How much experience should you have before taking PADI Rescue Diver course?

[scubadada]

I did nitrox at 40 dives, AOW at 80 dives, Rescue at 115 dives. This worked well for me, I believe having some experience allowed me to get more out of it. This was nearly 1100 dives ago, I've not done any PADI training since. I did SDI Solo at 760 dives, mainly to allow me to solo with operators that don't know me, it has worked well.

 

[Macan]

The PADI Rescue course is one of the the shining jewels of the PADI program. I took mine in the early 90's. It was a great 7 day course that include Medic/First Aid (now replaced by Emergency First Response EFR).

Today, the PADI Rescue course is even better. It's a highly structured course that leaves no room for short-cuts or someone's imagination. Each of the 10 mandatory exercises and 2 scenarios have been carefully thought through and fine-tuned by PADI over the years. The regular EFR updates we receive ensures that students are taught the latest techniques in basic life support and first aid used by professional emergency care providers worldwide. Quality training time is spent on teaching the student accident prevention, psychology of rescue, preparing for emergencies, accident management BEFORE the student even learns the water skills needed to respond to the diver emergencies. The end product is a well rounded Rescue Diver.

You need to be at least an Adventure Diver with Navi in your pocket to take the course. I would recommend completing the Advanced OW Diver course, Navigation and Search & Recovery specialties before taking Rescue. You'll make the most out of the course by having more experience and good water skills beforehand.

 

[nolatom]

50.

 

[Diving Dubai]

@filmguy123

To the OP. The rescue course doesn't need a minimum number of dives. However it is more beneficial with some experience under your belt and certain things will seem more relevant.

Also you need to be comfortable and at home in the water, as the course is designed to put you under some stress.

You are going to have to remove both yours and the causalities gear in the water (out of your depth, whilst giving rescue breaths every 5 seconds. Okay that's not too onerous, My wife and I found it physically demanding because we're bith 50 and not as fit as we were.

Also they should try to put you under stress, by perhaps removing your mask or having a "panicked" diver take the reg from your mouth. If either of these too cause you to flap then you're not ready, For us it was more of an annoyance and we both thought "is that the best you can do" But we did the course (far too late) with a few hundred dives behind us. You don't need that many, you just need to be as I said comfortable in the water.

It allow you to get more out of the course.

 

[filmguy123]

This makes sense! It seems like the consensus here is "when you are comfortable under the water and have a strong enough handle on the basics, and won't be mentally task loaded". This point, as a rough estimate, can usually occur somewhere around the 50 dive mark.

The main reason I ask is someone had mentioned that I would probably want a LOT more dive experience before the rescue course, as in probably at least 100 and closer to 200-300 dives before attempting. I thought that seemed excessive, and was more inclined and interested to build these skills sooner in my career rather than later.

50 dives seems about ideal to what I was thinking, and it seems I ought to play that by ear and could go a little sooner or later - mileage may vary - until I am "comfortable under the water and have a strong enough handle on the basics, and won't be mentally task loaded".

 

[Amie Branch]

I would say that it depends on the types of dives that you have done vs the number of dives.
If you feel that you understand the components of what you were taught previously-then consider taking the course. Rescue was my most favorite course to learn to date. It set me up to understand better dive and safety planning. The holds and transfers are also beneficial if you have an interest in later becoming an adaptive buddy. Many of the things taught in a rescue course translate well in understanding adaptive diving.

 

[TMHeimer]

The general trend here is do it when you are comfortable with the basics. Reflex action, not a lot of thinking, as pointed out. I did mine after dive #26. Maybe a bit early, as I wasn't as smooth as I would've liked on some of the skills, but I was OK. I think it's important to take rescue as soon as it seems practical to do so. Then you at least have the information to dive safer, particularly if buddying with a newer diver. I've always felt two new divers buddying isn't the world's safest idea. If you have the rescue skills you can much better deal with a buddy who doesn't. Better yet, buddy with someone who has the skills.

 

[tbone1004]

one important bit to remember is many on here have higher standards than PADI themselves in terms of what is recommended. It only takes 100 logged dives to become an instructor where you can actually TEACH the rescue class, so remember that and take what we say with a grain of salt. You SHOULD be comfortable in the water, and it isn't a number of dives, to me it is a time under water and that time is roughly 30-50 hours, but that's just me and my recommendation, most of the agencies thing that that is enough to become an instructor, so take it as you will

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I recommend rescue as the very first course after OW to my students. Standards say they need ten dives to start it and IMO with the students I have for OW that's enough.

Your dive skills do not need to be instructor level. A GOOD rescue class is as much about preventing problems as it is responding to them. If not more so. You don't need perfect buoyancy and trim to pull a diver out of the water. You need to know the right techniques to use. Some of those are taught in the OW class I teach.

You don't need great nav skills to see when a diver on the boat is going to be a possible problem. Or to spot someone is having a hard time setting up their gear.

Waiting to get 50 or 100 dives really does not make sense. What are you going to say to the panicked diver at your local site? "Sorry, my buddy and I need 15 more dives before we can save you!" No, you get the training as soon as possible and be ready for the stuff to hit the fan.

Then down the road you can always take a rescue refresher or play a victim in a class. Most rescue divers use the skills and knowledge they gain on the surface to prevent problems. IMO a diver should try to practice rescue skills on a regular basis. You can't do that until you learn them.

 

[tbone1004]

^ding ding ding, and that's why we teach the basics as part of OW, i.e. this is how you get someone to the surface safely, manage them at the surface, and get them to someone who hopefully is trained in BLS to take care of them. Then in the rescue class we go into how to actually take care of them. I still think if you're going to go through a rescue class that you should be comfortable in the water, and that takes 20 or so hours under water *pool time is just as valuable imho for water comfort*, but that's also why I don't believe in number of dives for anything. My dive count is climbing painfully slow now that my average dive time is around 2 hours, but at the same time people will count a 20 minute dive and do 3-4 of them in a day, so what matters more? 4x20minutes=80 total, or 1x120 minutes? Pool hours for generating comfort in the water in terms of buoyancy, trim, and propulsion should not be discounted in favor of OW dives. OW just usually has more fun stuff to look at...