Dan & Betty Orr – Champions of Diving Safety
In this interview we hear stories from a very well-know husband and wife team in the diving industry Dan and Betty Orr. These diving legends have focused on diving safety unlike anyone else in the industry. Dan Orr recently retired as President of Divers Alert Network (DAN), where he led DAN on its worldwide diving safety mission. Prior to coming to DAN, he worked in a dive retail store, and at two university diving programs. He’s served on the Boards of many diving organizations including the Historical Diving Society, Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA), Our World Underwater Scholarship Society and many others.
Dan has published and co-authored over 100 articles and a dozen books and manuals including: Scuba Diving Safety, Pocket Guide to First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries; Pocket Guide for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries; and the DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries Training Manual. He has won many prestigious diving awards including the NOGI Award in Sports/Education, the Leonard Greenstone Award for Diving Safety, the Our World-Underwater Award, Beneath the Sea’s Diver of the Year, the Wyland Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement and the 2012 DEMA Reaching Out Award.
But Dan didn’t accomplish all this on his own. Standing by his side the whole time is his wife Betty. Betty Orr spent 23 years of service at Divers Alert Network. Prior to coming to DAN, she worked with the Florida Department of Regulation as an agent and at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio as an Associate Professor of Biology. Betty has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biology and has authored and contributed to many books and magazine articles in scuba diving, biology and general interest. She is an inaugural year member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
The two of them now comprise Dan Orr Consulting where they provide a variety of services to the diving community.
Items in this Podcast
- Movies Underwater and The Deep
- Early NAUI training and YMCA Scuba instruction
- Wright State University Dive Program and Florida State University Academic Diving Program
- Dan & Betty meet when he was her scuba instructor!
- Divers Alert Network
- Best Publishing
- Duke University Accident Hotline (Diving Accident Network) turns into Divers Alert Network
- Favorite dive sites: The Arabia, Ontario & Wreck of the Balboa, Grand Cayman
- Intimate experience with a moray eel
- Tether goes away in a quarry penetration dive
- The exploding lobster
- 2000 psi in 13 minutes
- Aging and diving
- Advice for divers
Resources
Get 20% off Dan’s book Scuba Diving Safety from Best Publishing. Type in the promo code scubaguru on the checkout screen to get 20% off.
The Ageless Diver article from Dive Center Business
DUI Arctic Cruise with Dan & Betty Orr
Other books written by Dan Orr:
Contact Dan & Betty at DanOrrConsulting.com
Sponsor
Special thanks to our episode sponsor Aggressor Fleet
Thanks for Listening!
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