The Rapid Diver is in widespread use since it's introduction to the dive industry at Dema 05.
The Rapid Diver is currently being used by Fire Departments, Police Departments, Marine Patrols, Homeland Security, Military, Racing Teams and Border Patrol (to name a few) and has proved to be a useful tool in the PSD tool chest.
This previous post sums it up,
From:
Pura Vida Diver
Single Diver
Status
Profile InfoJoin Date: May 2006
Location: Quepos, Costa Rica/Orlando, Fl.
Logged Dives: 2,000+
StatsPosts: 32
I'm a deputy assigned to a marine unit for a large agency in central Florida. We have four rapid diver units assigned to myself and three others in the unit. The equipment was purchased in response to the exit from the diving field of the county fire service and lack of any type of underwater rescue capability on the part of almost all public safety units in the area. I need to point out that we do have the largest public safety recovery team in the area however, but we are not equipped for rapid reaponse. The rapid divers are usually carried in our trucks or patrol boats, wherever we are working during shift.
These units work pretty well for the intended purpose. Since most of our water is under 30 ft deep we get about 20-25 minutes off a tank. Someone mentioned no depth gauge in a previous post, we won't be worrying about that during a rescue situation.
The system got a real world test a couple of months ago at a local lake. A call went out about a swimmer who had gone under while trying to retrieve a boat blown away from shore. The last known location for the victim was approx. 75 yards offshore in 15' of water. The usual twenty fire trucks showed up and they deployed several firefighters in masks, snorkels and, get this, wearing life jackets for a "surface water search" using 10 foot ploes (in 15 feet of water). My supervisor happened to be in the area and showed up with his rapid diver. He made entry and searched the bottom for 15 minutes. I showed up with a boat and my rapid diver about the time he used up his first tank. I switched him out to mine and back in he went. Meanwhile I got to look at the seven fire "chiefs" standing on shore with their clip boards, telling their firefighters not to leave the surface. Five minutes later the boss found the guy, on the bottom under the fire guys, and pulled him to the surface. Needless to say he didn't survive. To make things worse, the family and friends of the victim saw the whole thing. They weren't rocket scientists but they figured out pretty quick that if it weren't for the cops, their family member would have been under water for a lot longer. They made it a point to ask why the FD didn't have any dive gear. I'm not sure what the answer was.
For the life of me I can't see why the FD won't take advantage of newer technology like this stuff. I have been told that the fire services are concerned about the danger of water rescues under the surface, which has prompted them to get out of the field. I'm not sure about other jurisdictions on that one, and I'm not trying to be critical of the guys riding the rigs. It seems to me though that this stuff could have well served them in this case and I'm hoping those clip board pilots took note of the situation.
Bottom line is the stuff works well for it's intended use. We will probably be getting some more sets for our remaining divers that will be kept in their assigned vehicles. Kudos to Zeagle for coming up with this system.
The Rapid Diver is currently being used by Fire Departments, Police Departments, Marine Patrols, Homeland Security, Military, Racing Teams and Border Patrol (to name a few) and has proved to be a useful tool in the PSD tool chest.
This previous post sums it up,
From:
Pura Vida Diver
Single Diver
Status
Profile InfoJoin Date: May 2006
Location: Quepos, Costa Rica/Orlando, Fl.
Logged Dives: 2,000+
StatsPosts: 32
I'm a deputy assigned to a marine unit for a large agency in central Florida. We have four rapid diver units assigned to myself and three others in the unit. The equipment was purchased in response to the exit from the diving field of the county fire service and lack of any type of underwater rescue capability on the part of almost all public safety units in the area. I need to point out that we do have the largest public safety recovery team in the area however, but we are not equipped for rapid reaponse. The rapid divers are usually carried in our trucks or patrol boats, wherever we are working during shift.
These units work pretty well for the intended purpose. Since most of our water is under 30 ft deep we get about 20-25 minutes off a tank. Someone mentioned no depth gauge in a previous post, we won't be worrying about that during a rescue situation.
The system got a real world test a couple of months ago at a local lake. A call went out about a swimmer who had gone under while trying to retrieve a boat blown away from shore. The last known location for the victim was approx. 75 yards offshore in 15' of water. The usual twenty fire trucks showed up and they deployed several firefighters in masks, snorkels and, get this, wearing life jackets for a "surface water search" using 10 foot ploes (in 15 feet of water). My supervisor happened to be in the area and showed up with his rapid diver. He made entry and searched the bottom for 15 minutes. I showed up with a boat and my rapid diver about the time he used up his first tank. I switched him out to mine and back in he went. Meanwhile I got to look at the seven fire "chiefs" standing on shore with their clip boards, telling their firefighters not to leave the surface. Five minutes later the boss found the guy, on the bottom under the fire guys, and pulled him to the surface. Needless to say he didn't survive. To make things worse, the family and friends of the victim saw the whole thing. They weren't rocket scientists but they figured out pretty quick that if it weren't for the cops, their family member would have been under water for a lot longer. They made it a point to ask why the FD didn't have any dive gear. I'm not sure what the answer was.
For the life of me I can't see why the FD won't take advantage of newer technology like this stuff. I have been told that the fire services are concerned about the danger of water rescues under the surface, which has prompted them to get out of the field. I'm not sure about other jurisdictions on that one, and I'm not trying to be critical of the guys riding the rigs. It seems to me though that this stuff could have well served them in this case and I'm hoping those clip board pilots took note of the situation.
Bottom line is the stuff works well for it's intended use. We will probably be getting some more sets for our remaining divers that will be kept in their assigned vehicles. Kudos to Zeagle for coming up with this system.
