HFiD ESSENTIALS

Committed to the work?

Welcome! Now it's time to invest in your growth.

Online · self-paced · $97.

For the diver, instructor or dive professional who has decided that the bad-apple story is not enough — and wants the vocabulary, formally, in their head.

The Human Diver builds training, language and community for the divers and dive professionals who refuse the bad-apple narrative.

Built for the 1% — not the 99%.

Who Essentials is for

Two readers, one product.

If you are buying for yourself

The individual diver, instructor or dive professional.

You have read the incident reports. You have heard the podcast. You have decided you want this work in your head — formally — and you want it on your own time, at your own pace. Essentials is the cleanest starting line.

If you are buying for a team or programme

The institutional buyer.

This is how a number of scientific diving institutes, university dive programmes and public safety teams have moved their whole population through the same shared framework — at a price point that, in our experience, sits below most institutional procurement thresholds. Talk to us about volume codes.

The diagnostic

Does this sound like you?

  • You've finished a course feeling certified, but not necessarily competent.

  • You've watched a debrief turn into a blame conversation, and you knew it was wrong.

  • You can name three pieces of dive gear in detail but no formal model of how a dive team makes decisions.

  • You've read an incident report that ended at "diver error" and felt cheated.

  • You suspect that the 'soft skills' are actually the hard ones.

If any of these land, you are in the right place.

“What this training did for me was help me acknowledge that — as training agencies, instructors, and people who care about the people they work with — we owe it to each other to take a step back from our own biases and preconceived perceptions. We owe it to each other to identify the limits of our understanding, respond rather than react, and consider that perhaps we can make a difference for another person simply by being open and showing empathy. This training gave me hope that we can change the culture.”
Sabrina Figliomeni
Diver, Calgary
Sector: Recreational Diving
“The fact that a seasoned, full-time occupational dive safety team — responsible for a programme involving incredibly challenging, complex and diverse operations — gleaned as many insights as we did says a lot. This programme should be incorporated into all levels of training, from the most junior through to senior leadership.”
Mauritius Valente Bell
DSO, CaOS
Sector: Technical Diving
“The course allowed our Public Safety Dive team to come together as a true team. We learned we can grow and accomplish far more when we listen to each other's ideas and have input from all members of the team. We learned to shift our focus from 'why they did that wrong' to 'why it made sense for them to do it that way.' We are a better team today than we were before the course — and all without hitting the water.”
Luke Sitter
Fire Team Commander, Saskatoon
Sector: Commercial & Military
```
Diving testimonial headshot placeholder

“Before this programme I thought I understood why diving incidents happened. Afterwards I realised I had been looking at the wrong thing entirely. The shift in how I now brief, debrief, and respond when something goes differently to the plan is not subtle — it is fundamental.”

[Name]

Technical Diving Instructor, [Country]

Sector: Technical Diving

Corporate testimonial headshot placeholder

“We have had safety consultants before. Gareth is not a safety consultant. He changed how our entire leadership team thinks about what an incident actually tells us. Our near-miss reporting increased by over forty per cent in the six months after the programme.”

[Name]

Head of HSE, [Organisation], [Sector]

Sector: Corporate and Industry

Speaking testimonial headshot placeholder

“The best keynote I have seen in fifteen years of conference attendance. He did not tell us what to think. He gave us a framework we couldn't unsee.”

[Name]

Conference Chair, [Event Name]

Sector: Speaking and Keynotes

What you take away

A new vocabulary.

A different way of looking at incidents.

A starting point — not a destination.

By the end of Essentials you will have language for what you are seeing on the boat, in the water, and in the debrief — and a frame for what the rest of the work looks like.

A new vocabulary

Words for the things you have always noticed but never named — the patterns, the pressures, the failures-of-the-system.

A different lens

A way of reading incidents that doesn't end at the last person who touched the gear.

A starting point

A clear sense of what the next step looks like — Applied Skills, the Masterclass, LFEO, or staying in the practitioner community.

What's inside

Twelve modules.

Each module is a short video lesson, a written brief, and a reflection exercise.

Work them in order or jump around — your access doesn't expire.

01

Welcome to The course

What human factors actually means, and why it matters in diving.

02

What is Human Factors?

We start by introducing the terms human factors and non-technical skills, as they might not be what you think they are.

03

The Errors We Make

This module dives into a fascinating area: human error, violations, and two important concepts called the normalisation of deviance and the normalisation of risk.

04

Creating a Learning Culture

Exploring the critical foundations to a learning culture: psychological safety and a Just Culture. What they are, and how to develop and maintain them.

05

Decision Making Under Pressure

You'll find that decision-making isn't always as straightforward as it might seem. There are many factors that influence the choices we make, some of them are obvious, some hidden.

06

Situation Awareness

Situation awareness goes beyond what is happening 'inside me', 'to my equipment and gear', 'my team', and 'the environment'. We'll explore all of this, and more, and how to improve it.

07

Communication

If only communication was as simple as we think it is. If it was dead easy, why do we have so much miscommunication? Learn a number of tools to help you transmit a clear message so it lands and is understood how you intended it to be.

08

Teamwork

We focus on understanding how teams develop and giving you the tools to build them effectively. Teams aren't formed simply by declaring, "You are now a team." There's much more to it than that. We give you the knowledge and tools to close the gap.

09

Leadership & Followership

Every dive team needs leaders and followers. Leadership is the ability to influence without authority. Followers and students in a training class should not act like sheep blindly following, but as active contributors to support the team and its leader on the dive.

10

Performance Influencing Factors

The goal of this module is to help identify and focus on the conditions and performance influence factors leading to outcomes—both successful and adverse—rather than just the outcomes themselves.

11

Detailed Case Study

The goal of this module is to bring your understanding of the human factors in diving, non-technical skills, psychological safety, and apply a Just Culture to a diving accident that has been examined in more detail than you've likely come across before.

12

Feedback and Goals

How can we help you improve - goals. How can you help use improve - feedback.

The start of your 12-week post-class coaching support package.

Enrol

Your entry point to the study is $97

Pay once. Lifetime access. The price does not include the work — that is on you.

HFiD ESSENTIALS

$97

Online · self-paced · lifetime access

  • 12 modules of video, reading and reflection exercises

  • Certificate of completion

  • Lifetime access — your enrolment does not expire

  • Bridge into the practitioner community

Volume pricing for institutions available on request.

Our promise

100% money-back guarantee.

Work through the course. Do the exercises. If you have given it a fair effort and it has not changed how you think about diving — we will refund you in full. No forms, no friction. The guarantee is meaningful because the work is meaningful.

FAQS

Questions, answered honestly.

How long does Essentials take?

Around 5-6 hours of focused work, usually spread over 2–4 weeks. It is self-paced — your access does not expire.

What technology do I need?

Any modern browser. The course is video, reading and short reflection exercises. No app to install.

Is there a certificate?

Yes — a certificate of completion is issued automatically once you finish the modules and the closing reflection.

Can I buy it for my team?

Yes. Volume codes are available — see the institutional buyers note above, or get in touch directly.

Is this only for instructors?

No. Essentials is the first paid step for anyone — recreational, technical, scientific, or dive professional. Instructors get specific framing inside the course; everyone else gets material that lands too.

Be better than yesterday.

If the diagnostic landed, this is the cleanest place to start. The rest of the ladder is built on what Essentials puts in your head.

The humaN DIVER

Be better than yesterday.

Human factors, non-technical skills and learning from emergent outcomes for the divers who refuse the bad-apple story.

© 2026 The Human Diver. All rights reserved.

Built for the 1%