Difficulty level of emergency rescue diver?

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Yes, Rescue is worth it. I believe all divers should take it as they become better buddies in the process!

It's a very rewarding course to take. You need to be able to work through various rescue skills and the two final scenarios, which gets the adrenaline really pumping. Hence I'd say it's more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge. But it will feel like you've accomplished a lot at the end.

There will mainly be surface skills, like towing a diver, throwing a rope, entering the water to rescue someone, approaching a panicked diver properly. A few things you'll do underwater are self-rescue (cramp release) and a shared air ascent with a buddy.

The actual rescues involve things like finding a diver underwater, bringing them to the surface, removing their gear and giving them simulated rescue breaths, dragging them out of the water, and administering further aid such as O2. You will learn all of the necessary skills in the course.

It's not really a diving skills improvement course, so buoyancy control is mainly helpful for the search portion of the rescue skills and scenario, where you may do a circular or square search pattern underwater, but it sounds like once you find neutral buoyancy, you're fine. I don't see that being an issue. Surfacing an unresponsive diver from the bottom doesn't require neutral buoyancy, just the ability to add and remove air from their BCD to control your joint ascent.

There is no requirement for logged dives, just having the Adventure Diver (PADI). But you have the AOW, so you can do it any time. I believe I did mine after about 35 dives.

Now, maybe the bigger question is what/where you feel you'd like to improve. Rescue won't do much for dive skills whereas practice, good examples, or a good PPB instructor will. Rescue will create more awareness of your surroundings and buddies, making you a safer diver, and boost overall confidence in dealing with inwater emergencies and the general first aid (EFR) is helpful anywhere.
 
Like the others have said - its too early and you are overthinking where you want to get to. Switch into "experience-it" mode from "wanna-do-it" mode and and just ensure you plan multiple dive vacations over the next few years - don't do a vacation that does not involve diving. Get to a 75-100 dives before you start planning your next skills upgrade.
 
Agree except for Rescue course. Waiting for 75-100 dives means an awful lot of divers out there who can't rescue you if you really need rescuing. One should be very comfortable with the basics of diving way before that many dives.
 
Like the others have said - its too early and you are overthinking where you want to get to. Switch into "experience-it" mode from "wanna-do-it" mode...

Waiting for 75-100 dives means an awful lot of divers out there who can't rescue you if you really need rescuing.

It finding the sweet spot between being a training diver, only diving under instruction and with dive professionals, and having a an inordinate amount of dives, like a hundred. I'm a believer that a new diver should do two or three times as many dives with a buddy than in training to use and develop what was learned in the class. Experience can be a teacher as well. The necessary dives would be the training dives 9 for OW and AOW and buddy dives for a total of 27 to 36, or more.

In an actual rescue, one has to know ones limits because it won't be a training exercise with an instructor to keep you safe. One needs to know when to quit, or one fatality can become two.

I would like to see every diver to take Rescue, but the diver needs to have their basic skills down so they can be effective and safe in the situation.
 
I would like to see every diver to take Rescue, but the diver needs to have their basic skills down so they can be effective and safe in the situation.
^^THIS^^
 
I think both of you guys and I agree. I suppose we could try to define exactly what "having your basic skills down" is, but I think we all have a pretty good idea what that means. Kind of like the old discussion on exactly what "mastering" the (24) basic pool skills means.
I think if that takes any longer then 27-36 dives something is seriously amiss.
The figure of 27 may be right on, as I think I mentioned I had an equipment problem donning for a rescue, and had only 26 dives....
 
From all the experts of scuba diving here, I wanted to ask the following things -
  1. Any minimum number of logged dives you would recommend before taking this course? I currently have 14.

  2. How tough is the rescue diver course really? Will I be able to do it considering I almost thought of giving up in my OW course?
I apologize in advance for the long question but any course requires serious money and time. So looking for help and advice from the people who have wandered this road before.

Personally you should not even consider the Rescue course atm. I would recommend you have a couple hundred dives in various conditions from easy going dives to dives where you really struggle in currents or low vis or night dives. A rescue course is meant to be physically taxing because how can you deal with a panicked diver in real life who is maybe going to drown you if you cannot control the situation.

Peak buoyancy can be achieved by doing more dives with experienced divers who will help you with skills. I often help OW divers with buoyancy skills if they are paired with me for a dive. It helps them relax and then they have better air consumption and longer dive times. You will certainly need to be in command of your buoyancy to bring an unresponsive diver to the surface. You don't want to lose control of them and have them pop like a balloon.

The time it takes to complete a course to fully understand the course is not set it time. If you need more time take it. Gaining more experience with lots of diving is my advice before you go onto things like rescue. Having experience then doing rescue is the better option than perhaps taking a course you are really not ready for.
 
For some it's best to do a few courses as soon as practicable where one of them gives you that nudge and everything falls into place
 
For some it's best to do a few courses as soon as practicable where one of them gives you that nudge and everything falls into place

Lets see a AOW with a total of 14 dives, then does rescue asap. OK sure can be done will it make everything fall into place then the diver still write he doesn't even have buoyancy control?

Just my humble opinion but this diver needs to become far more proficient in diving before doing rescue.
 
Personally you should not even consider the Rescue course atm. I would recommend you have a couple hundred dives in various conditions from easy going dives to dives where you really struggle in currents or low vis or night dives. A rescue course is meant to be physically taxing because how can you deal with a panicked diver in real life who is maybe going to drown you if you cannot control the situation.

Peak buoyancy can be achieved by doing more dives with experienced divers who will help you with skills. I often help OW divers with buoyancy skills if they are paired with me for a dive. It helps them relax and then they have better air consumption and longer dive times. You will certainly need to be in command of your buoyancy to bring an unresponsive diver to the surface. You don't want to lose control of them and have them pop like a balloon.

The time it takes to complete a course to fully understand the course is not set it time. If you need more time take it. Gaining more experience with lots of diving is my advice before you go onto things like rescue. Having experience then doing rescue is the better option than perhaps taking a course you are really not ready for.
Disagree. For one thing, a diver may never dive in places that have strong currents, low viz, or dive at night. I'm Night certified and have done one of my 800+ dives at night other than the course.
You can learn the rescue skills, and probably will, in a pool and at a benign shore site. Then you can gradually get experience in those more challenging situations. But, you have the knowledge, and have performed the skills to an acceptable level in the course. You and your buddy dive in benign conditions, and you are now prepared to rescue if need be. If you are in challenging conditions, at least you have the mechanics of the skills and may be of help. No skills, the buddy may be in trouble.
You're probably even better off just reading the rescue manual (if they still have manuals) than nothing at all. After I did Rescue I showed/explained a couple of things to my OW dive buddy--I wanted him to at least have some knowledge of what to do should I have a heart attack or for some reason black out. I do agree that if your buoyancy sucks you need more dives to fix it. Same for other basic stuff.
A couple of hundred dives IMHO is way overboard. In various conditions depends-- are you gunna dive in those conditions? Perhaps you would advise everyone who lives in Florida or the tropics to get in some serious cold water diving or else never take Rescue? We will agree to disagree.
 
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