Why I will definitely take the Rescue course

[Divingblueberry]

Hello to you all.

I felt like sharing what happened to me last week-end. Maybe it’ll encourage some divers to do the Rescue course.

I went for a couple of quiet dives last Saturday at a quarry near my place. Upon arrival, my buddy tells me that a third diver would join us. I didn’t know the guy but this happens often and everybody gets along well. So off we go for our first relax (30’ ~ 60’ feet) dive.

The third diver was rather new and about 15 minutes in the dive he shows me that he’s down to 1100 psi. So we decide to turn back. We were getting close to the pier when he shows his SPG now indicating 400 psi. I immediately signal the end of the dive and we started our ascent. That’s when our fellow ended up at the bottom (35’), struggling to grasp the inflator hose or fin up to the surface. The guy had totally lost control.

I went close to him to see how I could help. He was obviously struggling but he kept giving me the “ok” sign. (That’s when I remembered the comments I read here about the infamous Youtube video of a “tech dive” in the Blue Hole .) I didn’t really know what to do but I wanted to help. So I touched his shoulder to make sure he knew I was there. Many questions rushed as I was trying to figure out what to do. Should I give him my primary and go for my necklace ? Do I try to calm him down ? I don't know if this was the right decision but I grasped the inflator hose, pressed the button and we slowly went up together, making sure we had eye contact.

I’m glad it turned out ok, but I realized in a very bold way that I am clueless about what to do in “challenging situations”. So I am very determined to do my Rescue diver whenever possible. I will definitely feel much better knowing how to react instead of improvising.

Safe diving everyone !

 

[OTF]

Sounds like you did the right thing, pretty much what they would teach you to do in a rescue course. Handling that situation (with or without training) takes poise and good problem solving. Good job.

No need to offer your regulator in this case, unless there was indication the diver was actually out of air - reg spit out, no bubbles, bolting to the surface, signaling or grabbing at your reg etc. Air sharing just complicates things if they're not actually out of air.

Did you ever find out how the guy got in that situation as the ascent began? Gear malfunction? Loss of buoyancy control and panic? A solid group debrief is really useful after these situations if not after every single dive.

Rescue courses are great! Highly recommend going for it! They're fun and absolutely will make you a better, safer diver and a better buddy to have around. Try to find a good instructor who will do more than run through the minimal paces required by the agency and actually hit you with lots of challenging, varied scenarios.

Once you've done the class it's good to practice scenarios with your buddies. Having a buddy suddenly whip out a slate that says "I just passed out, now what, sucker?" can make a boring skunked shore dive much more interesting and educational.

 

[MiloR]

With what you know you did the right thing. Only thing you could have done differently would have been to come up from behind and grab the inflator with your left hand. If the diver was truly panicking being in front allows him to grab on to you and then you lose control of the situation. Hard to say on offering the reg. I would have switched over to the necklace so the main reg could be available if needed without hesitation.

Take the Rescue course as you plan to. It is filled with useful tips. Many her will probably say you don't need it and are just Card collecting but it is really good information for on land issues and in water issues.

If you have options where you live then research the Instructors. Can make a big difference.

 

[bubblemonkey2]

I think the rescue course was helpful particularly in that you practice the officially prescribed actions when someone is found basically unconscious or has completely lost it, which is further along than this near miss.

Pre-accident, pre-injury scenarios like this one are more proactively prevented by good team diving skills.
Some of the common buildups to situations like this include:
-People usually blow through air when they are struggling to keep up. Never cause someone to chase you. You gotta go as slow as they need, or better yet, even slower than that, so they have extra time to sort themselves out.
-Was the diver overweighted? This can also lead to blowing through air when buoyancy was never established and they are kicking like mad to stay up. As soon as you see someone struggling then it pays to stop early and assess. If you need to teach them neutral buoyancy and slow breathing on the spot, so be it. Better to slow the dive down than have something worse happen later.
-The only reason you would normally need to inflate a BCD to begin an ascent is again over-weighting
-Doing a proper, controlled weight/descent check with them can identify and fix over-weighting

To be fair I don't remember much of this team/buddy/leadership stuff coming into play until the Divemaster course, which frankly is a huge problem and potentially explains a lot of accidents.

 

[flyboy08]

RD class will instruct you on how to properly approach and subdued a freaked out diver.....you’ll enjoy the class!

 

[Scraps]

The rescue course was very helpful, but I found basic wrestling skills worked best at managing a flailing, panicked diver:

First get left-on-left wrist control. . . twist his wrist inward (pronate) so you can get behind him, go two-on-one on his left wrist if needed . . . once you're behind him, throw a half with your right arm, but don't run it--just leave it there to control him in an upright position . . . switch your left hand from his left wrist and reach under his left arm to gain control of his inflator hose and pre-position your hand to give signals right in front of his face . . . depending on your relative body sizes, either put in both legs like you're going to leg ride him or wrap his waist with both legs, hooking one ankle with the other foot. Now with the right hand that's on the back of his neck, calmly twist his head to the left so he can see your smiling, reassuring face coming over his left shoulder to let him know everything is going to be all right.

 

[TMHeimer]

I've heard RD courses varie according to the instuctor. I found mine challenging mentally, though not so much physically. One constant is the manual (or e-learning, I guess). Probably as much in there as in the OW manual.

 

[Tidewater_Diver]

Just finished my RD course, it was the best PADI course I've been through. You will learn how to handle a tired, panicked and unresponsive diver within the limits of your own personal safety as well as a couple of other new skills.

 

[Divingblueberry]

Sounds like you did the right thing, pretty much what they would teach you to do in a rescue course. Handling that situation (with or without training) takes poise and good problem solving. Good job.

No need to offer your regulator in this case, unless there was indication the diver was actually out of air - reg spit out, no bubbles, bolting to the surface, signaling or grabbing at your reg etc. Air sharing just complicates things if they're not actually out of air.

Did you ever find out how the guy got in that situation as the ascent began? Gear malfunction? Loss of buoyancy control and panic? A solid group debrief is really useful after these situations if not after every single dive.

Rescue courses are great! Highly recommend going for it! They're fun and absolutely will make you a better, safer diver and a better buddy to have around. Try to find a good instructor who will do more than run through the minimal paces required by the agency and actually hit you with lots of challenging, varied scenarios.

Once you've done the class it's good to practice scenarios with your buddies. Having a buddy suddenly whip out a slate that says "I just passed out, now what, sucker?" can make a boring skunked shore dive much more interesting and educational.

There was no real debrief after the dive and it was a mistake on our part. He simply told us that he panicked without offering more explanation than that. My guess would be " loss of buoyancy control and panic" like you said. He was fine during the second dive ; it doesn't seem to have affected him at all...

That being said, I really didn't like the feeling of not having "guidelines" of what to do, especially since a mistake could make matters worst.

I like the idea of random scenarios. Thanks for the tip

 

[Divingblueberry]

I think the rescue course was helpful particularly in that you practice the officially prescribed actions when someone is found basically unconscious or has completely lost it, which is further along than this near miss.

Pre-accident, pre-injury scenarios like this one are more proactively prevented by good team diving skills.
Some of the common buildups to situations like this include:
-People usually blow through air when they are struggling to keep up. Never cause someone to chase you. You gotta go as slow as they need, or better yet, even slower than that, so they have extra time to sort themselves out.
-Was the diver overweighted? This can also lead to blowing through air when buoyancy was never established and they are kicking like mad to stay up. As soon as you see someone struggling then it pays to stop early and assess. If you need to teach them neutral buoyancy and slow breathing on the spot, so be it. Better to slow the dive down than have something worse happen later.
-The only reason you would normally need to inflate a BCD to begin an ascent is again over-weighting
-Doing a proper, controlled weight/descent check with them can identify and fix over-weighting

To be fair I don't remember much of this team/buddy/leadership stuff coming into play until the Divemaster course, which frankly is a huge problem and potentially explains a lot of accidents.

I suspect that the diver was indeed overweighted ; when I arrived he was in the water working on getting the right amount of weight. That is the most plausible scenario.

I agree with you about the team building or team work ; I had the chance to have a beginner course with a tech / cave instructor after only 12 dives and I saw then the importance of forming a team with your buddy. I now dive more regularly with a more advanced guy (tech and cave trained) and it comes more naturally. Unfortunately, it is difficult to establish with an insta buddy.