ABOUT USAmbassadors
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“No Limit” is how we define technical diving - Hollis ambassadors remind us everyday.
Ambassadors come from a variety of backgrounds including training, photography and for some simply adventure. They are a select group who continue to share our passion for diving and help others continue or begin their own.
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Jeff Loflin Jeff has been a PADI Instructor since 1983, Master Instructor since 1986 and PADI Course Director since 1988. He’s an Instructor/Trainer in PADIs Trimix, Tec Deep and Blender Programs ( Nitrox and Trimix ). He also teaches courses through TDI, SDI, and ERDI as well as numerous other specialties and have certified over 1,800 divers in his extensive diving career. His accomplishments also include being the owner/operator of Adventures Underwater a PADI 5 Star I.D.C facility in Tampa, Fl. for 16 years. Jeff also served as an adjunct faculty member in the Marine Sciences Department at the University of Tampa for 8 years and taught 5 diving courses approved for college credit. Jeff has a commercial diving background and is a certified bridge inspector with the Florida Department of Transportation. Jeff was the first ambassador for Hollis and is responsible for development of the SMS sidemount product line worldwide. He has been to the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Germany and all over the United States educating others. Jeff is also responsible for authoring the first PADI sidemount specialty and his goal of bringing sidemount from cave to open water has come full circle. |
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Jill Heinerth A pioneering underwater explorer and filmmaker, Jill Heinerth has dived deeper into caves than any woman in history. With a collection of magnificent images, from Antarctic iceberg caves to the Floridan Aquifer and subterranean Siberia, Jill shares a glimpse of a breathtaking world few will experience. Her accolades include being inducted to the Women Diver's Hall of Fame and the Explorer’s Club as well as scores of photography and filmmaking awards. Recognized as a leading technical diver, she is one of the world’s experts on rebreather technology. An engaging speaker, Jill’s multimedia presentations stir audiences with life’s lessons learned during expeditions above, below and inside the earth. An award-winning filmmaker, Jill wrote, produced, and appeared in Water’s Journey, the PBS documentary series that takes viewers on travels through the world’s greatest water systems. Hollywood filmmakers, including Lakeshore Productions (The Cave) and James Cameron, have called on her to produce difficult underwater scenes, and international magazines and new media companies look to her to document extreme environments. Her accolades include being named a “Living Legend” by Sport Diver Magazine, induction into the exclusive New York Explorer’s Club and the inaugural class of the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame, as well as scores of photography and filmmaking awards. Dozens of stories lauding Jill’s career, have appeared in the New York Post, London Telegraph, Wired Magazine, Sport’s Illustrated Women and most recently a 21-page photo feature in Deep, China’s most prestigious outdoor adventure publication. Jill is known as an industry expert in the use of closed-circuit rebreathers. Her multi-media blog attracts a large international audience. She is also a popular presenter at international diving events from Australia to Central America, Russia, Europe and Canada. Jill’s photography and writing have been featured in prominent magazines and major newspapers around the world. She contributed to the development of training materials for international organizations and is the author of three books on cave diving and underwater photography. |
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Jonas Samuelsson - Team Blue Immersion
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Mike Young Mike Young grew up in the mountains of Colorado. At a young age, he became an extreme skier, an avid hunter, mountaineer, and extreme motorcyclist. No adventure was too big. His parents owned an Alligator farm and him and his brother Jay were the only ones available to play with the saurian beasts. Mike first learned to scuba dive in the early 90’s and made his first open water dives in a sinkhole on the edge of the Kalahari desert, Africa. This combined with his adventure for extreme sports and wrangling alligators, it would be natural for him to gravitate toward technical diving. He was soon performing deep cave dives and his interest for sump diving grew. Today, Mike is a member of the Advance Diver Magazine Exploration team and a participant in the US Deep Caving Team. Recently Mike dicovered a Myan vase that dates back 1300 years while exploring and mapping cenotes (caves) in the Yucatan peninsula area. In 2010, Mike helped with the J2 system in southern Mexico that is 1200 meters deep which took 2 days of caving just to get down to the water. In 2011, Mike and the deep caving teem mapped an underground river system in Puerto Rico that totaled over 23 kilometers in length making it the world's longest underground river. Some of the area surveyed had never been seen by human eyes before. Mike’s desire for diving and reaching areas unseen has led him to custom build many of his own products; several of which that were not available at the time. Together with Hollis Mike has been influential in designing several products. Mike is also responsible for the development of the GEM gas extender Rebreather. |
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Dan “Hendo” Henderson – MMA Fighter and Hollis Extreme Athlete Dan Henderson is one of the most accomplished and admired champions in the history of mixed martial arts, earning titles in multiple organizations and weight classes over the course of a storied career that began in 1997. Today at 41, the two-time Olympic wrestler Henderson, remains one of the world’s elite MMA athletes. Consistently ranked as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in all of mixed martial arts, Henderson has compiled a 28-8 record versus elite competition. Dan is the only athlete in mixed martial arts history to simultaneously possess titles in multiple weight divisions for a major organization. Henderson also owns more major tournament titles than any other athlete in MMA history, winning four different international events in three weight divisions—heavyweight, light heavyweight and middleweight. Distinguished by his ferocity in the ring and his humility outside of it, Henderson is one of the most respected and admired fighters in MMA. A resident of San Clemente, California, Dan recently became a certified diver in Catalina, California and has since made several trips back and to Cabo San Lucas to further his diving experience. Dan uses Hollis Gear exclusively and we are pleased to call him our “Hollis Extreme Athlete”. |
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Tony Cooper Since 1998, Tony has been involved in diving because of his passion of the underwater world and the feeling of freedom it gave him. Scuba diving has provided the opportunity to go explore the world not many people would get the chance to see. In 2001, Tony decided he wanted to share this experience and make diving a career. Since then, he has been a PADI professional and is currently an IDC Staff Instructor and both a Trimix and Full Cave instructor. Most recently in 2010, Tony has completed his sidemount instructor rating. As a qualified sidemount and technical instructor in the UK, Tony has also started two different dive schools. The most recent called “Dive Side Mounts” in 2010 to specialize in sidemount, technical and cave diving. Tony still finds the time for exploring caves and wrecks worldwide. To date he has dived over 300 wrecks and finds sidemount diving the best method. From Tony’s first experiences cave diving with a harness and back plate in the UK, Tony has been very passionate about diving and getting the most out of it. His aim is to give people the understanding of the freedom that technical diving in sidemount has to offer, as well as the increased safety. Tony has worked in England, Scotland, Wales, Malta, Greece, Egypt, Philippines, Spain and the Canary Islands. He also has planned a trip to Dahab in December, spending a minimum of 10 weeks diving and exploring both technical and cave diving techniques, with his friend and fellow Hollis Ambassador, Jonas Samuelsson. We are excited to have Tony as a Hollis ambassador. His experience and devotion to the sport is a great asset to Hollis and the UK. To contact Tony directly, his information is listed below. divesidemounts@hotmail.co.uk
www.divesidemounts.com |
