Go Diving Show 2025 Inspiration Stage Speaker: James Neal
Technical diver, instructor and underwater photographer James Neal will be giving a must-see presentation at the GO Diving Show in March on the Inspiration Stage, detailing – warts and all – his battle to get back to dive fitness after surviving a grade four bleed on the brain in the form of a subarachnoid haemorrhage.
An experienced recreational and technical diver and instructor, James is a brand ambassador for Atomic Aquatics, BARE, Hollis, Oceanic, Stahlsac and Zeagle, and an accomplished underwater photographer and feature writer, as well as being a passionate wreck and cave diver.
He is well known in the diving fraternity for having survived a serious subarachnoid haemorrhage, and for fighting his way back to dive fitness when many said he would never dive again. He has stood up against stigmatism, ignorance and discrimination in the dive industry against the disabled for over ten years and has now completed over 1,200 dives post-haemorrhage, some 1,650-plus in total to date (and counting), to depths in excess of 80m, and he enjoys travelling the globe in search of his next diving adventure.
His presentation will cover his entire journey, from his initial recovery, medical sign off, anxieties, challenges (physical and mental), stigmatism and discrimination, starting from recreational all the way through to technical and cave diving.
Go Diving Show 2025 takes place at the NAEC Stoneleigh Park, Coventry, on the 1st -2nd March.
