Military & Defence Diving
Military culture is built for mission success. It is not always built for learning from failure.
Defence diving teams operate in some of the most demanding environments in any diving sector. The technical training is rigorous. What is less consistently addressed is the human side; team dynamics under operational pressure, the effect of rank on communication, the conditions that suppress near-miss reporting, and the systemic factors that produce serious incidents despite high individual capability.
Developed by a former RAF flight instructor and navigator with 25 years
in military aviation. Used in incident investigations for UK MOD and
NZDF. Delivered in the language of people who have served.
Recreation & Technical
Recreational & Technical Diving
From open water to cave and rebreather, the gaps in your training are rarely technical. Your agency taught you what to do. We cover what happens when a team stops communicating, when a plan loses its flexibility, when no one says what they're thinking. That's where dives go wrong — and that's what we teach.
Commercial & Occupational
Commercial & Occupational Diving
Commercial diving operates inside management systems, risk registers, and permit-to-work frameworks. Those systems are necessary. They are also not sufficient. The human side — team dynamics, supervisor decisions, stop-work authority, normalisation of deviance/risk — is where your serious incidents will come from. We bridge the gap between your documented procedures and how work actually gets done.
Defence & Special Operations
Military Diving
Military diving teams operate at the intersection of technical complexity, operational pressure, and hierarchical culture. Power distance, mission focus, and the reluctance to report near-misses are systemic challenges, not individual weaknesses. Our programmes — drawn from military aviation and adapted for defence diving — address them directly, in the language of people who have served.
“My initial reservations were rooted in thoughts of, “this safety course will only serve to make my team, and I too risk adverse; Safety getting in the way of producing operational output.” The opposite is the truth.
The programme introduces HF/NTS, uses practical exercises and case studies. As professional divers, my team and I are so technically oriented, that prior to Gareth’s programme, the level of thought placed on non-technical skills and human factors, was quite low. I am confident that this programme has improved the performance of my team, so they can achieve more, improve their performance, and be safer.”
Cdr N. Lockyer, Director of Diving Safety, CAF.
This isn't a civilian programme adapted with a military logo.
The Human Diver was founded by Gareth Lock, a former RAF officer with 25 years in military aviation; tactical flight instructor and C-130 Hercules navigator, trials officer, systems engineer, and requirements manager. His understanding of how military organisations respond to error, how rank affects communication, and what happens to near-miss reporting under operational and cultural pressure comes from the inside.
He has conducted fatal accident investigations for UK MOD and NZDF, delivered DCRM training to CAF and Belgian Navy, and has applied that experience directly to the development of THD's defence-adapted programmes. The curriculum is grounded in aviation Crew Resource Management (CRM) and adapted for diving contexts — not the reverse.
The specific challenges
Military diving creates distinct human factors conditions.
Most training programmes don't address them directly.
These are not weaknesses of military culture; they are the predictable characteristics of hierarchical, high-stakes, mission-focused organisations.
The question is whether they are visible and managed, or invisible until they produce an outcome.
Power distance and rank
Hierarchical structure is operationally necessary. It also creates pressure gradients that suppress junior personnel or students from raising concerns or questioning plans, even when they should. This is a systemic condition, not an individual failing.
Mission focus and plan continuation
Military culture optimises for mission completion. That same optimisation makes it harder to call off a dive when conditions change, particularly under time pressure, command expectation, or the cultural weight of not being seen to fail.
Near-miss reporting inhibition
Reporting a near-miss in a military environment carries perceived career risk. The conditions required for genuine psychological safety, where people report honestly without fear of consequence, don't emerge automatically from good intent.
High individual capability, low team transparency
Military divers are typically highly competent individuals. That competence can reduce the perceived need for explicit communication, briefing, and shared mental models within the team, which is precisely when they matter most.
Normalisation of deviance/risk
Operational tempo and resource constraints create conditions for gradual standards drift. In elite units, high performance can mask accumulating risk, until the conditions align and an incident occurs despite everything being 'normal.'
Investigation culture
Military incident investigations often operate within legal and administrative frameworks that are not designed for systemic learning. The result is reports that identify the proximate actor and miss the organisational conditions that produced the event.
Where this comes from
Military aviation solved this problem. The same approach applies to military diving.
Following a series of serious accidents in military and commercial aviation during the 1970s and 1980s, the aviation community recognised that technical competence was a necessary but insufficient condition for safety. Accidents were being produced by communication failures, authority gradients, poor situational awareness, and organisational conditions — not by pilots who lacked skill.
Crew Resource Management (CRM) was developed in response. It is now mandated across military and commercial aviation worldwide. The evidence base is unambiguous: non-technical skills training reduces incident rates, improves team performance, and makes high-stakes operations safer.
Military diving is at an earlier stage of the same journey. The technical standards are high. The human factors infrastructure, the training, the culture, the investigation practice, is not yet where aviation is. That is what THD's defence-adapted programmes address.
Our programmes are grounded in the same evidence base that underpins military aviation CRM, adapted for the specific operational, cultural, and technical conditions of defence diving. They are not diluted civilian safety training. They are human performance programmes built for the military context.
Recreation & Technical
Recreational & Technical Diving
From open water to cave and rebreather, the gaps in your training are rarely technical. Your agency taught you what to do. We cover what happens when a team stops communicating, when a plan loses its flexibility, when no one says what they're thinking. That's where dives go wrong — and that's what we teach.
Commercial & Occupational
Commercial & Occupational Diving
Commercial diving operates inside management systems, risk registers, and permit-to-work frameworks. Those systems are necessary. They are also not sufficient. The human side — team dynamics, supervisor decisions, stop-work authority, normalisation of deviance/risk — is where your serious incidents will come from. We bridge the gap between your documented procedures and how work actually gets done.
Defence & Special Operations
Military Diving
Military diving teams operate at the intersection of technical complexity, operational pressure, and hierarchical culture. Power distance, mission focus, and the reluctance to report near-misses are systemic challenges, not individual weaknesses. Our programmes — drawn from military aviation and adapted for defence diving — address them directly, in the language of people who have served.
What we cover
Core topics across all defence-adapted programmes.
Delivered in the language and context of military operations. Facilitated by people who have served, and who can engage with the specific dynamics of military culture without dismissing or romanticising them.
How military divers build and maintain an accurate shared picture of the operational environment, and the conditions that degrade it, including time pressure, task saturation, and leadership dynamics.
Why communication degrades in high-stakes environments, how rank and authority gradient affect what gets said and what doesn't, and what structured communication practices maintain team transparency.
How military decision-making frameworks apply in diving contexts, where conditions change faster than plans can be revised, and how to maintain decision quality when the mission pressures you to proceed.
Effective leadership in diving requires a different model from command authority alone. Psychological safety, distributed leadership, and the team conditions that enable junior personnel and students on courses to speak up when it matters.
What a Just Culture looks like within the legal and administrative constraints of military organisations, and how to build the conditions for honest near-miss reporting without undermining accountability.
How to investigate your own incidents and near-misses in a way that produces systemic understanding, rather than a narrative that places responsibility on the individual closest to the event and leaves the conditions unaddressed.
"This course allowed me to broaden my scope of knowledge surrounding problem solving, laying of blame, looking at the big picture, by taking a step back and breathing. Taking this approach will limit knee jerk reactions and get to root causes and not the surface cause."
How we work
Flexible delivery for defence and military contexts.
We understand that military training programmes operate within specific constraints including classification, operational tempo, command authority, and approval processes. We work within those constraints, not around them.
DCRM: Essentials (Online pre-learning)
Self-paced online foundation covering human error, situation awareness, communication, and decision-making. Suitable as pre-learning before face-to-face sessions or as a standalone foundation for all team members.
DCRM: Applied Skills (On-site, adapted)
Two-day face-to-face programme delivered at your facility. Scenarios, case studies, and debriefs are adapted for military diving contexts. Can be delivered at unit level for diving teams and supervisors.
Leadership and command sessions
Focused sessions for diving officers, command staff, and senior supervisors on safety culture leadership, investigation quality, and the organisational conditions that support or undermine operational diving safety.
Custom programmes
For units with specific incident histories or requirements, we develop tailored programmes in consultation with your safety, training, and command staff. Contact us in confidence to discuss scope.
Contact us
The technical training is in place.
The human factors layer is what
comes next.
If you are responsible for the training or safety of a military diving team and
want to understand how a human factors programme could fit your context —
contact us. All enquiries are treated in confidence.
Recreation & Technical
Recreational & Technical Diving
From open water to cave and rebreather, the gaps in your training are rarely technical. Your agency taught you what to do. We cover what happens when a team stops communicating, when a plan loses its flexibility, when no one says what they're thinking. That's where dives go wrong — and that's what we teach.
Commercial & Occupational
Commercial & Occupational Diving
Commercial diving operates inside management systems, risk registers, and permit-to-work frameworks. Those systems are necessary. They are also not sufficient. The human side — team dynamics, supervisor decisions, stop-work authority, normalisation of deviance/risk — is where your serious incidents will come from. We bridge the gap between your documented procedures and how work actually gets done.
Defence & Special Operations
Military Diving
Military diving teams operate at the intersection of technical complexity, operational pressure, and hierarchical culture. Power distance, mission focus, and the reluctance to report near-misses are systemic challenges, not individual weaknesses. Our programmes — drawn from military aviation and adapted for defence diving — address them directly, in the language of people who have served.
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THD Courses
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© 2026 The Human Diver
ONLINE
The next LEARNING FROM UNINTENDED OUTCOMES online course will be running in May 2023, dates TBC but will run 17:00 GMT each day. Each online session will last 3.5 hours and finish at 20:30 GMT.
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Next Class Dates/Times
The next 10-week webinar-based classes will start on 15 February 2022 starting 19:30 AEDT (time zone converter below). This is based around Australia/Far East attendees and taught by Mike Mason.
15 Feb - Introduction to HF, Non-Technical Skills and Human Error in Diving and Case Study introduction.
22 Feb - Psychological Safety and Just Culture
1 Mar - Situational Awareness
8 Mar - Decision Making
15 Mar - Communications
22 Mar - Leadership & Followership in Diving
29 Mar - Teamwork
5 Apr - Performance Shaping Factors (Stress & Fatigue)
12 Apr - Incident Reporting & Checklists
19 Apr - Goals and Accountability
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ONLINE
The next LEARNING FROM UNINTENDED OUTCOMES Online course will run from 13:00-17:00 British Summer Time (BST) on 3, 10, 20, 22 and 25 September 2023.
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WHAT YOU'LL GET FROM THE COURSE...
Face-to-Face Interaction/
Live Interactive Webinars
This course is available in two forms. Both involve some pre-learning to ensure the core theory is understood before the interactive sessions occur.
The two-day face-to-face workshop provides practical exercises, case studies and developing an understanding of how an event occurred by examining local rationality and using relationship-based models to help create understanding.
The 5 x 3.5 hr webinar session content is the same as the workshop but arranged over 5 sessions which allow the learning to be consolidated and not get Zoom-frazzled.
Applied Learning
Both workshops will give you plenty of practical skills and knowledge to develop an understanding of how an adverse event could have developed.
It is not about root causes (they don't exist!) but rather the emergence of factors and the presence of error-producing conditions, and how they interact.
You will be given the basic skills to make sense of an adverse event using a learning perspective, not a blaming one, working to understand what 'normal' looks like.
You won't be given a silver bullet to solve problems, but you will be given insight into how to understand local rationality to help prevent future adverse events.
Consolidated Learning
There is no way you can learn and remember everything during these two days or 5 x 3.5 hrs sessions. Therefore, each of the online sessions will be recorded and made available to the course participants. (Private information will be removed from the recordings).
After the class, there will also be regular emails every two weeks out to three months reminding you of some of the aspects of the class.
Course materials and reference papers will be made available in the back end of The Human Diver website.
BONUSES
As a student of this class, you will be given access to additional materials like presentations and briefing notes only available to those who complete a face-to-face class with The Human Diver. The goal being to grown your knowledge, develop your skills and help you take action.
YOUR TUTOR
GARETH LOCK, MSC, MCIEHF
Gareth founded The Human Diver in January 2016 when he recognised that there was a gap in knowledge within the diving community when it came to human factors, non-technical skills and the need for a Just Culture. You can see a detailed background here
He has led two reviews into military diving fatalities, one for UK MOD and one overseas with a close military ally, along with examining numerous case studies to help understand the key question 'how did it make sense'. In the global safety domain, he is recognised as someone at the leading edge of ideas of how to improve operational safety by understanding 'Work as Done' as it compares to 'Work as Imagined'.
He is currently undertaking an MSc in HF and System Safety at Lund University looking at 'Second Stories' and whether they contribute to learning.
MIKE MASON
Mike spent 20 years in the Royal Air Force, most of it flying on frontline squadrons. He now works as a flying instructor in the Royal Australian Air Force teaching young pilots to fly fighters. As well as being an accomplished instructor, he is an experienced flying supervisor and holder of a commercial pilot’s licence.
He has been an active diver since 2015 and has around 300 dives in his logbook from as far north as Iceland and as far south as New Zealand. He works part-time as a Dive Master and is also an active CCR diver. Wrecks interest him the most but he gets just as much satisfaction taking groups to see Grey Nurse Sharks at his local dive sites.
Due to his career in military aviation, Mike has lived and breathed Human Factors for his entire professional life. As he became involved with diving expeditions and supervision, he realised how much the diving world could learn from aviation. He is a great believer in Human Factors and how an awareness of them can make time spent underwater safer and more rewarding.
WHAT OUR STUDENTS HAVE TO SAY
"This class has been a game changer for myself as it has given me the HF tools and knowledge as to how I plan to understand, interact and communicate with my dive community, dive team, work, family and even strangers."
Josh Maxwell
"In my case, It's made me dive again. I ended up very disappointed professionally with this industry, certain aspects and certain people. So much so that I even lost the desire to go in the water.
This last month, I have already done seventeen dives. I have also been motivated and encouraged by the fact that there are many people (in this case my fellow seminarians) who want a breath of fresh air in this world and to improve and change certain aspects."
Jamie Sanchez
FAQ'S
WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES FROM THE COURSE?
- Outcome 1. Oversee and manage the investigation process in line with your organisation’s or team’s guidelines regarding the severity of the event.
- Outcome 2. Lead an investigation, proactively identify latent conditions, organisational weaknesses and develop smart corrective actions.
- Outcome 3. Create an environment where people can identify error likely situations and potential incidents and are free to speak up without retribution.
- Outcome 4. Lead and influence the change needed to create learning within the team or organisation to support outcomes 1-3.
WHAT IS THE INVESTMENT?
It is just £400 (approx $500) - you have lifetime access to these materials as well as the alumni community.
WHAT DO I NEED TO COMPLETE THE CLASS?
The only thing you need is a web browser (PC or Mac) and an internet connection. As there will be interaction using web browsers and Zoom, using a mobile device on its own won't work for the interactive elements.
There are no prerequisites in terms of diving certification. Level 0: Essentials of Human Factors in Diving, is required for both the Level 3.0 online and 3.1 & 3.2 face-to-face courses.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO COMPLETE?
The course takes place over 16 hours of direct student contact and 4 hours of pre-learning and mid-course learning/consolidation via online self-study. Direct contact is either 2 x full days in a physical classroom, or 5 x 3.5-hour sessions (which includes breaks).
DO I GET A CERTIFICATE OR C-CARD?
You do get a certificate from The Human Diver which you can use for continuing professional development as long as you complete each of the homework assignments.
The course is not currently underwritten by any of the diver training agencies so you won't get a bit of plastic. Sorry! However, we are trying to do our bit regarding single use plastic.
ARE SESSIONS RECORDED?
Yes, all of the sessions are recorded which means you can refer back to them or if you are busy and can't make a session, then you can catch up later, via your laptop/desktop or via the mobile app available for iOS and Android.
HOW LONG DO I GET ACCESS?
You have lifetime access, and you’ll receive an update when we update course reference materials.
"Someone once asked me what the difference between Knowledge and wisdom is; Knowledge is gained from one's own experience, Wisdom is obtained from others experience. I feel that this class truly embodies this quote."
Jacqueline Patek
OW Diver and OR Nurse
AWARD WINNING PROGRAMME
We were so delighted that the Online Micro Class was awarded The Innovation Award at the 2018 TekDiveUSA Technical Diving Conference.
“For innovation and/or product design that has increased the safety and extended the field of technical diving.”
100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
We are so confident that you’ll benefit from this 10-Week Webinar Programme that if you’re not 100% happy with it we’ll refund your money. All we ask is that you provide some robust feedback within a month of completing the programme as to why the learning didn't happen and how we can make the class better. What do you have to lose?