"Trace Malinowski's Divemaster Workout" (Part One: Background)
I was standing in a convenient store at my favorite surfing beach in the state of Virginia when I felt a touch on my arm. I turned to meet a woman who was wearing a dive rescue jacket. "Are you one of the lifeguards who saved us?" she asked. "Excuse me?" I replied. She said that she saw the lifeguard jacket I was wearing and wanted to thank me if I had been one of the guys who rescued her dive team. I told her that I was a lifeguard, but not around there. I was just there to surf the approaching hurricane.
She told me the story of an incident the day before when her dive team tried to rescue some people who got caught in a rip current. The four rescue divers found themselves in trouble as well. Some lifeguards were surfing and saved both the dive team and the original victims the team tried to save. It wasn't the first time I had heard of public safety divers being in trouble. In fact, I've rescued a few public safety divers myself.
The day of my longest dive on scuba, my buddy and I surfaced after a 3.5 hour deco dive to hear cries for help! We ended up ditching 3 deco bottles and swimming several hundred yards in doubles and drysuits to rescue 2 PSD divers who had run out of air and panicked. Their own teammates were physically and emotionally unable to get them to shore.
I was able to do it because I was working as a beach lifeguard supervisor at the time. My buddy? He had once been in the Polish military and the French Foreign Legion. Maybe that abuse just stays with you?
Many divers, especially dive pros such as divemasters, instructors, and PSD divers, underestimate the physical challenge a rescue poses. Staying in shape is important for your safety and may make the difference between saving a life or losing one - even your own.
In the United States, the United States Lifesaving Association is the premier organization for expertise in ocean surf and beach rescue. At sea, military rescue swimmers, such as those trained by the United States Coast Guard, train for the worst sea states and weather imaginable. Both USLA lifeguards and USCG rescue swimmers may be considered athletes who save lives. What about divemasters and instructors? Should they be in shape? If so, what kind of physical standards should they be expected to perform? Ask yourself, do you ever dive from shore? In the ocean? Where it is unpredictable. It really is. The surf reports are always so wrong! What about boat diving? How far out to sea do you go? What are the biggest waves in which you dive? Has the weather ever turned nasty? Quarries are some of the toughest places to make rescues. The flat calm water and lack of boat traffic means divers go far from the entry/exit point and you could be towing a victim for hundreds of yards. I've made rescues in all three environments more than once. Rips in the surf zone mean you may have to tow a victim farther than you thought in crashing waves. Swells and current at sea make it a tough swim to the boat with a victim. This really is a butt kicker in tech gear. Especially because you may want to save the oxygen deco bottles. Then, there is the 600+ yard swim to shore in that benign, disrespected quarry while wearing a drysuit.
One of my former students, who recently switched to rebreathers, started a dive company and wants to become a divemaster. He asked me what he has to do to get certified. I first suggested he take a lifeguard course because rescues tend to make it to the surface when you are wearing board shorts and Ray-Bans rather than your dive gear. I said we need to complete the rescue course and technical emergency analysis and management training. Finally, the DM course! I'd also like to see him swim 500 yards in at least 12 minutes, but let's shoot for 10 minutes. "I have to do all that?" he replied in awe. I think he's looking for another instructor for the DM class.
But, why all that? Because, we want to enter the water with confidence when we hear a fellow diver or student call for help. We want to be mentally and physically ready for that moment when we need to assist or rescue someone. We want an instant instinctive response to go as fast as we can to save a life and have the ability to think and act when we get there and have enough gas in the tank to return and have energy left to perform rescue breathing, CPR or other first aid.
How much training time does that take each day? Eh ... about 20 - 45 minutes. Sometimes, just 10 minutes. You don't have time? Aren't you playing on the Internet right now?
How "in shape" do we have to be? If we look at the United States Coast Guard standards for rescue swimmers, we find that the fitness standards have been chosen to help maintain the flexibility, strength, and endurance a rescue swimmer might need to function for 30 minutes while assisting persons in distress in heavy seas.
The USCG recommends 2 ground training days and 1 swim training day per week consisting of stretching, warm-up, plyomterics, strength training, cool down, and post exercise stretching. These training sessions shouldn't be longer than 90 minutes to prepare for monthly fitness screenings. The monthly physical screening consists of a 500 yard crawl swim in 12 minutes, 25 yard underwater swims repeated 4 times with 60 seconds of rest between each attempt, and a 200 yard buddy tow. The rescue swimmer should also be able to complete 50 push-ups in 2 minutes, 60 sit-ups in 2 minutes, 5 straight pull-ups, and 5 straight chin-ups.
The standards for ocean rescue lifeguards consist of a mandatory 500 meter swim in 10 minutes or less and then varies by agency for the timed runs. Typical run tests are a timed 1 mile run (usually in 8 minutes or less), a timed quarter mile run (400 meters/440 yards) in 1 minute, 40 seconds or less or a 200 meter run - 400 meter swim - 200 meter run in 10 minutes or less.
I was standing in a convenient store at my favorite surfing beach in the state of Virginia when I felt a touch on my arm. I turned to meet a woman who was wearing a dive rescue jacket. "Are you one of the lifeguards who saved us?" she asked. "Excuse me?" I replied. She said that she saw the lifeguard jacket I was wearing and wanted to thank me if I had been one of the guys who rescued her dive team. I told her that I was a lifeguard, but not around there. I was just there to surf the approaching hurricane.
She told me the story of an incident the day before when her dive team tried to rescue some people who got caught in a rip current. The four rescue divers found themselves in trouble as well. Some lifeguards were surfing and saved both the dive team and the original victims the team tried to save. It wasn't the first time I had heard of public safety divers being in trouble. In fact, I've rescued a few public safety divers myself.
The day of my longest dive on scuba, my buddy and I surfaced after a 3.5 hour deco dive to hear cries for help! We ended up ditching 3 deco bottles and swimming several hundred yards in doubles and drysuits to rescue 2 PSD divers who had run out of air and panicked. Their own teammates were physically and emotionally unable to get them to shore.
I was able to do it because I was working as a beach lifeguard supervisor at the time. My buddy? He had once been in the Polish military and the French Foreign Legion. Maybe that abuse just stays with you?
Many divers, especially dive pros such as divemasters, instructors, and PSD divers, underestimate the physical challenge a rescue poses. Staying in shape is important for your safety and may make the difference between saving a life or losing one - even your own.
In the United States, the United States Lifesaving Association is the premier organization for expertise in ocean surf and beach rescue. At sea, military rescue swimmers, such as those trained by the United States Coast Guard, train for the worst sea states and weather imaginable. Both USLA lifeguards and USCG rescue swimmers may be considered athletes who save lives. What about divemasters and instructors? Should they be in shape? If so, what kind of physical standards should they be expected to perform? Ask yourself, do you ever dive from shore? In the ocean? Where it is unpredictable. It really is. The surf reports are always so wrong! What about boat diving? How far out to sea do you go? What are the biggest waves in which you dive? Has the weather ever turned nasty? Quarries are some of the toughest places to make rescues. The flat calm water and lack of boat traffic means divers go far from the entry/exit point and you could be towing a victim for hundreds of yards. I've made rescues in all three environments more than once. Rips in the surf zone mean you may have to tow a victim farther than you thought in crashing waves. Swells and current at sea make it a tough swim to the boat with a victim. This really is a butt kicker in tech gear. Especially because you may want to save the oxygen deco bottles. Then, there is the 600+ yard swim to shore in that benign, disrespected quarry while wearing a drysuit.
One of my former students, who recently switched to rebreathers, started a dive company and wants to become a divemaster. He asked me what he has to do to get certified. I first suggested he take a lifeguard course because rescues tend to make it to the surface when you are wearing board shorts and Ray-Bans rather than your dive gear. I said we need to complete the rescue course and technical emergency analysis and management training. Finally, the DM course! I'd also like to see him swim 500 yards in at least 12 minutes, but let's shoot for 10 minutes. "I have to do all that?" he replied in awe. I think he's looking for another instructor for the DM class.
But, why all that? Because, we want to enter the water with confidence when we hear a fellow diver or student call for help. We want to be mentally and physically ready for that moment when we need to assist or rescue someone. We want an instant instinctive response to go as fast as we can to save a life and have the ability to think and act when we get there and have enough gas in the tank to return and have energy left to perform rescue breathing, CPR or other first aid.
How much training time does that take each day? Eh ... about 20 - 45 minutes. Sometimes, just 10 minutes. You don't have time? Aren't you playing on the Internet right now?
How "in shape" do we have to be? If we look at the United States Coast Guard standards for rescue swimmers, we find that the fitness standards have been chosen to help maintain the flexibility, strength, and endurance a rescue swimmer might need to function for 30 minutes while assisting persons in distress in heavy seas.
The USCG recommends 2 ground training days and 1 swim training day per week consisting of stretching, warm-up, plyomterics, strength training, cool down, and post exercise stretching. These training sessions shouldn't be longer than 90 minutes to prepare for monthly fitness screenings. The monthly physical screening consists of a 500 yard crawl swim in 12 minutes, 25 yard underwater swims repeated 4 times with 60 seconds of rest between each attempt, and a 200 yard buddy tow. The rescue swimmer should also be able to complete 50 push-ups in 2 minutes, 60 sit-ups in 2 minutes, 5 straight pull-ups, and 5 straight chin-ups.
The standards for ocean rescue lifeguards consist of a mandatory 500 meter swim in 10 minutes or less and then varies by agency for the timed runs. Typical run tests are a timed 1 mile run (usually in 8 minutes or less), a timed quarter mile run (400 meters/440 yards) in 1 minute, 40 seconds or less or a 200 meter run - 400 meter swim - 200 meter run in 10 minutes or less.
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