NAUI Worldwide has announced the speaker lineup for the 2025 NAUI International Technical Diving Summit (NITDS).
The event will take place between October 31 and November 8 in Florida. The speakers for this year’s conference include:
Dr. Frauke Tillmans, DAN Research Director:
Dr. Frauke Tillmans is a leader in diving science and safety, with a PhD in Human Biology. She researches diving injury, physiology, and long-term effects, and serves as DAN’s scientific leader. An experienced diver, instructor, and safety officer, she holds academic roles at UNC Chapel Hill and UC San Diego.
Dr. David Charash, Dive Medicine Physician:
Dr. David Charash is a legend in diving medicine, with over 30 years spent improving diver health and safety. He is Board-certified in Emergency and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. He practices dive medicine, teaches international workshops, consults for military expeditions, volunteers with DAN, hosts the Fitness in Diving podcast, and received the 2022 DAN/Rolex Diver of the Year honor.
Ken Charlesworth, NAUI Technical Instructor Examiner:
Ken Charlesworth is a NAUI Technical Instructor Examiner and veteran wreck and cave diver since 1977. After adding cave training in 1996 and relocating to Florida in 2003, he dives weekly, exploring and preserving WWII shipwrecks along Florida’s coast, while also conducting technical diving education and public outreach.
Andrew Pitkin, Cave Explorer & Anesthesiologist:
Andrew Pitkin brings over thirty years of diving, medicine, and exploration. Trained in UK waters in 1992, he worked at the Royal Navy Institute of Naval Medicine (1996–2000), managing hyperbaric care and research. In Florida since 2007, he is a UF faculty member, cave explorer, and innovator of rebreathers, DPV batteries, HUDs, and radiolocation devices.
Anders Etander, Technical Instructor:
Anders Etander is a Swedish technical diver and instructor specializing in mine and cave exploration. His journey began with a dive in Tuna Hästberg mine 13 years ago. Since then, he has trained divers, led explorations of water-filled mountain caves, managed Tuna Hästberg diving operations, held keyholder status for several mines, and promoted safe overhead-environment diving.
Chris Brock, Brock Technical
Chris has nearly two decades of diving experience and is a full?time technical instructor in Florida specializing in advanced cave, rebreather, and trimix training. A former Chemistry and Physics teacher, NAUI Course Director and NSS?CDS training leader, he has 1,000+ cave dives and instructs multiple Fathom and Optima rebreather models.
Heison Chak, Scuba Labs
Heison is a recreational, technical, and CCR instructor with over a decade teaching divers. He led dive safety at the Ontario Underwater Council, serving as Director of Sport Safety and elected President in 2015. As a NAUI Course Director and Technical Instructor Examiner, he develops leaders through conferences and training.
For more information and to register for any of the NIDTS events, visit the FareHarbor Registration page.
