Snorkelling With My Phone in St John: A Waterproof Pouch Story
I'd been dreaming about snorkelling in the US Virgin Islands for the better part of a year, ever since a mate at the servo back in Brisbane raved about the clear water around St John. When I finally booked the flights from Sydney, I knew I wanted to capture every moment, but the thought of dragging a proper underwater camera along with everything else felt like overkill. Lugging extra gear through three airports was already going to be a nightmare, especially when you add the checked bag fees that Qantas charges for oversized cases. So I did what most travellers do these days and decided my phone would be the camera.
The problem is that phones and saltwater have never been friendly companions. I'd already lost one device to a rogue wave at Bondi a few summers ago, and I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. I'd seen those clear plastic pouches hanging in airport shops and beach boutiques for years, and I'd always dismissed them as flimsy tourist traps. But the more I read about them, the more I figured a budget-friendly pouch might be the smartest compromise between capturing memories and not frying a thousand-dollar handset.
The first thing I did after landing was wander into a beach shop in Cruz Bay and ask the locals what they actually used. The shopkeeper laughed and pointed at the wall of pouches. Half the tourists in St John were wearing them around their necks like pendants, she said, and they were the reason so many phones survived the reefs around Honeymoon Beach and Trunk Bay. She pulled out a few different models, all in the fifteen to thirty AUD range after conversion, and told me which ones had a track record of actually keeping water out.
I walked out with two pouches, one for me and one for my partner, plus a couple of spare lanyards, because I knew from too many trips to the Gold Coast that accessories always seem to go missing when you need them most.
Picking the Right Pouch Before I Even Saw a Fish
Standing in that little shop in Cruz Bay with the ferry horn blaring in the background, I tried to compare the two pouches side by side. The cheaper one was a no-name brand with a simple snap-lock seal, and the other was a well-known brand I'd actually seen at JB Hi-Fi back home. The shopkeeper said the pricier one used a more reliable double-locking system, and that the cheaper one tended to leak if you went more than a metre below the surface. She also mentioned that some of her customers had brought the same brand back from Woolworths when they were in Australia, which surprised me.
I ended up going with the JB Hi-Fi brand even though it cost a bit more, mostly because I'd already trusted it once for kayaking on the Noosa River. The packaging claimed it was good down to ten metres, which was far deeper than I'd ever bother snorkelling anyway. There was also a small window on the back for the camera lens, and the touchscreen still worked through the plastic, which was the whole point.
Before I left the shop I asked the assistant about warranties, because Australian consumer law is famously protective, and she shrugged and said returns were handled by the manufacturer. That was the moment I wished I'd just bought it at home and skipped the awkward exchange-rate maths. Lesson learned for next time.
A Pre-Trip Test in the Hotel Pool
I never trust a gadget on first use, especially not when it's meant to keep my phone alive in saltwater. The first morning on the trip, before we even booked a snorkel tour, I took the pouch down to the small pool at the hotel and ran a few tests. I dropped the sealed pouch in with my phone inside and left it for ten minutes, then pulled it out and checked for any moisture around the seal. Nothing. The paper towel trick that the YouTube reviewers all use came back bone dry, which was a relief.
I also practised using the touchscreen through the plastic. It's not as smooth as bare fingers, and you definitely need to type with a bit more intention. Typing messages underwater isn't really a thing I'd want to do anyway, but scrolling through the camera roll and tapping the shutter button worked fine. I also tried taking a quick video of the pool tiles, and the audio came through surprisingly clear, considering the pouch was sealed.
By the end of that pool session I felt confident enough to take the pouch out on the actual reef. The only thing I hadn't tested was the depth rating, and to be honest I wasn't planning on free-diving to find out. As an Aussie who grew up hearing the lifeguard whistles at Manly, I'm cautious about currents, so I usually stick to shallower areas where I can stand up if I need to.
The Real Test at Honeymoon Beach
The snorkel trip itself was out of Honeymoon Beach on the north shore, which is the kind of place that makes you understand why people fly halfway across the world for a holiday. The water was so clear that you could see the bottom from the boat, and the boat captain pointed out a few sea turtle sightings near the rocks. Before we jumped in, I triple-checked the seal on my pouch, snapped the safety lock into place, and hung the lanyard around my neck.
Underwater, the pouch worked exactly as advertised. The touchscreen responded well enough to snap a few shots of the parrotfish drifting around the coral, and the photos came out reasonably sharp considering they were taken through two layers of plastic and a metre of moving water. I got a few decent stills and a short video of a small school of silver fish, which I later uploaded to my camera roll with the metadata intact.
The one surprise was how much the pouch affected buoyancy. It floated more than I expected, which meant I had to angle my body differently to keep my head underwater while filming. After about forty minutes of swimming around, my neck was a bit sore from the lanyard pulling, and I decided to swap the pouch over to my partner for a while so she could take a turn. We took turns with it for the rest of the afternoon and still managed to get a reasonable spread of photos and clips between us.
Comparing the Options Worth Bringing From Home
After that first trip, I started chatting with other snorkellers about what they were using. A few had proper GoPros with separate waterproof housings, which obviously produced much better footage but cost a small fortune and took up extra room in their bags. A couple had nothing at all and were happy to just enjoy the experience without a screen in front of their face. Most, though, had exactly the same phone pouch setup as me.
For anyone weighing up the alternatives, here's a quick comparison based on what I saw and heard over the week.
| Option |
Approx Cost (AUD) |
Image Quality |
Ease of Use |
Best For |
| Universal phone pouch |
15–30 |
Decent through plastic |
Easy to seal, finicky touch |
Casual snorkellers, first-timers |
| Brand-name pouch with double seal |
30–60 |
Slightly clearer shots |
More reliable seal, similar touch |
Regular beach-goers, families |
| GoPro with waterproof housing |
400–700 |
Excellent |
Mounts anywhere, learning curve |
Divers, content creators |
| Disposable underwater camera |
35–50 |
Mediocre, one-time use |
Point and shoot |
Kids, low-stakes trips |
The universal pouches are fine if you only plan one or two snorkels and don't mind a few blurry shots. The branded ones with the double seal, like the one I ended up with, are worth the extra few bucks if you're planning a full week in the water. GoPros are brilliant but they're a separate purchase and a separate thing to remember to charge each night. Disposable cameras are a fun novelty if you've got kids in tow and don't want to risk a real phone.
Glitches, Fogging, and Other Mid-Trip Lessons
By the second day, I started noticing small annoyances I hadn't anticipated. The first was fogging inside the pouch. After a few minutes underwater, the temperature difference between the air trapped inside and the cooler water outside caused a thin mist to form on the lens window. The fix turned out to be simple: slip a tiny silica gel packet inside before you seal it, the same kind you find inside a new pair of shoes or a vitamin bottle. I raided the minibar sachets and that sorted the fogging for the rest of the trip.
The second issue was salt creep. Even with the pouch sealed, saltwater got on the outside of the plastic and dried into a crusty layer that started to obscure the lens window. After every snorkel I rinsed the pouch under fresh water from a drink bottle, then dried it with a microfibre cloth. Without that rinse, the salt residue scratched the plastic within a day or two, and you could see it in the photos.
I also learned that you shouldn't store the pouch in direct sunlight when it's wet. The trapped moisture heats up and can actually start to delaminate the plastic window over time. I kept mine in the hotel room's air conditioning, draped over a chair, and that worked well. None of these are deal-breakers, but they're the kind of things you only learn by actually using the thing for a few days in a row.
Getting the Photos Back Home and Onto the Blog
By the end of the week I had a couple of hundred snorkel photos and a handful of short clips that I was genuinely happy with. Once I was back on solid ground, I uploaded them to my laptop and ran them through my usual editing workflow. A few of the shots needed a small contrast boost to cut through the bluish cast you always get from underwater photos, but otherwise they were ready to share.
Most of the stills ended up in a slideshow on the post about the trip itself, and a couple of the video clips made it into my newest St Croix hotel write-up. The clips paired really nicely with that review, because the hotel's beachfront was where we did our final snorkel of the holiday.
If you're an Aussie thinking about doing something similar, the practical thing to know is that the AU dollar goes a long way in the USVI right now, and the pouches themselves are widely available at any beach shop once you land. I'd still recommend buying a trusted brand at home before you fly, just so you have time to test it in the bath or the pool before you trust it with your phone in the ocean.
Tips for Aussie Travellers Taking the Plunge
A few small things I'd pass on to anyone flying out from Sydney or Melbourne with a pouch in their carry-on. First, take your actual phone out of the pouch before you go through airport security, because the X-ray machines sometimes react to the plastic and you'll hold up the line at Tullamarine. Second, make sure your travel insurance actually covers water damage to electronics, because most standard policies don't and you'll want to know before you're floating above a coral garden.
Third, get a local SIM or eSIM if you want to upload photos on the go. Telstra and Optus both sell roaming packs that work in the Caribbean, but they aren't cheap, and a local SIM is usually better value. Fourth, do at least one pool or bath test before you take it into the ocean, the same way you'd test a new pair of reef shoes at the beach before walking on sharp rocks.
And finally, take more photos than you think you'll need, because half of them will be blurry and the rest will be keepers. The pouch turns your phone into a halfway-decent underwater camera, and it costs a fraction of what a dedicated setup would. As long as you accept the limitations and pack a microfibre cloth, you'll come home with memories worth keeping.
