Do not ever say you are a rescue diver

drrich2 · Nov 2, 2022

uncfnp:
I think the purpose of rescue diver has been lost in this monstrosity of a thread.

That's a key issue I suspect has 2 very different answers, and really a 3rd for those who think it's both 1 and 2.

Options for the purpose of Rescue Diver training/certification (in and of itself, not as a prerequisite to professional certifications, etc...):

1.) To better intervene (i.e.: 'rescue') other people in distress.
2.) To avoid becoming a diver in need of rescue, and/or better handling a crisis if it does occur.

I think almost everybody would agree 2.) is valid. The extent to which people feel beholden on 1.) will vary. In the scenario you described:

uncfnp:
You are on a dive boat. First dive of the day. Wall dive. You jump with your buddy.

You see a member of another buddy group, a man you met on the boat earlier in the trip. He’s in his 80’s. Now he is over the wall and still descending. He has his inflator hose up like he is trying to inflate but just keeps descending. Bottom is at about 1000 feet. The older diver’s buddy hasn’t reacted.

What do you do? He isn’t your buddy. You have ear issues. Your buddy wife is there with you. What do you do with that rescue card? Do you go to help?

I'd prefer to vigorously point at him and grunt loudly, hoping the guide or someone else more capable than I would intervene. Absent that, and given I'm hardly speedy, if I'm close I'd like to help, but I could create a major distraction if I rupture an ear drum, water floods into my inner ear and I get intense vertigo and get unstable in the water. At that point, others will focus on me and may be less likely to notice him.

So it's quite possible I might watch him sink out of sight and die. I hope things never come to that.

Richard.

P.S.: Even if the guy can't inflate his BCD for some reason, it's a wall dive...he ought to be able to fin over and grab something on the wall before he plummets to die. Sure, he might drop to 130 - 150 feet or so, but he ought to be able to grab something.

BlueTrin · Nov 2, 2022

uncfnp:
@Dody

You are on a dive boat. First dive of the day. Wall dive. You jump with your buddy.

You see a member of another buddy group, a man you met on the boat earlier in the trip. He’s in his 80’s. Now he is over the wall and still descending. He has his inflator hose up like he is trying to inflate but just keeps descending. Bottom is at about 1000 feet. The older diver’s buddy hasn’t reacted.

What do you do? He isn’t your buddy. You have ear issues. Your buddy wife is there with you. What do you do with that rescue card? Do you go to help?

I have ear issues then I won’t follow him, I’d probably not be in the water with a noticeable ear issue.

Without ear issues, I wouldn’t leave my buddy wife unless I am confident she will always make it back to the boat alone.

Ill try to flash the buddy with my torch but it is likely to be too late and too deep if he is already sinking.

Which real story is this?

uncfnp · Nov 2, 2022

It is hard for me to come up with a true rescue scenario that didn’t involve at least some risk.

It was a LOB trip and occurred after several days of diving so there was at least a loose relationship between the older diver and others on board. My husband and I went our own way after splashing so I didn’t see the event but heard about it after returning from the dive.

The older diver was hitting the deflate button rather than inflate. It is quite possible he would have continued his descent past his ability to recover. But he was luck another diver saw him, realized the error and that he needed help, had the skills and was willing to be that help.

Would I have done the same? I don’t know. I am not sure any of us do until it happens. I would like to think I would.

But one thing is clear to me, if I go on a boat proclaiming rescue diver then I damn well better have the skills and be willing to back it up. In over 10 years diving I have never once shown my rescue card nor proclaimed rescue diver, not because I don’t want to be held accountable but because I am not sure I have the skills (despite being a card carrier) nor the balls to back it up.

But that’s just me.

SlugLife · Nov 3, 2022

uncfnp:
Of course. It was meant to add to the discussion.

But I do hope Dody takes it seriously and thinks through his response before responding. I think the purpose of rescue diver has been lost in this monstrosity of a thread.

There's a massive difference between:

(a) a person who has taken a rescue-diver course, and
(b) someone who intends to become a rescue diver, or expects that to be part of their role (i.e. as an instructor, guide, or emergency-worker)

The dive-industry (agencies selling classes) are fairly bad about throwing around misleading labels like "Dive Master" or "Rescue Diver."

I think a lot of people would try to help within reason, regardless of whether they've taken the course or consider themselves to be part of "category (b)." That's a big reason why the course is frequently highly recommended, and a natural progression after OW and AOW. A lot of people might even push themselves through pain or mild injury to do so, but back off it it becomes too severe. However, as is apparently taught in most rescue courses, and even in beginner OW courses, you should never endanger yourself to rescue another diver.

The other thing to think about is in the moment, you absolutely will not have the time to "seriously think through your response" to a situation. In the original story, Dody did "jump into action" but in hindsight is questioning the wisdom of that. Training, practice, hindsight, accident-analysis, and more tend to help one make better judgement calls in the moment with limited information.

BoundForElsewhere · Nov 3, 2022

Truly, a rescue diver, in my humble opinion, is solely one of those crazy Coast Guard or otherwise military individuals who are prepared to jump out of a helicopter into the water. Those of us with the little piece of plastic calling us a rescue diver are simply trained with what everyone who straps on a tank should be capable of.

I would never call myself a rescue diver. I'll do my best to help you out and get you to safety but that just makes me a decent human.

Even calling oneself a Divemaster comes more with a frame of mind than a certification. I've always been keen to keep a watchful eye on other divers in the group and help out with small corrections both on the boat and in the water. Going through the class and getting the certification simply taught me how to do it more professionally. That and leading snorkel tours behind people in thongs doing the frog kick. For the love of god, if you're wearing a thong or banana hammock DO NOT use the frog kick in front of anyone.

VikingDives · Nov 3, 2022

uncfnp:
@Dody

You are on a dive boat. First dive of the day. Wall dive. You jump with your buddy.

You see a member of another buddy group, a man you met on the boat earlier in the trip. He’s in his 80’s. Now he is over the wall and still descending. He has his inflator hose up like he is trying to inflate but just keeps descending. Bottom is at about 1000 feet. The older diver’s buddy hasn’t reacted.

What do you do? He isn’t your buddy. You have ear issues. Your buddy wife is there with you. What do you do with that rescue card? Do you go to help?

TL;DR: Been there, done that. Don't be a victim yourself. You can only do what you can do.

I had a similar situation when I was a DM candidate. It was an altitude dive, so the max depth was about 110 feet. I was with an instructor and two (AOW) students who were doing a deep dive course. The max depth of the lake is something like 280 feet. It was dive 2 of the day.

Dive 1 had gone ok, but one of the students developed pretty bad narcosis (she swam in circles for several minutes - rather amusing to watch - trying to get a compass heading).

The dive plan was something like descend to 100', and do PADI's required skills for that dive. I didn't have anything to do for the dive, except to hang out and watch. My personal plan was to go to about 80' and just watch because I was in AFIB, and that caused my air consumption to go to hell. I'd guess that my RMV was about a 1 to a 1.2, which is double my normal.

Fun fact: Unbeknownst to any of us at the time, the instructor was still drunk/high from the night before.

We descended to our planned depths, and by the time the exercise began, I was already planning my ascent because I was getting low on air (maybe 1500 psi?).

I noticed that the instructor and the students were descending at about this time, and I decided I had enough air to drop down and signal the instructor about the problem before heading for the surface.

I started to chase them, they continued their descent. I reached 136' and they were still as far away from me as when I started my descent. Watching my air, I decided that I had less than 1 minute to spend at this depth, and it was obvious that I wasn't going to reach them without putting myself into a life-threatening situation, so I stopped and just stared at the instructor, hoping he'd glance my way.

The whole time I was thinking, "I may be watching the three of them die right here, and there's nothing I can do."

Fortunately, the instructor finally looked at me and I signaled the problem to him. He made an "oh ****" face and started the group up. I made a b-line for the surface and ended the dive with almost no gas.

My lessons learned:
1. Carry something to make noise with underwater.
2. Watching people potentially sink to their death isn't fun (obvious, but it informs how I teach today).
3. An IPA after a day like the above can get you out of AFIB (Ok, probably not, but it worked that night!).

Blackcrusader · Nov 3, 2022

scubadada:
Now, that's a tip

Was a fun late afternoon evening with the staff at the dive shop. There were around another 15 divers but the owner of the dive shop said sorry, private party with a customer and the staff only.

Star Aniseed with lemon grass and bay leaves and yum yum stuffing in our pig. It was mouth watering. What was not finished was divided up and taken home.