Meeting Graham Hawkes

Sometime in the late 1990s, I saw a documentary about the maiden voyage of the Deepflight 1 submersible. My immediate reaction was: “I absolutely have to take a ride in one of those!!!!!!!!!!!”

Flash-forward about 15 years, and I’ve now had the opportunity to take five underwater “flights” in a Deepflight Super Falcon. To say the submersible dives were “amazing” is the understatement of the millennium.

 

Graham Hawkes and Tony Wu in Nantucket
Self portrait together with Graham Hawkes

 

Yesterday, I had the honour of meeting the creator of Deepflight submersibles, Graham Hawkes, and his lovely wife Karen at a cocktail party hosted by the Nantucket Historical Association.

The best thing about chatting with Graham and Karen is that their eyes didn’t glaze over when I started spouting crazy ideas for gear and projects. In fact, we discussed a number of possibilities, and we’re planning to chat more before departing Nantucket.

It’s so cool meeting someone I’ve looked up to for many years, and discovering that we are birds of a feather, or perhaps fishes of a fin.

If you don’t know what a Deepflight submersible is, check out the website.