SSI Stress & Rescue class details?

[greymatterfan]

Hello all -

New to the board (posting, but not reading!), and relatively new to diving, although I've been interested in scuba for a long time.

I'm trying to gain a better understanding of what a top-notch stress & rescue class should consist of, because recently we took an SSI stress & rescue class and had the misfortune of taking what ending up being a 'bare-bones' type class that didn't leave us feeling very capable of actually helping in a rescue situation. For the record, I'm not really interesting in racking up "specialty stickers" in my dive log, I genuinely want to be prepared in an emergency situation and am trying to fill in the gaps here and may decide that we should re-take the class with another instructor...

Our class, which took place in one night (30 mins classroom and 2 hours pool, then open-water in a 2 hour block a few weeks later) consisted of the following tasks:

Classroom:

Revisited the material we had read on our own in the SSI book, basic discussion of recognizing stress before & during the dive.

Pool session:

Surface swim 30ish laps in the pool, in full gear, to simulate exertion resulting from a typical dive

Tows:

tank tow
foot tow
float tow
arm hook tow

Panic diver on surface: (covered 2 ways to get them in a tow position)
1) splash water in face and then lunge
2) attempt to go under them / behind them and then latch on & tow

If you encounter unconscious diver below the surface:
Inflate BC and float them to the surface
(During open water, we also did a brief "descend and find the unconscious diver" exercise)

I wish I had more to list off, but I'm afraid that's about the extent of what we did in the class. After doing a lot of reading here on the board, I see that a better class would have probably covered more scenarios and probably utilized different techniques for getting an unconscious diver to the surface ,along with a lot of other useful info. We didn't even talk about any sort of rescue breathing, which surprised me.. As a matter of fact, the instructor never even entered the pool.

I'd love to hear the details of your stress & rescue classes, including scenarios you covered and tips / tricks you picked up on that seemed especially useful. I've actually already contacted SSI asking for these details but haven't heard anything back from them and it's been 2 months, so I'm hoping the community here can help me gain a better understanding of what we missed out on.

Any instructors / students have help / info / insight? Should we try to get a refund?

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

NAUI required a CPR/First Aid course as well. We did rescue breathing during tows and there was some discussion if it is more prudent to just get the diver to shore/boat and then start breathing. Let's see, removal of all equipment and CESA in 20' return and replace gear, mask last. Search patterns, removal of injured diver weights and gear, dealing with a panic diver underwater, standard tired diver tows like in OW, panicked diver on surface, swims, all skills as skin diver/scuba diver. Classroom was about 3 hours for rescue and about 4 for CPR/First Aid. All skills done in the ocean (Gulf) That's what I can recall at the moment.

BTW you want to use a controlled ascent if possible with an unconscious diver, not just float them up by there BC.

 

[sladerer]

Just finished the classroom and pool sessions of the SSI Diver Stress and Rescue class. In addition
to the items you covered in the pool, we did shared air swims, shared air swims where air was
turned off, had air turned off by surprise, skills practice with various mask/reg/air stresses (ripped off/out,
turned off), buddy breathing "musical tanks", various panicked/tired/unconscious diver rescues/assists. It
sounds like your instructors were either lazy or inexperienced. We haven't done the OW piece yet, but we've
been told to expect 3 to 4 hours of search patterns, rescues, etc.

 

[waynne fowler]

yeah bro... you pretty much got hosed. I don't even think that covers the minimum standards.. I'll have to check that but a 30 minute classroom is BS plain and simple no matter what the min S&P's are. I'll look it up tomorrow and post here. If you feel cheated (and IMO you should) I'd be talking to the shop owner and the instructor to see if the situation can't be rectified somehow to everyone's satisfaction. Most Instructors WANT to do a good job for you, if it was a simple case of in experience it'll be made right. If not, well, perhaps it's time to seek instruction from someone else.
if they did not meet standards and you discuss it with them yet they insist that you should be happy let them know you intend to complain to SSI. Well..... if indeed you do intend to do so.

 

[ohmdiver]

Not only have I taken the SSI Stress and Rescue I often participate as a "stressed diver" during the pool sessions and open water portions. This is one of my favorite thing to do.


We spend 1-1/2 in the classroom +/- and about the same ina pool, the NEXT day is open water drills (weather permitting) This is typically an all day event. I would not have enjoyed your experiance. But as stated earlier it is more the instructor than the agency...

 

[Seaduced]

I'd love to hear the details of your stress & rescue classes, including scenarios you covered and tips / tricks you picked up on that seemed especially useful. I've actually already contacted SSI asking for these details but haven't heard anything back from them and it's been 2 months, so I'm hoping the community here can help me gain a better understanding of what we missed out on.

Any instructors / students have help / info / insight? Should we try to get a refund?

We had to have CPR/First Aid completed before we were signed off on Stress and Rescue, but not necessarily before the class. The book work was completed before class. In class we reviewed the book material for about an hour, then spent 3 hours discussing scenarios and actions. That weekend, as we walked into the pool area, one of the instructors jumped into the pool and started "drowning." I tried to use my wetsuit as a 'rope' to have him grab it, but he was in the center of the pool. We failed to save him, miserably. We weren't supposed to go in without gear on, so we didn't.

For four hours we swam a few lengths of the pool in gear, practiced mask floods/removals/clearing, air shares, OOA (they turned off our air, while squatting in the shallow end, so we could get the feel of going OOA), doffing/donning our gear submerged/surfaced, retrieving panicked divers and divers from the bottom, tows, in water gear removal and lifting the diver out of the pool. We had five students in the class, so it was easier.

During the open water dives, I was the only student, so they took it easy on me... well sort of. While I was down on a pleasure dive, one of the instructors swam a long way away from the boat. A loooong way... When I was back aboard (I didn't even see him) and eating a snack, they yelled "pizza, pizza!" He was "drowning." I grabbed my mask, snorkel and fins, another instructor handed me a life ring and in I went. That's the longest distance I have swum that hard. Calmed him down, inflated his BC and towed him back... at a much slower pace.

During the second dive, the instructor said follow me to a group of us, after swimming about 20 minutes and doing several turns, he turns to me and signals, "where's the boat?" Fortunately, I was paying attention. Even though the viz was bad and I couldn't find the anchor line, must have swam within 20 feet of it though, we surfaced about 30 feet past the boat.

After I'm on board again, during roll call, we came up short a diver (another instructor). The Dive Con, looks at me and says, "find him." Thankfully, I spotted bubbles not that far away, donned my gear and back in I went. He was face down on the bottom. I waved my hand in his face, tapped on the shoulder, no response. I got behind him, put one hand on the reg, stood him up and slowly swam him up. On the surface, inflated his BC, did simulated rescue breaths, while towing him back to the boat. The crew helped me get him out of the water, then I started simulated CPR.

Now, I understand, we should get a diver back to the boat/shore as quick as possible. You can do rescue breaths, but only if they really don't slow you down getting the diver back.

One point they made and I've seen questioned even on the SB, is if you find a unconscious diver, what do you do with the reg? We were taught, if it's in, keep it in. If it's out leave it out. Hold on to the reg, in case they come to and want it. Don't purge air into the diver, if they have an object blocking their airway, you may blow it farther in and while ascending, the air in the lungs expanding may force it out of the airway.

I would take the cert. Then find a good instructor, explain the situation and ask if you can sit in on their class and pool sessions. You can practice the skills with your buddy, classmates or other S&R divers. But, it does sound like you got a raw deal. Like somebody already said, the instructors usually enjoy this class and try to make it worth the effort.

Darell

 

[greymatterfan]

Thanks for the info so far guys - much appreciated.. I did contact SSI with details on the situation but they haven't responded to my question of "What is this course is supposed to consist of?" at all and it's been 2 months. Strange... SSI did call the dive shop (who then called us to apologize) and apparently the shop is planning on "re-tooling" the class thanks to our negative feedback. Great.. but where does that leave us? Out of $420 for tuition / class materials (for both of us) and with only mediocre training. Not a good deal at all.

Shop offered to re-take the class, but the problem is I don't want to re-take this class from the same people after this whole fiasco.. trust & respect are gone and would rather seek out more experienced instructor for this specific class.

Anyway -will keep checking back for more info. Appreciate all the feedback! Hopefully we can get our tuition back and re-take the class at a better shop.

 

[sladerer]

Before writing them off entirely, it might be worth sitting down and presenting to them what your expectations for the re-take are and give them a chance vs shelling out the money to take it
somewhere else. I'd be interested to hear what if any reason/excuse they gave and what they
are proposing to do differently? I'd also be interested in knowing both the diving and instruction
experience level your instructor has.

 

[greymatterfan]

Sladerer & All -

Tried to work with the shop to understand what they were "revamping" on the class, but never heard back. Actually, I called the instructor and he didn't even remember me - had to remind him "Umm - I'm the guy who complained to SSI" "Ohhh yeah.. Hey!" - Not surprised.

Best part is, when I first called I said "Hey, I'm calling about the Stress & Rescue class" - to which he responded "Yeah, tonight at 6pm" - meaning they were still charging people and teaching it the same sloppy half-assed way!

Any way to look up diving / experience for instructors? I know before this situation occurred I could have just asked outright prior to signing up, but I admit I was a bit too trusting of the so-called SSI quality control.. Does anyone keep records of this stuff?

Thanks again for the input.. Requested refund from the shop and still have never heard back a peep out of SSI when I asked what the "Normal" stress and rescue class should consist of. Guess if you have a problem with SSI classes at a shop you are pretty much on your own. (No quality control, despite what they may claim..)

If anyone is taking classes at shop new to you, do some research before signing up! Don't learn the hard ($$$) way!

If the shop refuses the refund, we may have to result to small claims court.. which sucks, but I'm not one to just throw out hard earned cash, get nothing in return, and then just pretend it's all ok... Any more advice on this would be appreciated - maybe it's time to start a new thread "What to do if you get screwed by your LDS?"

 

[sladerer]

Thanks for the update. Now that they've had ample opportunity to make this right and failed
miserably, care to name names to save someone else on the board from this experience?