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Profile Comments > tinahawkins
eyeson - 8/01/2015 10:20 AM
I hope the diving this year has been good.
tinahawkins - 5/28/2015 10:29 PM
Created my first ever YouTube video with iMovie! This is from my trip to the Keys last August, with my pal, Tonia. I love diving the Vandenberg, it’s such an amazingly accessible an interactive recreational wreck. I have tons more video but started small. Forgive the shaky camera, I’m a newbie with the GoPro! T&T on the Vandenberg
tinahawkins - 2/16/2015 7:47 PM
New DUI drysuit arrives next Monday, just in time for my March 13 weekend liveaboard trip to San Clemente! No more lost dives due to cold water and cold air and general wussiness on my part! Will be my first liveaboard, first ocean dives dry, and first kelp forests. Excited to dive with Horizon Charters out of San Diego, too!
BillParker - 2/20/2015 3:46 PM
Sweet. I didn’t even know there was a liveaboard out there.
tinahawkins - 2/28/2015 3:04 AM
There is one! And I think it’s a bit more reliable than the one that takes you to the Flower Gardens, weather-wise. But my dry suit is delayed so I will have almost no practice with it and that makes me nervous...first stop is Cortez Banks and I hear it can be rough seas. Should be interesting!
tinahawkins - 12/25/2014 10:48 PM
T-minus five days till I will be enjoying sunsets in San Carlos at Soggy Pesos and scuba diving with sea lions. All good things start with the letter S! We will also be scoping out some abandoned fishing nets, hoping to do a little clean up, as well. Eager to practice with lift bags and extra tanks and hopefully do some good. Merry Christmas, dive buddies!
tinahawkins - 10/22/2014 4:12 PM
So I’ve ditched a dive knife and scissors in favor of this bad boy which fits snug on my harness webbing and sliced through a basic anchor rope like it was nothing. It’s low profile, small, sharp, safe around your bcd or wing and hoses, and it’s only around $25, so if you lose it, no biggie. I keep it on my waist strap upside down so I have to pull it down to take it out. Great dive tool!
tinahawkins - 10/22/2014 4:13 PM
eezycut.com
BillParker - 10/22/2014 7:33 PM
Nice. Post some anchor pix. I met someone recently that has been diving Possum Kingdom since the 90s and claims 100 anchor recoveries.
tinahawkins - 10/22/2014 11:05 PM
Hey, Bill! I just have the one pic already in my photos. It’s my only anchor recovery. Only recovery period, really! :). I have a few tech diving pals, though, and they introduced me to this tool. Couldn’t believe how it sliced through that rope!
bluedestiny - 12/14/2014 1:10 AM
cool find
tinahawkins - 10/05/2014 10:24 AM
Just signed up for my dive master program, yesterday! Materials arrive, soon. Ready for a new adventure and stoked to do anything that allows me to share my enthusiasm for this sport.
Smithsgold - 10/05/2014 12:47 PM
Good luck !!!
BillParker - 10/06/2014 12:12 PM
That will keep you busy for awhile.
tinahawkins - 10/06/2014 10:15 PM
Busy and out of trouble, hopefully! ;)
planodiver - 10/08/2014 10:38 AM
You will make a good one. BAK finished his and I certainly admire what a great diver and teacher he is. I can’t make up my mind about DM right now.
tinahawkins - 10/08/2014 1:03 PM
Thanks! Yes, Barry was telling me about that! It’s all about timing...and desire. Don’t need to be a DM to have a blast diving! :) I just wanted a new challenge and things finally settled enough for me to start.
Hawkeye54 - 10/14/2014 12:53 PM
Congrats, Tina!!!!!! :)
DakotaSky62 - 10/15/2014 7:35 AM
You GO Girl Get ’er Done!!!!!
eyeson - 8/21/2014 9:17 AM
Tina were you out at Lake Pleasant last Sunday when I was out doing my certificate dives with Tony?
tinahawkins - 8/23/2014 11:38 AM
I was not...I was traveling to Dallas for work. I do most of the social media posts on Facebook and Instagram for El Mar, though, so I’ve gotten to know many of their instructors very well. If I’m in town, I try to make the fun dive days on the Diver Down at Lake Pleasant and Tony is usually Captaining the boat. I saw you were at Vista Point for your cert dives! Fun dive spot, some folks have put out some items to search for out there, a geocache box, an old grandfather clock, and some other items. Makes for a fun day! The Diver Down takes you to some other sites you can’t get to from shore, too, it’s always good times! Did Tony take you to Wild Horse for burgers and beers after your cert dives??? That’s an El Mar tradition!
eyeson - 8/23/2014 11:57 AM
So yes we down to Vista Point. We dove down and saw the railroad tracks, table & chairs, the large door at around 76 Feet and a box of trinkets on part of the tracks. Oh and yes we did go eat some great burgers both days at Wild Horse! I’ll be going to diver down tomorrow.
eyeson - 8/23/2014 12:02 PM
I meant we went down to Vista Point.
tinahawkins - 8/23/2014 2:18 PM
Wow, he took you deep for your first dives! That’s great! The DD is going out tomorrow, huh? Maybe I will join if I can get my house in some semblance of order today. Too much traveling!
eyeson - 8/23/2014 3:23 PM
Same here. I need to clean up my place as well. I hope to be out there.
tinahawkins - 8/19/2014 7:31 PM
Great article about the oldest and most famous free diving club out of San Diego. After 72 years they held their final meeting in 2005. It’s not recent news but the history is fun and the photos are awesome, too. These men were pioneers!

freedive.net/bottom_scratchers/bottom_scratchers.htm
Paddy24 - 7/31/2014 12:37 PM
I dove Marathon in 2008 and used Tilden’s Dive Center...Liked them very much. If you have any questions let me know.
tinahawkins - 8/01/2014 4:14 PM
Thanks for the recommend! We’ll have a boat our pal is captaining himself while on Marathon, not sure I’ll be using a local dive outfit but will keep this in mind!
Paddy24 - 8/01/2014 7:36 PM
You are welcome...didn’t know you had your own stuff. My boys and I stayed at Captain Pips Marina and Hideaway. The food at the marina tavern was great...that 2008. Many great spots around there...have fun!
Hawkeye54 - 7/30/2014 8:30 PM
In Marathon, Capt. Hook’s is my preferred operator (spearfishing friendly), or jot a mile or two north and hit Dive Duck Key who will also take you to the wreck of the Thunderbolt with great service. :)
tinahawkins - 3/12/2014 8:12 PM
Will be in the Pensacola/Destin area to do some recreational wreck diving the first week of May. Any dive shop recommends? We want to do the Oriskany one day and any other wrecks the rest of the time. Would like a comfortable dive boat with shade, we have a group of about seven, not necessarily looking to charter, any info would be great!
tinahawkins - 2/18/2014 7:42 PM
Awesome tech diving video! These volunteers work to clear abandoned fishing nets to protect marine life. The Infidel wreck is off the Catalina Island coast in California. This video makes me excited to learn tech diving! Some day...
tinahawkins - 2/18/2014 7:42 PM
vimeo.com/86972426
BillParker - 2/21/2014 12:52 AM
Great music. :-) It makes my Lake Murray cleanup efforts look puny.
tinahawkins - 2/21/2014 10:27 AM
No way, Bill...I’ve seen the bags and bags of trash you cleared out, your efforts aren’t puny! But maybe we can find a way to incorporate a pneumatic-powered Dremel somehow...
tinahawkins - 1/05/2014 11:03 AM
Just came back from San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, where I logged another five dives in two days. Dove my new Hollis Solo Harness and backplate with Apeks wing (which I bought because the new Hollis wings have large swatches of red in them and I’m way over colors on anything on my gear other than my safety tube). Love it! Still dialing in the weighting. This is only the second time I’ve used my 7mm which is extremely buoyant, especially in salt water. (First time I used the suit was a year and a half ago in a freshwater lake). Looking forward to going back out to Mexico in a month to finish tweaking my setup.

San Carlos is a great little town with beautiful beaches. New Years Eve was spent by a bonfire on the beach waiting for our pals to complete their New Years Eve night dive. The Milky Way was extremely visible, first time I’d seen it in over 20 years!

The diving was also great, lots of fun sea lions, many types of starfish and nudibranches, eels, lobster, etc. perfect time of year to go if you don’t mind chilly water diving. Warm enough at surface that you don’t ever really get too cold, even diving wet. My underwater camera’s battery exploded in it so I couldn’t get any underwater pics. Next time!
tinahawkins - 11/17/2013 11:36 AM
Had a great time at DEMA in Orlando! Discovered my next dream dive location...it’s a little Eco-resort in Indonesia called Misool. This couple built it entirely out of reclaimed wood and established a 465 square mile no-take zone around the tiny private island which has done wonders for a shark population being destroyed by finning. Not easy to get to but the snorkeling and diving looks amazing. Great for manta sightings and macro diving for the photographers out there. I was super inspired by what they’ve done for the environment, thought I’d share! Www.misoolecoresort.com.

Also spotted Scuba Diver Girls roaming about with my new pal Brad Holland who met and photographed them in Yap. Brad’s a great friend of my pal Tonia who owns my certifying dive shop in AZ and who I went to DEMA with. He lives and works in Yap where he got bit by a shark July of this year and then blogged about in a super entertaining fashion, here: http://bradlifestyle.blogspot.com/2013/07/my-shark-attack-story.html

Note - it’s only entertaining because he survived with only some scars to show for it and he learned some big lessons. Like don’t over chum the water!

It’s all made me aware of how many weeks it’s been since I’ve been diving. Too much work travel and too many work projects and now it’s getting cold! Has anyone been diving around the Dallas area in the last few weeks? Is it freezing? Any plans for next weekend? I think DUI is demonstrating dry suits at Clear Springs next weekend, anyone have details about that?
BillParker - 11/17/2013 8:05 PM
I like to fight the sharks off with my rusty butterknife.
tinahawkins - 10/12/2013 11:25 PM
Think I may get to go to DEMA in Orlando this year! Just gotta convince my boss an extra day and a half off work in a month where meetings and trips have cost me two and a half weeks away is reasonable. I went ahead and booked my flight. My confidence level equals $400!
tinahawkins - 9/26/2013 7:25 PM
Anyone heard of the Corn Islands off of Nicaragua? A few pals of mine went. Housing is kind of primitive and it’s a bare bones trip but the videos of the dives were incredible. Check it! http://www.bigcornisland.com
BillParker - 9/27/2013 12:00 AM
I wish. It sounds like it would be fun.
BillParker - 9/27/2013 12:15 AM
Videos? Can you post links to them?
tinahawkins - 9/27/2013 2:37 PM
Need to get my pal’s YouTube handle and then I’ll post some links! Saw his videos at a party a bit ago. Stay tuned!
tinahawkins - 9/21/2013 8:11 AM
Heading to Scuba Toys for lunch today to try and distract myself from the fact that I’m in Dallas while John Chatterton is presenting at the Phoenix Dive Show twice this weekend and I’m not there to make him sign my first edition copy of Shadow Divers! This calls for retail therapy.

Clear Springs tomorrow! Stoked for new dive buddies and to dive with Barry again!
Greg - 9/21/2013 9:36 AM
Have fun at Scuba Toys!
tinahawkins - 9/15/2013 7:16 PM
Got bit by a Perch today at Lake Murray. They should rename those jerks something more vicious-sounding. Like Razor-Toothed Lake Monsters. I will also entertain other suggestions...
BillParker - 9/16/2013 2:00 PM
Freshwater barracuda.
tinahawkins - 9/16/2013 8:10 PM
Nice!
tinahawkins - 9/11/2013 9:05 AM
Cool article withan illustrated history of dive suits. Some look like torture chambers! I would NOT have loved scuba before 1975...
http://io9.com/the-strange-and-wonderful-history-of-diving-suits-from-1262529336
BillParker - 9/11/2013 12:24 PM
Makes me wonder how primitive our stuff will look in 100 years.
seabasealpha - 9/11/2013 1:34 PM
I like the 1932 article on how to build a diving helmet from a water heater. DIY, anyone?
tinahawkins - 9/11/2013 5:08 PM
I’d help build that! We need a water heater, some garden hose, a bellows, a case of beer, and a Go-Pro!
BillParker - 9/11/2013 9:15 PM
With a case of beer you can do anything. :)
havoc - 9/19/2013 6:02 PM
Thanks for the share! Great article!
tinahawkins - 9/08/2013 10:57 AM
Am grounded this weekend from diving for various ridiculous reasons...so if I can’t dive, I will shop! My dive master and great friend bought me a tank top from www.bottomcrawlers.com at DEMA last year and I’ve about worn it out (to the point I almost couldn’t read the logo to find them online). Great dive/ocean apparel and accessories, I just bought three more tops and a mask strap from them to go with my new mask also purchased this weekend! Super fun gift ideas and I can attest to the great quality. Haven’t seen the items in any dive shops so thought I’d share the site. Enjoy!