Episode 21 ~ Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration

In episode 21, we talk to Christine Dennison, a female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration.

She co-founded Mad dog expeditions in the US and is the first woman to dive and document the remote regions of Canada's Northwest Passage and the Rio Negro in the Brazilian rainforest.

 

She has been championing remote adventure travel for over 20 years, whilst also mentoring young women, advocating for environmental protection, leadership and participating in ground-breaking expeditions like skiing to the North Pole and finding lost submarines.

For this and her other incredible work, she has been awarded a Fellowship at the Royal Geographical Society and International honours from the Brazilian Navy and The Gold Leadership Award by the USA Girl Scouts Organisation.

Find out more:

https://tiburonsubsea.com

http://maddogexpeditions.com

https://www.girlscoutsnyc.org/en/support-us/fundraising-events/gold-achievement-gala/christine-dennison.html


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  • 00:00:00 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Welcome to the Tales of Adventure podcast.

    00:00:03 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You either love it or you hate it. I kept going back for like most 15 years. It was vague because you do have to keep moving and your body just gets to a point where physically it.

    00:00:13 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Can't function in the.

    00:00:14 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Heat. Remember we went there for a month on that first expedition and I was exhausted.

    00:00:21 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Hi, I'm Chris, your host every month for re interviewing inspiring adventures about overcoming hardship, taking risk and doing it differently. The podcast aims to document and learning that got these stand out individuals to.

    00:00:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Where they are.

    00:00:33

    Now.

    00:00:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    In this episode, I talk to Christine Dennison, female Pioneer Extreme motion exploration.

    00:00:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    The Mad Dog expeditions in the US is the first woman to dive and document the remote readings of Canada's Northwest Passage and the real macro, and Brazil has been championing remote adventure travel for over 20 years, whilst also mentoring young women advocating for Environmental Protection, leadership and participating in ground breaking expeditions like schemes and North Pole and finding lost submarines.

    00:01:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Hey, Christine, how you doing? It's lovely to hear.

    00:01:04 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    From you and the the big.

    00:01:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Apple of all.

    00:01:05 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Places. Hey, Chris, how are you? Yeah, we're having a a heat wave.

    00:01:10 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    At the moment so it's.

    00:01:12 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It's nice to be inside speaking to you.

    00:01:14 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    For sure today.

    00:01:16 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Ohh really what? How? How?

    00:01:18 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Hot is it at the moment in New York?

    00:01:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It's probably. It's probably going to get up to like 32.

    00:01:20

    If.

    00:01:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And it's humid.

    00:01:26 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    So that that's that's.

    00:01:27 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    She.

    00:01:27 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Comfortable. Yeah, it's it's sitting heat and it's not even summer. So that that tells you. Yeah, bit about what we're heading for this in the next month or two.

    00:01:37 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah. Wow. Gee.

    00:01:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Jesus. Well, thank you so much for for joining us and tells Adventure podcast. You've been on my list of people that I want to talk to for for like maybe a year or two now because you've got such a a huge range of experiences which you don't come.

    00:01:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Across very, very often.

    00:01:53 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    In the adventure world, so just want to say thanks again so much.

    00:01:57 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    For jumping illness, I realise it's you've got a busy schedule, so hopefully not too much interruption.

    00:02:03 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    No, it's it's great to talk to you. I love. I love tales of adventure and and I'm honoured to to be on it and share a little bit of you know what? What I've.

    00:02:12 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Done.

    00:02:13 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    What I hope to do?

    00:02:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah, brilliant. Well, my first questions, you've been a trailblazer in many remote regions of the world. Can you share a particularly memorable challenging experience from your expeditions in, let's say the NW passage or Real ***** or something like that? It's both both areas of of huge interest to me. So yeah, whichever you prefer to go.

    00:02:34 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Well, OK. So yeah, the the Arctic is of particular importance to to me personally and professionally. And I think it's one of the most pristine areas in in the world. My my first foray when I started Mad Dog expeditions, I was 28.

    00:02:53 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And it was the first trip that we had done. Expedition we were self supported and we went to explore.

    00:03:01 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Not just the.

    00:03:02 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Top side, but we wanted to add the underwater component to it. So this was the first time I was really doing ice diving in such a wild area where in addition to it being so unchartered because we were going to areas that nobody had been into and and we were just following and working with the Inuit.

    00:03:21 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That is one of the most memorable to this day because I think it.

    00:03:25 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Was my first.

    00:03:26 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Really challenging experience on on a physical, mental and and it was a journey. It was a journey from the moment I just sort of got on that flight and and as you're flying into the Arctic and this is up in the Canadian high.

    00:03:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Arctic you realise that you you get farther above the Arctic Circle and there's nothing green. And I remember that so, so visually.

    00:03:48 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    So, so cold and and there's that smell in the Arctic that it's not really a smell. It's just cold. And by by snow and cold. And as far as the eye can see, it's just a landscape of of mountains of ice and and snow. And it's it's fantastic.

    00:03:52

    Then.

    00:04:08 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    But I will say it, it's one of those experiences that I can fully appreciate having been gone on to bringing clients up there, you either love it or you hate it.

    00:04:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yeah, I think.

    00:04:21 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You know that pretty much from the get go, if this is for me, or if it's not, and obviously I kept going back for like close to 15 years, it was me all the way.

    00:04:33 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah. Fascinating is, I mean it one one thing that's I'm not really experienced much of the the cold. So I came to a stand there a few years ago and that was probably the coldest that I'd ever done because I had.

    00:04:45 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    I have never deployed.

    00:04:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    To the Arctic with the Marines before. So it's kind of a new thing. And I've always said, well, I kind of like the cold. It's I kind of feel like I can, I can operate better in the cold because you just have to make yourself a bit warm, which you can do through movement, whereas when you're hot, there's there's very little that can cool you down other than just stopping and doing nothing, which isn't very, very easy.

    00:05:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    But yeah, I've I found actually the cold, the cold.

    00:05:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Would is somewhat more difficult because actually you you've just got to constantly keep on working. And obviously as you're working, you're burning calories, you're using water, you're you know you're you're sweating all that sort of stuff. So it becomes just like a never ending cycle of work. And I guess is that your your kind of experience of of cold or?

    00:05:28 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Absolutely. And that's going back to the first expedition. And that is one of the things that I remember.

    00:05:34 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    The most is. I've never been so tired, but yet so invigorated because you do have to keep moving and it's it's harder to cool down when you're when you're hot, your body just gets to a point where physically it can't function in the heat and the cold you you have to keep moving. That's the key. And you, you're spending so much.

    00:05:50

    Yeah.

    00:05:54 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Energy to stay warm that I remember. We were up there for a month on that first expedition.

    00:05:59 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Oh.

    00:06:00 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And when I came back, everyone said, oh, you look so great. You have this great face hand going and obviously was fit and I was exhausted. I think I slept a few days. I was physically, mentally taxed. And yet everyone just went on about how great you look. And I thought, I feel like absolute crap because I'm so.

    00:06:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Tired. I've been cold for a month, but it it's one of those things where for all those.

    00:06:27 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    For your audience that are polar people are thinking of going, it is something that you can prepare for and and it's not until you really get there and put everything into place that you start to recognise how unprepared you can be no matter what you do because everyone faces that kind of cold those temperatures.

    00:06:47 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Being alone for some time, it's it's all really.

    00:06:52 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It's a very personal experience when you're working in remote and and that I know you were very familiar with. It's you don't know what a person will be like until they are in a situation that they can't manage and and you can. And that's such a personal experience for so many people. And that that was my experience with.

    00:07:11 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    With clients, people that were very prepared physical.

    00:07:14 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Really, mentally some were ex military. There was just something about, I think being that remote, far from help and being underwater that that completely change their ability to to really function and manage.

    00:07:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    And we've just interviewed actually a, A a dentist who's due to go out to Antarctica later this year and and she's she was saying she she did a across Greenland ski tour and she's been up with a couple of kind of polar adventure.

    00:07:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    As well and well known and and again, she kind of echoed essentially what you were saying there where it's like you can do all you want to prepare for the cold, but there is also just a a sheer amount of learning when you get into that environment that just catches you by surprise. So yeah, it's a thing and it does lead me actually quite well into my my second question, I want to know.

    00:08:07 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Your work with mad.

    00:08:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Dog expeditions is taking you to some of the most extreme environments on Earth.

    00:08:13 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    I guess what it what inspired you to to start the company and choose your first expedition destination? Because there there's such a range of places you could go. I guess what? What made you go? This. This is where we gonna go first? But.

    00:08:26 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Thank you. That that's a a great question as well. I started I co-founded Mad Dog with a a really dear close friend.

    00:08:33 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That we've known each other since high school and we've gone on and and done our things at university and beyond and this.

    00:08:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    We really enjoyed travelling. We both grew up travelling and and liking to do different things and we thought of starting a company that would take us that would sort of bring into play a lot of the things that were important to us. I never thought I would be.

    00:09:00 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Bleeding expeditions or going that route I came in with the company to do some of the expeditions, sort of like as a client and just enjoy it and have fun and then do the branding and be in the office more.

    00:09:13 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And the idea was to create boutique expeditions that we obviously would go on 1st and take clients, clients that you know were no more than six or eight people that were wanted to go to areas that of the world that had really been reserved for scientists and take them one step further and put them underwater.

    00:09:33 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    In these environments.

    00:09:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Wow. Wow. Incredible.

    00:09:36 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yeah, we're here 20 something you're like? Sure we can do this. Everyone's gonna wanna do this. Why not? Well, it wasn't the case. We started here in New York and Americans.

    00:09:48 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    We're not all that eager. Our clients were European. We had a lot of British which were great and gung ho and Japanese hilarious.

    00:09:54

    Yeah.

    00:09:58

    Yeah.

    00:09:59 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It was just it was interesting to sort of the demographics of what we thought as far as people wanting to to do something that was a little more extreme and and and this was quite extra.

    00:10:11 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Thing was interesting. Lots of people. Now we we obviously will get into that later, but the adventure component was was certainly there. But when we're doing this kind of remote Expeditionary work and exploration it, it really is a lot more taxing than people realised and we mitigate. We try to mitigate.

    00:10:29

    Yeah.

    00:10:31 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That and beginning by choosing destinations that people can.

    00:10:35 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Read about and understand this is a bit more extreme than you're used to. This is not five star luxury, it's five star adventure. And then of course they're screening. You have to be certified. We we will do everything we work with liability with doctors, you know everything we did, everything we could and and thankfully.

    00:10:45 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yes, that's us.

    00:10:55 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You know, we never lost anybody and we had people that, you know, became great friends and and clients that were super.

    00:11:04 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Into it and and understanding of what they were getting into and really appreciated that what they were seeing and the places that we chose to go with the the Arctic, the Amazon, we did Papua New Guinea early on. These were places that were relatively unchartered and we chose them because we had, I guess more free rain like.

    00:11:16

    Blows.

    00:11:23 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Antarctica is an incredible destination, but you've got a lot of politics and you go in there on boats and you have to take the zodiacs around. The Arctic is kind.

    00:11:28

    Yeah, yeah.

    00:11:34 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Like not kind of a I don't want to say cowboy, but it does allow you to say we're going to go there and and you find a way to get there and you can. And we were very fortunate that we worked with them in the arts in particular work with the couple that hosted all the major North Pole expeditions going back to like.

    00:11:43

    Oh wow.

    00:11:55 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I think the 1980s and so they were very familiar with people coming up to them and saying I want.

    00:11:57 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Very well.

    00:12:02 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    To motorcycle across the Arctic, and they would say, sure. And they did. And so we went.

    00:12:09 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    To them and.

    00:12:10 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Said, you know, we'd like to do scuba diving. Same thing they never said. No. They just sort of laid out. This is what we can do. You have to bring everything up here, which we loved completely self support and we can provide.

    00:12:20

    Yeah.

    00:12:22 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Be with a a garage to do this and we can provide you with food at the end of the day or in the morning, or pack your lunches when you go out to the ice and do that and.

    00:12:32 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yeah, it it's always a team effort as as you know you you need to rely on each other. You need to have a good team. And we were very fortunate that we knew what we were doing and and until we figured out that we knew we were doing, we never took clients we we sorted it out first and then we bring people on.

    00:12:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah.

    00:12:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah, yeah, understandable. I guess because it's the the these.

    00:12:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Places are so.

    00:12:55 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    So remote that you need to kind of feel like you're entirely comfortable with all the range of different things that could go wrong because.

    00:13:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Like like you're saying now there there are so many different things that can go wrong that that you obviously need that depth of experience and knowledge of of how to respond to how to prevent it in the 1st place. So yeah, now I can imagine it probably was quite a fairly long time from actually having the idea to actually be being able to bring clients out for the.

    00:13:21 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    For those initial expeditions to get it and get the business moving.

    00:13:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    We yeah, it it took, we say a year to sort of run through or to run through all the expeditions and then once we started and we knew what we had in place and what.

    00:13:36 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    We would. We needed to do. We just, you just don't stop you. You keep going and it.

    00:13:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Was it was.

    00:13:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    A great deal of work to plan, prepare and and move things into place, because every even in in the Amazon we had to be based off of a rubber boat and then we would go into the jungle and and even there we had to bring everything in so.

    00:13:54

    Yeah.

    00:13:58 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    In some ways, that was as hard as it was. It was the best way because again, that you you need to know your equipment, you rely on that it's life or death. If you are using someone else's gear or someone else's products and you don't know them it, it's it could be a catastrophe.

    00:14:05

    Yeah.

    00:14:15

    OK.

    00:14:16 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah, 100% it it's. Yeah, I I know exactly what you're talking about there cause.

    00:14:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    It's when you've got the the life.

    00:14:21 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Of life or death situations, depending on on you as the expedition leader. It's you. You need to have absolute confidence that when you pull out that I know that that dry bag or that you know, piece of piece of breathing apparatus, it's going to do what it says it.

    00:14:36 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    You know it's going to do because it's, yeah, people really need to have that knowledge fascinating and. Well, it again. It was leaning on quite answer. My next question, I know you're probably very, very humble about this, but I think you've you've made a significant contribution to scientific.

    00:14:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Field work for these expeditions because I know that that you have to have this kind of knowledge to lead scientists and those that are inexperienced in those kind of environments. So I think you know whilst whilst it it does feel just like you know a normal work, I think it is significantly contributing to science because it's you're you're bringing.

    00:15:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    People with their their theoretical knowledge into these environments where they would otherwise, you know.

    00:15:19 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    I think that's very long.

    00:15:21 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    To to to put it that way. But do you have a a kind of like a a a discovery or contribution specifically which have come from your your expeditions that you you know you're you're really proud of or something which you've contributed to which you'd say actually this was something we we we helped make happen.

    00:15:39 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Well, first of all, I'm not a scientist. My background, my background is in English literature, art history and writing. So I'm not a scientist, but I I did. You know, I studied that as well. The the, the physical scientist. And I have worked that I think.

    00:15:56 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You you recognise the field work in remote areas. There is so much work that you need to do prior to actually getting there, which includes studying. Obviously for us there's a lot of different certifications, there's some medical background that we have to learn and and go through.

    00:16:17 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    As far as contributions, I worked with many scientists from different universities that, as you pointed out, did not have.

    00:16:25 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    The physical understanding of of or or ability to go underwater, and certainly in the Arctic or in in the Rionegro that was very difficult. But we did have sort of a collaborative, I would say relationship where.

    00:16:32

    Yeah.

    00:16:44

    Yeah.

    00:16:45 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    They would come to us and say I need a sample of kelp from the Arctic or I would like to study Crow. Could you get some?

    00:16:53 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Curl that's embedded in the in the Arctic ice, which they were studying trying to figure out why they go into this dormant stage. So so you go down and you you get that for them and you bring it back. And that was just I'll do that as a I'm doing it anyway and that's my contribution. I hope you you find your particular answer. I wouldn't say that I know.

    00:17:07

    No.

    00:17:13 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Specifically that we contributed to some massive discovery, but I I did work with a lot of scientists and and even though.

    00:17:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Our our knowledge, a lot of the work that we do before we go underwater is to to explore, to document and we did that through various ways of, of both through writing, writing, what I was seeing, what I was doing day-to-day has changed that personal journal.

    00:17:32

    Yeah.

    00:17:43 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Is actually has in many many times became a a wonderful journey and and booklet of what was happening before me that at the time you're not sure of which I think did help in certain ways for for certain things that we were writing or field work working with scientists they needed.

    00:17:56

    Yeah.

    00:18:01 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Information. Again, I do think that the documentation and the exploration prior to the diving in all these areas has has been a significant has yielded significant information that now we're seeing has been very beneficial to.

    00:18:21 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Even writing about the the wildlife, the fun of the marine life in these regions that.

    00:18:27 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You don't see again the areas that we've travelled to and that I used to go to year after year again are very pristine and very remote. They're not areas that people go to and can get to easily. So everything that we were seeing from the the ice melting and you know forming.

    00:18:46 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Every year, how deep? How it, how it changed from year to year. All this, the environmental impact is something that I I've been a witness to for.

    00:18:56 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    10 and that, interestingly enough, after 20 years is something that I I look back on and I look at photographs and I think, Oh my gosh, you know, yes, we don't see icebergs that big anymore. We don't have the wildlife in the areas that we used to have. Everything is changing. And that to me is is fascinating.

    00:18:57

    Yeah.

    00:19:16 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Sad, but having documented through video, photographs and all these things that at the time were just more a a composite of the expedition.

    00:19:27 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah, I mean, I mean it's it's it's really interesting. I find it really interesting because I I studied kind of biology in the last few years put of interest for for matching it with the geography which I've I've seen over the last few years and and kind of some of the things you mentioned about like the cruel and the the other. I can't remember the other one was you you mentioned.

    00:19:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    You often referred to as indicator species, and they're they're the ones which you you can actually monitor and use to to see the effects of climate change and and kind of like ecological changes. So I I I can see.

    00:20:00 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Is very easy to chart a a link between what you've been doing with your expeditions and and helping those scientists to get access to those indicator species actually. And then decision makers decision making by you know the the top world leaders when it comes to like climate policy. So I think there's a there's, you know, I I can see a really clear link there there between the expeditions and.

    00:20:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    You know an important decisions that affect, you know, affect us.

    00:20:25 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That's that's right, because I I also did study just as a sugar, studied biology and also geography and never thinking how they would come together in doing what I ended up doing. And it really is, you know being a a witness to the behaviour of of wildlife, the.

    00:20:25

    Then.

    00:20:36

    Yeah.

    00:20:44 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Changing of the environment, the people that live at the front lines, the Inuit in this example or or some of the Indian tribes in the Amazon that are right by the water and and how this has affected them that 20 years ago we weren't really thinking about it. What we didn't care as much and now we see how quickly.

    00:21:00

    Yeah.

    00:21:04 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Things have have progressed in terms of, you know, they they don't have the same. They don't have the same resources they they the wildlife isn't there, the marine life isn't there for them. Everything that was plentiful at one point has decreased tremendously and that's that's a very sad.

    00:21:15

    Yeah.

    00:21:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Historic.

    00:21:26

    Yeah.

    00:21:27 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    For documentation to have.

    00:21:29 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Totally. Yeah. Now I can understand that. And it's it's interesting like because it's I think having seen it and the changes particularly over the.

    00:21:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Last, you know.

    00:21:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Kind of 20 years it it's been, it's been more visceral and it's more in the the public eye and the public conversation these days. So it's it's, you know, almost a really fascinating time to be doing.

    00:21:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Expeditions for my personal opinion so.

    00:21:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah. I I I think it's brilliant. I've gotta. So I gotta jump on to the next question because again, I mean to, you know, kind of I like, I like too much of making you feel awkward, but you have received a lot of awards and honours and I've got to say just running a few of them off now, the Medal of honour from the Brazilian Navy League.

    00:22:12 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    The humanitarian silver medal from the International Navy League, the Girl Scout Gold Achievement Award and all, and also being a Fellow of the the Royal Geographical Society at the RGS, one of my my personal favourites which which which of these accolades are you most proud of and and why?

    00:22:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Is that?

    00:22:33 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    No, no, I I don't think of them. I really, I I would say I've recently been awarded the Girl Scouts Gold Achievement Award in New York and I believe.

    00:22:33

    Question.

    00:22:38

    5th.

    00:22:44 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    The Girl Scouts.

    00:22:45 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    The equivalent of the British Girl Scouts or Scouts in Australia, so who work that they do as a charitable.

    00:22:47

    Yes.

    00:22:52 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Nonprofit organisation to empower young women with programmes and opportunities that teach leadership, community and service to me are it is an extremely.

    00:23:04 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Important award and recognition because I I strongly believe in in whatever I do, hopefully mentoring young women and helping young women go on to achieve their goals and dreams and and certainly in an area like exploration.

    00:23:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and doing.

    00:23:26 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    What I've been able to do, I think there aren't that many women that these roles can go to to ask questions, and so this recognition, which was just a month ago, was tremendous and I'm very proud of it and I'm very humbled by it because there's some incredible women that they have recognised throughout the years.

    00:23:33 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yeah, I agree.

    00:23:47 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That come from different fields of of politics, science.

    00:23:53 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Business and it's it's been a great honour because the I have mentored many women and and I do speak with the Girl Scouts and make presentations and and overall it's just creating a network and making yourself available to two young women in the next generation that are interested.

    00:24:13 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And either pursuing a career similar to mine.

    00:24:17 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Or applying all the skills of leadership that when you learn them and you apply them in, you know, in my case it's very extreme. I've applied and learned in sort of do or die life or death situations where which can be transcribed into everyday life and into the the boardroom because it's about non management.

    00:24:29

    Yeah, yeah.

    00:24:37 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    About team building and and it's very important to have certain skills and to have to apply them with, with empathy and support.

    00:24:38

    Yeah.

    00:24:47 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Because those, those are just lessons that that I've learned along the way. And and I think they're very worthwhile as long as others know how to apply them in their own life.

    00:24:48 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Next.

    00:24:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    100% yeah. And and I, I completely agree as well those social skills, which I've learned from adventures. Now I find they they've got. We've spoken about this before, but they they come in almost every single day when it comes to running a business because you you have to learn the empathy or you have to learn how to.

    00:25:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    You know, kind of softly influence somebody or or just engage with somebody and you know, build that rapport and stuff. And it's like, I trace it back. It all comes back from doing adventures where they were starting off doing a, you know, a a AA5K run. When I was like, 10 years old or something like that, all the way up to rowing across the Atlantic or the the Sahara desert.

    00:25:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah, I can trace back a lot of the skills I've built up these days. As you know, from adventures and it, it sounds that's exactly what's happened with you as well.

    00:25:44 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    So the skills that that I've learned in the field and having a a company where really it was do or die life or death might be a bit more extreme, but they certainly are man management skills.

    00:25:59 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Having applying them to everyday life and situations are things that you you can do it as as you need and and empathy I think is one of a very important part of it.

    00:26:12 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Building these are things that you can apply in business and you know, for me, having started a a company, I was behind a desk, I was on a computer. I was doing all the boring things that go along with the business, making mistakes, worrying about how to keep payroll going while keeping.

    00:26:32 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Things moving and then going off into the field to work with my, my team and Co leading trips. And so there was you have to wear many different hats and you have to juggle and the outcome of that is either you will succeed and continue to to flourish and and do what you love or.

    00:26:38

    Yeah.

    00:26:52 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You go on to something else, but those skills are so important to have that you can use them at at any stage in your life. And I I just think that the more we hear from people that have experienced in this, you know, they're I think it's it's very beneficial.

    00:27:09 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    So your your journey includes a deep commitment to women's empowerment. How has your experience shaped your perspective on female leadership and extreme adventure and exploration fields?

    00:27:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Interesting I when I first started on this journey, I I did not.

    00:27:29 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I I wasn't really aware of of being the first woman to do anything. I was. I was following my path and doing what I needed to do for my job and my company, so I wasn't really thinking of of, you know, where that would lead other than let's get past this.

    00:27:43

    Yeah.

    00:27:48 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Let me live and let me go on to the next expedition and and so since then I I have to say.

    00:27:52

    Yeah.

    00:27:56 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That during that time that that I was on expeditions, I did hear from young women that were very interested in what I was doing and how I was doing it. And you know what advice I had, which I I didn't really think that that was of any value. Since then I've I've really.

    00:28:17 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Seeing a lot more women come into the extreme adventure.

    00:28:22 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Profession and and certainly in the fields of exploration, women that are coming from various backgrounds from you know, just out of school or or some that do have an adventure background or a an athletic background and and some that are just you know wanting to get into adventure and exploration and.

    00:28:24

    Yes.

    00:28:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I I think it's wonderful to have more women representation in in this field and certainly as business owners and as as leaders of expeditions and scientific research expeditions, I think it's fantastic. It's.

    00:29:00 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It's something that I do think for someone like me at this point. I'm like a grandma in this. In this industry, don't feel it. But I did pioneer at the time that nothing that I thought I was doing was was of any importance. But looking back on it, even now, the questions that women had when when I.

    00:29:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Started diving in in cold water in the Arctic. There weren't.

    00:29:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Wet suits under.

    00:29:25 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Dry suits that really that fit women. And there's a company in the US called diving and Limited international DUI and I contacted them. So I was wearing a man's dry suit and I asked them if they had a suit and they said no, we don't have.

    00:29:27

    Here.

    00:29:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Women, because we don't really have a lot of women.

    00:29:43 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Doing this so they I was the prototype. I guess you know Guinea pig for them. And they sent me a suit. They took it to the Arctic, which was enormous. I mean, it just didn't work. And at the time that the woman in charge was, it was a woman, actually. She was the CEO of the company. And and we worked together to create a dry suit.

    00:29:55

    And.

    00:30:03 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That that worked for me and I and I think things like this that from a tech perspective the gear.

    00:30:11 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Is more advanced and able to fit women better, so it allows for women to do exploration much more comfortably. I think that's a plus. I I remember that I I was very happy to to help create a suit that would fit a woman's body that wasn't.

    00:30:22

    Yeah.

    00:30:32 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and the gear that they have and climbing as well for men, it's everything is geared towards men. You're a man. Small. But I'm not right now. It's very different. And I think there's advancements are certainly very comfortable for for me and I like seeing that because it.

    00:30:33 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah.

    00:30:49 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Women and I think female leadership is something that.

    00:30:54 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I think women need to be more comfortable with that. I don't think there's anything wrong and and and I've been there where I'm I'm uncomfortable in certain situations and I certainly was when I started being in a position of authority.

    00:30:58

    Yeah, yeah.

    00:31:10 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and the position of authority when you have male colleagues, it still happens where a client or just someone will automatically go to the Bonnier guy and ask them for what do I do? Where do I go? And and that's fine. I mean I I think that's just always going to exist in some form.

    00:31:23

    Yeah, yeah.

    00:31:30 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    The the importance is not to let that frustrate you or rattle you. Women need to own their.

    00:31:40 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    They need to own their their professionals and their experience and and understand and recognise their strengths and just stay with that and not be competitive and and just it's important to be educated on anything that we're doing in the field. So so for to be a great leader, you really have to.

    00:31:44

    Yeah.

    00:31:57 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah.

    00:32:00 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You own it. You have to be very confident in your knowledge base. You have to be very confident in your abilities and not be overly confident. There's so many situations in which I have just sort of passed the baton to a colleague because I don't know it and and there's no.

    00:32:11 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah.

    00:32:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You don't get a medal for for not knowing something and pretending you did. It's not. It's not safe and it doesn't look good. And so I think that's.

    00:32:28 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    When I speak to young women and I speak to women, I think leadership is something that you, really everyone, is different, but it's so important in being a good leader to empathise, to be kind, to recognise people's vulnerabilities and work with them. And as I'm sure you know, a team, a strong team is made-up of different strengths and weaknesses.

    00:32:43

    Yeah.

    00:32:48 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yes, Anderson.

    00:32:49 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and you need to really understand that. Recognise that and put people in, in, in a place that they can excel at what they do and then have everyone work together because that is always success when people are doing what they do best and they're doing.

    00:33:05 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Together, it's like a science. You really have to sort of know your audience, know the teams that you're building and and get to get the most out of them. You you want to make them comfortable and always support the people that you're working with and whether you're in the field or in a classroom.

    00:33:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Or in a boardroom.

    00:33:25 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You really as a as a strong leader, you need to to support your team.

    00:33:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    100% yeah, no, I I was. I was just thinking then it's it's the parallels between kind of the subsea adventure, subsea exploration and space. You know the future of space travel I think is is to, to my mind, there's like such an obvious link there that I think all the, all the, all the things you've you've mentioned on leadership.

    00:33:51 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    On gender specific kind of equipment or or or you know gear that's actually made for the person that's going to be using it, you know properly.

    00:34:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    You know, I I think there's there's such an obvious connection here to space travel that I would. I'd love to see this, this sort of like knowledge and perspective, you know, moved into into, you know, that realm as well because it's it it it kind of strikes.

    00:34:17 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Me that the.

    00:34:18 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    The challenges of of of doing a big expedition, you know, underwater.

    00:34:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Like like like you've done here.

    00:34:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    It's it's it's going to be the future of, you know, kind of going to going to the moon or going to Mars or something like that. And I'd love to see and hear, you know, more more things where, you know, this is it can it can be captured in the book or is it gonna be captured on, you know, some more. We can read more about it.

    00:34:40 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I am working with someone at the moment on that and on a book working with the through the lessons. I've learned leadership throughout my career and and I think that again, life lessons are always personal, but they're they're very broad and I think people.

    00:34:58

    Cool.

    00:34:59 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Really appreciate being able to see that nothing is perfect. The road is never an easy one or or paved well for you. You have to make it. You have to sort of build your own Rd as you go along.

    00:35:14 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yeah.

    00:35:15 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And that's something.

    00:35:16 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That is again a very personal journey, but it's it's always.

    00:35:19 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I love meeting different men and women in in various fields. It's really in.

    00:35:26 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    The field of of.

    00:35:27 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Exploration, because there's so many great.

    00:35:30 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Pioneers out there that I have worked with that I have learned from that I hold in in very high esteem because like I didn't do this myself. I was very fortunate. I worked very hard, but I also surrounded myself with the best people that I believe are going to help me learn and and certainly have the patience.

    00:35:33

    Yeah.

    00:35:46

    Yeah.

    00:35:50 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    To to work with and and you know you have to be really plausible, you have to go with it and you have to be very dedicated and determined. And I think these are all disciplines that.

    00:36:03 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Very hard for for a lot of us, but when you believe in what you're doing, you I think it's amazing how you can find that that inner strength to continue on on that path. And I know you know this very, very well from personal experience, you just you know the inner strength, your core.

    00:36:16

    Yeah.

    00:36:23 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Is something that, again, no one can tell you except for for yourself and you. You find that out at some point. Not everyone does, but when?

    00:36:30 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You do, I think that's.

    00:36:31

    Yeah.

    00:36:31 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Only worthwhile. I think it's a worthwhile story to share that you know what? What sort of test for metal and and what you do with them.

    00:36:40

    Yeah.

    00:36:40

    Yeah.

    00:36:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    100% I mean it it doesn't. You you are 100% right. It's it's you know about finding kind of those things which which actually you're you're able to actually overcome and kind of keep pushing forward with we've we've we've we've we've been really beneficial to have some some great.

    00:37:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    I mean on the on the podcast before, but I wonder if you if you have any advice for what what could?

    00:37:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Younger women do.

    00:37:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    In pursuing careers and adventure and exploration.

    00:37:12 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    And OK, even even going a bit kind of like further out, you know, like the the sciences or tech or education or or or math or something like that, the the stem areas.

    00:37:23 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I think right now.

    00:37:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    There's such great opportunities for young women, women to get into the fields of adventure, leadership positions, exploration fields, all starting with, you know, young kids, young girls at school are learning about robotics. They've been raised in.

    00:37:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah.

    00:37:42

    Yeah.

    00:37:43 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    There's a whole generation that knows nothing.

    00:37:46 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And so anything you throw at them, they just absorb it and run with it. And these are the future pioneers that, I mean, these are the minds that I I love hearing from and and chatting with because they're young, but they, you know, when you're young, you're fearless. You're curious which a lot of us as adults.

    00:37:47 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yeah.

    00:38:06 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    People lose that.

    00:38:08 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And when you talk to young people and the students today, they just can't wait to get out there and apply what they're what they're learning. And and the tech is such an exciting arena that I'm involved with, I'm involved with underwater robotics, and I see how that's changed in the past 10 years and how exciting that is and the knowledge.

    00:38:16

    Yeah.

    00:38:28 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Place that we're building and the abilities that were and and the opportunities that we're creating for young women.

    00:38:35 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It's just it's enormous. And so for young girls looking to pursue their professional career or just an area of study, I think getting in involved in the sciences certainly are start and not being put off if they're not.

    00:38:55 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Excelling at that because there's you need just a background to to sort of understand in geography here, geography in America, I don't think we stress that enough.

    00:38:57

    Yeah.

    00:39:08 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And I think it's so important for young people to recognise where the world is, what's in the world, where people live, what's happening in those areas, indigenous people very, very vital, very important. These are all areas that I think young girls should be studying and and educating themselves on what's.

    00:39:15

    Yeah.

    00:39:26

    Yeah.

    00:39:28 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Out there.

    00:39:29 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Then finding something that captures their imagination, an area that they would like to pursue, that they would like to learn more about and everything is a is a it's building blocks. It's starting with something and growing that through through tech, through education and and then from that you know some kids.

    00:39:49 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    There's a spark that.

    00:39:50 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That goes off and says I want to make a difference. I want to go here and do this. I want to apply my knowledge in this area of the world and that's sort of how we started with.

    00:39:54

    Yeah.

    00:40:00 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Mad Dog expeditions we were excited by travel. We were excited by regions of the world that that other people hadn't seen and then it was getting creative and realising what could we do there that's different and that's where the the diving came in so.

    00:40:15 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I think it.

    00:40:15 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It just starts. It's very.

    00:40:17 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Organic. It starts with one thing.

    00:40:18 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And it builds, but you need those.

    00:40:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Those tools and and tools are always going to be education. The sciences are so important. Technology, not being afraid of it.

    00:40:29

    Yeah then.

    00:40:32 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and then just your curiosity and and obviously seeking out people that you can meet with that you can speak to that can further your curiosity and sort of put things in perspective as well. I know a lot of young women are are put off by the cold and they just don't understand how I could like cold.

    00:40:41 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah.

    00:40:52 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Arctic places and then they have every kind of question like, well, does your hair break off? Where do you go to the bathroom? How do you?

    00:40:59 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Do things that you wouldn't ask another.

    00:41:03

    Yes, yes, yeah.

    00:41:05 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and girls are still very shy. I I find that even to.

    00:41:09 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    College at university level when I've given lectures, presentations rather they're.

    00:41:15 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    They don't ask.

    00:41:16 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Questions right away. Like when when you generalise and and you bring up the lights and you ask, does anyone have any questions? It's always the guys. The girls really sit back and maybe one or two will ask, but then they come up.

    00:41:24

    Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    00:41:27 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    To you afterwards so.

    00:41:30 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You know, I think that that might just that might be dissipating a bit, but women tend to be a bit shy about the questions they have of young women.

    00:41:37 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah, yeah, 100%. I I love. I love that you highlight the kind of the combination of curiosity, of fearlessness, of education and and and just about kind of like mixing it all together cause I don't. There's there's.

    00:41:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Never. There's never, really.

    00:41:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    One thing education is is almost like half the half the battle and the other half is actually just having the.

    00:41:57 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    The confidence and like you say, the curiosity to apply it and see where it leads, because it's.

    00:42:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Especially with with the amount of amount of change going on in the world right now is there's there's never very straightforward career path or or lifestyle. And so I think that curiosity is certainly it's certainly taken me some interesting places and and, you know, made me do some do some silly things, you know in remote places as well. So you know I kind of I kind of love it and also now a bit more.

    00:42:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    I'm respectful of that curiosity.

    00:42:25 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It is and also a lot of young people don't recognise that they do have time. They don't have to.

    00:42:32 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    When you come out of of high school or university, your early 20s, that's the time for really getting out there and on either taking I love the gap year, I think the gap year is a wonderful thing for so many students to to get out there and experience a little bit of of what the world is like because for some people.

    00:42:33

    Yeah.

    00:42:44

    Yes.

    00:42:51 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It's it's much harder than they think and for some people it's much easier. You know, some people do don't want to be in an office situation and and for some it's easier to stay and and be a student. It it just it's, it's where you get to really you start figuring out what you are, who you are, what you like.

    00:43:11 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and not put a lot of pressure on yourself as as having to find your career path. And this is what you're going to do. It's it's a good time to, I think that's why being out, you know, doing field work going out and exploring is a great thing because it it sort of sets you.

    00:43:29 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It puts you in a different realm that allows you to explore just also within yourself and and learn about your you know, your comfort zone, what your fears are, what your vulnerabilities are, and and then take it from there. But it's it's a good time of, of reflection when you're in your 20s to sort of go and figure out things.

    00:43:35

    Yeah.

    00:43:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    3.

    00:43:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    100% yeah, they totally agree. But I did want to ask you a question about something. I've got a personal interest in and that's the lost 52 project because this is, this is obviously going and finding submarine World War Two submarines that are, you know, that have been have been lost and then documenting them and then getting in touch with the families to let them give them some kind of closure. What?

    00:44:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    What can you tell us a bit more about that?

    00:44:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    And what what?

    00:44:11 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Motivated you to join the team? I think it's fascinating.

    00:44:16 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Was actually started by my now husband, Tim Taylor, and I had worked with him. We met through our companies working together and you know, not to get too personal, but we were working together on different projects. No, no interest in getting married or anything. So one of the first projects going back.

    00:44:36 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Well, 13 years ago was working on a US World War 2.

    00:44:44 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Submarine that had been lost that had been missing, and it was also in the Gulf of Mexico and I had been working with Tim and his team on on different underwater projects. We were doing some white tip shark filming. It was, it was great fun. And so I also had an understanding of.

    00:45:05 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Of robotics. So he brought me on the team and and taught me.

    00:45:09 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    How to work?

    00:45:09 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    With these cameras, these very high tech cameras that we were going to use and go in search of the summary and we found it. So that was the US search code that was the first submarine that we found.

    00:45:17 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Why?

    00:45:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And about 250 metres of water and we're working with an RV and an AUV at the time. And it was it was fascinating. And it was one of those projects that, again, I thought it was a one off. Never thought it would lead to anything more, but it was an incredible discovery.

    00:45:26

    Wow.

    00:45:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And it was a very historic discovery. And what we did from that was we recognised, my gosh, this particular wreck at the time had eighty men on board and and those 80 entomb sailors from.

    00:45:55 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    War Two had families, and so we went in search of it and I.

    00:45:59

    Well.

    00:46:02 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I did the background, I started working on finding these families and and there were children of these men that were still alive and they were. They were in their late 70s, early 80s and that was that was a journey that I am. It is a journey, it's ongoing. But I'm I'm.

    00:46:21 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    So proud of.

    00:46:21 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Because it allows you to give back again, it's it's it's nonprofit. So we are working.

    00:46:26 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah.

    00:46:30 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    On and off as as the project allows to continue hiding submarines and and sharing that with the US Navy and the families are really such an incredible that whole era. And I'm not from that. Obviously not from that era and nor did I have family in the military but.

    00:46:51 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It is such an incredibly historic and significant project that works with underwater robotics and that also brings in the the personal element, the people, the people that lost loved ones and being able to connect with them.

    00:47:03

    Yeah.

    00:47:06 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And hear their stories is incredibly emotive and and difficult. I I find that if everything I've ever done, I think the emotion that comes with.

    00:47:19 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Meeting a family and showing them imagery of where their loved ones are is again the technology for a lot of these people that are so much older, it's beyond their comprehension to have someone call them and and very gently break the news they'd like to share something and then meet with them, show them the findings.

    00:47:22

    Yeah.

    00:47:26

    Yeah.

    00:47:40 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And.

    00:47:41 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    You know, they're just. I can't even imagine. I I see them and and I I think it's just such a difficult time for them to absorb all of this. It's not just that they found their fathers or their brothers or their uncles, but they're also looking at at imagery of what we're seeing on the ocean floor, which is mind boggling.

    00:47:59

    Yeah.

    00:48:01 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    To them.

    00:48:03 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    It it really is I I think it it sounds to me like it would be an utterly fantastic book and or documentary or some of that. I I find it's, you know, personally having having a mission like mission driven adventure for me is like one of those powerful things I think I've ever I've ever found you know where you're doing a you know an expedition.

    00:48:23 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    For charity or for, you know, with something in mind. It's not just. It's not just for, you know, personal gain. And so I I I love the sound of this because it's.

    00:48:33 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    It's underwater, I find fascinating anyway. But when it comes to also helping other people and give them closure or or, you know, give them some context as to, you know, this this is, you know, where your loved ones are or at the moment, you know it's it's I think it's fascinating. Yeah. Brilliant stuff.

    00:48:52 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Yeah, it is. It's.

    00:48:53 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    It's a great project and it is not all families, I think.

    00:48:59 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Are as responsive, but there are certainly several families that I am still in contact with. Every oh gosh, every season or every holiday and they're lovely and thankfully they're still with us and they are just such incredible people from that era that are not bitter.

    00:49:12

    Yeah.

    00:49:20 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That are, you know, made incredible sacrifices. And there's so much that I've learned.

    00:49:24 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    From just what hardship really is, what people went through during World War Two that it it's hopefully we'll never go. Never say never, but hopefully we won't experience that again. But the sacrifices that the world made for freedom and the families involved and the heroes that we've lost, it is really it's it's quite.

    00:49:31

    Yeah.

    00:49:45 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    An emotional.

    00:49:47 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Project on that on that level because it it's really as you said, it's tied to people, it's tied, it's it's closure and it's satisfying. It's very satisfying to feel that you've done something that has made a positive difference for for people that that have been in a lot of pain.

    00:49:49

    Yeah.

    00:50:04 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    OK.

    00:50:07 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Yeah, and it is particularly timely as well because we've just celebrated there. We just marked the the 80th anniversary of D-Day. And so this is this is one which is is really still very relevant now, isn't it? It's it's, you know, something we're we're still.

    00:50:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    And understanding and and whatnot. But I I realise you're it's still very, very early in the morning for you. And so I I should let you get on with your your day. But I just want to pose one more question if that's OK. And I really invoke and something, how do you manage the various responsibilities and and what what drives you for exploring advocating for these?

    00:50:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    These different issues there, such as the environment and and female leadership and empowerment and and you know, kind of understanding more about these submarines, what what drives you to do that.

    00:50:50

    Oh.

    00:50:52 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    The responsibilities I insisted that I've removed myself from the expeditions where we were off. Gosh, every month I was never.

    00:51:00 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I was home rarely and.

    00:51:01 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That was hard and life.

    00:51:03 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Changes like I will work through behind the scenes. I do help people plan and prepare and.

    00:51:03

    Yeah.

    00:51:11 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I consult on things which is fun and and and there's always. There's still exploration. I'm still doing, you know, a modicum of exploration. I think I, I certainly will go back out in the field once a year. We we plan something and one of the override one of the the driving fact.

    00:51:26

    Yes.

    00:51:29 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Understanding the environmental issues, the environmental impact that I've seen over the years and the importance of that and being able to speak on that, being able to advocate for the importance of protection and conservation of not just our wildlife but our oceans and how when we talk about.

    00:51:48 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Climate change it's directly affected to what's going on in, in.

    00:51:52 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Oceans rising temperatures. The heat wave that we're having, which is very early on, all of these things for for the naysayers and the climate deniers just boggle my mind. I I just don't. I don't understand it. And and I don't think you have to be at the front line and see it to, to experience it and certainly.

    00:51:54

    Yeah.

    00:52:13 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Acknowledge this and so I think that that is one of the the areas that I am very passionate about advocating for and and helping educate people and and the reality of what's happening and along that same line speaking to young women writing.

    00:52:34 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And it's sort of just sort of I'm a big proponent of of leading.

    00:52:44 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    By.

    00:52:45 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I'm sorry, I'm.

    00:52:46 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Never period of leading by example and so I do think that it is important to have people hear you see you and and take what they will from from my journey and my experiences and take it to another level. Do more with that everyone.

    00:53:04 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    I believe has a a responsibility not just to themselves, but if you're involved in a in an area.

    00:53:11 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    That you can be impactful in certainly share that knowledge and and.

    00:53:16 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Help.

    00:53:17 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Bloom, the next generation to do more. You know you can't take it. You can't take it with you. And I am very excited by the idea that that there may be either a generation of of young women that say we want to go back and do.

    00:53:17

    Yeah.

    00:53:32 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    XY and Z in the Arctic we want to go back to where you were and work with the Inuit and and you and and follow in in the path that we laid out and revisit some of these areas and some of these islands and see what's going on.

    00:53:48 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And I recognise it's not easy. It's very expensive. It's it's still on charter and you need to do a lot of work to get there. But I do think that that that is my hope that that more people sort of pick up the the baton and I'm I'm passing the baton and we're going back up to the Arctic.

    00:54:01

    Then.

    00:54:09 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Next year? Way. So we're planning that now. But you know there's there's that educational component that we're we're taking with us to educate not just the the residents of these communities, but hopefully some students that I might hopefully take with me to show them first hand.

    00:54:27 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Because there is that impact of when when you get to see it, when you see what I'm talking about and you experience it and it's something that's very powerful. And again, that's why I think I am a proponent for not just leading by example but but really getting out there.

    00:54:29 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Bernice.

    00:54:45 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    And and and seeing it and experiencing it and seeking out those that can help you get there, you know, opportunities are are plentiful, but you have to look for them and you have to work hard and you.

    00:54:58 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Have to ask for help.

    00:55:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Hundred 100%. Yeah. And I think that's that's that's an incredible, incredibly sage piece of advice that, you know, it is like you you can't, you know, no person is an island and that you do have to get out there and seek opportunities and ask for help and you know ask for advice and guns and stuff. So it's it's an incredible I think.

    00:55:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    Women to kind of end them.

    00:55:21 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    And I was just going to say thank you so much for for joining us on the Tales Adventure podcast and just sharing just a small slice of some of these, these experiences. And yeah, it's been fantastic.

    00:55:34 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Oh, it's been great speaking to you. And as I said, I I love your. I love your guests. I love tales adventure. I am honoured to share my little bit of my journey with you and and thank you so much.

    00:55:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Specialist and Brand Designer at Haus of Hiatus, website and brand design studio  

    It's been fantastic. Thanks so much, Christine. It's really great chatting with Christine, hearing about her incredible adventures. Once know more about her. Check out the shows below and we'll see.

    00:55:51 Christine Dennison, female pioneer in extreme ocean exploration and advisor to Tiburon Subsea

    Thanks, Chris. Bye.

    00:56:00

    You next time.

Chris Shirley MA FRGS

About the Author: A former Royal Marines officer and advisor to the BBC, Chris has travelled in over 60 countries, is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Guinness World Record holder for rowing over 3500 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, a Marathon des Sables finisher, and is the founder of ‘Haus of Hiatus’, a website design and branding studio that designs and amplifies start-ups, scale-ups and special projects around the world.

He has worked with Hollywood actors, world–renowned musical artists and TV personalities, and is delighted to have had his work featured by the United Nations, Red Bull, BBC, and even seen at the South Pole!

https://www.hausofhiatus.com/team
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Episode 20 ~ Cat Burford, aka 'The Molar Explorer', a dentist skiing 700+ miles to the South Pole in 2024