Freediving 101 – Why Freedive?

Speaker:
Chris Kim [Canada] Co-Founder, Molchanovs
Chris Kim – Molchanovs Co-Founder and Former CEO, Zen Freediving Co-Founder. After a career in technology at such companies as Facebook, Google and Yahoo!, Chris discovered a passion for freediving. He left the corporate world and works to share his love of freediving, co-founding Zen Freediving (a leading freediving school in Singapore), as well as Molchanovs (a producer of record-shattering freediving gear and the fastest-growing freediving education system in the world).

Speaker:

Katherine Lu [USA / Singapore] Professional Underwater Photographer
Katherine is an American underwater photographer. She grew up in Northern Virginia in the USA and is of Taiwanese descent. Katherine started her diving journey more than two decades ago after receiving her open water certification in 1996. Her adventurous spirit and wanderlust led her to travel to over 60 countries and dive all around the world. Currently residing in Singapore and within close proximity to the coral triangle, she bought her first camera in 2014 to show friends and family the world beneath the sea and soon after developed a speciality for underwater macro photography, though she also loves photographing sharks and large pelagics when travel opportunities arise. Completely self-taught, she enjoys creating artistic expressions and visual stories that can capture the beauty of the ocean, its inhabitants and the fragility of the ecosystem. Awareness and education are key to preserving the ocean and she hopes her images can contribute towards conservation. Katherine has won international awards for her images and has been featured in both print and online magazines.

Moderator:

Adam Hanlon [UK] Publisher & Editor-at-Large, Wetpixel
Adam Hanlon is an underwater photographer captivated by the challenge and beauty of the underwater world and passionate about its conservation. His images and reports have won international competitions and been used in prestigious publications and by world-renowned organizations. He grew up in South Africa, learned to dive in the mid-1980s and has been pursuing a career “beneath the surface” ever since. He holds recreational and technical diving qualifications up to instructor level from many agencies and dives very regularly. He is the editor of Wetpixel, the worlds leading resource on all things underwater imaging and through Wetpixel Expeditions, Adam leads regular photography expeditions and workshops around the world. He also owns a successful dive school based near Lancaster, UK.

What’s New – Get Along with your INON

The Explorers

Speakers:

Richie Kohler [USA] Professional Technical Diver and Cinematographer, Technical Diving and ShipWreck Exploration, North Atlantic Wreck Divers
Richie Kohler is a filmmaker, author and explorer whose diving experiences began in the waters surrounding Brooklyn NY, but his passion for diving and exploring shipwrecks have taken him to all corners of the globe. As a founding member of the NY based group, the “Atlantic Wreck Divers” Kohler has spent the last 35 years exploring and identifying lost shipwrecks and those exploits have been documented in newspapers, magazines, documentary films and numerous books. Kohler holds nearly every diving qualification, has certified scores of technical divers in advanced diving techniques and has led shipwreck expeditions around the world.
In 1992 his work (alongside partner John Chatterton) to identify a previously unknown German U-boat was the focus of an Emmy award-winning NOVA documentary, “Hitler’s Lost Sub”. That six-year effort was the subject of several television documentaries and a best-selling book, “Shadow Divers” by Robert Kurson, a New York Times bestseller that’s slated to be a major motion picture by Universal Studios. The success of that program launched his career in underwater filmmaking. Kohler co-hosted and produced fifty-six episodes of the popular History Channel program “Deep Sea Detectives” which was watched by millions of people worldwide. The educational program focused on underwater mysteries in nearly every aquatic environment and inspired many to discover diving and explore the undersea world.
Kohler’s has produced numerous other television programs detailing his explorations on some of the most famous shipwrecks in the world, including the Andrea Doria, RMS Titanic, and the HMHS Britannic. Kohler has worked on film projects for Paramount Pictures, CBS, PBS/NOVA, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Universal Studios and most recently Kohler joined legendary underwater explorer Dr. Bob Ballard aboard his research ship, EV Nautilus, documenting deepwater shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.
Kohler’s work is often focused on the human aspect of shipwreck tragedies and he has made it a point of reaching out to the survivors and families answering questions and providing closure on wrecks such as the U-215, U-869, USS Murphy, USS Lagarto and the PC 566. Most recently his work righting historical wrongs culminated in an award ceremony at the US Pentagon in which the Secretary of the Navy posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit with Valor to a World War Two Captain.
A fellow in the Explorer’s Club, Kohler continues to lead expeditions worldwide in search of lost ships and the mysteries they hold. He has written dozens of articles about shipwrecks, deep diving and diver safety and just published his first book, Mystery of the Last Olympian detailing his decade of work on Titanic’s sister ship Britannic. Over the years he has made numerous presentations at schools, libraries, diving conventions and symposiums promoting diving safety, education and awareness.

Cristina Zenato [Bahamas] Member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame, Marine Explorer, Educator and Conservationist
A professional diver since 1994, Cristina is an ocean and cave explorer, shark behaviourist, photographer, speaker, writer and conservationist.
A member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame, and The Explorers Club, she is a firm believer in the power of education and spends her time teaching below and above the water. She has conducted the exploration and surveys of numerous new cave systems and is the first person to ever connect an entrance on land with an open ocean blue hole.
She is the founder of the nonprofit People of the Water, organized to widen the distribution of training, education, research related to ocean and environmental issues.

Jill Heinerth [Canada] Underwater Explorer and Photographer with National Geographic, NOAA, and television networks worldwide, Explorer in Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Recipient of Canada’s Polar Medal and Author
Jill Heinerth is a veteran of over thirty years of filming, photography and exploration on projects in submerged caves around the world with National Geographic, NOAA, and television networks worldwide. She is the Explorer in Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, recipient of Canada’s prestigious Polar Medal and the diving world’s highest award from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences. Partnering with Penguin Random House in Canada and Harper Collins in the US, Jill will soon be releasing four new major-market, non-fiction and children’s books.

Pete Mesley [NewZealand] Wreck and Cave Underwater Photographer
Pete has made his passion into a full-time career in the dive industry spanning over 27 years now. Moving to New Zealand in 1994, Pete has worked his way into becoming one of the Southern Hemispheres most experienced tech divers and Instructor Trainers. His career has taken him exploring over 26 different countries in search of WWI and WWII shipwrecks, cave systems and big animal sites. His company Lust4Rust Dive Excursions has been dedicated to taking technical rebreather divers to remote locations diving some of the worlds most sort after wrecks. Petes total focus on diver safety led him to pave the way to having Medical support on all his trips. Member of the Explorers Club, lover of Shiraz!

Ben Reymenants [Finland] Fellow of the Explorer Club, Technical Diver and Cave Explorer, Director at ACET Offshore and Managing Director at Blue Label Diving SSI and Bergsport
Ben Reymenants is probably best to know for his deep dives, his work in the diving medicine field and cave explorations. His career spans close to 3 decades underwater and his exploits and teaching style makes him popular for technical courses.
He owns a dive centre in Phuket Thailand where he runs technical instructor workshops and deep cave courses in the jungle.
He is a fellow of the explorers club and he was part of the initial cave rescue team in the North of Thailand for which he was decorated.

Moderator:

David Strike [Australia] ADEX Ambassador For Technical Diving, Pioneer & Fellow of The Explorers Club
With a background in military, commercial, recreational and technical diving, David Strike is a regular speaker and presenter at regional and international diving events. A former Field editor for Asian Diver Magazine who has authored several hundred articles about diving and organised several world-class technical diving events, he is the recipient of the ADEX ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for contributions to Technical Diving, and a Fellow of the Explorers Club of New York.

Diving Philippines – Anilao & Puerto Galera

Speakers:

Marty Synderman [USA] Emmy Award-winning Cinematographer, Professional Underwater Photographer, Still Photographer, Author and Environmental Speaker
Honoured with the 2018 NOGI Award in the Arts by the Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences, an EMMY Award for cinematography, a Reaching Out Award in 2008 as a photographer presented by the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association’s (DEMA), and the California Scuba Service Award in 2020, Marty Snyderman is a widely published still photographer and author who has worked to conserve and share the magic of the undersea world for more than four decades.
Marty serves as the Marine Life Editor of Dive Training magazine and the Senior Editor of California Diving News. His still photography has been used by many major diving and wildlife publications, natural history museums, and aquaria. Representing Nikon Inc., Sea&Sea USA, and through his own courses, Marty has taught underwater photography in person and offered instruction as a magazine columnist for more than four decades. He enjoys sharing what he has learned and takes a lot of pride in his ability to teach others.
Along with Eric Riesch, Marty is a partner in wisedivers.com, a company that produces eBooks about underwater photography, marine life, and diving safety.
In the late 1990s, Marty produced Depth Perception, the first online course on underwater photography. Marty’s cinematography has been used by National Geographic, the PBS series Nature, BBC, Discovery Channel, Audubon, Howard Hall Productions, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, Hardy Jones Productions, ESPN, and many other networks and entities around the world.
Marty served on the Board of Trustees of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation from 2010 until 2019. He is currently the Photography Ambassador for the Philippines-based Atlantis Resorts and Liveaboard and has recently become an Ikelite Ambassador.

Mike Bartick [USA / #Philippines] Professional Underwater Photographer
Mike is a widely published, award-winning photographer, writer and international public speaker with work appearing monthly in various publications, aquariums and museums.
Originally from Southern California, he has an insatiable love for finding unique marine life and telling their story through photo and video.
Mike is a widely published, award-winning photographer, writer and international public speaker with work appearing monthly in various publications, aquariums and museums.
He hosts photo clinics, workshops and seminars at Crystal Blue Resort, concentrating on the different aspects of Underwater Photography and the natural history of South-East Asia and the Indo-Pacific.

Ram Yoro [Philippines] Professional Underwater Photographer and Writer
Ram is a full-time underwater photographer/writer based in Anilao. He is a proponent of Bonfire Diving, a tool for documenting plankton. As a member of the Filipino Cave Divers and Philtech Divers, he actively documents Philippine underwater Cave systems and wrecks. Together with Andrew Marriott, Ram co-authored the “Guide to Anilao” and an upcoming Philippine wreck book.

ADEX Ocean Ambassador [2012-2013]
Connecting the Ocean as a Mother and Lawyer

Speaker:
Sarah Hishan [Malaysia] Human Rights Lawyer, ADEX Ocean Ambassador and Diver
Originally from Malaysia, Sarah Hishan has been an avid diver for over 11 years and is working towards her PADI master diver certification. She has dived the deep blue of 4 continents, with great white sharks in Gansbaai (South Africa), manta rays in Hawaii (USA) to threshers in Malapascua (Philippines). She served as ADEX’s Dive Ambassador from 2012-2013. When she is on dry land, Ms Hishan practices international criminal and humanitarian law at the Office of the Prosecutor of one of the international tribunals in The Hague (Netherlands). She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Warwick and a Masters in International Law from University College London (United Kingdom). In 2017, she completed the Bar in England and Wales and was the sole recipient of Lincoln’s Inn 2015 Marchant Scholarship and the University of Law’s Advocacy Scholarship. As an active member of the Inter-Agency Diversity and Inclusion Network, which seeks to protect and advocate for the dignity of all, create diverse work environments, and uphold the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she regularly delivers Gender, Diversity and Inclusion training to staff members working for international organizations in the Hague. She has worked on various human rights issues over the course of her career, including defending those wrongfully convicted on death row in Texas and Missouri (United States of America).