Rescue Cert, is it truly a must have cert, or not?

[Wibble]

Situational awareness, was a big part of my Solo course.

Was your Solo Diver "course" a whole two days?

Rescue diver is considerably longer and includes EFR and a whole load of other things. At least mine was and it was taught in the conditions I dive in — cold, poor vis, sea. The search and recover/rescue was one of many highlights.

My solo "course" really didn’t teach me anything I didn’t already know. Not me being clever, just me being prepared and fully dived up taking the Solo "course" after normoxic trimix.

 

[happy-diver]

I learnt oxygen administration from a book have all the gear with me always

I learnt to rescue myself from drowning doing millions of dives in the ocean

I learnt to swim away from other divers quickly having spent plenty of years
watching how unsuitable to ocean immersion and selfish, you have become

Imagine paying money to be tortured by people that know less than you do

I five years ago did a solo course, where I also learnt nothing except through
gritted teeth for a couple of days to subject myself to people unsuited to me

So knock me back if you're in need, I'm selfish and struggle to rescue myself

Step off the shelf into 14 metres and surrounded by crays that I never take

Magnificent!

 

[Brett Hatch]

One thing that was very strongly reinforced in my rescue course was: do not put yourself in danger, no matter how much another person needs help. The instruction includes (for lack of a better word) a mini-course on in-water hand to hand combat, which is intended to help you gain and maintain control over a panicked diver. Once you are in control of them, you can assist them.

Divers who are unconscious, have a small injury, or are just tired can be treated differently, but panicked divers are extremely dangerous. This experience was an eye-opener for me, and will really make me think twice before swimming over to somebody who's thrashing.

 

[SlugLife]

One thing that was very strongly reinforced in my rescue course was: do not put yourself in danger, no matter how much another person needs help. The instruction includes (for lack of a better word) a mini-course on in-water hand to hand combat, which is intended to help you gain and maintain control over a panicked diver. Once you are in control of them, you can assist them.

Divers who are unconscious, have a small injury, or are just tired can be treated differently, but panicked divers are extremely dangerous. This experience was an eye-opener for me, and will really make me think twice before swimming over to somebody who's thrashing.

As one of those people who enjoys armchair speculation in the Accidents and Incidents section, each time I see two divers died in a single incident, I'm reminded that one diver's actions probably caused (had significant influence) on the death of the other diver. For example panic behavior, encouraging/leading another diver to go beyond their training, using up both their own air and their buddy's air.

That's why unless I have prior good experiences with a dive buddy, I treat it as "solo-diving with a buddy hazard."

 

[FishWatcher747]

.... I have no desire to lug someone out of the water (in a not real situation) at my age. I have bad knees and a bad back.

During my Rescue Diver course (I'm older than you) I told my instructor I was having a gimpy knee and didn't think I should do the fireman's carry of a 200 pound classmate of mine from the water onto the beach. He was fine with that and I just demonstrated how to sling the classmate's arms over my shoulders while they were chest high in the water.

The other physical part was standing on a dock reaching over to grab a victims arms, pretend they are a tea bag and dunk them up and down a few times to gain momentum to lift them high enough to get them on the dock. This wasn't a problem for me but might be for someone who has a bad back. Hard to imagine you are shore diving and would have a problem with this however.

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

Hard to imagine you are shore diving and would have a problem with this however.

Oh ya, bad back, and I lug a steel 100Hp and all the lead needed for my drysuit. Some rocky entries, are tricky. Throw in, I am slinging a 30cu; that's a lot of weight.

 

[FishWatcher747]

Oh ya, bad back, and I lug a steel 100Hp and all the lead needed for my drysuit. Some rocky entries, are tricky. Throw in, I am slinging a 30cu; that's a lot of weight.

As I said, it is fine if you don't want to do the Rescue course. But to use the excuse that you shouldn't do the fireman's carry out of the water onto the beach as the reason you won't do it is silly.

My instructor was fine with me not doing it. Now the reality is if I had to do it in a real situation I'm sure I could without hurting myself.

 

[GameChanger]

I thought RD was a fun course. Yes, it also had serious material to learn and practice, but the actual course was a blast! I did my RD course in my mid 60's and it was not a challenge physically for me.

 

[yle]

I opted for SDI Solo. Self rescue being a part of that. Ya gotta be motivated, to want to take a Solo or Self Reliant course. Skills should be pretty darn good too. 60 dives to take Rescue, 100 for Solo.

You do have a good point here. Most students in a rescue diver course are nowhere near ready for a solo course, so I would assume there are very few that do rescue after doing solo. There would be a lot of overlap between the two courses: situational awareness, problem solving under stress, self-rescue. The only new stuff you would get from the rescue course would be standard strategies for recognizing and solving other divers' problems.

 

[FishWatcher747]

I opted for SDI Solo. Self rescue being a part of that. Ya gotta be motivated, to want to take a Solo or Self Reliant course. Skills should be pretty darn good too. 60 dives to take Rescue, 100 for Solo.

The SDI solo course and the Rescue Course are really different. I have taken both. It is true that many people including me took Rescue with very little experience, just OW and AOW and 30 dives in my case. The focus is not on self rescue. The focus is recognizing problems in others to avoid a rescue and actually rescuing someone.

The SDI solo course as you know is about demonstrating mastery of self sufficient skills, carrying redundant equipment and knowing how to rescue yourself.

If you now took Rescue you would most certainly be the best diver in the class but the focus is not on your diving it is about potentially saving another diver. There are lots of scenarios in the course that are eye opening that have nothing to do with Solo.