Steve Barsky started diving in 1965 and became a scuba instructor in 1970. He attended the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he earned a Masters Degree in 1976 in Human Factors Engineering. He is also a graduate of the Marine Diving Technician Program at Santa Barbara City College.
His background includes being a commercial diver, working in the offshore oil industry. He worked as both an air diving supervisor and a mixed gas saturation diver, making working dives down to 580’.
Steve is an accomplished underwater photographer and videographer. His photos have been used in numerous magazine articles, catalogs, advertising, training programs, and textbooks.
A prolific writer, Barsky’s work has been published in H2Ops, Sea Technology, Offshore Magazine, Emergency, Dive Training Magazine, Undersea Biomedical Reports, Underwater Magazine, and many other publications. He is the author or lead author of 18 different diving texts. He has written textbooks for four different diving training agencies.
He has been a speaker at numerous conferences, and has lectured to the Canadian Navy, the French Navy, the Dutch Navy, Dutch Custom's Agents, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and numerous law enforcement dive teams in the U.S. and Canada.
As an expert witness, Steve has testified in cases involving both sport and commercial diving accidents. He has re-created accidents and directed the testing of diving equipment. Steve has testified in state courts as well as federal admiralty court. He has investigated or served as an expert in more than 100 cases involving decompression sickness, physical injury, and fatalities.
Background
Q: Please list your professional accreditations, degrees, licenses, and certificates granted:A: University of California, Bachelor of Arts 1974
University of California, Master of Arts, 1976
Marine Diving Technician, Santa Barbara City College, 1976
Q: Please list your affiliations or memberships in any professional and/or industry organizations:
A: Member, Diving Equipment and Marketing Association
Member, Scuba Diving International
Member, American Society of Media Professionals
Q: Please list any teaching or speaking experience you have had, including subject matter:
A: Presenter of 4-6 seminars annually for public safety divers on techniques for diving in contaminated water. Have presented lectures in Seattle, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, North Carolina, California, Marseilles (France), Utrecht (Holland), Victoria (Canada), and numerous other locations.
Conference Speaker Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society - Improving Safety for Divers Working in Port Security. Atami, Japan 2004
Conference Speaker - Investigating Recreational and Commercial Diving Accidents. Joint Scientific and Hyperbaric Medicine Conference. Tokyo, Japan. 2004
Conference Speaker - Diving in the High-Risk Environment. International Police Diving Symposium. Ontario, Canada. 2003
Conference Speaker - Finding a Career in Diving. International Conference on Underwater Education. San Diego, CA. 1994
Conference Speaker - Intelligibility Tests of the SuperLite-17 Diving Helmet. Joint International Scientific Diving Symposium. La Jolla, CA 1985
Conference Speaker - Gas Heating for Life Support to 350 Meters of Sea Water. International Diving Symposium. New Orleans, LA. 1984
Q: Have any of your accreditations ever been investigated, suspended or removed? (if yes, explain)
A: No
Q: On how many occasions have you been retained as an expert?
A: 10
Q: For what area(s) of expertise have you been retained as an expert?
A: Scuba diving training, scuba diving guided tours, scuba equipment malfunction, diving equipment donning procedures.
Commercial diving accidents, commercial diving equipment modification and resulting accidents, OSHA diving violations.
Q: In what percentage of your cases were you retained by the plaintiff?
A: 20
Q: In what percentage of your cases were you retained by the defendant?
A: 80
Q: On how many occasions have you had your deposition taken?
A: 5
Q: When was the last time you had your deposition taken?
A: June 2008
Q: On how many occasions have you been qualified by a court to give expert testimony?
A: 3
Q: On how many occasions have you testified as an expert in court or before an arbitrator?
A: 3
Q: For how many years have you worked with the legal industry as an expert?
A: 20
Q: What services do you offer? (E.g.: consulting, testing, reports, site inspections etc.)
A: Consulting, testing, report writing, site inspections, underwater and topside photography, underwater and topside video.
Q: Please list any fees other than those stated above (E.g.: travel expenses, copy fees, etc.)
A: Underwater photo equipment - $350.00 per day
Underwater video equipment - $450.00 per day
