Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving

This blog explains why hiding mistakes in diving training and leadership is dangerous, and why honesty builds safer, stronger teams. Using real examples from military service and diving, it shows that when leaders admit errors, teams learn faster, trust each other more, and make better decisions. When mistakes are hidden, people stop asking questions, small problems become normal, and serious risks grow over time. The article introduces the idea of psychological safety — creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes, and challenge unsafe actions without fear. It argues that real credibility comes from honesty, not pretending to be perfect. By encouraging openness, shared responsibility, and learning instead of blame, dive teams can prevent accidents, improve performance, and build a culture where safety, trust, and learning come first.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/the-hidden-cost-of-never-show-weakness-why-hiding-instructor-errors-undermines-dive-safetyTags: English| Sense-making, Decision-making, & Psychology

This episode explores the link between diving, mental health, and trust, showing that anxiety, depression, and therapy are common parts of normal life and are also present in the diving community. Many divers hide mental health challenges or medication use because they fear judgment, exclusion, or losing opportunities, which actually makes diving less safe. The key message is that safety underwater depends more on trust between people than on equipment, and that honesty and psychological safety in a dive team allow divers to support each other properly. The episode explains that common treatments like antidepressants are not the real risk — the real danger comes from silence, stigma, and poor communication. It also highlights how diving can improve mental wellbeing, helping people feel calm, focused, and connected. Overall, the message is simple: openness about mental health is not weakness — it’s responsibility, professionalism, and an important part of keeping each other safe underwater.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/diver-s-depression-it-s-time-to-tackle-stigma-and-taboosSourcesSt Leger Dowse, M. et al. (2019) – Diving and mental health: The potential benefits and risks from a survey of recreational scuba divers.A study of 729 recreational divers in the UK shows that divers have similar levels of mental health problems to the general population, with as many as 90% reporting an improvement in their well-being thanks to diving.Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine JournalMorgan, A. et al. (2019) – Can scuba diving offer therapeutic benefit to military veterans…An analysis of the Deptherapy UK program for veterans, confirming the therapeutic effects of diving in the treatment of PTSD and psychological trauma.Disability and Rehabilitation JournalSoldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba (SUDS) – How Scuba Diving & SUDS Help War Veterans.Description of a therapeutic program in which diving helps war veterans regain their mental and physical balance.sudsdiving.orgUndersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) – Diving Medical Guidance to the Physician (2023).The latest medical guidelines on diving, psychotropic drugs, and mental health.uhms.orgWorld Health Organization (WHO) – Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders: Global Health Estimates (2022).Epidemiological data showing that approximately 25% of adults worldwide experience mental disorders.who.intGascon, M. et al. (2015) – Mental health benefits of long-term exposure to blue spaces.A review of research on the positive effects of aquatic environments (“blue spaces”) on mental health.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public HealthWhite, M. P. et al. (2010) – Blue space: The importance of water for preference, affect, and restorativeness ratings.A study confirming that being in a water environment has a strong relaxing effect and reduces stress. Journal of Environmental PsychologyTags: - english andrzej górnicki

This episode looks back on a big year for Human Factors in Diving and shares what The Human Diver community has achieved, along with what’s coming next. It highlights how real change in diving doesn’t come from new gear or technology, but from learning, reflection, and improving how people think, communicate, and make decisions. The episode celebrates global training programmes, online courses, podcasts, blogs, and free resources that have helped thousands of divers grow their skills and awareness. It also looks ahead to new projects, including international events, new learning programmes, and wider access to training in 2026. The core message is simple: progress comes from consistent learning, honest self-reflection, and small daily improvements — being better than yesterday, not perfect today.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/a-review-of-2025-looking-forward-to-2026-2597Links: Courses: HFiD: Essentials, HFiD: Applied Skills, Masterclass seriesHF in Diving ConferenceLearning from Emergent Outcomes (LFEO)Ambassador network (sign up here: https://www.thehumandiver.com/partner-mandated-instructor-application)YouTube channelGet in touchTags: English| Learning, Incidents & Just Culture

This episode looks at a real cave diving tragedy and uses it to explain how accidents often happen because of human thinking, not just broken rules or bad equipment. Instead of focusing on blame, it shows how choices made underwater can seem logical at the time, even when they lead to disaster. The episode explores key ideas like awareness, decision-making, teamwork, leadership, and psychological safety, and explains how stress, distraction, group pressure, and complex plans can affect how people think and act. It also highlights why good briefings, open communication, and honest debriefs matter, and why teams must feel safe to speak up and challenge decisions. The main message is that safer diving comes from understanding human behaviour, learning without blame, and building strong teams that plan well, communicate clearly, and adapt when things don’t go as expected.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/analysis-from-a-human-factors-perspective-cave-double-fatality-calimba-2004Links: Blueprint for Survival: https://nsscds.org/blueprint-for-survival/Identifying lessons and learning from them vs blame and punishment: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/blame-or-learnonline resources that have a compendium of reports on cave diving fatalities:CREER https://creer-mx.com/accident-incident-analysis/NSS-CDS https://nsscds.org/accident-analysis/IUCRR - https://iucrr.org/more/accident-analysis/incident-reports/Jenny’s blog “Incompetent and Unaware”: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-dunning-kruger-effect-incompetent-or-competent-and-unawareYouTube channel: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/hf-for-dummies-part-1-human-factorsTags: - english accident analysis cave diving lanny vogel

This episode explains that real teamwork in diving is much more than just staying close to your buddy. Using a real incident where a diver tried to handle a serious problem alone, it shows how this can create new risks for the whole team. The key idea is that strong teams are built through clear roles, planning, and communication, not luck. When everyone knows who is responsible for things like navigation, monitoring the group, managing equipment, or handling problems, dives run more smoothly and safely. The episode highlights how assigning roles before a dive, confirming them in the briefing, and learning from them in the debrief helps reduce confusion, stress, and mistakes. The main message is simple: good teamwork doesn’t happen by accident — it is created through clear planning, shared responsibility, and learning together after every dive.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/teamwork-in-diving-the-power-of-clear-roles-task-divisionLinks: Blogs about leadership: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-leadership-creating-the-space-for-others-to-be-heardhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-diving-professional-leadership-is-not-optionalhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-leadership-and-followership

This episode tells the story of a calm, well-planned dive that still ended with an unexpected case of decompression sickness, and uses it to explore how people react when things go wrong. Even when the dive was conservative, the team experienced, and everything seemed to be done “right,” a diver still became unwell — showing that not all risks can be controlled or explained. The episode looks at our natural need to find someone or something to blame after accidents, and how this search for causes often comes from fear, not facts. It explains how people try to protect their sense of safety by creating simple explanations, even when reality is uncertain and complex. The core message is that true safety in diving doesn’t come from believing we can control everything, but from accepting uncertainty, staying humble, learning from events without blame, and building resilience, awareness, and reflection into every dive.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/desperate-need-for-blameResources: Dekker, S., ’t Hart, P. (2010). Judgment and decision making in complex systems.Mezulis et al. (2004). A meta-analytic review of self-serving attribution bias.Baumeister (1999). Self-concept, self-esteem, and self-deception.Reason, J. (1990). Human Error.Dekker, S. (2014). The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'.Skinner, E. (1996). A guide to constructs of control.Rotter, J. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.Lerner, M. (1980). The Belief in a Just World: A Fundamental Delusion.Hafer & Bègue (2005). The Belief in a Just World and Reactions to Innocent Victims.Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings.Jones & Harris (1967). The attribution of attitudes. Tags: English| Sense-making, Decision-making, & Psychology

This episode explains how Non-Technical Skills (NTS) and Human Factors in Diving (HFiD) only work when they become part of everyday diving culture, not just a course or a checklist. Real safety comes from how divers think, communicate, make decisions, and work as teams, not just from technical skills or equipment. It highlights the importance of shared language, reducing hierarchy, encouraging people to speak up, honest debriefs, and creating psychological safety so divers feel comfortable asking questions and raising concerns. For teams and dive centres, this means building strong technical foundations, teaching communication and decision-making skills, talking openly about risk versus reward, and making reflection and learning part of daily practice. The key message is that safer diving comes from habits, culture, and behaviour over time — not one-off training — where teams learn together, support each other, and keep working to be better than yesterday.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/the-practical-ways-of-bringing-hf-nts-into-divingLinks: Last weeks blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/would-you-speak-up-to-the-commanderBehavioural Marker SchemeBuilding psychological safety blogs: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-1Nic Emery’s blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/what-are-we-pretending-not-to-knowDEBrIEF framework: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debriefTags: English| Operations & Procedures

This episode explores why real learning in diving is harder than buying new gear or following checklists. It explains how divers, like firefighters and oil and gas workers, often struggle to change habits, question tradition, and speak up in teams, even when something feels wrong. The problem isn’t a lack of training or information, but culture — things like hierarchy, fear of blame, and not feeling safe to challenge more experienced people. The key message is that safer diving doesn’t come from more equipment or more rules, but from better communication, shared learning, honest debriefs, and strong non-technical skills like teamwork, awareness, and decision-making. Real change only happens when these behaviours become everyday habits, not one-off courses, and when teams create an environment where people feel safe to learn, ask questions, and improve together.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/would-you-speak-up-to-the-commanderLinks: If Only… documentary and workbook: https://www.thehumandiver.com/ifonly2026 HFiD: Conference: https://www.hf-in-diving-conference.com/Nic’s blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/what-are-we-pretending-not-to-knowScuba Adventures, TX: https://www.scubaplano.com/TekDeep Asia: https://tekdeep.com/author/marccrane/Part 2: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-practical-ways-of-bringing-hf-nts-into-divingTags: English| Operations & Procedures

This episode looks at the limits of planning and equipment in technical and cave diving, and explains why true safety comes from adaptability, not control. Using a powerful real-life cave diving story, it shows how even the best plans can fail, and how survival often depends on calm thinking, core skills, and the ability to solve problems when things go wrong. The key idea is that risk can’t be removed from diving — it can only be managed — and focusing only on gear and procedures can create a false sense of security. Real safety comes from strong fundamentals, simple systems, realistic training, and learning how to stay calm and think clearly under pressure. The message is clear: the safest divers aren’t the ones with the most equipment or the most detailed plans, but the ones with the skills, mindset, and resilience to adapt when the unexpected happens.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/top-tips-for-technical-cave-divers-decision-making-to-manage-risk-we-have-to-be-exposed-to-uncertainty-and-harmTags: English| Education & Content Type

This episode challenges the idea that more experience automatically means safer diving. Using research from aviation and real diving examples, it shows that what really matters is not how many dives you’ve done, but how you see and understand risk. Two people can face the same situation and make very different choices, not because of skill, but because of how dangerous it feels to them. The key message is that experience without reflection can lead to complacency, where risky behaviour starts to feel normal. Safer divers are the ones who think about their decisions, talk openly with their team, learn from near-misses and “no-go” choices, and keep questioning what feels routine. True competence comes from awareness, reflection, and honest communication, not just time underwater or the number of dives in a logbook.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/top-tips-for-technical-cave-divers-situation-awareness-risk-perception-is-a-critical-skill-experience-doesn-t-equal-judgementLinks: Normalisation of deviance blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/normalisation-of-deviance-not-about-rule-breakingDrinkwater, J. L., & Molesworth, B. R. C. (2010). Pilot see, pilot do: Examining the predictors of pilots’ risk management behaviour. Safety Science, 48(10), 1445–1451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2010.07.001Tags: English| Education & Content Type

This episode explores how everyday conversations between divers, even simple small talk, play a powerful role in building trust and safety. It introduces the idea of the “Communication Triangle,” showing how teams move from polite, surface-level talk to deeper, more honest communication that allows people to speak up, share concerns, and admit mistakes. Using real diving examples, it shows how accidents are often caused not by lack of skill, but by people not feeling safe enough to say something. The core message is simple: strong diving teams are built through open communication, trust, and psychological safety, where everyone feels able to speak honestly. When divers move beyond politeness and build real connection, decision-making improves, learning grows, and safety becomes a natural result.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/top-tips-for-technical-cave-divers-psychological-safety-and-just-cultureTags: English| Education & Content Type

Technical diving often looks like it’s all about planning, rules, and equipment, but the biggest risk factor is still the human. This episode explores how “Performance Influencing Factors” (PIFs) like fatigue, stress, environment, team pressure, and mental overload can affect even experienced divers, sometimes without them realising it. Using a real dive story, it shows how small human issues can stack up and lead to mistakes, even when procedures are followed. The key message is that safe technical diving isn’t just about good gear and checklists, it’s about self-awareness, teamwork, honest communication, and planning for human error. When divers understand their limits, support each other, and build safety margins into every dive, they don’t just dive better — they dive safer.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/top-tips-for-technical-divers-performance-influencing-factors-even-the-best-of-us-are-only-humanLinks: Showing vulnerability: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-challenge-of-psychological-safetyNormalisation of Deviance: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/normalization-of-deviance-risk-how-socially-accepted-drift-can-impact-your-divingTags: English| Education & Content Type

This episode looks at the idea that all technical divers are leaders, even if they don’t see themselves that way, because their experience, behaviour, and decisions influence others in the water. Leadership in diving isn’t about giving orders; it’s about building trust, staying calm, communicating clearly, and creating an environment where everyone feels safe to speak up. The discussion explains how leadership roles in technical diving can change during a dive and highlights key qualities of good leaders, such as technical competence, good decision-making, strong situation awareness, and leading by example. It also shares practical tips, like fostering psychological safety, being consistent with procedures, understanding and explaining the reasons behind decisions, and always trying to improve. The main message is simple: as a technical diver, you are a role model, and by being the diver you would want to follow, you can help your whole team dive more safely and effectively.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-technical-cave-divers-leadershipTags: - english cave diving human factors lanny vogel leadership psychological safety technical diving

This episode explores why teamwork is a critical survival skill in technical diving, not just a nice extra. Using a real training story where a teammate caught a dangerous mistake during an emergency drill, it shows how even well-trained divers can fail under pressure and why a strong team can prevent small errors from becoming fatal. Technical diving involves higher risks, more complex equipment, and smaller margins for error, which means no diver, no matter how self-reliant, can be their own backup for everything. Effective teams plan dives together, position themselves deliberately, use clear and layered communication, manage ego and authority, practise emergencies as a group, and debrief honestly to improve the next dive. The key message is simple: great gear matters, but a cohesive, well-practised team is just as important, because in technical diving, your team is part of your life support.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/Top%20Tips%20for%20Technical%20Divers:%20Teamwork%20-%20It%27s%20more%20than%20a%20back%20up%20planTags: mike mason teamwork

This episode looks at why communication in technical and cave diving often fails, even between skilled and experienced divers. Using two real dive stories, it shows how serious risks can come from small breakdowns, such as mislabelled gas bottles or missed signals during a valve problem, and how teams often rely on assumptions rather than confirmation. A key message is that sending a message does not mean it has been understood, especially when stress, task overload, poor visibility, hierarchy, or equipment get in the way. Communication in diving is not just hand signals or words, but also lights, behaviour, technology, and the environment itself. To reduce errors, teams need clear briefings, shared mental models, closed-loop communication, and honest debriefs that explore what really happened, not just whether the dive ended safely. Improving communication is about slowing down, checking understanding, and creating a team culture where questions and challenges are welcomed before small issues turn into big ones.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-technical-cave-divers-communicationTags: - english communication gareth lock teamwork

This episode explores how instructor decisions in diving are shaped long before an accident happens, often by habit, pressure, and past success rather than careful thought. Using real-world accounts from a fatal training dive in poor visibility, it shows how instructors often rely on fast, instinctive decision-making that usually works but can fail when conditions are complex, rushed, or risky. When dives end without incident, messy decisions often get hidden behind a “successful outcome,” which can lead to normalising higher levels of risk over time. The key message is to separate luck from skill, challenge assumptions, and judge decisions by how they made sense at the time, not just by the outcome. Simple tools like pausing to ask why you’re acting, what you expect to happen next, and whether the risk matches the benefit can slow thinking and improve safety. Reflective debriefs and open sharing of near-misses help instructors learn, adapt, and make better decisions before small issues line up into serious harm.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-decision-making-the-big-ones-not-the-little-onesLinks: Learning in the Heat of the Moment: An Interview With Sabrina Cohen-Hatton‘Storytelling to learn’Tags: - english decision-making gareth lock instructors top tips

This episode looks at a common teaching challenge: when a student can complete the required skills but still isn’t ready to be certified. Through a personal story, the author explains how the missing piece was situation awareness — the ability to notice what’s happening, understand what it means, and think ahead. The student was using so much mental effort just to manage basic skills like buoyancy and trim that there was no capacity left to track their buddy, navigation, or decompression. The key lesson is that learning and performance are limited by mental capacity, and when students are overloaded, awareness drops. Instructors can help by building basic skills slowly, watching for signs of overload, using debriefs to understand where attention was focused, sharing their own experiences, and remembering that instructors can lose awareness too. Developing situation awareness takes time, practice, and the right focus — and recognising this helps instructors support students more effectively.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-instructors-situation-awarenessTags: - english jenny lord situation awareness situational awareness

This episode explores why calling a dive can be harder in practice than the famous “any diver can end any dive” rule suggests, especially for instructors under time, money, or reputation pressure. Using a real cave-diving example, the blog shows how small equipment issues and disrupted routines created warning signs that the team wasn’t ready, even though nothing had gone seriously wrong yet. The dive was safely called, and the team later recognised how important psychological safety was in making that decision feel acceptable and supported. The key message is that psychological safety — feeling able to speak up, admit mistakes, or stop without fear of criticism — is essential for safe and effective training. Instructors play a major role in creating this by staying calm under pressure, reacting constructively to small problems, and leading by example when it’s time to call a dive.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-psychological-safety-and-the-thumb-ruleLinks: Some previous blogs about psychological safety:https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/HFforD-part-10-psychological-safetyhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/what-if-just-culture-and-psychological-safety-is-not-enoughhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/the-challenge-of-psychological-safetyhttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/what-we-get-wrong-about-psychological-safety-in-divinghttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-psychological-safety-just-culturehttps://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/team-building-psych-safety-1 - Part one of a four-part series.Tags: - english cave diving human factors lanny vogel psychological safety teamwork top tips training

This episode looks at why students — and instructors — sometimes struggle in dive training, even when the skills seem simple, and explains how performance is shaped by more than just ability. Factors like fatigue, stress, cold, time pressure, anxiety, social expectations, and difficult conditions can all affect how people think, learn, and perform. When these pressures stack up, students may panic or stall, and instructors may rush, lose patience, or make poor decisions. The key message is that good instruction means recognising these performance influences early, managing what you can, and adapting your teaching and self-care to match the situation. By slowing down, checking in, normalising mistakes, managing comfort and stress, and using thoughtful debriefs, instructors can create safer, more effective learning environments where both students and teachers perform at their best.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-performance-influencing-factorsLinks: Blog about having difficult conversations: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-communication-the-difficult-kindTags: - english fatigue mike mason performance influencing factors performance shaping factors stress

This episode explores why people in diving often don’t speak up, even when something feels unsafe, and why being “heard” matters just as much as being allowed to talk. Using a real boat-diving story, it shows how authority gaps, hero culture, social media status, and tight-knit groups can silence both new and experienced divers. Research highlights that people stay quiet mainly because they fear looking bad or upsetting others, not because they lack knowledge. Titles, reputation, and tribal loyalty can make unsafe decisions hard to challenge, while weak feedback systems hide problems rather than fix them. The key message is that safety depends on leaders actively creating spaces where speaking up is worthwhile, not risky, by listening with curiosity, lowering power barriers, valuing informal conversations, and rewarding honesty over conformity. In diving, real learning starts when people feel they belong, can question decisions, and know their voice will truly be heard.Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-leadership-creating-the-space-for-others-to-be-heardLinks: One of the studies by ReitzGareth’s MSc research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRXqeQvRFK0&t=4sLinnea Mills caseBrian Bugge caseTags: - english gareth lock instructors leadership psychological safety top tips