visas, entry requirements and flights, and for arriving in time for the start of the trip. We will share what we know, but airlines and governments set the rules.

12. Photographs and video

Your retouched images are yours to use personally. We may use photographs and video from the trip in our portfolio and marketing as set out in the model release you sign.

13. Our responsibility

We take care in choosing the partners and suppliers on our trips. Except where the law says otherwise, we are not liable for loss, injury, damage or delay caused by a supplier we do not own or control (including Deep Blue Adventures, the resort and the dive operator), by events under section 8, or by your own decisions about your health, safety and fitness to dive.

14. Behavior

We may remove anyone from a trip whose behavior puts others at risk or seriously disrupts the trip, without a refund of what you paid us.

15. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California. Any dispute about them will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Orange County, California. Your travel contract with Deep Blue Adventures is governed by its own terms.

16. Additional information for California residents

Travel on our trips is sold by Deep Blue Adventures, a registered California seller of travel. CSOT# 2104067-40.

Upon cancellation of the transportation or travel services, where the passenger is not at fault and has not canceled in violation of any terms and conditions previously clearly and conspicuously disclosed and agreed to by the passenger, all sums paid to the seller of travel for services not provided will be promptly paid to the passenger, unless the passenger advises the seller of travel in writing, after cancellation. This provision does not apply where the seller of travel has remitted the payment to another registered wholesale seller of travel or a carrier, without obtaining a refund, and where the wholesaler or provider defaults in providing the agreed-upon transportation or service. In this situation, the seller of travel must provide the passenger with a written statement accompanied by bank records establishing the disbursement of the payment, and if disbursed to a wholesale seller of travel, proof of current registration of that wholesaler.

California law requires certain sellers of travel to have a trust account or bond. This business has a trust account. Transactions are not covered by the California Travel Consumer Restitution Fund.

Effective October 1, 2026. Questions: [email protected].