One month to go: the international diving community prepares to meet in Lisbon, October 23–25
Lisbon, Portugal — September 2026 — The countdown has begun. From October 23 to 25, Diving Talks returns to Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, bringing together explorers, scientists, world-record holders, photographers, physicians, educators, researchers and leaders from across the international diving community.
For those still deciding whether to attend, the time is now. Buy the ticket. Book the flight. Come to Lisbon.
Why?
Because Diving Talks 2026 brings 10 incredible panels to the stage — exploration, science, technology, human performance, discovery, conservation, education and the future of diving — plus one discussion that alone makes the trip to Lisbon worthwhile. The event will close by examining what is arguably one of the most significant and consequential events in scuba diving in recent decades — unfortunately, an accident: the Maldives accident and the extraordinary search and recovery operation that followed. For the first time at Diving Talks, four people closely connected to that operation will sit around the same table to discuss what happened, how the operation was carried out, the challenges faced and, above all, what the international diving community can learn from it.
Here are 10 reasons + 1.
1. WHEN EXPLORATION BECOMES SCIENCE
Robin Cuesta • Edd Stockdale • Paul Rose
What happens when exploration becomes more than going somewhere new and starts producing knowledge?
From submerged caves and scientific diving to major expeditions in some of the world’s most remote environments, three very different perspectives explore how divers, explorers and scientists work together to turn direct observation and adventure into research.
Expect caves, remote fieldwork, Antarctica, the Arctic and National Geographic-scale expeditions — but also a fundamental question: when does an explorer become part of the scientific process?
2. THE HUMAN DIVER: MIND, BODY & PERFORMANCE
Chiara Ferri • Kirk Krack • Sofia Sokolowski
The most complex component of any diving system is still the human being inside it.
Chiara Ferri explores psychology, stress, anxiety and risk perception underwater. Sofia Sokolowski takes us into diving physiology and the evolving science behind oxygen toxicity limits. Kirk Krack brings mind and body together through almost four decades of human-performance experience spanning technical diving, freediving, military programmes and underwater filmmaking.
Mind. Body. Performance.
Three perspectives on understanding what happens to us underwater — and how we can become safer and more capable divers.
3. LIGHTNING TALKS — FOUR MINUTES. MAKE THEM COUNT.
Diving Talks’ shortest presentations return in 2026.
The rules are simple: four minutes, and not a second more.
These rapid-fire presentations give speakers one opportunity to put an idea, experience or challenge in front of the international diving community — including perspectives on coaching better divers and creating opportunities for the future of diving.
No long introductions. No wasted time.
Just an idea and four minutes to make the audience remember it.
4. TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES DIVING POSSIBLE
Ab van Erkel • Jason Leggatt • Philipp & Rudolf Bannasch
Technology does not simply give divers more equipment. It changes what becomes possible underwater.
BAUER’s Ab van Erkel goes back to one of diving’s fundamentals: producing, purifying and verifying safe breathing air.
Shearwater Research CEO Jason Leggatt explores human-centred diving technology and why the diver — not the equipment — should be the interface.
And father and son Rudolf and Philipp Bannasch tell the remarkable story behind EvoLogics, from studying penguins and dolphin biosonar to developing innovative underwater communication and bionic technologies.
Three companies. Three technological perspectives. One underwater world increasingly shaped by innovation.
5. LESSONS FROM A LIFE UNDERWATER
Kaila Krack • Mandy-Rae Krack • Jill Heinerth
Sometimes the most important things we discover underwater are things we discover about ourselves.
At 15, Kaila Krack looks at growing up surrounded by the ocean and the confidence, resilience and possibilities it has given her.
Seven-time freediving world-record holder Mandy-Rae Krack shares what descending beyond 100 metres on a single breath taught her about fear, challenge and perceived limits.
Explorer Jill Heinerth takes that idea somewhere profoundly different, sharing how an explorer’s mindset helped her confront cancer, uncertainty and her return to diving.
Confidence. Challenge. Resilience.
Three stages of life. Three remarkable stories.
6. MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE
Daan Verhoeven • Jialing Cai • Faith Ortins
How do we bring people into underwater worlds they may never experience themselves?
Freediving photographer Daan Verhoeven explores how the restrictions of breath-hold photography shape the images he creates.
Award-winning photographer Jialing Cai takes us into the darkness to witness the extraordinary nightly migration of organisms rising from the deep ocean.
Polar expedition leader Faith Ortins asks what happens after exploration — and how extraordinary underwater experiences can engage and inspire the much wider world.
Experience. Reveal. Inspire.
7. DISCOVERY, HERITAGE & RESPONSIBILITY
Jim Hansson • Heather Knowles • Dubravka Vejnović
Finding a shipwreck can be the end of a search — or the beginning of a much bigger story.
Marine archaeologist Jim Hansson takes the audience to Äpplet, the recently discovered sister ship of the famous Vasa.
Explorer Heather Knowles tells the story of the collaborative discovery and identification of the SS Allentown, lost with all hands in 1888.
Then ethics expert and technical diver Dubravka Vejnović asks the question that follows discovery: what responsibilities come with our ability to explore?
Discovery, archaeology, citizen science, cultural heritage and ethics meet in one panel.
8. LIGHTNING TALKS — ANOTHER FOUR MINUTES TO CHANGE THE CONVERSATION
The Lightning Talks return on Sunday with another burst of ideas from within the diving community.
Among them, Ercan Tutal brings a powerful perspective on diving and disability through “Diving Is Freedom” — exploring an underwater environment where physical limitations experienced on land can take on an entirely different meaning.
Short presentations. Big subjects. No time to waste.
9. BUILDING THE DIVERS OF TOMORROW
Isabel Arango • Dorota Czerny • Simon Caruana
Who will be diving 10, 20 or 30 years from now?
At 17, Isabel Arango represents the new generation and asks how more young people can be inspired to discover diving.
GUE Executive Vice President Dorota Czerny challenges traditional approaches to training and certification, asking whether performing a skill once really demonstrates competence — and why mastery learning may be diving’s next frontier.
Simon Caruana takes the journey into professional development, presenting an industry-aligned approach to preparing competent, safe and employable dive leaders.
Attract. Educate. Professionalise.
The future of diving does not simply happen. We build it.
10. SCIENCE THAT PROTECTS THE OCEAN
Gonçalo Silva • Jorge Fontes • Paulo Oliveira
What happens when what divers discover underwater becomes evidence for protecting it?
Gonçalo Silva shows how scientific diving and the discovery of exceptional seahorse populations can lead to habitat restoration, community engagement and policy action.
Jorge Fontes combines freediving with innovative non-invasive biologging technology to reveal the hidden lives of sharks, mobula rays and other marine megafauna.
Paulo Oliveira takes the conversation to the scale of entire ecosystems, sharing Madeira’s decades-long experience with Marine Protected Areas, artificial reefs and marine conservation.
From individual species to entire marine environments:
Discover. Understand. Protect.
+1. THE DISCUSSION YOU SHOULD NOT MISS
ANATOMY OF AN ACCIDENT: HOW THE MALDIVES SEARCH AND RECOVERY OPERATION WAS CARRIED OUT
Chiara Ferri • Cristian Pellegrini • Laura Marroni • Sami Paakkarinen
Diving Talks 2026 will not finish with another presentation.
It will finish with a conversation.
The Maldives accident shocked the international diving community. Five divers lost their lives, and the search and recovery operation that followed claimed another life.
For the final panel of Diving Talks 2026, four people directly connected to the search and recovery operation will sit around the same table to examine its operational, medical, logistical, human and communication dimensions.
There will be no individual Talks.
Instead, the discussion will address the questions surrounding the operation: the information available, assessment and decision-making, international and local coordination, the challenges encountered, risk to the recovery team, medical and psychological considerations, crisis communication and media management, and the lessons that can be carried forward.
The diving community is also being invited to submit its own questions, with selected questions becoming part of the discussion in Lisbon.
It promises to be an unmissable final hour of Diving Talks 2026.
AND IT STARTS ON FRIDAY
Before the main Talks begin, Diving Talks opens on Friday, October 23, with Brands Day, the inauguration of the Underwater Photography Collection Exhibition and Ocean Tales — an evening of live storytelling open to the general public.
Images and the stories behind them, extraordinary adventures, science unfolding in real time through a live connection with an ocean expedition, encounters in the polar wilderness and, to close the evening, music inspired by the ocean.
Then, across Saturday and Sunday, the stage belongs to the Talks.
But Diving Talks has never been only about what happens on stage.
It is about the conversations between speakers and attendees, the encounters during coffee breaks and lunch, the equipment and technology in the exhibition, the questions that continue after a panel ends, and the collaborations that begin when people from different corners of the underwater world meet in the same place.
Diving Talks 2026 is now just one month away.
If Lisbon has been on the list, this is the moment to decide.
Buy the ticket.
Book the flight.
Join the international diving community in Lisbon.
DIVING TALKS 2026
23–25 October 2026
Cordoaria Nacional | Lisbon, Portugal
Full programme and tickets available at the Diving Talks website.
Three days. Extraordinary people. Different perspectives. One shared passion.
Let’s Talk About Diving.