# days required for PADI Rescue diver course ?

[HatchetJoe]

My son is interested in doing the PADI Rescue diver course. Our LDS told him 2 hour classe on speciific night over a six week period, He would rather do it over a couple of days down the Carribean on our next trip. He already has all the prerequisites. Has onyone done it that way and if so how many days does it take? Thanks

 

[willgr1]

i'm starting a rescue course tonight, it's two night of class session, 3.5 hours each, pool session on saturday, and open water session on sunday. 4 days total, and i think 20 total scheduled hours.

 

[Trixxie]

I did mine over 3 days

sat/sun 1/2 day classroom then 1/2 day pool each day. (8am -5 pm with a break for lunch)

then maybe 6 hrs at the open water site the next saturday

 

[scubajcf]

PADI's recommended hours is 25 for this course. This includes self study.

I've taught this class dozens of times. My first piece of advice is do not rush this course. There is a lot of information presented and you get as much out of this class as you put into it. This is the first course designed to have you thinking outwardly as a diver (versus introverted). A good instructor will do a lot more than just have you running through skills. He will awaken the dive leader inside of you. When I say Dive Leader, I do not mean professional. I mean someone who is willing to be the senior person in a dive team or buddy team. And, someone who is willing to accept the responsibility for being that senior person.

Unfortunately, most people taking this course do so as a prerequisite for Divemaster. That is a sign of the time as agencies and dive shops make more money when people "go pro". Rescue is not a stepping stone. It is a beginning to dive self sufficiency and leadership. A great follow-up to this course is the SDI Solo Diver Course.

As for the PADI Rescue Course

To complete the five knowledge reviews in the book, you can assume it will take about 1 to 2 hours per section. I have taught the class in one night, but it is much better taught over two nights. There is a minimum of four hours of class and then 1 hour for the final exam. I like to do two evenings. Approximately three hours per evening.

There are ten skills that need to be done and four scenarios. I like to do the ten skills in the pool. This takes about four (4) hours. Additionally, I repeat the ten skills in the open water. After going through the skills we do the four scenarios. Depending on how many staff members and how many customers this could take a minimum of five hours and take as long as 12 hours. I like a 1 to 1 staff to rescue candidate ratio and a class size of no more than 6 students. With this ratio, it takes me about seven hours to do the open water portion. Unless it is REALLY cold, I do it all in one day.

I would not recommend doing it on vacation. Do it with an instructor you know and trust to teach you competently. The skills you learn here should enable you to save someone's life.


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[iridiumjd]

I would really like to echo what scubajcf said. Although I am not an instructor I just finished my rescue diver course. I have to say that the studying level was much more thorough and required much more knowledge and review than what I remembered eh OW and AOW courses being. We did the class over three weeks for classroom and pool session. We finished up with all open water scenarios in one day. I also spent about 1.5 hours a week studying the materials and trying to learn the stuff. Honestly I felt overwhelmed at times and was very grateful to be taking the class with two other people. However, my instructor was awesome and we spent time in the pool and really worked the skills. The open water scenarios were tough and I would not do them on a vacation. Do them closer to home so you can really concentrate on what you are doing. I feel much more confident as a diver after this and in fact went on one of the few true buddy dives that I have done. The water was cold and visibility was 10 ft. but the fact that she also had rescue diver and that I had just finished made for a wonderful dive. I also know that this course needs to be practiced to maintain these necessary skills. I also know that I can, for a fact, function without a mask after it was ripped off my face during a practice dealing with a panicked diver.

This is a wonderful course but also challenging. Please don't rush through it, you will lose out in the end.

 

[vondo]

I did mine in a week or so of self study, a day of lecture and skills at the quarry, and then a day of the exam and running through the scenarios. And some more on the skills. So I did it in a compressed time, compared to some others. There is also another day for EFR self study and classroom and skills. And the end of the rescue days, I was exhausted.

But, I would echo the suggestion to not do this on vacation. Rescue is rewarding and challenging, but it's a different kind of fun than diving. When you're on vacation you don't want to be screwing around at the surface of the ocean for two days and not doing any diving, which is what Rescue is, mostly.

My opinion only, of course.

 

[Alex777]

In the Caribbean (Grand Cayman), I did it in 1 1/2 days. This was private instruction (no other students) and I had done all the academic work in advance. Hope this helps.

 

[Trimix2dive]

Its been a while but if I remember the classes we did it was Monday 3hr class, Tuesday 3hr class, Wednesday night pool, Sat. 2 rescues, Sunday 2 rescues. About 20ish hours of total instruction. Never had a class drawn out as long as what you suggested above. Find a new dive shop???

I qualify that I have not done a rescue class as a student or participant in well over a decade.

 

[agilulfo]

My wife and I took Rescue in Bonaire this past winter. We did EFR and self study prior to our arrival in order to skip the theory classes. We could have done the course in two full days but we ended up doing it over 4 half days (not counting the test which we took the day prior to starting the course). I am glad we did it this way as it was the most challenging course we've taken so far.

From my research prior to taking the course, I found that different operators will give you different choices. Some won't allow you to skip the theory classes; some will but won't give you a discount for doing so; some will and will give you a break for doing so. The bottom line being, contact as many operators as you can so that you have the most options.

 

[Rhone Man]

My LDS in the Caribbean assure me that they can knock it out in 2 days. It took me 6 weeks when I did mine back in 1988.