Andrea Zaferes – Butch Hendrick

With 28 years teaching thousands of diver/water rescue/recovery personnel worldwide, Andrea Zaferes is VP of Lifeguard Systems, noted author, a medicolegal death investigator for Dutchess County Medical Examiner’s Office, a NAUI/ACUC Course Director, PADI Master Instructor, water rescue editor for Fire Engineering Magazine, and an internationally recognized public speaker presenting in more than 40 forensic and 100 rescue/dive conferences. Andrea is the Aquatic Death Investigation Instructor for the New York State DCJS. She has received such awards as the DAN-Rolex Diver of the Year, was a Women Diver Hall of Fame charter inductee, and was the first woman to receive the Beneath the Sea Diver of the Year Award. Andrea with Walt “Butch” Hendrick, co-founded nonprofit RIPTIDE to assist law enforcement with homicidal drowning and aquatic-death investigations, developed ground-breaking programs such as Diver Oxygen Administration and the Field Neurological Evaluation in 1988, authored Public Safety Diving and Ice Diving Operations, teach more than 20 public safety and recreational programs, and provide probono aquatic assistance for the National Center for Missing Children. She began as a scientific diver with the American Museum of Natural History and Univ. of Michigan, was a NYS EMT for 18 years, and has been seen on such programs as 48-hours, the Dr. Phil show, and the Discovery Channel. Andrea is one of the leading trainers in the aquatic rescue, recovery, and investigation communities today.

Butch Hendrick

Butch Hendrick has trained thousands of divers and water rescuers for over 50 years in over 15 countries, and is a major innovator, equipment designer, standard-setter, and contributor to the dive and water rescue/recovery communities. Butch began his dive career in the 1960’s in his family’s watersport resort in Puerto Rico, where he started the main San Juan offshore rescue team and where his family installed and ran the only civilian hyperbaric chamber in the Caribbean. Creator of the rescue throw rope bag, the diver do-si-do and in-water ventilation procedures, thin ice dive SAR, and much much more. Butch received the first DAN Rolex Diver of the Year Award for contributions to diving safety, and received the International Leonard Greenstone Award, the Boston Sea Rover Silver Bowl, the Beneath the Sea Diver of the Year, several NAUI outstanding contributions to diving awards, and more. He has hundreds of published articles, plus several videos and books, including Public Safety Diving, Ice Diving Operations, Homicidal Drowning Investigation, and Surface Ice Rescue. With RIPTIDE performs Aquatic Death Investigations, and volunteers as a consultant for National Center for Missing and Exploited children.