Diving Safety: Underwater Hazards is an essential course for divers working in professional and commercial diving environments. It provides the knowledge and practical skills needed to identify, assess, and manage underwater hazards that can lead to diver injury, entrapment, exposure, or fatality.
Underwater hazards can develop from environmental conditions, limited visibility, vessel activity, confined workspaces, offshore structures, contaminated environments, and high-risk operational settings. Correct hazard recognition and risk control planning are critical for safe diving operations and effective emergency response.
This course focuses on hazard awareness, safe decision-making, and applying correct controls to reduce risk and prevent incidents during commercial diving tasks.
Key areas covered include:
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Identifying and classifying underwater hazards
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Managing risks in currents, weather, and sea states
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Understanding shipping lane and surface visibility hazards
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Applying safe practices in confined spaces and structural environments
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Recognising differential pressure (Delta P) and entrapment hazards
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Managing cold water, night diving, and zero visibility risks
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Applying safety information and lessons learned through safety flashes
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Demonstrating competence through practice and final assessments
By the end of this course, you will be able to recognise hazards early, apply appropriate controls, and make safer operational decisions during commercial dive work.
Course Features
- Lectures 23
- Quizzes 3
- Duration Lifetime access
- Skill level All levels
- Language English
- Students 221
- Certificate Yes
- Assessments Self
- 5 Sections
- 23 Lessons
- Lifetime
- Types of Underwater HazardsObjective: Develop the knowledge and practical skills required to identify, evaluate, and manage underwater hazards that may occur during commercial diving operations to prevent injury, entrapment, exposure, and fatality.
Knowledge: Explain environmental, operational, and structure-related underwater hazards including currents, weather, sea state, shipping lanes, confined spaces, differential pressure (Delta P), night diving risks, cold water exposure, zero visibility, drill mud hazards, contaminated environments, offshore structures, scaffolding, entrapment dangers, and surface visibility requirements, as well as the controls used to reduce risk.
Skills: Demonstrate hazard management competence by recognising hazards in scenario-based situations, selecting appropriate controls, applying safe dive planning and operational decisions, and implementing correct emergency response actions when hazard exposure occurs.18- 1.1Underwater Hazards Curriculum
- 1.2Diving In Currents
- 1.3Weather
- 1.4Sea States
- 1.5Shipping Lanes
- 1.6Confined Spaces
- 1.7Delta P. Differential Pressure
- 1.8Night Diving
- 1.9Cold Water
- 1.10Zero Visibility
- 1.11Drill Mud
- 1.12Contminated Environments
- 1.13Offshore Structures
- 1.14Scaffolding
- 1.15Entrapment
- 1.16Surface Visibilty
- 1.17Types of Hazards Summary
- 1.18Diver Training3 Questions
- Safety InformationObjective: Develop the knowledge and practical skills required to recognise, avoid, and respond correctly to differential pressure (Delta P) hazards in commercial diving environments.
Knowledge: Explain how Delta P occurs, why it is highly dangerous and often fatal, where high-risk suction/pressure-differential zones are commonly found, and the key safety principles for exclusion, prevention, and emergency response.
Skills: Demonstrate Delta P hazard competence by identifying risk zones in scenario-based situations, applying exclusion and avoidance controls, and selecting correct safety actions and reporting procedures when Delta P risk is present.1 - Safety FlashesObjective: Develop the knowledge and practical skills required to learn from real-world diving incidents and apply preventative safety behaviours to avoid injury or fatality during commercial diving operations.
Knowledge: Explain the hazards highlighted in safety flash incidents, including entrapment, differential pressure (Delta P), high-pressure leaks, diver injury, and being trapped underwater, as well as the unsafe actions and conditions that led to these incidents.
Skills: Demonstrate safety awareness by analysing safety flash scenarios, identifying what went wrong, and applying correct prevention, avoidance, and emergency response actions in similar operational situations.5 - Practice TestObjective: Develop and test hazard competence through a structured assessment covering underwater hazard recognition and safe operational responses.
Knowledge: Explain key hazard types, risks, and control measures through formal written practice assessment questions.
Skills: Demonstrate hazard decision-making competence by applying correct safety actions and controls across scenario-based practice test questions.1 - Final AssessmentObjective: Demonstrate competence by completing the final underwater hazards assessment and confirming readiness for safe commercial diving operations.
Knowledge: Explain underwater hazard management principles, high-risk hazard controls, and emergency response priorities through final assessment questions.
Skills: Demonstrate applied hazard competence by selecting correct responses to complex underwater hazard scenarios in the final exam.1
Requirements
- Requirement 1
- Requirement 1
Features
- Internationally Accredited
Target audiences
- Deep Sea Diver Medics
- Commercial Diver
