Soon-to-be certified diver looking for a dive team

[medic_diver45]

Hello All,
My name's Steve and I am a respiratory therapist by profession and a volunteer firefighter/Intermediate EMT currently stuck in the wasteland that is Indiana. I am trying to figure out where to go once my fiancee graduates from college in May, and I was hoping some of you all might have some suggestions for me:

Some of the stipulations would be:
1. A dive team that isn't run exclusively by the state police and/or DNR (as is the case here in IN- they take 2-4 hrs to show up and then they complain about never finding a live one; the one save we have had in recent years was from another firefighter and I arrived on the scene and pulled a woman from a submerged car- actually he got her out and I just help tow her to shore); this criterion is why I posted on here

2. A 4 year college nearby/within decent driving distance (30-40 minutes) (I need to finish my degree)

3. Volunteer fire department and/or ambulance service

4. Not going to cost an arm and a leg to live (I would be great to work with an awesome dive team and have beautiful water to dive in, but if it's gonna cost $600+ a month just for rent it's not feasible.)

Anybody have any suggestions? I'd like to stay away from really big cities (although having one within driving distance wouldn't be bad). I would appreciate any assistance or suggestions that you might have. My fiancee and I have had a hard time finding nice places to move too.

Stephen Richey, CRT, EMT-I/D

 

[Gary D.]

Hello All,
My name's Steve and I am a respiratory therapist by profession and a volunteer firefighter/Intermediate EMT currently stuck in the wasteland that is Indiana. I am trying to figure out where to go once my fiancee graduates from college in May, and I was hoping some of you all might have some suggestions for me:

Some of the stipulations would be:
1. A dive team that isn't run exclusively by the state police and/or DNR (as is the case here in IN- they take 2-4 hrs to show up and then they complain about never finding a live one; the one save we have had in recent years was from another firefighter and I arrived on the scene and pulled a woman from a submerged car- actually he got her out and I just help tow her to shore); this criterion is why I posted on here

2. A 4 year college nearby/within decent driving distance (30-40 minutes) (I need to finish my degree)

3. Volunteer fire department and/or ambulance service

4. Not going to cost an arm and a leg to live (I would be great to work with an awesome dive team and have beautiful water to dive in, but if it's gonna cost $600+ a month just for rent it's not feasible.)

Anybody have any suggestions? I'd like to stay away from really big cities (although having one within driving distance wouldn't be bad). I would appreciate any assistance or suggestions that you might have. My fiancee and I have had a hard time finding nice places to move too.

Stephen Richey, CRT, EMT-I/D

Hi Stephen;
Search the web for "Diving Eutopia".

You are requesting more than the president would with his finger on the red button.

You didn't mention the type of certification you will have in the future. If it is your basic OW forget 99.9% of your request and accept what you get. Nobody starts at the top. If you try it's a long fall to the floor or a quick trip to a grave.

Gary D.

 

[bridgediver]

interesting... You are basically looking to move somewhere so that you can become a PSD? I don't know why anyone would want it that bad unless you've already had some training in which case why not improve the situation where you are already at?

 

[medic_diver45]

I'm going to get at very least my PADI Advanced Open Water with specialties in search and recovery, night diving, nitrox and deep diving. I might go for my Divemaster credential once I gain enough experience (also depends on how much time I can spare) What else would be helpful as far as specialties go? I don't mind starting out at the bottom (no pun intended) since I don't have any experience but I don't want to start out at the bottom with a team that has lots of problems. If I am going to be putting my life in their hands, I had better be able to trust them and work with them. I am taking diving very seriously, as seriously as I do when I go in a burning building with the fire department.

 

[bridgediver]

maybe I'll let Gary offer you some guidance here as he's been at it alot longer than I and he lives in the US but I will offer this.
PSD diving is almost always like "diving in black coffee" (or at least it becomes so) - if you don't like doing that, chances are you won't like PSD.
PSD diving is completely different from anything a recreational training agency can offer ie padi, naui so those certs aren't really applicable to PSD. They're good to have for normal diving but not the right tool for the job IMO.
Gary?

 

[medic_diver45]

It's not that I am looking for somewhere to move just to become a PSD, it's that I would like to know what places have good PSD teams so that I can become involved. It is just one of the factors I am looking at and I was just wanting to know people's opinions.

As for improving the local situation, you have to kind of understand the politics of Indiana emergency services. Basically the people in Indianapolis who control the funding for any sort of emergency services have this few that we here in west central Indiana are served just fine by the Dept. of Natural Resources and Indiana State Police dive teams. They don't seem to see the need to get to the scene quickly. (A lights and siren response by the ISP or DNR divers to a water emergency is practically unheard of around here).

We (several others and myself including a local dive instructor who offered to train us) tried unsuccessfully to garner funding from any source (state, county, city, private, etc) imaginable with no luck. No one seems to view a dive team as that urgent. Of course they take almost the same approach to fire suppression, emergency medical services, law enforcement, public health, and public utilities. Until it get someone close to a member of the state or local government killed or seriously injured, you can forget about trying to go about changing the status quo.

The "good ol' boy" and the "we've always done it this way, and that's how we're gonna keep doin' it (even if it doesn't work)" systems are not restricted to the southern US- actually a lot of the southern states have their ducks in a row a whole lot more than Indiana does. Now do you see why I want to run screaming?

 

[medic_diver45]

I'm quite used to black water work (granted, it's only been while skin diving- I used to make extra money fishing golf balls out of the water traps at the local golf courses which entails basically feeling for the balls on the bottom cause visibility is about 4-8 inches) so I think I am comfortable working in it.

 

[bridgediver]

killed or seriously injured, you can forget about trying to go about changing the status quo.

The "good ol' boy" and the "we've always done it this way, and that's how we're gonna keep doin' it (even if it doesn't work)" systems are not restricted to the southern US- actually a lot of the southern states have their ducks in a row a whole lot more than Indiana does. Now do you see why I want to run screaming?

I think I do understand where you're coming from. This type of attitude towards any rescue work is pretty much everywhere in varying degrees. You hit the nail on the head about people need to die before things change - thats how our team was formed. Some areas may have a great water rescue program but are lacking in other areas like high angle etc (or the other way around). Its a risk management thing and nobody is saying that these guys are right in their decisions. Thats the unfortunate truth of the matter.
I've worked for a few different departments now and the issues may differ somewhat but it is always the same underlying problem of not enough cash for all the possible programs.

remember - the grass is always greener?

 

[teknitroxdiver]

This has already been said a little, but I'll repeat for emphasis. If you're a new diver you DO NOT want to be in pea soup looking for a body in a car, which happens to be in a river with some serious current, along with lots of pointy rocks and big limbs. Nope, nada, negatory. Get some experience, take a PSD course, then go for it.

 

[cornfed]

This has already been said a little, but I'll repeat for emphasis. If you're a new diver you DO NOT want to be in pea soup looking for a body in a car, which happens to be in a river with some serious current, along with lots of pointy rocks and big limbs. Nope, nada, negatory. Get some experience, take a PSD course, then go for it.

While PADI, NAUI or any of the other recreational training won't prepare you for PSD work I don't see why you should wait to join a team. Why? Well it is completely different then recreational diving for one thing. What will he learn by swimming around a reef looking at fish? Second, his fire department experience will likely provide better preperation for what he'll experience and helpl him dealing with the lack of visibility and and other stressful things he'll encounter.

Stephen, I know of a couple places like you talk about. I'm sure there are others but these are the only two I have any experience with. One is the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad in Charlottesville, VA. They are a very active rescue squad but their dive team doesn't see much action. I was not a member but volunteered at a neighboring fire department and ran quite a few calls with them. The second is the Montgomery Country MD Fire Department. The county is a combination volunteer/career system with a few very strong volunteer stations. Volunteers can join the specialtiy teams but there is some political red tap involved. I have heard of several people that have but don't know any of them personally. One of the volunteers at my station started the process to join the dive team. He did not complete the process but I'm not sure why. There are several volunteer fire companies in Anne Arundal county (near the area which surrounds Annapolis, MD) which claim on their websites to have dive teams but I don't know anything more than what they have posted.

I'm not telling you this to entice you to move here. I'm simply trying to show that what you're looking for does exist. Good luck in your search.