The Human Diver from Australia

04/03/2026

“If everyone just followed the rules, we wouldn’t have a problem.”

This sounds great in principle.

Write better standards.
Add another checklist.
Enforce compliance harder.

The thing is, diving doesn’t happen in a perfect world.

Conditions change.
Information is incomplete.
Plans unravel.
Humans adapt (which is usually a good thing :-))

Rules are essential. I’m not anti-standards. They give us structure and shared expectations. But compliance or relying on compliance alone doesn’t make safer dives and divers.

What makes the difference:

Good communication under pressure.
Teams that can adapt together.
Divers who can recognise when the plan no longer fits reality.
The confidence to speak up and change course.
In other words — human factors skills.

These skills actually make it EASIER to be compliant!

The Human Factors in Diving Conference isn’t about ignoring standards. It’s about building the skills that help you when the rules on paper aren’t enough.

📍 Vis Island, Croatia
🗓 30 May – 6 June 2026

Safer and better diving isn’t just about following the plan. It’s about knowing what to do when the plan starts to break down.

Check out this talk from the last conference on how to assess and develop Situation Awareness in other people on every dive. https://youtu.be/Xy8gdhYgZ9Q?si=kxEoCO8EEyjwvG7L

👉 https://www.hf-in-diving-conference.com




The Human Diver

It is vitally important as divers that we are aware of all of the factors influencing us. Things can easily be missed if our attention is focused elsewhere, ...

11/12/2025

My latest blog for The Human Diver. This one is on teamwork, specifically focussing on roles and how to integrate them effectively into different types of diving.

https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/teamwork-in-diving-the-power-of-clear-roles-task-division

Clear roles make dive teams safer and more effective. Learn how recreational, technical, and instructional divers can plan, assign, and debrief task divisions.

23/11/2025

08/10/2025

Divers: it’s time to rethink what “essential” really means under the surface.

What if there was a way to dive smarter, safer & more intentionally, not just by mastering gear, but by mastering YOU?

Introducing The Human Diver 'Essentials 2025' new and revamped. In just ~3.5–4 hours (broken into 12 bite-sized modules), this course dives deep into:

Awareness & decision-making

Communication, leadership & teamwork

How human error actually happens (and how to disrupt it)

Real, evidence-based lessons not covered in standard training

By the end, you’ll:

✅ Be more alert and adaptive in every dive
✅ Learn to reflect (non-judgmentally) and improve with every experience
✅ Gain insights that translate into everyday life, not just underwater
✅ Build a personal culture of learning and influence positive change in diving

All for a one-time investment of less than AUD150, with lifetime access and a 100% money-back guarantee if it doesn’t deliver.
You also get case studies, infographics, bonus resources; Exactly the kind of depth you won’t find in any standard dive agency’s curriculum.

There is even an option to try the first two modules completely free without even having to enter card details. What have you got to lose?

Don’t wait for “the right time”, your brain goes with you on every dive. Equip it now.

Start today — be better than yesterday.

The Human Diver helps divers enhance their performance underwater by developing knowledge and building awareness. Through our unique and award-winning classes HFiD: Essentials, Applied Skills and the Masterclass, we help divers be better than yesterday.

30/09/2025

The latest blog from Jenny Lord at The Human Diver. Situation Awareness is not as simple as we think it is. Phrases like 'Pay more attention' don't tend to help. We can't 'pay more attention', we can however learn where to focus it should we encounter similar situations in future. This is how we build SA.

Scuba students often struggle not with skills but with situational awareness. Learn how to spot overload, build awareness, and teach safer diving.

10/09/2025

The latest blog from The Human Diver. This one talks about how performance influencing factors play a key role in outcomes. The focus is on dive instruction but there are lessons for us all.



https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-performance-influencing-factors?fbclid=IwY2xjawMuPFBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFFY2RSN09FZGlmNGdsQWdlAR4_eixr2DESnWztt-fTE2iJ1rGJX0YY5N9drSA6NfEN-I-ADAADoQWkAFqhug_aem_fsRgMYbnXwhh3ntCy83CFg

Understand how stress, fatigue, environment, and time pressure affect both student learning and instructor decision-making, and what to do about it

09/09/2025

I posted recently on the Australian dive safety and performance group about a recent situation I had where I reflected on how I could have communicated better to get a conversation going quicker and enable the associated learning more effectively.

Some of the comments that came from people reading the post highlighted how easy it is to make (inaccurate) assumptions about what happened based on our own experiences. This can lead to drawing the wrong conclusions.

This behaviour is pretty normal and, usually, inconsequential. At the same time, it can have bigger consequences if we don't dig into the 'second story' that goes deeper and gets at the real lessons to be learned.

This blog goes into this issue in more detail.

https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/we-don-t-learn-from-diving-fatalities-and-here-s-why?fbclid=IwY2xjawMtjlFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFzd2lYa0NpMzdsM2d6cjlTAR7XzFwdEzgspXQPihDmESdMwwbRrOxt9CXhGFjBqhuFdX6qTRu4MvNVPBf41Q_aem_twLm2niDQ9SIOGbWRTLqQQ

Why we don’t learn from diving fatalities: this blog unpacks first-story blame vs second-story systems, drift, weak defences and feedback. The blog offers practical steps to build safer teams and improve organisational learning following fatal events. All to be better than yesterday.

28/08/2025

The latest Top Tips blog from The Human Diver. This is one for instructors and focuses on teamwork. Social skills improve team performance (research link in the blog if you don't believe me). If you want to improve your diving performance and safety, you will be much better placed with a high-performing team.

This blog gives a great story of how poor teamwork led to a dive team failing. Importantly, it gives some real ideas for how to improve your teamwork 😀

https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-teamwork?fbclid=IwY2xjawMcuB1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsJOzdFLhdN0nmIc5KuIfXxjqWPYbVSOqP0WZz8W-Dgz-VNaSo-7c4Nb_mr-_aem_zMeCOPrEtVJApK-6CFtxtg

Top tips for diving instructors: be more aware of how team skills impact dive safety. Teaching social intelligence leads to improved diving performance. Team players lift others, not just themselves. Model the behaviours you want to see and help divers be better than yesterday.