Hey there

[goodknight411]

I think what teknitroxdiver ment was that many older divers are wary of teens. Not to post wasn't his intent, just to be prepared for any negitive comments that may come along concerning age.

Also way to go Kayla for being able to do all this. It sound like you are mature and will be ok doing this. IMHO. Just remember that to some extent you are still a kid. Don't lose that.

Oh yeah, recently some boards have invoked a required age of 18. This got some people kicked out of tek forums.

 

[Kayla]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it! I don't know how much I will be able to bring here, but you learn something new from every search, so there has to be something....

Our groups carries pagers and Nextel phones (with 2-way). There is a system at the sheriffs office, and whoever is doing the call out can call there and send a message to all pagers. Members are then required to call back with a yesd, I'll be there, or a no I won't. The Nextel's are nice because you can directly communicate with anyone in the group, and not have to page them every time. We tried to use just Nextel's for awhile, but it took too long to get to everyone, even though it has a paging system. (You have to page everyone seperatley. Is that what you were looking for?


Kayla

 

[Kayla]

goodnight411.. I didn't realize that. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[teknitroxdiver]

That sounds like a really good setup. Here's a few more questions about your department:

Is it a 'wealthy' or a 'poor' department?
Is gear provided or do you have to use your own?

thanks

 

[Kayla]

There isnt a lot of money floating around for us to use. Everything we get has to be donated, and thats hard to do. That being said, I think that for the lack of funding we are pretty well off. We REALLY ned a new Dive Rescue vehicle. The van we have barely runs, the doors fly open when youre diving, and its just a piece of junk. We have been pretty lucky in our donations though.


All the gear that the divers use is provided and funded by themselves. However, there are tanks provided, because our LDS has agreed to fill our SAR tanks for free. We have some UW lights that are available... plus the standard SAR supplies. Body boards and bags, that sort of thing. Otherwise, it all comes from the member.


Kayla

 

[TheAvatar]

When I first got into this, I learned *very* quickly that my rescue diver cert was all but worthless. I'm only 22, a PSD, an EMT, and also with the local Mountain SAR team.

Kayla,
Still interested to hear the exact certs you all have. 27 is a HUGE dive team, but maybe I don't have much reference. Our team is 1/3 that size (all volunteer), since we maybe get 1 call a month, we train about 60hrs a month.
27 divers. Wow. They all have to supply their own equiptment? That seems... possibly dangerous... do you require very specific gear? Identical gear is important so that every member knows how to work every other members gear. I assume you all don't have 27 different configuration :-D What do you all use for UW comms? Do you have drysuits with hazmat ratings? Are your missions river, ocean, or lake?

 

[ScubaMan62]

As a former PSD with a full time Fire Dept. that just recently got out of the dive(sub-surface rescue) business because of the costs and poor political decisions I can hardly believe what I'm reading. I suppose U.S. workplace health and safety standards are different than in Canada but we had very stringent guidelines (many the same as commercial divers) and had frequent checks by the Ministry of Labour. I certainly hope that whomever oversees your operation is up to speed on what the law requires....and I also hope you have some very good group insurance for personal injury/liability....not trying to be a spoiler but I wasn't crazy about some of the rescue/recovery diving I had to do with tons more infrastructure built in over what I am reading here..good luck with it all....and ask questions...do research..ciao

 

[Kayla]

Unfourtanetley, the county won't allow us to require that a diver has a certain type of gear. However, we kind of put out there what we would like, and thats pretty much what we got. Nobody really had a problem changing... it was for their safety too.

When I say 27 divers, I say that losely. We have 27 members signed up. We have 7 with enough trainings and experience to let them in the water. The other guys are still catching up.

From the sounds of it, it looks like our team is just run differently from everyone else's. Maybe its because its not a Police based team, or maybe we just run off of different guidelines, but some of the things you are talking about are beyone me.


As far is it goes for me, I just hold a basis OW from SSI. I am certified to dive in low vis, swift water, bay, river, lake, pond, etc. I'm not exactly sure that's what you were looking for though. When a diver goes thru whatever course is being taught, they don't recieve a certification, but rather an "OK" from the president and e-board to dive that type of environment. Yet again, something that I think is different from most of the stuff the reat of you do. Whether its better or worse I'm not sure.

Also, I can tell you that I can't remeber the last time we went on a recovery. The county's call out time SUCKS, and by the time we get there, in the two years I have been with the team, and being around it my whole life, we have been moved to recovery status. Gotta love the good ole politics in the situation eh? As far as I'm concerned, it shouldn't matter who does what, or how it happened. If there is a chance that we might be able to save someone, shouldn't that be more important? Are you guys in similar situations? Or is it different?

Also, do you get paid to be SAR divers? I guess thats just a curiosity thing for me....


I can try to answer any other questions that you might have.. I don't know if any imformation I just gave you is what you were looking for.. but I tried eh?


Kayla

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

I am interested in several things. Like how do you qualify for insurance , malpractice , liability , workman comp ect , and equipment the average PSD will easy reach the roughly $5000 to as high as seen 15K for proper equipment,
Dry suits =Trilaminate , vulcanized rubber
Full face masks with communications center ECT
Sealed regulator system
Backup reg and bottle system
Computers- depth, temp, Pressure gauge, compass
Slates, knife, scissors
Fins, mask, boots, hood, BC, or backplate wings ECT
These are some of the basic equipment a true PSD uses and has, Now for your age I think its great your comfortable but there more to it than that, training is a must and I will be the first to admit I am interested in the age as we have had to turn away divers because of age most insurance companies want them to be 21. These are just some of the thoughts I have. Not saying you're not a good diver because I don’t now you, you may be a great diver. But certainly raise thoughts. Oh by the way don’t run off stay and plays learn all you can from this board and are safe.

 

[Kayla]

I certainly hope that whomever oversees your operation is up to speed on what the law requires....and I also hope you have some very good group insurance for personal injury/liability....

I don't think that I answered this one. We report as a group to a SAR deputy, who is a County Sheriff. Each group has someone that they report too, and they are very aware of the laws, and the requirements, and we all work together to make sure that we are in those guildelines! We keep posted ruloes and regulations of things that our divers should know first hand in the boat, and in the dive van, so that they can be looked upon at any time. Also, there is always a briefing beofre dives, and after dives, and divers are reminded of requirements there.

For any training or search that we do, we have to have either a training or search number. If a diver gets injured during either of these times, they are covered fully by county insurance. Same goes for gear that was broken/ lost during a dive... etc. Also, we do require that all of our divers carry their own medical insurance, and dive insurance. Better safe then sorry....



Kayla