Rescue Diving

[faze]

I agree with the above - it is the best and most demanding course - mine took 4 days plus the ERF and I was totally wasted by the end of day 3! The confidence and calmness it gives you lifts your level of diving to a whole new level - and it has paid dividends for me on one occasion.

It is definitely a course to do when you have a good number of dives under your belt if you want to get the best out of it, but that said my step daughter did her (junior) rescue after 30 dives primarily as a route to significantly lift her diving ability and to get a good grounding in self rescue.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Rescue is my favorite course to teach. If I had one piece of advice to give prospective students, it would be to forestall rescue training until you've mastered your basic skills. There have been times when I've had to review/work on basic skills for some participants of the course prior to digging in to the specific rescue modalities; this is an unfair & unnecessary delay for those who have arrived ready to learn. By "mastery," I mean to actually practice the skills you've learned to that point; it is not enough to simply "go diving." Making dives will increase your overall comfort/confidence in the water & ( hopefully ) improve your buoyancy skills; however, most divers do not revisit the plethora of basic skills they've learned until called upon to do so by an Instructor.

If you accept this advice, you will be well-prepared for the rescue program, you will be appreciated by the others involved, and, importantly, you will be in a position to maximize the learning experience.

Regards,
DSD
PADI MSDT

 

[rhwestfall]

DSD nailed it. While the knowledge part of the certification is useful to all levels, the skills are best layered over a strong base core set. Be proficient to get the most out of the class. A major component of Rescue (at lest what I was involved in) is heading issues/problems off early before they can become a problem. In the unfortunate event something happens, it also imparts the skills to respond effectively. Keep in mind, the best rescue is one that doesn't have to take place.

Get your AOW, get some more dives, then do it. I'm not saying you should go my route (20+ years later), but get some time in the water....

 

[drifter001]

a big thanks to everyone for the tips! i will def wait til i get a few more dives in and obviously my aow but i definitely will be doing my rescue diver cert as well

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I have said this many times before but my personal feeling is that the sooner rescue skills are imparted the better. Under our system they are introduced in the OW class in the form of panicked diver at the surface, non responsive diver from depth, rescue tows while stripping gear, and supporting a diver at the surface and helping them get positive. These are what I consider to be the minimum skills for a Basic Open Water diver and why I teach for an agency that agrees. We also see the need for divers to have these skills at a minimum before starting any advanced training at all including AOW.

I'd rather see them do a comprehensive OW, get some dives in say ten or so like SEI requires, then take Rescue. After that they can specialize. I don't want to dive with anyone, and don't want my students doing advanced dives with anyone, who can't assist a buddy. And that is what is now coming out of OW classes. AOW dives have higher risks and starting an AOW class without the situational awareness and skills one gets for preventing problems is IMO ill advised.

You don't need any of the AOW skills to prevent an overweighted diver from getting in the water. Or to see that someone might be nervous about a particular site or dive. You do need to have an idea of what to look for and how to approach that diver. AOW courses as a rule don't address that. And they should. Mine does. I also find that the rescue course reinforces the lesson that divers need to really plan their dives beyond the ridiculously thin planning lessons they get now in many OW classes.

I find the idea that delaying rescue classes until they take another course or have a bunch of dives in to be shortsighted and dangerous. A number of OW fatalities could have been prevented if the basic rescue skills I noted previously had been passed on to new divers as early as possible. And some would never have happened at all if a rescue class and it's related information had been taken shortly after OW. Divers are not stupid. Agencies need to stop treating them like they are. You don't need perfect buoyancy or to have opened a lock at 90 feet to save a life in the water. You don't need to know how to use a compass to find the bubbles of a missing diver from the surface or get control of a panicked diver.

I love how it seems that an OW diver is not supposed to be able to help a panicked buddy or another diver they come across. What are they supposed to do? Just stand by yelling for a DM or Rescue Diver while the person drowns? Not my students.

 

[rhwestfall]

Agree Jim, but if he hasn't trained under your system, there are root skills that likely need refinement....

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Exactly and why I insisted it be written into the standards for SEI's new Advanced level rating that those who have not trained with us for OW be remediated in them before starting the advanced classes or they be included somewhere in the class. Fortunately that was adopted. Those skills can be done in a one day workshop with some classroom and pool practice easily. I've done it. And once they go through it the lights really seem to go on and the questions in the advanced classes get smarter, more detailed, and less is taken for granted.

 

[Crass3000]

As a scuba newbie, I agree with DSD as well. I'm actually heading to take my open water dives for rescue soon (packing the car now). I really think it's best to practice and get good at bouyancy and exposed to some other aspects of scuba before even thinking about taking rescue. Learn how to take care of yourself in the water first and then the class will be quite a bit easier anyhow. I personally waited until I had my 5 Padi specialties and 60+ (more like closer to 100) dives that you need for Master Scuba. Even at Master Scuba (basically) I realize that there is still tons to learn and my diving could be a lot better but I feel confident enough to the point that I could help someone in danger without putting us both in more danger. You seem to already have way more of a medical background than is needed for the class. By taking the class you would simply be putting a small part of your skills to use in the water.

 

[TMHeimer]

I agree with both Jim and rhwestfall. A comprehensive OW class such as Jim's (which also has basic rescue skills as he describes) would seem to be ideal. As many OW courses obviously fall short of this (time and content wise) as rhwestfall points out, it may at least be practical to include descriptions (and photos) of the basic rescue skills in the OW manuals even if they are not practised in the class. This may seem a shoddy idea, but as Jim points out, divers aren't stupid. And I'm not suggesting that new divers try stuff out on each other since they've read about it, but at least there would be SOME thoughts on what to do in a rescue situation. Well after I finished Rescue I mentioned a few things to my OW buddy. Though I felt pretty confident about my self-rescue skills, I just wanted my buddy to have some idea of what to do if he found me unconcious all of a sudden on the bottom. I suppose adding rescue stuff in a manual without the intention of having it taught in the class could present legal problems, though. I guess this idea is not practical.

 

[Griffo]

I found that Rescue was as much about awareness and self prevention as it is about actual rescue skills. And really is it every too early to learn those skills? However I also believe that if you try to teach too much to a newer diver, than some of it will quickly be forgotten, simply due to information overload and stress. So it might be a little bit about balance, however once again many divers only do a handfull of dives a year, so asking them to wait 20 or 50 dives is far too long.
So my thought would be - do a number of dives with more experienced divers until you have your buoyancy squared away, and a degree of comfort in the water, then go for it. Was the best rec agency course I did.