OzTEK’07 Speaker Update
Widely hailed as one of the world’s leading forums for divers, the OZTeK’07 Diving Technologies Conference & Exhibition will feature one of the most distinguished gatherings of international diving authorities ever seen in Australia.
To be staged at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney, Australia over the weekend of the 17th and 18th March 2007, the speakers and presenters will represent every field of diving expertise.
With John Chatterton, (the “Shipwreck Detective”, USA) and acclaimed U/W photographer and wreck-hunter, Leigh Bishop (UK) already confirmed to attend — and many, many more names still to be announced in coming months — recent additions to the growing list of speakers and presenters at OZTeK’07 includes:
Peter Buzzacott: Peter learned to dive at Moreton Island in 1991, became a diving instructor in Johannesburg in 1997 and today has a diver-training business in Bunbury, Western Australia.
Now a Master Instructor, he has a Bachelor of Arts in teaching people to dive, has completed a Master of Public Health degree in scuba diving injuries, and is researching diving safety initiatives for a PhD at the University of Western Australia, Faculty of Medicine. He has issued about 400 diving certifications, had more than sixty feature articles published, and enjoys monitoring the health of his local Indian Ocean seagrass meadows in beautiful Geographe Bay.
Plodding slowly toward an eventual Diploma of Maritime Archaeology, he most enjoys the challenge of mapping a wreck. At 11,000 tons, the Pericles is the biggest he has yet attempted to survey.
Kevin Gurr: Kevin was the first technical and cave instructor to be qualified in Europe and started teaching technical diving in the UK in 1990. After completing all his instructor courses with Tom Mount, he established IANTD in the UK in 1992. Kevin now heads IANTD in the UK.
Kevin’s background is marine electronics, and in particular, dive computer and rebreather development. Over the years he has worked with several manufacturers to develop many product for technical divers. Kevin Gurr has been a leading force in the development of advanced diving techniques and technology throughout Europe and the world over the past decade.
Leader of numerous successful diving expeditions, Kevin Gurr also heads up Delta P Technology, a company formed specifically to design and manufacture high-technology equipment for the diving industry, and whose design team are all dedicated technical divers.
Manufacturers of the successful VR3 and VR2 air and mixed-gas dive computers, Delta P Technology has recently created the Ouroboros, a modular mixed-gas rebreather featuring full electronic control with manual over-rides that can be equipped with either back-mount or over-shoulder counterlungs.
Jarrod Jablonski: Widely regarded as one of the world’s most capable and talented exploration divers, Jarrod Jablonski is an avid explorer, researcher, author, and instructor who teaches and dives in oceans and caves around the world.
Trained as a geologist, Jarrod is the President and C.E.O. of dive equipment companies Halcyon Manufacturing and Extreme Exposure. He is also the President and founder of Global Underwater Explorers (GUE), a non-profit research, exploration and education organisation whose technical diver training programmes — from entry-level through to advanced exploration — are setting new standards of proficiency.
Remaining active in conservation, exploration, and filming projects worldwide, his explorations regularly place Jarrod in the world’s most remote locations, including several world-record excursions at 300 feet to cave penetrations in excess of 19,000 feet/ 5,700 meters.
Jarrod is also an author with dozens of publications, including three books and several more forthcoming.
Dr Simon Mitchell: Simon began diving in 1972 at the age of 14. His diving career has subsequently included more than 6000 dives spanning many disciplines including sport, scientific, commercial, and military diving. In recent years his diving interests have focused on photography and technical diving. He is an avid deep mixed-gas diver and uses a USN Mk15.5 closed-circuit rebreather.
Simon changed career paths from marine biology to medicine in the 1980s, completing his medical degree, post graduate Diplomas in Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine and Occupational Medicine, and a PhD in which he researched embolic brain injury. He trained in diving medicine with the Royal New Zealand Navy between 1992 and 1998, and then spent five years in Brisbane, Australia as medical director of the Wesley Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine. He was a foundation recipient of Certification in Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine from the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 2003.
Simon has more than 30 papers in the international medical literature, and he recently co-authored the second edition of “Deeper into Diving” with John Lippmann. He has two chapters on decompression sickness in the most recent edition of Bennett and Elliott and has been invited to author the chapter on treatment of decompression sickness and a new chapter on technical diving for the next edition of this text, which is the definitive work in the field. He is Vice President of the USA-based Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society, and is currently Chairman of the Society’s Diving Committee.
Simon’s current research interests include the pathophysiology and treatment of decompression illness and, in particular, the pathophysiology of inner ear decompression illness; a problem that is emerging as a particular hazard of deep bounce-diving.
Cedric Verdier: Cedric is the founder of the TRIADE Project, established in 1999, discovering and exploring more than 20 virgin wrecks located in the south of France at depths of between 70 and 130 metres. In 2002, he was the first diver to identify and dive the British Cruiser HMS Manchester off Tunisia.
Among other dive “Firsts”, he pushed the limits of the Sra Keow cave in Thailand in May 2006, using his Megalodon Closed-Circuit Rebreather, achieving an Asia-Pacific Cave Depth record of 201 metres.
He is currently planning the “Yamishiro Project“, an International Expedition aiming to dive the Japanese Battleship HIJMS Yamashiro sunk in the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines in November 1944 and resting at a depth of 200 metres.
Not only does the Project aim to identify the resting place of Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura and the hundreds of other Imperial Navy Sailors who gave their lives, but also to bring international attention to the plight of the Leyte village of Guinsaugon, completely destroyed with the loss of 1800 villagers (97% of the population) in a massive mudslide on the 18th of February 2006.
Cedric is a PADI Course Director and a Trimix Instructor Trainer for IANTD, PSAI, ANDI, DSAT and TDI. He spends most of his time teaching cave and mixed-gas rebreather courses at the diver and the instructor level. He is a past Regional Manager for PADI Europe and DAN and has written five books and more than 150 articles about diving.
For further information about the OZTeK’07 Diving Technologies Conference & Exhibition check out the website or contact the organisers at admin@diveoztek.com.au