How soon is too soon for a Rescue Diver course?

[Jim Lapenta]

I always pushed rescue as the first class after open water. A good rescue course and instructor realize that some of the in-water stuff are things that you will be unlikely to do in an actual emergency. Where the value lies is in stopping accidents BEFORE they happen. That takes place on the surface. Before you step foot in the water.
Many get the idea, and the agencies perpetuate the idea, that a rescue diver is something special akin to a public safety diver. That's a lie. As well as the fact that the majority of "rescue divers" haven't practiced a damn thing related to the class since they took it.
You are not qualified to lead or conduct a search for a missing diver. Unless it's checking the parking lot.
You are not qualified to do in-water rescue breathing, which doesn't work anyway because adrenaline is likely to take over, and you'll end up closing the airway, shoving their head underwater, or delaying getting them to effective resuscitation efforts. Thus, it ensures brain damage and death.
Where a rescue diver makes a difference is when the increased awareness of how dangerous this activity is causes you to think.
Think about your gear, your health, and your mental state.
To look at your buddies and other divers to keep them from becoming a statistic.
You see gear issues.
You see that stress and apprehension, and say something to keep them from diving.
You see that the boat doesn't have easily accessible safety equipment.
And you realize in a real emergency, professionals need to be responding, so you stay out of the way unless asked.
And you realize that if it's truly serious, especially underwater, it's likely not a rescue but a recovery.
Take the class and do the in-water stuff. But pay more attention to the ways to prevent an accident.

 

[pdwh]

I always pushed rescue as the first class after open water. A good rescue course and instructor realize that some of the in-water stuff are things that you will be unlikely to do in an actual emergency. Where the value lies is in stopping accidents BEFORE they happen. That takes place on the surface. Before you step foot in the water.
Many get the idea, and the agencies perpetuate the idea, that a rescue diver is something special akin to a public safety diver. That's a lie. As well as the fact that the majority of "rescue divers" haven't practiced a damn thing related to the class since they took it.
You are not qualified to lead or conduct a search for a missing diver. Unless it's checking the parking lot.
You are not qualified to do in-water rescue breathing, which doesn't work anyway because adrenaline is likely to take over, and you'll end up closing the airway, shoving their head underwater, or delaying getting them to effective resuscitation efforts. Thus, it ensures brain damage and death.
Where a rescue diver makes a difference is when the increased awareness of how dangerous this activity is causes you to think.
Think about your gear, your health, and your mental state.
To look at your buddies and other divers to keep them from becoming a statistic.
You see gear issues.
You see that stress and apprehension, and say something to keep them from diving.
You see that the boat doesn't have easily accessible safety equipment.
And you realize in a real emergency, professionals need to be responding, so you stay out of the way unless asked.
And you realize that if it's truly serious, especially underwater, it's likely not a rescue but a recovery.
Take the class and do the in-water stuff. But pay more attention to the ways to prevent an accident.

It does prepare you to be a better dive buddy, where you may be the ONLY person able to get someone to the surface with a chance at survival. That's the one area where it's more than just your awareness/prevention but also some skills that could save someone. And those skills require you to be able to move around in the water a bit, especially if you need to control things to surface an unconscious diver, which is why I did the course in my first year but not till I had some dives.

Honestly - dealing with an actively panicked diver is definitely not easy for a new diver. But anyone could end up with a dive buddy unconscious for a variety of reasons that may not even have anything to do with a problem ahead of time. There's not always clear signs a heart attack is coming on, or a TIA or stroke.

But I do agree 100% with your sentiment. Prevention always better.

I've wondered a bit if they might not do a better thing in splitting the course into two parts. One part prevention focused and another later more on the rescue side. I only say that because you're so correct about that prevention side being an ideal thing to learn right away.

Like an Accident Prevention/Stress management/recognition course and then expand the first aid/CPR to include the active rescue bit since those go together more. That's just me thinking out loud. Maybe there are reasons that's not a good idea but one is common sense, awareness, and precaution. The other is actual emergency training. There's a fairly big difference/dividing line there.

 

[TMHeimer]

I took Rescue after my 25th dive. My buoyancy was pretty good from the get go. Everyone's different as far as when to take the course. But you can't be bumping into things and getting mixed up....

 

[Landau]

I’d encourage all divers to take rescue.

When? As soon as you are comfortable with your own diving, not constantly struggling with buoyancy, etc. This will be a different number of dives for everyone and might be more dives for cold water drysuit divers than tropical divers.

 

[lowwall]

I always pushed rescue as the first class after open water. A good rescue course and instructor realize that some of the in-water stuff are things that you will be unlikely to do in an actual emergency. Where the value lies is in stopping accidents BEFORE they happen. That takes place on the surface. Before you step foot in the water.
Many get the idea, and the agencies perpetuate the idea, that a rescue diver is something special akin to a public safety diver. That's a lie. As well as the fact that the majority of "rescue divers" haven't practiced a damn thing related to the class since they took it.
You are not qualified to lead or conduct a search for a missing diver. Unless it's checking the parking lot.
You are not qualified to do in-water rescue breathing, which doesn't work anyway because adrenaline is likely to take over, and you'll end up closing the airway, shoving their head underwater, or delaying getting them to effective resuscitation efforts. Thus, it ensures brain damage and death.
Where a rescue diver makes a difference is when the increased awareness of how dangerous this activity is causes you to think.
Think about your gear, your health, and your mental state.
To look at your buddies and other divers to keep them from becoming a statistic.
You see gear issues.
You see that stress and apprehension, and say something to keep them from diving.
You see that the boat doesn't have easily accessible safety equipment.
And you realize in a real emergency, professionals need to be responding, so you stay out of the way unless asked.
And you realize that if it's truly serious, especially underwater, it's likely not a rescue but a recovery.
Take the class and do the in-water stuff. But pay more attention to the ways to prevent an accident.

All excellent points, but I suspect people coming out of your OW courses were a lot better at the basic skills including bouyancy than the 2-3 day OW courses that are norm today.

That's why so many of the responses mention waiting until those skills are automatic. If you have to consciously think about controlling your bouyancy or handling your gear above and below the water, you aren't going to get the most out of a rescue class.

 

[lizardland]

Rescue is the only course I ever did in the PADI system that I ever felt was really worthwhile and really essential. I loved it.

When to do it isn't an easy question. You could as easily find yourself in a rescue situation after 5 dives as 500. The dilemma with RD is that it actually needs a decent level of skill to complete. I don't know if standards have changed but some of the lifts are challenging in terms of buoyancy control and your ability to do a lot of things at once is essential. The less you have to think about the basic diving part then the more you can concentrate on completing the scenario you're in. I would say it comes down to how you feel about yourself and your abilities as a diver. Do you feel like an actual diver and that everything comes together or do you feel like you're still running to keep up? It's also a lot more worthwile to be doing it when you are diving independently i.e with people outside of diving organised by a school or dive centre and not guided diving.

There are some courses where it's OK to be kind of learning on the job. I wouldn't say RD is one of them. I played the body on probably hundreds of courses over the years and people who were still trying to just get comfortable themselves had the hardest time. It was really easy to get someone into a death spiral because they had to concentrate on themselves so much that they lost control of the rescue or they had to concentrate on the rescue so much that there was nothing left over for themselves.

The other thing I noticed is that nothing kills enthusiasm for the sport like failing or struggling on RD does. A really overlooked skill is learning to enjoy diving. There is a lot of pressure to be doing continuous training and a lot of people never let up and just allow themselves to have a bit of fun between courses. If you're fairly new to the sport then take your enthusiasm out on actual dives before you do any more training. RD will be your first real exposure to the fact that diving has consequences and if you can't muster up a reason as to why you want to get in the water then I've seen people really have a hard time after RD, especially if it wasn't an easy experience.

A lot of courses are just all about getting the pass at the end. There are absolutely ways of treating RD like that. Do it in a really benign environment compared to where you dive, do it on a resort assembly line, do it in equipment that's simpler and lighter than what you'd normally use, and everywhere has that one instructor who has a reputation of never failing anyone that you could sign up with. Not really cheating but you are cheating yourself. RD is maybe the one course you want to get the very best from yourself in. Do it when you feel that is achievable. If that's not now then you can certainly do first aid and O2 admin that gives you useful skills.

 

[scubadada]

I did not do AOW until about 80 dives and did RD at about 120 dives. It worked out very well for me, these were both very good courses in Grand Cayman in 2004 and 2005. I took SDI Solo in 2013 at about 750 dives.

 

[lowwall]

A lot of courses are just all about getting the pass at the end. There are absolutely ways of treating RD like that. Do it in a really benign environment compared to where you dive, do it on a resort assembly line, do it in equipment that's simpler and lighter than what you'd normally use,

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.

 

[ophishal]

Take the Rescue course sooner than later. Most beneficial course as a moderately new diver.

It will make you a better buddy & can quickly humble false confidence all while building a much more solid skills platform.

 

[Landau]

A fun part of my course was demonstrating to my instructor that a BP/W is not an impediment.

I tell my rescue students “BP/Ws are easier to remove as they have less plastic and padding to get in the way of this!” <wave my Z knife menacingly at the nearest student’s BP/W straps>

Leads to a discussion on we won’t be damaging any equipment (or students) in the course but in real life might cut off gear, dry suits etc.