![]() ![]() She told her mother she’d be back in two weeks or two months. Erica had a friend who worked on a boat there. In her frustration, she picked up the phone and bought a one way ticket to Hawaii. “Trespassing was a word we didn’t understand.”Īfter getting an environmental science degree, at a small private college in Florida, jobs using that degree seemed to always require experience. “I was Tom Sawyer to my brother’s Huck Finn-We kayaked, snorkeled and did free diving through lakes, rivers, swamps and springs,” laughed Erica. She would use this skill to explore the local waterways. As a child she freaked her mother out by her ability to hold her breath underwater for up to two minutes. His long, lean body would stop growing at 6’4”.Įrica calls her hometown of Gainesville, Florida, a place she still “deeply and intrinsically loves”. Denver, was raised in the Phoenix, Arizona area, rock climbing, mountain biking and hiking. Both milked the outdoors for all it’s worth. The yin yang nature of their personalities seemed to create exponential energy. “It was ridiculous,” said Denver, smiling. I thought, I am really falling for this human,” said Erica. ![]() Green phosphorescent micro sea life sparkled in response to the moonlight, with the simple move of a hand. The water was so illuminated by the full moon that they occasionally turned their dive lights off to take in the magic. The soft humming of whales added to the dream effect. The water was crystal clear with zero current as they swam under a full moon, past sleeping turtles, cruising white tipped reef sharks and a ton of massive hunting conger eels. When Erica showed up alone with tanks for two, he wasn’t exactly upset. Erica was the “super cool” boat captain and diving instructor he was slowly getting to know while working on his certification. Meanwhile, that night back in Maui, Denver wasn’t sure if his night dive with Erica was a date, or if he would be one of a group, as usual. To make it all more official, Fitzpatrick urged him to get that diving certification. After accompanying Fitzpatrick on a few trips as a volunteer photographer, Denver wanted to work up to becoming an actual assistant cameraman. While working and living in Australia, he befriended Richard Fitzpatrick, an Emmy award winning cinematographer and marine biologist known for providing fascinating underwater footage for clients like the BBC, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. With no meetings, no deadlines or calls to answer, Denver Maddux’s only plan was to get his divemaster certification. He was on the front end of platform design resulting in three patents, paving the way for the creation of giants like Youtube, Netflix and Facebook. Since 1994 Denver had been on the pioneering side of the Internet, rising quickly through tech company ranks leading projects as a network engineer. Denver learned a lot, including that he didn’t want to be a CEO the rest of his life. It was an exhilarating, sometimes turbulent ride. He had just concluded a two and a half year run as CEO of Megaport, a fledgling Australian software company, after expanding its worldwide presence and bringing it onto the American Stock Exchange. They would look back on as a moment of karmic attraction.Īt 45, Denver Maddux was happily between jobs, between relationships and between motorcycles. It was a brief moment of serendipity on steroids. So when Denver suddenly felt a tug at his leg, it was beyond unexpected.Įven more unlikely- it was someone he knew, Erica Heller, a friend who had invited him on a night dive back in Maui later that night. It was normally too treacherous to attract divers. Denver and his dive buddy were the only souls within sight at this seldom visited stretch of ocean. It was March of 2018, a rare, picture-perfect day for scuba diving off the back side of the Hawaiian island, called Molokai. ![]()
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