Richard Taylor
SDI/TDI IT Evaluator & Snr Advisor, WorkSafe NZ
Richard Taylor is one of New Zealand’s first Technical Diving Instructors and Instructor Trainers, diving Nitrox since 1992 and Trimix since 1994 and teaching Technical Diving since 1993. He was Regional Director for TDI/SDI from 1995 to 2008 and has been an Instructor Trainer with TDI since 1998 with ratings in Advanced Trimix, Cavern, Advanced Wreck, Sidemount and Intro to Cave. He is one of the few Instructor Trainer Evaluators with SDI/TDI and the only NZ/Australian member on their Training Advisory Panel.
He was a Founding Member & the Safety Officer of 'The Sydney Project' mixed gas diving team exploring sunken heritage in NSW and was Safety and Diving Officer for the joint Australian-Turkish team finding the Australian WW1 Submarine the AE2 off Gallipoli in 1997 and 1998.
In 1999 he founded the successful OZTeK Diving Technologies Exhibition & Conference and run the successive 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2007 events. He remains an ongoing OZTeK MC & Speaker, and was consulting organiser for the Cave Divers Association of Australia’s (CDAA) 40th Anniversary Symposium in 2013. In 2013 he received the OZTeK Industry Recognition Award for “Exceptional Contributions to the Growth of Technical Diving”.
Richard has been diving since 1987 and he has taught hundreds of divers and Instructors in Turkey, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomons, Truk, Vanuatu, Sri Lanka, USA and across Australia and New Zealand. He is an experienced Wreck Diver and Cave Diver and has been a member of the CDAA since 1991. He has dived wrecks and caves in Australia, New Zealand, around the Pacific and internationally, and was part of the first Mixed Gas dive team to explore the depths of the Pearce Resurgence in New Zealand and recover the body of Dave Weaver in 1997.
Richard has worked with Police Dive Teams in New Zealand and Australia and has consulted on dive accidents for regulatory, insurance & court proceedings. He has lectured nationally & internationally on diving and is well published in dive magazines and on web forums around the world and has worked as a WorkSafe NZ approved Technical Expert in Recreational & Technical Diving for Adventure Activity Audits.
Aside from still teaching in New Zealand and overseas Richard is also now the Senior Advisor in WorkSafe New Zealand responsible for Occupational Diving, including the processing and approvals of CoCs.
He is New Zealand born, supports the All Blacks and after 26 years in Australia now lives in Wellington with a very patient wife and 2 mad cats.
Working & Diving – more complex than you think:
A look at what Occupational Diving in New Zealand looks like, the regulations that apply and what WorkSafe’s expectations are for the industry.
This presentation will allow divers, instructors and business owners to see what opportunities there are for working as a diver, what type of regulations exists and how they are implemented and what health & safety expectations WorkSafe has around the work undertaken. This will cover a range of diving activities and will include a look at the CoC regime, Adventure Activity requirements, Cylinders & Fill stations, Charter Boats and other areas that apply to working as a diver.