"Dancing on Waves" is a daring tale of a well-known ocean adventurer crashing into divorce, cancer, and depression; and how this paralyzing calamity propelled her to find comfort in the ocean – swimming, floating, meditating. When the ocean started showing signs of hurt with posted No-Swimming signs posted on her favorite beaches, her outrage led her to start a citizens' action group called Heal the Ocean, which, over 24 years later, is an important nationally recognized organization.

     “Hauser’s book is much more than a reminiscence about the sea; it also serves as a self-help guide and sounding board for those in all walks of life dealing with earth-shattering issues she has encountered. She openly shares thoughts, self-doubts, joys, emotions and insights with refreshing candor…”

    "Don’t be surprised if you find yourself not only reading about but bonding with an assortment of characters that include abalone and urchin divers, classical musicians, surfers, scuba divers, Jean-Michel Cousteau, three schipperkes, doctors, regional water quality control health officers and scientists at University of California, Santa Barbara.”

-Miroirs CA, California's Cultural Music Journal

Read the review on Miroirs

As a diving photojournalist, HILLARY HAUSER has gone solo to 200 feet on the outside of a Hawaiian crater, explored sinkholes and caves in South Australia, slid into a flooded cavern underneath a mountain in Death Valley, gone down the face of a huge Fijian wave, and crashed on the backside of Molokini Island, Hawaii, in a canoe with six other people. She has chronicled the lives, and deaths, of fishermen, including a dear friend killed by a white shark.

In "Dancing on Waves" Hauser tells the story of her most challenging episode of all: a frightening plunge into a deep, dark hole of cancer, relationship failure, and depression. She describes her climb back to the surface – and sunlight – again, a journey that offers a front-seat view into the sea and its creatures, fishermen and the dangers they face, the minds of daredevil surfers who ride enormous waves, and the insights of stellar explorers like Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man up Mt. Everest. This story describes how the paralyzing calamity she encountered propelled her to start a citizens' action group for the ocean, called Heal the Ocean, which, over 20 years later, is an important nationally-recognized organization.

HILLARY HAUSER started scuba diving in 1966, got certified in 1968 (NAUI card #54990), and moved to Los Angeles to become Skin Diver Magazine’s assistant editor. Underwater cameras were beginning to capture detailed pictures of undersea creatures, including tropical fishes, and Hillary began the popular “Fish of the Month” feature, which became The Book of Marine Fishes.

She has published six books about the sea, as well as numerous articles about underwater adventure for National Geographic, the Los Angeles Times Sunday Travel section, Esquire, Redbook, Geo, Readers Digest, The Surfer’s Journal, among others. She was West Coast stringer for Ocean Science News (Washington, D.C.) and a reporter on ocean issues for the Santa Barbara News-Press from 1981 to 1986. As a diving journalist, Hauser became known as the “Diver of the Strange and Bizarre,” for her exploration of the sinkholes of South Australia for National Geographic, diving into Devil’s Hole, a flooded earthquake fault in Death Valley, California, and her diving the notorious big wave reefs of the world: Waimea, Jaws, Pipeline and Mavericks.

In August 1998, in response to the terrible situation of local beaches being posted closed because of pollution, Hillary co-founded and is the Executive Director of Heal the Ocean, an internationally recognized citizens’ action group in Santa Barbara, California. Heal the Ocean (www.healtheocean.org) has accomplished trailblazing work, the kingpin being the removal of septic systems from seven miles of south Santa Barbara County coastline. For this, and other work, she has been commended with recognition from the U.S. Congress, as well the Central Coast (California) Regional Water Quality Control Board (2006, 2008), the California State Assembly (2009), and in 2013 a Joint Assembly/Senate Resolution (No. 404) from the California Legislature (Jackson/Williams). 

In 2009 Hillary received the venerated NOGI Award from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences for Distinguished Service. She was an inaugural inductee into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2007.

Today Hillary continues her work to protect the ocean along with her writing.  She is also a lifelong classical pianist and artist and lives in Santa Barbara, California, with her dog Wolfy.