Gareth Lock and Mike Mason return to the Scuba GOAT podcast for a catch up on the latest in human Factors in diving.  Recently Gareth invited me to complete the remote training package "Essentials of human factors in diving" followed by a 2-day face-to-face course held at Dive Centre Bondi. 

The course delves deeper into the meaning of Human Factors and how it relates to the dive industry and how it can be used to enhance not only our safety but our day-to-day processes before, during and after diving. 

By creating The Human Diver training programs I believe Gareth has created a clear path of evolution for not only the scuba diving industry but for individual divers, regardless of their experience and qualification levels.  As a stand alone structure, the human diver is not designed to enhance any one training agency but focuses on how the diver, and his or her peers can operate to the best of their abilities.  No one decides that today I am going to go diving and lose a customer, run out of gas, damage coral or bolt to the surface.  Accidents happen, whether they are minor or major however, we can minimise these risks by being open to discussing sensitive subjects, errors in judgement and being honest with ourselves. 

This is my review following The Human Diver training I received:

"I have just completed the "Essentials of Human Factors in Diving" pre-learning for an HF course that I am excitedly attending later this week. The ‘Essentials’ is delivered remotely via online bite-sized tutorials. It is a little over 3 hours long in total, and as a 17-year military veteran turned 10-year multi-agency dive professional, I firmly believe that it should be included in ANY recreational diver training course, from try dives through all training programs and all agencies, to the top of the qualification tree and here’s why… 

We are taught from a very young age that there is a ladder of authority in all that we do. When we entered schooling that authority figure was a teacher and as such, there is an expected level of respect from the bottom up which ultimately prevents us from questioning the teacher. 

The same expected hierarchy occurs as we enter the workforce and beyond. It is therefore of no surprise that when we return to the learning environment, we are naturally holding back on questions and dampening down doubts or nerves for fear of perceived reprisal or embarrassment. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

Next time we’ll do it differently. 

What if… 

Just a few old phrases that are common and really have no place in our sports vocabulary. The Human Diver shines a light on such antiquated quotes, promptly kicks them in the bin and opens the door to a modern, safer, and more transparent diving environment. If you are considering becoming a diver, if you have been actively diving for 50 years, or anything in between you need The Human Diver in your scuba life!"