Bob Halstead

Background

Halstead was born and raised in London, England. As a young boy he grew to love water sports, especially swimming and canoeing. By chance his chosen career in science and teaching placed him where that passion for water sports could fully blossom into a lifetime pursuit. By getting a post teaching in the Bahamas, Halstead was introduced to scuba diving.

Progressing through a range of certifications with NAUI, he became a diving instructor there. Fortune again led him to a job in what is acknowledged as one of the greatest dive locations in the world - Papua New Guinea (PNG). There he continued his diving avocation as a diving instructor. He met his future wife Dinah (also a teacher), as his student on a diving course he was teaching. They were married in 1976. Dinah went on to become the first New Guinean to become a full dive instructor and a noted underwater photographer in her own right. The couple left the teaching profession together to make a full-time career in scuba diving.

Education

Bob Halstead has a scientific background, having studied both Physics and Mathematics at university level. He earned his degree in Physics from the King's College London, and then went on to take a post-graduate degree in Education at Bristol University. He continued his academic path by taking the position of Head of the Physics Department at Queens College, Nassau in 1968. It was in the Bahamas that Halstead fell in love with the undersea world. By 1970 he had advanced his diving qualifications to the level of Instructor with NAUI. In 1973 he moved on to take an educational post with the Australian Government, taking a post as Head of the Science Department at the Sogen National High School Papua New Guinea (PNG) .

Teaching - Science and Scuba

Halstead's career made a steady transition from full-time Science Teacher and Educator and part-time scuba instructor, to one of a totally dedicated dive journalist, author, and underwater photographer after his original career of Science Educator took him to Papua New Guinea in the early 1970s. Halstead had arrived in a divers paradise, but at this time hardly anything was known of the dive sites of the region, and certainly no real diving infrastructure existed to allow other divers to enjoy what the region had to offer. Halstead set out to change all this.

Pioneer in the Dive Travel Industry

With his wife he began a major program to explore and categorise the many uncharted and untouched dive sites of the region, all the time with camera in hand to capture images of these stunning locations. In 1977 Halstead harnessed this knowledge as he established the very first diving and training center for the area in Port Moresby. Halstead and his wife also purchased and fitted out the regions first dive boat - the Solatai. The Halsteads were at the forefront of defining the formula for what would become organized dive tourism - the diver service industry that opens up access to a world of diving locations for the population of scuba divers today. Halstead's approach was a "diving camp" and "Diver adventure safaris" through his company Tropical Diving Adventures.

As dive tourism developed into the first "live-aboard" operations in the Aggressor Fleet (1984) and in Mike Ball Expeditions (1981), Halstead went on to commission and build the first live-aboard vessel for PNG - the dive cruiser Telita. He then sold his business interests ashore to concentrate in this expanding new live-aboard business area and spent the next ten years helping to make New Guinea one of the world premier dive locations. Bob and his wife actually made the Telita their home in this period.

Photography and marine research

Bob Halstead has won a number of gold medals for his photography, both above and below the surface of the sea. His published photographs are some of the most striking images of the underwater world. Through his interest in both underwater photography and marine life Halstead began a lifetime focus on the study and photography of marine creatures that resided in the sediment on the ocean floor - and he defined and propagated the practise of what he himself named "muck diving", which has become a significant sub-practise in the general field of underwater photography.

Halstead was involved in a number of scientific expeditions in PNG, including ones carried out for the Cousteau Society and National Geographic. In the explorations carried out in the general area of marine biology he identified several new and unknown species of marine life, which later were named after him: Trichonotus halstead and Xyrichtys halsteadi. In 1996 Halstead sold his business interests in PNG and focussed more on his marine exploration and photography pursuits and to take up residence in Cairns Australia.

Publishing

Halstead is one of the dive industries most prolific journalists. He has published hundreds of articles in numerous dive magazines and is a steady contributor to Undercurrent, one of the dive industries most noted and fiercely independent scuba journals. His writing style is highly readable and good humoured, but still, he also never shies away from controversial subjects.

Halstead is particularly noted for his very well thought out and insightful views on diving practices, particularly as they relate to diving risk and diver safety. His contributions in these areas has done much to change the face of present-day diving practise, particularly with respect to altering attitudes about questionable buddy diving practises, and in the destigmatizing the practise of solo diving. He was an early proponent and spokesperson on the subject of diver self-sufficiency, a concept that has moved into mainstream thinking in scuba diving practise.

Diving instructor

Awards

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Books

Article Publications