csvfdscuba35
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My fire dept. dive team is taking a class offered by Dive Rescue Int'l. Any pro's or con's about these guys? Don't know much more than what is in their brochure about them. Any comments?
Dive Rescue Int'l
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Good class...
Teamwork rules...
Excellent methodology...
Great Scene management...
Slide show at the end of the class...
I Think it must be a good thing. In Indiana many dive teams get by with very little training and for that matter very little diving. I have dove with a number of dive team members mostly doing classes like Ice, Search and recovery and advanced. Some of these divers are only OW when they get on the team with very few dives. I have not met even one who had the skills, training or experience to do the job they have. Unfortunately I know of several dive team divers being injured that shouldn't have happened and border on criminal. In some cases medals are even issued. I have students who do more dives in a month in more challanging conditions than the dive team divers around here do in a year..or two. To do this work you need training and you need to dive..dive...dive. Sorry to ramble this is one of the things that really bug me.
It's not just Indiana Mike...
Even with DRI training unless the department is willing to set aside the time and resources to train it is a futile pursuit...
Unfortunately (or furtunately depending upon your POV) most FDs are more interested in training to put the wet stuff on the red stuff than put the FF in the wet stuff... so that is where the resources are directed...
I had a visit once from the pres., vice pres., and treasurer of a Dive Rescue team (the big shots)... two were law enforcement and one was an instructor...
I took them for a couple of dives over here...
First dive one of the LEOs got cold feet and decided he didn't want to do the dive (totally benign site) which while odd was fine with me. The other two did the dive but one obviously had issues that should have been taken care of in OW class.
Second dive was at an even more benign site... let them chase crabs in 20 fsw over an eel grass bottom with no current. Both LEOs buddied up and dove this time... and had fun... whew... the other fella (a really nice guy) buddied with me and we putzed along chasing crabs... until he gave me the LOA and we surfaced. Well he was tuckered out and couldn't make the swim back so I had to tow him.
We had a little chit-chat about the seriousness and liability involved in S&R diving.
