So this weekend I am following up on a New Year's Resolution and trying to complete my PADI DM refresher. The only bit I have left to do is the simulated diver rescue.
So I tell the instructor (who I know well) that it is a long time since I did the original course, and can she just talk me through it before we do the assessment. No problem she says, and takes me through the procedures. All sounds good until we talk about the bit about taking the unconscious diver's gear off as we swim back betwen rescue breaths. Once I have taken her gear off, one clip at a time between breaths, I am then supposed to start "undoing my own clips". Problem: I now dive with Hogarthian style BP/W, and there are no clips - just one solid piece of webbing going all the way around. And after a few dunkings of the instructor, I am pretty sure there is no way to shrug it off whilst supporting an unconscious diver's head between breaths (even in shallow water and cheating by taking the crotch strap off in advance).
After consulting the great PADI book of words, it was decided that it was OK for me to complete the exercise without removing my own gear (providing I did not try to carry her out of the water using a fireman's carry - thereby smacking her head off my tank), but it got me to thinking - this can't be the first time someone has bumped into this problem - either in the DM exam, or even in a real emergency - what do others do?
Presumably if the unconscious diver is wearing a Hogarthian rig, you would just cut it away. Does the same apply to the rescuer?
Any thoughts, views or wisdom on this subject?
So I tell the instructor (who I know well) that it is a long time since I did the original course, and can she just talk me through it before we do the assessment. No problem she says, and takes me through the procedures. All sounds good until we talk about the bit about taking the unconscious diver's gear off as we swim back betwen rescue breaths. Once I have taken her gear off, one clip at a time between breaths, I am then supposed to start "undoing my own clips". Problem: I now dive with Hogarthian style BP/W, and there are no clips - just one solid piece of webbing going all the way around. And after a few dunkings of the instructor, I am pretty sure there is no way to shrug it off whilst supporting an unconscious diver's head between breaths (even in shallow water and cheating by taking the crotch strap off in advance).
After consulting the great PADI book of words, it was decided that it was OK for me to complete the exercise without removing my own gear (providing I did not try to carry her out of the water using a fireman's carry - thereby smacking her head off my tank), but it got me to thinking - this can't be the first time someone has bumped into this problem - either in the DM exam, or even in a real emergency - what do others do?
Presumably if the unconscious diver is wearing a Hogarthian rig, you would just cut it away. Does the same apply to the rescuer?
Any thoughts, views or wisdom on this subject?