Advanced Open Water Certification

[Boatswain2PA]

It's a bad situation to be in all around. I've done this training several times as a surface rescue swimmer, but of course that didn't involve having all the dive gear in the way. Also, the intention there was to perform rescue breathing until the boat came and picked us up, not towing the swimmer for 50 yards to shore. Still, I think I would attempt ventilations, even if I had to tow to shore. If they are in cardiac arrest, they are gone. If they are in respiratory arrest and you don't ventilate, they will go into cardiac arrest and be gone. 2 1/2 minutes more of hypoxia can make a big difference in a very small subset of the population here...

BTW: I also am an emergency medicine PA, and before that I did 20 years doing SAR in the USCG. During that career I responded to 2 dive fatalities, and 2-3 dive incidents where the diver survived. Makes me want to be a very, very careful diver. I greatly appreciate you sharing your vast experiences here.

 

[boulderjohn]

The problem with in water breaths is you have to assure there is a good open airway. Try that in water too deep to stand while towing a victim.

I didn't have a choice. It is a requirement for PADI instructor certification. Two candidates failed when I was being certified because they failed to keep the airway open throughout. They eventually got it right.

There is sometimes no hope of getting the diver to a place for CPR, in which case you hope you are in a situation in which the diver can recover without it. Read Boatswain2PA's post again to see when that can happen.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It was for me as well as a YMCA Instructor. As an instructor I can do it. The question is can the average rescue diver who has done it once in the rescue class? Especially when they haven't practiced it in possibly years. I do it every OW class as it's part of the OW cert. Students do it once or twice. SEI recognized that and made sure that students know the number one priority is to get the victim to proper care.

 

[geoff w]

There's a big difference between doing dives and surviving vs. knowing what you're doing on a dive. If you're not sure about whether to take the advanced open water course, pick up the book, flip to one of the chapters you might be interested in and think you know something about (e.g., wreck, night, deep or drift), and see if you already know everything in the chapter and can get 100% on the knowledge reviews and chapter tests. If not, you might learn something in the advanced class

There are a lot of things a good instructor can teach just about any recreational diver in the AOW class. I got certified in 1994, took the AOW class immediately afterward. Many years and hundreds of dives later I became a DM and help with some specialty classes, like deep and search & recovery. Besides DMing for the class, I also did all the skills and the tests, and learned new techniques, along with picking up best practices and some theory. There is definitely something to be said about you don't know what you don't know until you learn you didn't know it. A class setting is often a better way to learn a lesson than out in the ocean with someone else who didn't learn the lesson before

The AOW class is structured so you can try several different specialties. I've helped with AOW classes where one of the adventure dives is DPVs, i.e., underwater scooters. Just about any diver can use an underwater scooter, and when conditions are fine it loads of fun and easy to think you know all about it. Until something goes wrong. Besides that, DPVs are simply a lot of fun

Another way to look at it - instead of paying for the AOW class, take 5 specialties, including deep and nav. At that point you've got 5 specialties and have meet all the AOW requirements, so all you need after that to be a master scuba diver is the rescue class. In my opinion, rescue is one of the best classes you can take, and keep taking, because it's centered around skills you will almost never practice or use when you're diving, but you'll be really glad you took the class if you ever need to apply any of the skills