Wayne Hasson

"I was in highschool, a senior in 1967 and watched the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau every Sunday night with my family. I was so inspired to try diving"

What do you enjoy most about diving?

What I enjoy more than anything is to share my passion with others, which includes telling dive stories and sharing lifelong lessons about diving.

Dream Dive: where and with who?

I would like to dive with Richard Branson to see the grouper spawn in Little Cayman. My good friend Guy Harvey did that dive and told me all about it, now I'd love to try it with Richard Branson.

Most memorable dive experience?

Wow, there are so many great memories, but the best dive was at Cocos Island when I led a group of dive friends to the island long before there were any liveaboards diving there. I heard about this place when a small sail boat stopped in Cayman and showed me topside photos of the water surface covered with shark fins. The boat that took us out there is now the current Okeanos Aggressor which was not a dive boat but a pleasure craft and the owners wanted to explore the possibility of joining with Aggressor Fleet to be a liveaboard. Many people thought this was a crazy idea but those that went with me were amazed. I was the first person to get info the water because everyone was a bit frightened by the shark fins all around our dive tender, a rubber boat about 16 feet long. We got to the place where we would jump in and I asked, “Ok, who’s going first?" and I heard back from several divers, "You are!”, so I slipped in quietly and saw lots of sharks briefly but they all disappeared quickly so I told everyone to jump in and follow me. Within 10 minutes our group was approached by hundreds of hammerhead and white tips sharks so everyone stopped and got close to the rocks for protection and they kept coming until sharks were all around us, it was amazing, a shear wall of sharks.

Favorite piece of Aqua Lung equipment?

My favorite Aqua Lung gear is my new Rogue BCD

What steps are you taking to improve the health of our oceans? Any advice for others who want to help?

Educating customers who dive with me on Aggressor Fleet dive yachts about simple things that they can do to protect the environment while diving. Simple things like picking up trash if they find it underwater, hovering with perfect buoyancy.
 

Any hidden talents?

I can make a tank last forever and out-breathe anyone because I learned to inhale only the air I need rather than taking deep breaths just to blow a lot of bubbles and scare fish. I breathe slow, inhale no more then 1/3 of a lung on each breath and exhale slowly but do not hold my breath. I can get very close to fish underwater using this technique and I continue to challenge myself to be quiet as a mouse so I can capture the best imagine.