Bob Hollis is a living legend in the history of scuba diving. Many of the products and concepts that divers take for granted today trace their origins back to him. Yet many newer divers know little about who he is. BlueTrend hopes that through this article, more people will come to understand the man who helped chart the course of modern scuba diving — Bob Hollis.
Bob Hollis: A Life Story
Bob Hollis was born in California and spent his youth in Orland. From an early age he was fascinated by mechanics — he built his own motorcycle at twelve and bought his first car at fourteen. But when did his love affair with diving begin? In early 1956 he read an article in a popular mechanics magazine about how to build an underwater motorized vehicle, and from that moment on he was captivated by the idea of creating underwater equipment. A few weeks later, by a happy coincidence, he spotted an advertisement in the newspaper for a Healthways double-hose regulator. He immediately called the shop owner, Howard Steel, struck up a friendship with him, and began purchasing the gear he needed — mask, fins, and more. Divers were few and far between in those days. Howard Steel suggested he start with freediving before moving on to scuba diving, so Bob headed to Northern California to fish and collect abalone, forging some lasting friendships along the way. A few months later he began diving at Monterey — entirely without formal training. All he remembered being told was:
Diving is easy; you need to see, breathe and move.
In the autumn of 1956 he traveled to Mexico with a group of friends — his first dive trip away from his familiar stomping grounds of Monterey and Carmel. They rented a small boat in a town called San Carlos, where a local compressor shop could fill their scuba tanks. He even built a custom underwater housing for his 8mm movie camera just for the trip. He spent three months in San Carlos. On one unforgettable dive, he and his dive buddy pushed their personal best on a freedive to over 70 feet and successfully speared a Yellowtail — a world away from the bottom-dwelling catches he was used to in Northern California — all while testing the underwater camera housing he had built himself. After that experience, he was more committed than ever to pursuing diving as a serious endeavor.
The Rise of Dive Equipment
After his first dive in 1956, Bob Hollis quickly developed a deep passion for underwater photography. The books of Hans Hass became his inspiration for both shooting and adventure; he wanted to use a camera to share the underwater world as he saw it. He later dived with two underwater photographers in San Jose — Helmut and Karl Stellrecht — and together they designed a variety of camera housings, strobe configurations, and accessories. Bob Hollis would later describe this as "an exciting period of time for me," as they were constantly experimenting with different camera systems and pushing development further, pioneering the use of O-rings and Plexiglas to build their own housings. It was also during this period that he came to appreciate just how difficult it is to successfully connect and operate electronic equipment underwater in saltwater. As word spread about the housings and strobe accessories they were developing, more and more people began asking where they could buy them, and so Bob and his partner Helmut Stellrecht began building custom housings and accessories for other divers.
His passion for underwater photography led him and Ed Cummins to co-found the Northern California Chapter of the Underwater Photographic Society (NCUPS) in 1962 — a club that remains active to this day.
The spirit of ocean exploration never left him, however. On one particular dive trip to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, he made a discovery that is still talked about today: the accidental find of a sunken cannon. After hearing reports from local fishermen in Chinchorro, Mexico, about wreckage in the area, he spent an entire day searching shark-filled waters. Eventually they found signs of man-made remains, and after 30 minutes of careful searching, they uncovered six 15th-century bronze cannons on the seabed — an astonishing discovery for any diver.
In 1964, Bob Hollis decided to turn his passion for diving into a business. His first shop was called Anchor Shack, operating primarily as a surf shop with dive equipment sales as a secondary focus; it officially opened in 1965. He set up a small workshop in the back where he began taking orders for custom-built camera housings. As his production capabilities grew, so did sales, and in 1969 he opened a second location in Concord.
The World's First Dive Computer
As his business expanded, Bob Hollis built what began as a small operation into a vast diving empire, encompassing brands that divers worldwide know well: Oceanic, Hollis, and Aeris, producing all manner of dive equipment. Bob Hollis was also directly involved in the development of the world's first dive computer, which was delivered to NASA in 1987 and officially launched as a commercial product the following year.
Oceanic is renowned for the quality and reliability of its regulators.
Beyond his industry-leading expertise in hardware manufacturing, Bob Hollis also devoted his later years to developing the dive travel market, including the operation of exotic island resorts and premium liveaboards. His wealth of experience led to his appointment as a board member and chairman of DEMA SHOW — the world's largest dive industry trade show, held annually in the United States — for multiple terms.
Bob Hollis's Visit to Taiwan
For more of Bob Hollis's remarkable diving stories and the business journey behind building his diving empire, check out the dedicated profile on TDI/SDI's website. We were delighted to welcome Bob Hollis to Taiwan in early 2019, and the Editor had the privilege of a brief meeting with him to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing Taiwan's diving industry, hoping to draw on his vast experience to help guide the Chinese-speaking world's emerging dive sector in a positive direction.
The Editor, along with other industry veterans, meeting Bob Hollis in 2019.
Bob Hollis pointed out that Taiwan has accumulated decades of OEM manufacturing experience in dive equipment — including wetsuits, regulators, and BCDs. Oceanic itself has partnered with Taiwanese manufacturers for over 30 years, and the processing technology and quality standards they have developed are second to none globally, making the move toward building their own brands an entirely achievable next step.
Looking at the next decade, Bob Hollis believes that on the hardware side, the big story will be the integration of dive equipment with consumer electronics — for example, Scubapro's mask with a heads-up display that projects dive computer data directly into the diver's field of vision. Many dive computers can now sync with a smartphone's GPS and interact with dedicated apps, turning a single dive into a rich set of data and a systematic record of performance — and extending the dive experience into social media and online communities. The integration of BCDs with electronics is another avenue that may bear fruit. Rebreathers are another hardware frontier: while their cost still puts them out of reach for the average consumer, he believes they will find their niche and offer divers a genuinely different experience.
Beyond hardware, the dive travel market is also set to flourish. Before people learn to dive, most tend to book conventional tourist itineraries (Taiwanese travelers, for instance, often gravitate toward Japan or South Korea). Diving opens the door to exotic islands and far-flung destinations; add technical diving to the mix and you can tick off wreck diving, cave diving, and ice diving — life milestones of an entirely different kind. Bob Hollis is therefore confident that over the next decade, many undiscovered resorts and liveaboard routes will emerge on travelers' bucket lists.
Bob Hollis also reflected on the fact that diving, unlike sports such as baseball or golf, cannot easily be broadcast to a mass audience — a fundamental disadvantage that makes it difficult to create stars and generate buzz, and which has long prevented the diving industry from expanding as quickly as other sports. At the same time, watching ocean environments deteriorate due to human activity is an undeniable reality that divers witness firsthand. For that reason, Bob Hollis believes that leveraging the power of social media influencers to raise public awareness of environmental issues is the way forward. The reach of platforms like Facebook and Instagram is immense — anyone who puts in the work can become a credible voice with real influence. But the ocean must never be forgotten.
When it comes to promoting marine conservation, few industries are as well positioned as dive tourism — it can genuinely transform fishing village economies, raise living standards for local communities, and foster a deeper respect for the ocean. At the same time, it carries the risk of damaging the very ecosystems that draw visitors in the first place, and striking the right balance requires careful judgment. Bob Hollis believes that governments have a crucial role to play: Egypt's Red Sea possesses extraordinary natural assets, but local authorities need to step up and lead; Ecuador's government faces financial difficulties, yet holds stewardship over the Galápagos — the holy grail for divers everywhere; notorious Asian shark-finning fleets, armed with government-issued permits, could devastate an entire marine ecosystem in a matter of moments. The path forward, he suggests, may be for influencers to lead the chorus, harnessing social pressure to compel governments to act, and ultimately driving legislation that advances marine conservation — perhaps the guiding principle for ocean protection over the next decade. Beyond marine ecology, Bob Hollis is also deeply concerned about ocean plastic pollution, acknowledging that it is a transnational issue that no individual or single country can resolve alone. Awakening broad public awareness of and respect for the ocean is, perhaps, the most urgent priority of all.
Bob Hollis has entered his eighties. The businesses under his name — including Hollis and the Tawali liveaboard — have been handed over to his children, yet he insists he is not ready to retire. For him, diving has always been an endless series of adventures, and there is no reason to stop now.
Bob Hollis: There is much to do and so little time.
The Editor was thrilled to receive a mask signed by Bob Hollis, and hopes to carry his blessing forward in continuing to champion the ocean.
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Cover image source: TDI/SDI : Bob Hollis - Founder of OCENIC, Andrea Doria pioneer and resort innovator.(by Bret Gilliam) photo by Bernie Campoli
