Alex Dillion, Tilos Brand Ambassador

Growing up in the middle of Washington State, all my diving began in lakes and rivers. As a kid, we would hit golf balls into the lake and then take a little inflatable boat and freedive to retrieve them. It was during this when I realized that I was diving deeper and staying under longer than all my friends. To this day I still don't know how I learned it (I didn't even know it was a thing back then), but somehow I taught myself to do hands free equalization.

Fast forward after college and some travels around the world and I found myself living and working in the Philippines. It was there where I decided to take my first official freediving class. I'd never pushed myself to do deeper dives, fight the urge to breathe, or even learn how to do all the techniques for longer dives, but it all came very easy and natural to me. It was during that time I realized I absolutely loved doing this. The quietness and calmness of being deep under was like my meditation and relaxed me. I found myself just lying on the bottom at 30m on days and places looking up at the surface and feeling all the stress from the week of work disappear.

Fast forward another few years and here I am today living on the beautiful island of Maui. Every now and then I will throw a tank on my back and go for a dive, but my true passion will always be freediving. In my first years of Maui I got introduced to spearfishing by some friends. This was awesome for me as I could use my skills of freediving and also catch some dinner! To this day, between work and family, most dives are now spearfishing adventures on the boat around Maui and Lanai with the occasional dedicated line dives.

And now with the addition of my daughter to the family, it has been amazing to teach her and share my passion for freediving. At only 3 years old she'll throw on her little pink dive mask and go jump in the ocean or pool and immediately dive underwater with the biggest smile. Freediving and spearfishing has given me a lot in terms of personal growth and being able to share those experiences and passion with friends and family and is something I hope to continue for as long as I can.

I would also like to thank Tilos throughout my years of diving here in Maui for their support and product. They have been awesome to work with and in my opinion, there is no better mask on the market than the Avengia mask!