Beirne has become the face of women spearfishers in Hawai'i, and has been featured in Skin Diver magazine as well as a diving show on Oceanic Cable's channel 16. She is scheduled to compete in her fifth national spearfishing championship in July. However, Beirne has faced misconceptions that "women are afraid" to compete in the sport.

Beirne, 44, is the only woman registered to compete in the Freedive Spearfishing Nationals July 22-23 in Missouri. At last year's U.S. National Spearfishing Championships in waters off Hale'iwa, there were more than 100 competitors and only seven women, including Beirne, a former Punahou School swimmer and Olympic Trials competitor.

In premier local tournaments, such as the annual Sonny Tanabe Invitational Freedive Tournament on the Big Island, about a dozen women compete, Beirne said.

"I don't know why," Beirne said of the scarcity of women in spearfishing. "Maybe it's because of the basic challenge."

In free dive spearfishing, divers equipped with spears plunge into shallow or deep water and hold their breath hunting fish or squid. Some elite divers are capable of holding their breath for more than four minutes underwater.

In addition, divers must be calm, stealthy and hunt elusive prey in depths of sometimes 60 feet or more. They deal sometimes with swarming sharks, and shallow water blackout, a condition where divers lose consciousness because they don't have enough oxygen.

Tanya Beirne

"In hunting, you take a bow and arrow and you look for the deer and shoot it," Beirne said. "In free diving, you have to get all your equipment ready, you have to hold your breath, you have to swim out and you have to shoot. You fight odds like the current and visibility. I think even men are afraid to do it."

Beirne said she began free diving at age 8 after learning from her father, Donald, and grandmother, Victoria, who were both excellent spearfishers. Since then, she has competed in four national freedive spearfishing tournaments, and won six North Shore Spearfishers tournaments, one Sonny Tanabe tournament and earned the sport's perpetual trophy, or athlete of the year honor.

In 1996, Beirne received a warm welcome from the Hawai'i spearfishing community when she entered her first national tournament off Mokule'ia. Beirne and her teammate were the only Hawai'i women entered at that time, along with two women from the Mainland.

"The Hawai'i men were glad to see that there were women from Hawai'i competing, they were proud," Beirne said.

Friends said Beirne is a big promoter of spearfishing, especially with children who gather when she's dressed in spearfishing gear or repairing spearguns. Beirne said she also wants to teach her daughter, Baylee, 4, spearfishing.

"It's the next generation that she's going to affect," said friend and dive partner Lawrie Provost, 43, of Waipahu. "She's going to try to get more of the women, more the girls, all of them interested in the sport."

Provost said "there's plenty of women on the island" who are involved in recreational free diving or spearfishing to some degree, but don't have adequate equipment or proper instruction.

"We'll talk to the boyfriend or husband, and they'll say, 'She goes with me to dive,' " Provost said. "But we find out that she's holding the float or the fish bag. So the women don't develop any sort of confidence."

According to Provost, Beirne helped a novice woman spearfisher correct her equipment after learning the novice was using too large of a spear and improper, short swim fins.

"She almost cried," Provost said of the novice. "She said, 'Thank you so much.' "

Beirne has been raising her own money by repairing and refurbishing spearguns and dive gear for the local community. She also is selling fish to pay for her Missouri trip, and will participate in a fund-raising tournament tomorrow with her North Shore Spearfishers' club. Her trip expenses will likely top $3,000, she said.