This indoor workshop combines lectures and hands-on drills. It is an intense, dynamic, state-of-the-art program by Zaferes who has worked in the PSD field for 24 years.
This is like no other PSD Workshop

The following are examples of the topics we will address during this workshop in addition to answering your questions and concerns:

Includes educational handout with CD

Topics to Be Covered:

Medical and Physical Fitness Standards for Public Safety Dive Teams

Medical and physical complications are the number one contributing factor to public safety diver fatalities. Tom Greenhalgh is a recognized expert in this field and a long time PS diver from Massachusetts. He is working with the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical Society to develop a medical standard for public safety divers to go along with the physical fitness standard recently implemented by NFPA

Surface Supply for Public Safety Dive Teams

One of the biggest risks Public Safety divers face is the possibility of an out of air emergency. Is surface supplied air a possible benefit to your team’s safety and operational readiness? Bengt Kjellberg from Interspiro will discuss this topic and demonstrate how safe and easy surface supply can be.

Using Technology to Aid Your Dive Team and Minimize Risk

Erick Estrada will discuss how ROV technology can increase the efficiency and safety of dive teams. He will demonstrate how to best utilize these emerging technologies as well as discuss their realistic limitations using real life examples.

LUNCH BREAK: 12:30-1PM. Lunch will be provided.

Supplementing Public Safety Diving Efforts with Remote Survey Technologies

Jeff Snyder will discuss additional methods for using a full range of technology to support your dive team operations.

Developing Standards for Contaminated Water Diving

Faith Ortins will report on the efforts by various agencies, including the NFPA, to develop equipment standards for contaminated water diving. She will also discuss the realistic limitations of these standards and chemical testing.  Practices you can implement immediately to improve your safety will be presented as well.

Public Safety Diving Fatalities; Lessons Learned Since 1960

Since 1960, Public Safety Diving fatality statistics have allowed the PSD community to identify trends and implement safety measures. Consequently the number of PSD deaths has decreased in recent years but a new disturbing trend is emerging. Let’s learn from the past so we can work towards a safer future.

Speaker Biographies:

Bengt Kjellberg has worked within all fields of respiratory protection throughout his career.  He is currently the Vice President for Business Development at Interspiro Inc. where he is also in charge of the Diving Division.  He joined the Swedish Costal Defense in 1968 working as a diver with the service and repair of the Swedish minefields around the Swedish coastline. After graduating from the Stockholm School of Economics he joined AGA Spiro in Sweden to develop their world wide military dive program. He was involved in the development, sales and training of military personnel around the world on dive equipment for clearance of acoustic and magnetic bottom distance mines, oxygen re-breathers for covered operations and advanced compressed air diving systems.  Bengt started up Interspiro Inc.’s US division in 1985 and Safety Equipment America in 1999. In addition, Bengt has a Diploma of Senior Management from Henley Management College in England and has been the Chair for the Americas Section of the International Society for Respiratory Protection (ISRP).

Rachael Miller is the Director and Founder of Clean Ocean. The mission of Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean is to find and remove marine debris from our oceans, bays and rivers. Marine debris takes many forms, and occurs in all marine environments, presenting myriad challenges in removing it from the water. Rachael Miller of Rozalia Project uses a VideoRay with BlueView sonar and Lyyn image enhancement system, along with the Tritech Starfish side scan sonar, to scour the bottom of a variety of venues looking for and retrieving marine debris – from small pieces of plastic to large masses of derelict fishing gear – and everything in-between. This presentation will show specific examples of how the equipment is integrated and used in concert to locate and recover a variety of objects of differing size and material, and how different benthic environments and conditions affect mission planning and execution. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and the strategies Rachael used to handle specific challenges related to debris search and recovery.

Mr. Jeff Snyder is the President of SeaVision Underwater Solutions, Inc. (SeaVision). He carries over 13 years of experience in diving and remote underwater survey operations. A former U.S. Navy Special Operations Officer, Mr. Snyder possesses an M.S. in Geosystems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Geology from Duke University. He is certified as a Hydrographer by the American Congress of Surveying and Mapping. He currently carries a USCG Merchant Mariner License as Master 100 Ton (Inland)/Mate 200 Ton (Near Coastal), and he had been previously certified as a commercial surface-supplied air diver through the ADC. In his work, Mr. Snyder frequently uses tools and techniques that can be easily tailored to support public safety search and recovery efforts.

Faith Ortins is the Vice President in charge of sales for Diving Unlimited International. She has been working for DUI for 15 years and developed their public safety program 6 years ago. Her scientific and technical diving and volunteer public safety diving experience gives her a unique perspective on the issue of contaminated water diving and its unique challenges. She is currently working with NOAA on the development a complete contaminated water diving system. She is also a member of the working group for NFPA 1953 which will issue standards for contaminated water diving equipment sometime in 2013/2014.

Blades Robinson began his Public Safety Diving career in 1980 and presently serves on the Board of Directors for Dive Rescue International and is the Executive Director of the International Association of Dive Rescue Specialists, a non-profit organization dedicated to Public Safety Diving safety and reducing line of duty deaths. Blades Robinson began his public safety diving career in 1980 when he was hired by Indian River County (FL) Fire Rescue. He served on that department for 27 years serving many years as his agency’s aquatic rescue training officer. His affiliation with Dive Rescue International began in 1990 when he became a corporate trainer. He has been on the Dive Rescue International Board of Directors since 1993, and also serves as the executive director of the International Association of Dive Rescue Specialists since 2000.

Paul Montgomery led the development of standards and curriculum for ERDI in 2004 and continues to work on reviewing and expanding ERDI’s courses and materials. He drew upon his years of public safety diving in Maine where he was a firefighter and dive center owner. He currently serves as ERDI/SDI/TDI’s director for international business development and is an ERDI Instructor Trainer