Public Safety Divers

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Before I say anything else I'll first say that there are good teams and good divers doing this kind of work. By nature it's a nasty and often dangerous job especially when politics or the personal agendas of decission makers prevent it from being done correctly. But...Here's one for you

Last year, after the last death on the Indy FD I placed an add in some of the local papers offering FREE training to public safety divers. I don't teach any psd specific courses but I teach people to dive and could provide training in dry suit, search and recovery, full face mask, nitrox, advanced nitrox and bunches of other stuff that would be useful to them especially if they only have OW training. I had two phone calls. One was from the head of a fire department team (not Indy) who complained the team had no money AND that he doubted the divers would participate without being paid. I never saw any of his divers.

I got another call from a team who asked for descriptions of the classes I could offer and the normal cost of those classes. He was going to try to get funding and if he couldn't was going to take me up on my offer. I never heard from that team either.

The reason I offered the free classes was so the divers themselves would have accesss to training without needing the permishon or funding of the department. I tried to take away all the excusses. Not one taker.

The reason I bothered to do anything at all is because some of the things I've seen, not to mention the two Indy deaths, make me sick. Actually sick isn't a strong enough word. I dont give a you know what about the politicians running things but I don't think the divers know what they are getting into sometimes. Well, they would after spending time with me because the first thing I would attempt to teach them is that if the training and the equipment isn't appropriate for the dive you just don't get in the water and how to know the difference. Half the problem is these guys, many of which are new divers who learn to dive just to get on the team, trust their higher ups.

Well that's my rant on the subject.
 
We have at least one dive training meeting each month,In fact we are taking Dive Rescue I through Dive Rescue Int. this weekend. The guys I dive with recreationally are the same guys I train with, We know each other very well and are all good freinds, We know each others strong points and weak points, Which makes us more comfortable diving together knowing that the other guy is not going to freak out when the Poop hits the fan.

Most of us have our own personal gear but for training we use Department gear, That way everyones setup is the same

As for Funding we have this thing called the Lake Rescue Shootout, (Powerboat races) Who has the fastest boat, Ms Budweiser took the TOP GUn Prize last year 175mph

http://www.lakeshootout.com/html/bud_assist.html

Scubaddawg
 
I will leave my team unnamed at this point. We (the team) dive with surronding teams. Most of which are based and funded by a fire department. All are volunteer and most of us purchase all of our equipment. I personally dive a oms rig, as for dives and training, Approx 200 dives on my own. 12 with the teams, and I often go away and do classes, (per year).
I Will be at forty fathom for full cave cert in august.
If its a volley team you depend on donations and town budgets to get the equipment. Maybe if more accidents were publicised more money would be given out. Its only april and we have had 2 searches and recoveries.
As far as training contact butch at www.lgs.com and see what he has going on in your area.
-g
 
Took me awhile to get back to the boards...

We (like most underfunded teams) do not have 100% standardized name brand gear, but the configurations are all the same:

Most dives: Standard "PSD" config - BP/Wing, Dry, AGA FFM, Teathered (harness).

Some dives: Back Inflate (Seaquest Balance), wet, Apeks Regs, buddied.

We get gear through fundraisers and donations.

And if you want to be safe...train, train, train!!!
 
Well, Im in public safety (police officer) and Im a diver, so does that count?? LOL
Ive actually pushed like crazy to get a dive team for our dept/county to no avail......yet.
Any of you guys/girls that are PS divers or on rescue teams.......any of you have unit/team patches to trade, Id love to trade my departments patch with yours or you dive teams patch.
Marty
marty.kaplan@cowetaschools.org
 
I have been a diver with a fire dept for 11 years. I was trained by Walt "butch" Hendricks from Life Guard Systems. Butch is considered by most people in the water rescue world to be the father of PSD. I have made body recoveries, and am also an avid wreck diver here in NY. I have a pretty good idea what PSD is and is not.
If you want to get into PSD then go down to your local fire department or police department and inquire. There are places with teams that are staffed with volunteers, but they are few and far between. Because of the time and risk involved they are normally staffed with cops and firefighters.
If your looking for training then www.teamlgs.com is where you want to go. Butch Hendricks has trained fire, police and military teams from all over the world, and is an expert in the field of underwater search and recovery. IMO if you want training seek out the best and train hard, cause when your underwater in pitch black sludge and a body bumps your mask off just as you get that piece of fishing line wrapped around your legs, you'll wish you had some better training than "PADI AOW".
Public safety diving is NOT recreational diving in any form whatso ever. Any one who thinks it is "fun", "cool" or a "good time" time has never spent hours at a site looking in murky, 35 degree contaminated water for the body of a 10 year old boy who fell over a railing.
You must keep in mind you will be diving in conditions that any body would be foolish to dive in by choice. When you get called out for a dive job, you can't pull up and say... "ooo, I'd love to help but that water is gross, I won't even be able to see my hand infront of my face"... when others run away, public safety divers have to go in. Thats why cops and firefighters do it, they're used to going into places other people run out of.
It is far from "fun", and only experience and training is going to keep you from dying in the worst of the worst conditions.

BTW we use AGAs, RSV air blocks, steel 80s, 20 ft ponies, and drysuits. We use standard jacket style BC's cause its easier to float upright on the surface, we found its almost impossible to keep an unconscious diver fae up on the surface with wings or back mounts BCs.
 
...

My FD uses the above mentioned LifeGuardSystems for PSD qualifications. The members I have dove with on a recreational basis tend to sink like rocks, wallow on the bottom (as they are trained to do while searching by feel a muddy lake bottom while tethered to a surface tender who signals when to advance, search left, search right, etc...). These same divers seem to think a safety stop is optional no matter what the dive profile. Light - we don't need no steenkin' dive light - but I got 3 cutting tools and a pony bottle - does that count? How come I end up leading these dives even though most of these divers are more "experienced" and "qualified" than I am?
 
Snowbear once bubbled...
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My FD uses the above mentioned LifeGuardSystems for PSD qualifications. The members I have dove with on a recreational basis tend to sink like rocks, wallow on the bottom (as they are trained to do while searching by feel a muddy lake bottom while tethered to a surface tender who signals when to advance, search left, search right, etc...). These same divers seem to think a safety stop is optional no matter what the dive profile. Light - we don't need no steenkin' dive light - but I got 3 cutting tools and a pony bottle - does that count? How come I end up leading these dives even though most of these divers are more "experienced" and "qualified" than I am?

I'm not sure what you mean by "leading these dives" but if you mean that you are the one diving while more experienced divers are back ups, that's the way it should be. If it was the other way around where the more experienced diver would be the first diving and he got into trouble, it would not make sense to send a less experienced diver to bail him out. The most experienced diver should be the back up.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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