Thanks for the suggestions. I took my open water about twenty years ago and my Advanced instructor isn't teaching anymore.
I can get the harness off myself but had heard there was a scenario where you are dragged up to the beach unconscious and your buddy has to remove it. In this situation it would have to be cut. I keep the shears on my chest strap because they are a lot better at this task than a knife.
Also I want an instructor that is going to be focussing on doing the best job possible teaching me, not whether or not they agree with my chosen gear set up.
There is no rescue scenario where you would drag a diver up a beach in their B/C-harness. So as long as you can get into and out of your own harness unassisted, you would be fine. You should plan to take a CPR course before the rescue class.
If I were rescuing someone in a very tight harness, I would use my very sharp knife to cut them out of it, yes, at the right time.
Here is the general rescue procedure that you will learn and practice many times in the course until it becomes second nature, in case you are interested:
Bring the victim to the surface, if submerged and unconscious. [Several ways to do this.]
Put the victim on his/her back on the surface, if unconscious, and fully inflate his/her wing-B/C as well as your own.
Ditch the victim's weights/belt and your own. [These days, this sometimes means dealing with their crotch strap, whether unbuckling it or slitting it with your knife.]
[Remove your glove and ...] Check the victim's neck/carotid for a pulse. If there is a pulse, check for breathing.
{This is why I always keep my right glove, right wrist, and right arm completely unincumbered by any wrist gauges, compasses, or slates etc.}
Begin resuscitative breathing if necessary, if you found a pulse [several ways to do this].
Continue resuscitative breathing [if you found a pulse] as you tow the victim to shore or to a boat.
Call for help as you approach the shore/boat.
When you get close to the shore/boat, ditch the victim's B/C-harness, and hand him/her over to the boat crew, or else also ditch your own harness and remove your own fins as well and carry the victim up onto shore [several ways to do this]. I prefer to toss my own fins up onto shore or keep them hung onto my wrists, when I do this, and keep my mask on my face or around my neck as well.
{This is why you always need a sharp knife or sharp shears with you when you scuba dive, among other reasons, because you might need to cut a victim out of their harness, or cut off your own harness if you cannot get out of it by yourself.}
Place the victim on the dry sand, and begin CPR if there was no pulse, and send for help.
Continue CPR & resuscitative breathing as you await the EMT response unit.
After the EMTs arrive and take over, tell them what happened.
Then go back and get your gear and the victim's gear, both of which are hopefully floating in the cove, since you hopefully remembered to inflate both wings/BCs completely when you ditched them. If not, then you are going to need to freedive for them, in which case it is nice if your fins and your mask are handy still.
Give the victim's gear to the police and provide a signed statement of the incident.
Talk to somebody about everything that happened, and don't blame yourself if the victim does not recover. Good buddy procedures on your part should excuse you from any blame, if something happens with your buddy, like a heart attack or stroke, siezure or unconsciousness, deep water CO2 black-out or CCR/SCR malfunction, etc. There are always lots of things that could go wrong out in the water.
