ClusterFlux
Registered
In general my department tends to prefer non-divers over previously certified recreational divers mostly because there won't be any bad habits what we'll have to retrain. We start our training from scratch regardless whatever previous training or certifications a diver might have had. I personally went through this route, and I feel like I had a much easier time with zero vis. conditions then some of the recreationally certified divers we've taught.
We require that everyone pass the IARDS watermanship test prior to starting the class. After a PSD is initially certified they aren't allowed to operate on a call, but have to do a certain amount of training dives and take a a follow up scene management/diver skills class (DRI Dive Rescue 1) before they're allowed to operate outside of training.
As for attrition we have had a handfull of divers drop out of the dive team, but out of 15 or so divers we've certified over the past two academies, we still have 13 of them functioning as fully certified PSDs.
We require that everyone pass the IARDS watermanship test prior to starting the class. After a PSD is initially certified they aren't allowed to operate on a call, but have to do a certain amount of training dives and take a a follow up scene management/diver skills class (DRI Dive Rescue 1) before they're allowed to operate outside of training.
As for attrition we have had a handfull of divers drop out of the dive team, but out of 15 or so divers we've certified over the past two academies, we still have 13 of them functioning as fully certified PSDs.
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