Second attempt at Rescue

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maristu

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Messages
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Location
Brazil
# of dives
200 - 499
I had a bad experience with a Rescue course a couple weeks ago… I won't name names or dive shop or location, that's not the point of this post. What I'd like to know is, what should I expect from a rescue course, as I've signed up for one a month from now, with the instructor that taught a friend of mine and whom I really liked professionally. I'll explain what happened in my first attempt at rescue, I'd love to know what you think and what I should expect from my next one.


First, some background. I've been diving for 6 months, all around Asia, in the most diverse circumstances: good vis and low vis (2m was the lowest), no current and strong crazy whirlpool currents, deep dives, shallow dives, shore dives, boat dives, good buddies, terrible buddies, and even a triggerfish attack :) At the time of my rescue attempt, I had about 60 dives under my belt.


Another important info: I'd been in a "relationship" with my instructor for about a week before we started the course. I didn't expect him to be my instructor (there were other instructors in the shop), and when I learned he was going to teach me I should have asked for a different instructor, but didn't want to make a big deal out of it. So I blame myself for a lot of what happened. Won't happen again.


Here's what happened. First off, I wanted to get a PADI Rescue cert, but they didn't have the material. I was told that an SSI Rescue cert would be as valid as the PADI, and cheaper. Plus, my instructor was originally a PADI instructor who had switched over, and he said he'd follow the PADI guidelines for the OW part of the course. I'm not going into what's better, PADI or SSI (although that would be an interesting topic), but rather illustrating that my theory and my practice weren't the same.


Anyway, after going through all the theory, we started the OW part. When we headed out for our dive, he mentioned to the shop that we'd be back in 2 hours. I told him that was wishful thinking, and that I'm a slow physical learner (from my experience, although I'm really quick with theory) and would probably need longer. He said 2 hours was more than enough. We got in the water, and started the panicked diver on the surface (approach, kicking away, different tows, etc.), which went fine, although, as expected (at least by me), took longer than normal. We then proceeded to the panicked diver under water, which also went ok. My first problem was with panicked diver on an uncontrolled ascent (don't know if that's the right name, basically the diver panics and starts swimming up). First attempt went ok, although I couldn't get him to stop. Second attempt, he grabbed my reg from my mouth. At that point, I tried to get my octopus out and couldn't (my fault, again, for not checking if it was properly hooked and not using the octo clip that I normally use). I TOTALLY panicked and surfaced (we were at about 3m), even though he'd already let go of my first reg and I could have taken it back, or even used one of his regs (they were working fine and I knew it).


Now, I've had my reg kicked out multiple times during dives, and had it pulled out by currents once. It's disconcerting, but I've never panicked and have retrieved it just fine every time. Don't know why I panicked, and I spent the rest of the day beating myself up because of it. We called it a day after that, and decided to continue the next day.


Next day went kind of ok, but I felt off and wasn't really excited about the course at all. Responding from shore was fine, as was bringing an unresponsive diver to the surface. After that we did a search pattern in which I forgot to check my compass for my bearing and ended up doing a slightly curved zig zag pattern. When we finished that, we realized that a current had picked up and ripped the buoy out, so we had to swim against the current, find the reel and the buoy and swim back to where we started. By then I was at about 70 bar and, well, tired. We then did the unresponsive diver underwater, in which I didn't have to search (we didn't have people helping us and I was the only student, so I don't know if we could have done it differently). I found him, brought him up, and started doing rescue breathing and trying to tow him back to the buoy, but after about 15 minutes of this I really wasn't going anywhere (the current was pretty strong), so he told me to stop. I never brought him to the shore, or carried him out of the water to do CPR. He said it was fine, and he didn't feel like being dragged over gravel anyways. We finished on a sour note, I was very disappointed with myself and with the course in general. He handed me my SSI certification, and I never even did my written test. The whole thing just felt… wrong. I ended up handing him my card back before I left. I just don't feel right saying I'm a rescue diver, considering I didn't do all of the scenarios and the ones I did weren't all successful.


So. I'm planning on doing this again, this time with someone I've seen teaching and consider a good instructor (and who I'm not dating!), and in a shop that has more structure and more people available to help out with the course. I'm also doing it PADI, which is what I'm used to (although I really had no problem with SSI). My question is, what should I expect? Is this what the course is usually like? Is it possible to get an extra OW session if I need to? I never expected this to be an easy course, but I do think it should be fun, and it didn't feel fun at all, quite the contrary. I felt that my instructor was very impatient with me, and didn't give me the time I needed to get things right. His comment at the end of the course was that I'd have to do all of these again in order to get my dive master, so it was ok that I didn't do them all during my Rescue. That just sounded… wrong. I don't know.


Anyway, I was left with a sour taste after the course, and am wondering if it's just me, or the instructor, or both.


Sorry for the long post… Just needed to get it off my chest.


Cheers!
 
hang in there...things will get better with practice....
 
I agree taking a rescue course and dating that person at the same time is not a really good idea. The fact that the instructor did not disqualify themselves is a bad sign, at least that is my thinking.

The other thing I am thinking is 2 hours?!? I took rescue a year and a half ago. We had something like 2 nights of class work and class exercises and discussions. We had 2 days of pool work of about 3 hours each (might not have been quite that long but it felt that way). Then we had a full morning and part of an afternoon doing the rescue drills in an open water environment. There were critiques along the way in each session. Also, we had 4 people taking rescue and we had 3 instructors for open water and 4 for the pool work. I think that comes out to about 6 times the water work you had.

Even with all that, I rescue does not give mastery. It merely gives you an idea of what you are supposed to do.
 
I think the relationship may have complicated things some. Often neither person behaves as they normally would if there was not a relationship.

For me Rescue Diver did add additional stress to some basic skills. Even though you know things are simulated, the subject is serious life and death stuff. Losing your regulator while trying to stop another diver's rapid ascent to the surface (even simulated) adds additional stress over getting it knocked out by a stray fin kick.

I am not sure what the exact standards require. Did you show that you know how to perform CPR? Did you show that you knew the methods you can try to use to get a diver out of the water? It sounds like you located the diver, surfaced and started the rescue breaths as expected. Struggling to bring that unresponsive diver to shore in a strong current was probably a great learning experience. What would you really do in that instance? I think one of the most important things to learn from Rescue Diver is when can you do something that really helps and when do you risk having 2 deaths instead of 1.

Rescue Diver is not like the Fire Department. They can not set a requirement that every Rescue Diver be able to carry a body weighing xxx pounds. They can't set a requirement that every diver be able to tow a non-responsive or tired diver a certain distance in a set time. I think the class educates a diver to understand what they are capable of doing...and what they are not capable of doing. I think it also gives a diver a different perspective on how they prepare and conduct their own dives.

Taking the class again is a great idea if it helps you feel more comfortable in your abilities.
 
Whether you took a Padi Rescue course or an SSI rescue course wasn't the issue, it was the instructor. 2hrs for the open water sessions? No way.

Choose a better instructor and don't look back. It really is a good course and, if executed properly, should stress you out a little, wear you out a lot and have you feeling like you actually earned the card.

Good luck on your next attempt!
 
We finished on a sour note, I was very disappointed with myself and with the course in general. He handed me my SSI certification, and I never even did my written test. The whole thing just felt… wrong. I ended up handing him my card back before I left. I just don't feel right saying I'm a rescue diver, considering I didn't do all of the scenarios and the ones I did weren't all successful.

This part here is the more concerning part and should answer your question. It feels like the instructor let you get by without showing that you mastered all the skills. Relationship or not, I wouldn't want a certification that I didn't earn.

Good for you for giving it back.

Whether you go through PADI or SSI again, it sounds like you're doing the right thing by taking the course over.

Hang in there!
 
I agree taking a rescue course and dating that person at the same time is not a really good idea. The fact that the instructor did not disqualify themselves is a bad sign, at least that is my thinking.

The other thing I am thinking is 2 hours?!? I took rescue a year and a half ago. We had something like 2 nights of class work and class exercises and discussions. We had 2 days of pool work of about 3 hours each (might not have been quite that long but it felt that way). Then we had a full morning and part of an afternoon doing the rescue drills in an open water environment. There were critiques along the way in each session. Also, we had 4 people taking rescue and we had 3 instructors for open water and 4 for the pool work. I think that comes out to about 6 times the water work you had.

Even with all that, I rescue does not give mastery. It merely gives you an idea of what you are supposed to do.
I took Rescue from my husband and our schedule was similar to yours. In fact, he hates teaching Rescue because it so time intensive compared to anything else except for DM.
OP- rescue class should be longer, with pool work and more time spent on skills than you experienced. At least IMO.
oh, we didn't have much current but my buddy was 14 inches taller and 100 lbs heavier than me. And I did have to pull him out of the water.
i got to do it all again, same buddy, for the DM course. No halfway stuff. It's a good way to show yourself that you can do it, before you might have to.
 
Just to clarify, it was 2hours (ended up being 3) of "pool" sessions (which we did in shallow water at the beach since there was no pool), and then about 3-4 hours of open water the next day. I actually asked him at the end of the second day if we could just do it again the next day, so I'd feel more comfortable. He said he'd have to charge me more.

my biggest problem wasn't that I got things wrong, but rather that there was little to no correction, and no possibility of trying again because of the short time. It just felt frustrating, I KNOW I can do better (and yes, I'm a perfectionist and slightly OCD :) ). Also, his reaction at my "failures" was off putting. For example, I had difficulties orally inflating his BCD. Instead of stopping and showing me how to do it, or giving me tips or whatever, his reaction was to say he couldn't believe I passed ow without knowing how to do that. Well, OF COURSE I learned it in ow. Doesn't mean it's easy and I remember after months of not doing it. It was just such a condescending and UNHELPFUL comment (and there were more like that throughout the course) that by the end I felt like the worst diver in the world. Took me a couple of dives after that to get my confidence back...

glad to know it's not normal to have such a short time for skills and scenarios. I'll also make sure to go over everything with the dive shop and instructor for my next attempt. Thanks for all the support!
 
I agree with what has previously been said about SSI/PADI...not the issue. I did Rescue with an SDI shop a few years ago, and didn't really feel I got much from it (minimal theory, limited pool, weak OW). I don't know much about SDI, but by extrapolating TDI's reputation it's unlikely to be the organisation so much as the shop/instructor that was the problem.

I did it again with my current (SSI) shop (it was included free with another course, so I thought it couldn't hurt to repeat the drills) and it was far better... couldn't have been more different. On both the pool and OW sessions we had multiple instructors and DiveCons, plus a bunch of DM trainees to play victims. Each drill was practiced repeatedly, with different victims/partners/etc to ensure competency (?mastery?). Overall, we did about 6 hours each of pool and OW.

I felt this was a vastly better experience, I learnt heaps more, and felt more confident. I know this translates into better rescue skills, as I have used them effectively, and would not have been properly equipped to after my first time round.

It's worth persisting, and finding a good shop/instructor...it makes all the difference to the value and fun of courses.

BTW...rescue should be exhausting (dealing with fatigue and task-loading makes you a better diver), but it's also kinda fun in a slightly masochistic way.
Hope you have a good experience next time. :)

Dave.
 
Maristu - I'm sorry for your troubles! Please do not give up. The first thing I do in my rescue courses is thank the students for spending their money & their precious time in the service of their fellow divers, by learning how to help them in times of trouble.

It's been said in Forums for a very long time now - "Research your Instructor very carefully." Before you do anything else, do that.

Ask the Instructors you interview, amongst other things, exactly how their course is run & where the o/w portion is done. I teach all my rescue programs in a large, private quarry - no current, no waves. People need that kind of no-stress environment to learn the techniques - a process that is stressful enough in & of itself.

The program should build from the simple to the more complex - a "stepladder of learning" if you will, where each new skill builds upon the previous skills. Arduous rescue drills must be followed by physically easier learning to allow students time to rest & re-energize. Above all, the process must be...FUN! Yes, we are dealing with a serious subject, but that does not mean the learning must be draconian; there is plenty of opportunity throughout the program to have some laughs & enjoy the skills. People will remember more if their memories are pleasant - and remembering what to do in an emergency is key to saving life.

Do your homework, find a good Instructor, know what you will be asked to do & where you'll be doing it, then jump right in! Have some fun, relax, and let the learning happen.

Regards,
DSD
 
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