Do not ever say you are a rescue diver

[MacDuyver]

There has been a lot of threads about how a diver should introduce herself or himself to a new DS. I have a DM C- Card but I never claim I am a DM as I have never worked as such. I always say I am a Rescue Diver. 90% of the time, I dive with my wife as a buddy. I jump first, tell her I am ok and watch her jumping. I am more experienced than her and I want to be there if she has a problem (overweighted, valve problem,…).
Last week, diving in the Philippines, the DS decided that we would be three in a group. Two groups of 2 including the guide or DM and our group at the back. To make a long story short, the third « buddy » jumped without inflating his BCD and was probably overweighted. He immediately sunk. He was AOW, and should have been able to correct that rapidly but he was not. I saw it, went down in a rush but I could not equalize fast enough so had to slow down.
Eventually, the diver managed to to inflate his BCD and get back to the surface. A bit too fast though so we aborted the dive. Then, one Dive Director blamed me for not helping him and said I thought you were a rescue diver. I think he will never say that again after the sh*** I gave him but the point is:
1- If it was my wife, I would have risked rupturing my inner ear. I won’t do it for an insta-buddy.
2- I was a customer and not a guardian. Of course, you care for your buddy (even in a 3 guys team) but there are limits.
3- I should never have said that I am a rescue diver. Those folks believe that I would help them protecting their customers. From now on, I am just AOW with a 40 meters clearance.

Hey man. Sounds like you had a **** dive buddy. That said, nobody made you go to Rescue Diver School. Don’t raise your hand to do something like RD if you aren’t ready to do RD ****.

 

[admikar]

One good thing club diving taught me is to outright refuse diving with a buddy I don't feel comfortable with/plain don't like.
It's either that or I get paid full rescue diver day rate.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Hey man. Sounds like you had a **** dive buddy. That said, nobody made you go to Rescue Diver School. Don’t raise your hand to do something like RD if you aren’t ready to do RD ****.

You should read his adventures on becoming a DM. We haven't heard from Dody for a long time.

 

[Dody]

I guess some people confuse acting as a rescue diver within a team for a dive and having a rescue diver cert. Anyone thinking that having a RD insta buddy means his/ her primary responsibility is to guarantee their safety like a body guard would is just deadly mistaken.

 

[MacDuyver]

I guess some people confuse acting as a rescue diver within a team for a dive and having a rescue diver cert. Anyone thinking that having a RD insta buddy means his/ her primary responsibility is to guarantee their safety like a body guard would is just deadly mistaken.

By your account, this isn't some dickhead who ran out of air because he finned as furiously as he could for 10 minutes straight chasing a turtle. This was a diver in obvious distress, and you are a qualified rescue diver and literally just watched him go, because "whelp I can't match his descent rate so **** him."

The point I'm getting at is this: why on earth do you hold a Rescue Diver certification? Why did you go to the Rescue Diver course when you have no inclination to apply the skill to a diver in distress whom you were assigned to as a buddy?

your entire first post is about how you hold titles like Divemaster but have never done the job. Then you describe how you identified yourself as a rescue diver, and again didn't do the job. So why the hell do you hold those certs and not just a Master Diver cert?

Sounds to me like there were two **** buddies paired up.

 

[Wibble]

By your account, this isn't some dickhead who ran out of air because he finned as furiously as he could for 10 minutes straight chasing a turtle. This was a diver in obvious distress, and you are a qualified rescue diver and literally just watched him go, because "whelp I can't match his descent rate so **** him."

The point I'm getting at is this: why on earth do you hold a Rescue Diver certification? Why did you go to the Rescue Diver course when you have no inclination to apply the skill to a diver in distress whom you were assigned to as a buddy?

your entire first post is about how you hold titles like Divemaster but have never done the job. Then you describe how you identified yourself as a rescue diver, and again didn't do the job. So why the hell do you hold those certs and not just a Master Diver cert?

Sounds to me like there were two **** buddies paired up.

What is the first thing you learn in a Rescue Diver course?

 

[Dody]

By your account, this isn't some dickhead who ran out of air because he finned as furiously as he could for 10 minutes straight chasing a turtle. This was a diver in obvious distress, and you are a qualified rescue diver and literally just watched him go, because "whelp I can't match his descent rate so **** him."

The point I'm getting at is this: why on earth do you hold a Rescue Diver certification? Why did you go to the Rescue Diver course when you have no inclination to apply the skill to a diver in distress whom you were assigned to as a buddy?

your entire first post is about how you hold titles like Divemaster but have never done the job. Then you describe how you identified yourself as a rescue diver, and again didn't do the job. So why the hell do you hold those certs and not just a Master Diver cert?

Sounds to me like there were two **** buddies paired up.

Well, sorry but your post is full of inaccuracies and assumptions.
First, it is ludicrous to say I just watched him go down.
No inclination to apply the skill?!?! Where the hell did you get that?
Second, you are wrong again qualifying RD as a job. DM is. RD can be a professional activity but not in this case. Research and you will probably understand.
Third, in many places where I dive, people have no idea what Master Diver is. For some, it is similar to DM.
Last, the point of my post was to say that some people like you have wrong or uneducated expectations and the tendency to jump to conclusions. And that should be taken into account when someone asks you what is your higher cert.
Will I take a risk that will surely badly hurt me to save an insta buddy because I am a rescue diver? I don’t know. I guess it depends on the circumstances but I don’t have to. This is not my job as you say. Hell, I am not even doing a job and certainly not doing the job that others are being paid for.

 

[Joneill]

By your account, this isn't some dickhead who ran out of air because he finned as furiously as he could for 10 minutes straight chasing a turtle. This was a diver in obvious distress, and you are a qualified rescue diver and literally just watched him go, because "whelp I can't match his descent rate so **** him."

That is not what the Op said from what I read. The Op said that he could not equalize fast enough to match the distressed diver’s descent and had to slow down - which is completely appropriate.

In my Rescue course, they stressed not having the rescue diver put themselves at risk of injury trying to reach another diver in distress.

 

[Wibble]

In my Rescue course, they stressed not having the rescue diver put themselves at risk of injury trying to reach another diver in distress.

For some reason @MacDuyver didn't mention this in his post.

Rule #1 in rescue: The rescuer should not become another casualty.

 

[admikar]

By your account, this isn't some dickhead who ran out of air because he finned as furiously as he could for 10 minutes straight chasing a turtle. This was a diver in obvious distress, and you are a qualified rescue diver and literally just watched him go, because "whelp I can't match his descent rate so **** him."

The point I'm getting at is this: why on earth do you hold a Rescue Diver certification? Why did you go to the Rescue Diver course when you have no inclination to apply the skill to a diver in distress whom you were assigned to as a buddy?

your entire first post is about how you hold titles like Divemaster but have never done the job. Then you describe how you identified yourself as a rescue diver, and again didn't do the job. So why the hell do you hold those certs and not just a Master Diver cert?

Sounds to me like there were two **** buddies paired up.

You are wrong on so many accounts