Rescue Diving Certification

Well, I am now a PADI certified rescue diver! The class consisted of two classroom sessions and two diving sessions. Before the classes I made a point of doing some heavy study of our text book and wanted to be as fully prepared as possible come the actual application in our dives. As is the case with most things, common-sense could be applied to every situation. However, it was important to be able to know and apply the correct procedures in rescuing a victim. Some examples of what was learned: rescuing an unresponsive diver beneath the water, rescuing panicked divers at the surface, diver tows and CPR, performing lost diver searches correctly, equipment removal, diver extraction to land and use of oxygen systems, amongs other things.

I had a great dive buddy, who was a firefighter, and felt comfortable with the other divers in the class. During our in-water rescue testing, I snapped into a leadership role when we were notified that a diver was missing. First checked that the lost diver had not gone to shore, have someone contact emergency services, then had some rescuers scan the water, sent two surface divers to snorkel a search pattern, had my buddy team and another initiate a correct diving grid on the bottom and finally requested a surface team have a way to recall searchers (with a tank tap). We were applauded for the speed in which we acted, the coverage of necessary steps and how quickly we located the victim. It rocked! We were able to complete the dive early due to our success. Just as we were ending the class and awesome and rare roll cloud came up!

So, I feel very satisfied and secure after taking the course. I only hope that if a real emergency arises we can react in such a good fashion! I would recommend the course to anyone.

Next step . . . Dive Master.