How soon is too soon for a Rescue Diver course?

[lizardland]

A fun part of my course was demonstrating to my instructor that a BP/W is not an impediment. Due to external factors, I had minimal time to take my course. It was a private course with my son acting as the "victim". For the pool portion, the instructor insisted my son be in a conventional BCD because he thought it would make it go faster. But for the OW dives, I wanted my son to be in his own BP/W with webbing harness and a crotch strap which is also what I dive. The instructor reluctantly agreed because I had been able to move through the skills faster than average. Side note, if you've been through lifeguard training, a lot of the rescue skills and definitely the mindset come quite easily.

The OW portion went well. It turns out that it takes no more time to remove a properly adjusted BP/W, i.e. one without overly tight shoulder straps, than a conventional wing with its adjusters and chest strap.

I totally agree with BP&W, it shouldn't really be an impediment. Like I said, I've played the body on hundreds of courses and I used a range of equipment during the course, including OPH's, to see how people handled it. The instructor wasn't always the happiest about it but that was the price of having an assistant for the weekend and eventually he saw the value of it.

I would go over my equipment during the buddy check as I would on a normal dive. The thing that amazed me is that most people don't listen. If they dived a standard BCD they would default to hunting for quick releases and during the debrief afterwards it was clear they had not paid attention. A good chunk of people would either remember what I said or realise their mistake and sort it out. But a good chunk didn't. It always made me happy when someone asked "can I cut the strap?" but they were few and far between. The absolute worst was when I used a Dive Rite Deluxe harness. Still a webbing harness but it had a single quick release in the left shoulder and solid strap on the right. Near enough 100% of the time the rescuer would latch on to the quick release straight away and then burn time trying to figure out where the QR was on the other shoulder. It generally took longer than figuring out a one-piece harness. It was like a dog watching a magic trick, they just could not get their heads round that QR's might not come in pairs.