Rescue Diver - PADI Standards

[Bernie_U]

Question to all PADI professionals: What are the minimum required skill demonstrations of a PADI Rescue Diver course?

I have two copies of the PADI Rescue Diver Manual, German edition: The older one from 1993 lists all exercises / skill demonstrations in detail. The most recent one, revision no. 6 of 2020, does not. Unlike SDI, PADI do not make their standards publicly available, confer to SDI document paragraph 11.11 for better understanding what I am looking for. At least, I have not found the PADI standards yet - your help is very much appreciated.

Background of my request: I obtained both OWD and AOWD certifications from PADI, so it would make sense to continue with PADI's Rescue Diver instead of the SDI Rescue Diver, for example. However, after talking with two local PADI centers, I am a bit unhappy with the way they teach the Rescue Diver. In particular, they spend a lot of time with full-blown rescue exercises from A to Z. I cannot find that requirement in the PADI standards of 1993, but these might have changed since then. If the full-blown rescue was not mandatory, it would be negotiable and could be replaced by another content that fits my needs better - provided that I can gather enough students who share my interests to fill the class.

 

[VikingDives]

I'm not teaching for PADI anymore, but I doubt you'll find anyone who doesn't spend a lot of time working on the dive rescue exercise. It has a lot of things that have to be done, it takes time to memorize and execute, and the dive rescue exercise has to be conducted again as a divemaster and again as an instructor trainee. It's just one of those things that PADI has fixed on as being very necessary if you're going to continue on in your professional education, and tbh, I've seen a number of rescues and they all had elements of the DRE in them.

PADI's rescue diver is a good class, and it's usually quite fun for the instructors and students. You'll learn a lot, and you will be a better diver for the effort.

When I teach SDI rescue, I use the PADI class exercises as the basis of my training. I think it's probably PADI's most well-thought-out recreational class.

 

[Edward3c]

Thanks! I hope so, too. Dive accidents can cause psychic traumas to the rescuer or witness, so it is best to never experience one.

I have heard a few voices saying that the Rescue Diver could be fun. I have no clue what the funny parts might be, but it could change my mind.

@Edward3c: I had a look at the BSAC scheme and it looks that some basic rescue stuff is integral part of the regular diver curriculum. SCUBA clubs can go this way, but commercial schools cannot because they compete by price. The German CMAS division does so as well and offers additional rescue workshops that deal with dry-suits, cutting backplate harnesses and so on. But BSAC is probably way ahead in this regard.

BSAC has commercial centres in the UK and overseas, plus BSAC Egypt appear to be competing quite well with PADI/SSI.

But, yes, Ocean Diver included some rescue, navigation, nitrox and drysuit (if taken in one). All additional income streams with the other agencies. But then we teach people to go diving with us; not train and forget.

 

[tursiops]

I believe that most candidates fail in the sense that they skip certain actions from the manual, perform the skills incorrectly and so on.

That leads to the conclusion that the certification is the reward for mental survival and physical exhaustion

Pure BS. You are making this up. You have no knowledge of the actual class to base this on. You are effectively saying that most instructors ignore the standards. That is libel.

 

[Puppeteer]

I recently did my PADI Rescue Diver course.

The required subject areas are very similar to the document you linked to. I think PADI refer to shallow water blackout as opposed to surface drowning syndrome.

Section 2 is pretty much identical to the material covered by PADI. We didn't discuss much about Access to hyperbaric chambers, except that it's required for decompression injury, and we discussed where nearby ones were.

For the demonstrated skills, we had to demonstrate removing a diver from the water by ourselves, both at the pool session and the open water session, but we were able to use an aid in the group rescue scenarios (ie a distressed diver, and our search and recovery exercises.)

The in water exercises we did included:
Pool session
--------------
Surface Tows
Gear removal
Search patterns (and navigation skills)
Panicked diver
Unconscious diver management, surface and bottom
Remove diver from the water
In water cpr

Open Water
--------------
Panicked diver (team exercise plus one on one exercises)
Out of air
Vertigo Challenge
Underwater search and recovery
Unresponsive diver underwater
Unresponsive diver surface
Surface Tows
Oxygen unit training

I may have forgotten a skill or 2, but that's what I recall from August.

It was challenging, but a huge amount of fun. I learnt a new appreciation of why it's important to understand the other diver's releases in pre-dive checks.

 

[SpeedyJ]

What are your more specific needs?

 

[crofrog]

Question to all PADI professionals: What are the minimum required skill demonstrations of a PADI Rescue Diver course?

I have two copies of the PADI Rescue Diver Manual, German edition: The older one from 1993 lists all exercises / skill demonstrations in detail. The most recent one, revision no. 6 of 2020, does not. Unlike SDI, PADI do not make their standards publicly available, confer to SDI document paragraph 11.11 for better understanding what I am looking for. At least, I have not found the PADI standards yet - your help is very much appreciated.

Background of my request: I obtained both OWD and AOWD certifications from PADI, so it would make sense to continue with PADI's Rescue Diver instead of the SDI Rescue Diver, for example. However, after talking with two local PADI centers, I am a bit unhappy with the way they teach the Rescue Diver. In particular, they spend a lot of time with full-blown rescue exercises from A to Z. I cannot find that requirement in the PADI standards of 1993, but these might have changed since then. If the full-blown rescue was not mandatory, it would be negotiable and could be replaced by another content that fits my needs better - provided that I can gather enough students who share my interests to fill the class.

Why are you not interested in scenario based training?

 

[tursiops]

Question to all PADI professionals: What are the minimum required skill demonstrations of a PADI Rescue Diver course?

I have two copies of the PADI Rescue Diver Manual, German edition: The older one from 1993 lists all exercises / skill demonstrations in detail. The most recent one, revision no. 6 of 2020, does not. Unlike SDI, PADI do not make their standards publicly available, confer to SDI document paragraph 11.11 for better understanding what I am looking for. At least, I have not found the PADI standards yet - your help is very much appreciated.

Background of my request: I obtained both OWD and AOWD certifications from PADI, so it would make sense to continue with PADI's Rescue Diver instead of the SDI Rescue Diver, for example. However, after talking with two local PADI centers, I am a bit unhappy with the way they teach the Rescue Diver. In particular, they spend a lot of time with full-blown rescue exercises from A to Z. I cannot find that requirement in the PADI standards of 1993, but these might have changed since then. If the full-blown rescue was not mandatory, it would be negotiable and could be replaced by another content that fits my needs better - provided that I can gather enough students who share my interests to fill the class.

The standards are simple:

Certification Requirements​

Student divers meet course performance requirements and:​

• Complete five knowledge development segments​

and exam.​

• Demonstrate skills from the Self-Rescue Review​

either in confined or open water.​

• Demonstrate skills from Rescue Exercises 1-10 in​

open water.​

• Participate in Rescue Scenarios 1 and 2 in open​

water.​

• Prepare an emergency assistance plan for a dive site.​

There are other standards regarding depth, prerequisites, forms, materials, ratios, and supervision.

The Performance Requirements involve Self-Rescue, and then ten Rescue Exercises, done in open water, not confied/pool. they may be introduced and practiced in confined water, but then must be redone in openwater. The material covers:

1. Tired Diver
2. Panicked Diver
3. Response from shore, boat, or dock of a responsive diver
4. Distressed Diver Underwater
5. Missing Diver
6. Surfacing the Unresponsive Diver
7. Unresponsive Diver at the Surface
8. Exiting the Unresponsive Diver
9. First Aid and O2 Administration
10. response from shore/boat to Unresponsive Diver (non-breathing) diver at the surface.

Then there are two Rescue Scenarios, done in open water (not a pool). The combination of these two scenarios is, indeed, a full blown rescue, which apparently you do not want to do.

Just what is it you DO want to do, and think a rescue class should contain?

 

[Bernie_U]

Thank you very much for all the detailed answers! Now it is clear to me that the dive rescue exercise is standard and not negotiable.

To answer your questions:

• I think that the PADI Rescue Diver contains much more than I really need, and I would like to focus on what is related to my diving. As we would spend only two days in a pool and one day in open water, our time should be used for the most relevant topics.
• Both PADI instructors I talked with about the course content emphasized how exhausting the training will be. I wonder why the goal is to get to your physical limits while or after diving. To prevent the rescuer from taking a DCS hit, I wish to learn energy-saving techniques.
• The second thing I stumbled upon was the advice to perform the open water exercises in a wet suit, because it is so wearisome and we would overheat in a dry-suit. Problem is: My buddies and I dive all year round in a dry-suit. In case of a real accident, I would need to rescue the victim while wearing a dry-suit, and most likely the victim would wear a dry-suit, too.
• Over 90% of my diving happens while many other divers are present on site. I would not have to bring a victim to the surface, then tow him or her 500 meters to the shore and do 15min of CPR, all alone and on my own. It might happen that I had to bring the victim to the surface and another rescuer takes over. Maybe I need to tow a victim to the lakefront, but then others will drag him or her out. And so on. That's all covered in the smaller exercises, see the list of ten items posted by @tursiops.

In understand that different people have different needs, and the majority wants to practice as many scenarios and types of emergencies as possible. I am not that ambitiuous, don't want to become a PADI professional either. I like the idea of the Pareto Principle, i.e. covering 80% of the emergencies I might encounter with only 20% of the known rescue skills. However, to remember these most relevant skills years after the Rescue course, I would invest more time to repeat and improve them. That's why I asked whether the Rescue Scenarios might be skipped.

 

[Miyaru]

Over 90% of my diving happens while many other divers are present on site. I would not have to bring a victim to the surface, then tow him or her 500 meters to the shore and do 15min of CPR, all alone and on my own. It might happen that I had to bring the victim to the surface and another rescuer takes over. Maybe I need to tow a victim to the lakefront, but then others will drag him or her out. And so on.

Unfortunately, you have little choice in which conditions you might encounter during a real rescue.

When 20 people watch an accident happen, there will be hesitation who will actually be the first one to help. If there are only 3 bystanders, chances are much higher that one of them will help without hesitating. This is human behavior and happens all the time.

The goal of the Rescue course is to give you the knowledge and practice to rescue a diver in various circumstances. The circumstances you describe, might not exist when you have to rescue your buddy while diving at a holiday location.

Yes, the course is physically demanding, although you won't have to drag a victim half a kilometer back to the shore. If you're healthy and fit, the stamina required for the rescue course won't be a problem for you.