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.

 

[tursiops]

Are there any known cases of anyone actually performing an PADi “unconscious diver at the surface” rescue?

I just took the rescue diver course and it seems to me that the equipment removal step is time-consuming and a little unnecessary unless you have a very long surface swim. Seems like it’s easier to tow them with their head out of the water if they have a partially inflated BCD on.

It is an exercise, not a mandated way to rescue someone. In fact, the course teaches you to make exactly that evaluation before deciding whether to remove their gear or not. But if you DO need to remove it, you need to know how, thus the exercise

 

[Wookie]

Are there any known cases of anyone actually performing an PADi “unconscious diver at the surface” rescue?

Both in class (combined with surfacing the unconscious diver) as well as multiple times in real life.

 

[ImpotentSeaSnake]

Both in class (combined with surfacing the unconscious diver) as well as multiple times in real life.

In your real life experience was removing all your gear beneficial ?

 

[lowwall]

I just took the rescue diver course and it seems to me that the equipment removal step is time-consuming and a little unnecessary unless you have a very long surface swim. Seems like it’s easier to tow them with their head out of the water if they have a partially inflated BCD on.

In most real life scenarios you won't actually be removing the BCD while both parties are floating in the water. It seems more important than it is because it takes up so much of the in-water training time, but removing gear before you get to a boat or shore is not the default. It should be done only when there is a specific reason for it.Even if you are faced with a long tow, you are most likely better off ditching tank, weights and regs, but leaving the BC on.

The training materials were updated a few years ago to address this directly because so many divers assumed that removing gear was some sort of requirement because that's what they remembered from the skills part of the course.

 

[Edward3c]

Are there any known cases of anyone actually performing an PADi “unconscious diver at the surface” rescue?

I just took the rescue diver course and it seems to me that the equipment removal step is time-consuming and a little unnecessary unless you have a very long surface swim. Seems like it’s easier to tow them with their head out of the water if they have a partially inflated BCD on.

Have a read of the BSAC Annual Incident Reports, then answer you’re own question.