I am unfamiliar with the prerequisites for the Rescue class... is it really only 14 dives?
Rescue Diver True Stories
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Darnold9999
Contributor
Self rescue when I went somewhere I shouldn't have. Kicked out of a fin and bashed myself bleeding on rocks in what felt like a washing machine. Stop, think, put the fin back on and kick out in the pause between waves. - take away - stop and think is always a good idea - buddy was useless (would have just had two divers in trouble).
Went down to grab a diver who had panicked and was emptying his BC and sinking like a rock - got him at 70 feet - we started at 15 feet doing a weight check. Filled the BC and got him under control. Diver lied about his experience level to impress someone. - take away - tell your buddy the truth re experience level.
Strangest one was a passive panicked diver. Not my rescue, but saw the DM who was by my side do the rescue. Diver was completely OOA at 30 feet and just sat there on a line looking at her guage which read 0. DM shot over to her, crammed his reg in her mouth and grabbed on to her BC. Ended well, but was very scary. How he knew there was a problem I never knew. He just said he saw something that did not feel right so investigated. - take away - panic is not always flailing about - if your buddy does not look right or is acting strangely - flash the OK sign.
Cut someone free of a minor entanglement. Fishing line wrapped around a fin. A night dive under a dock and by the time we had cut the line free we had managed to bring the vis to 0. Good thing there was only one line. We should have been much more careful about position in the water so we did not silt out the dive site - take away - stop think - don't just react. We got lucky. More line could have easily entangled us all and with vis at 0 we would have been in serious trouble.
Enjoy the course. Was one of the more useful courses I have done.
Went down to grab a diver who had panicked and was emptying his BC and sinking like a rock - got him at 70 feet - we started at 15 feet doing a weight check. Filled the BC and got him under control. Diver lied about his experience level to impress someone. - take away - tell your buddy the truth re experience level.
Strangest one was a passive panicked diver. Not my rescue, but saw the DM who was by my side do the rescue. Diver was completely OOA at 30 feet and just sat there on a line looking at her guage which read 0. DM shot over to her, crammed his reg in her mouth and grabbed on to her BC. Ended well, but was very scary. How he knew there was a problem I never knew. He just said he saw something that did not feel right so investigated. - take away - panic is not always flailing about - if your buddy does not look right or is acting strangely - flash the OK sign.
Cut someone free of a minor entanglement. Fishing line wrapped around a fin. A night dive under a dock and by the time we had cut the line free we had managed to bring the vis to 0. Good thing there was only one line. We should have been much more careful about position in the water so we did not silt out the dive site - take away - stop think - don't just react. We got lucky. More line could have easily entangled us all and with vis at 0 we would have been in serious trouble.
Enjoy the course. Was one of the more useful courses I have done.
dumpsterDiver
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Damn, I have pulled so many divers back to the boat that were panicked on the surface, I have no idea what the count would be. I swear this one particular dive shop (with one particular instructor, who eventually perished in a tech dive with his student and another fellow), would always bring down the WORST AOW students!
About every other trip, at least one of 'em would spit the reg and flip out on the surface after the entry and I would have to swim over there and haul their sorry butts back to the boat. God, he was a terrible instructor!
About every other trip, at least one of 'em would spit the reg and flip out on the surface after the entry and I would have to swim over there and haul their sorry butts back to the boat. God, he was a terrible instructor!
nolatom
Contributor
the fall before I took Rescue:
End of a night dive way offshore, rough weather. While I was approaching the port stern ladder trail line, I saw the rolling hull snap the end of the line out of the hand of a diver who had her fins around her wrist. She began bicycle-pedalling causing me to think "uh-oh, panic" so I swam between her and line hoping I could grap it while she grabbed me. Close, but not quite, she was drifting away and had those dinner-plate eyes. I circled around, grabbed her by the arm from alongside, and kicked hard towards the rope. Very slow going, she wasn't petite, but finally got her hand on the rope, she pulled in and 3 crew had to help her up the ladder.
I was out of breath and almost out of air but made it up on deck to rest up. She, with several around her, seemed shaken up. She later told me I saved her life. Music to a would-be rescuer's ears, but she had air and buoyancy so this could be an exaggeration, but what the heck.
Lost my weight belt in the process, the buckle must've snagged her as I turned toward her to get her hands on the rope. I couldn't spare a hand just then to grab the belt, and had to watch it go. She lost hers too, I guess the same way?
Next morning I did not find my belt but did find hers.
I did not get "partial credit" towards Rescue the next spring.....;-)
End of a night dive way offshore, rough weather. While I was approaching the port stern ladder trail line, I saw the rolling hull snap the end of the line out of the hand of a diver who had her fins around her wrist. She began bicycle-pedalling causing me to think "uh-oh, panic" so I swam between her and line hoping I could grap it while she grabbed me. Close, but not quite, she was drifting away and had those dinner-plate eyes. I circled around, grabbed her by the arm from alongside, and kicked hard towards the rope. Very slow going, she wasn't petite, but finally got her hand on the rope, she pulled in and 3 crew had to help her up the ladder.
I was out of breath and almost out of air but made it up on deck to rest up. She, with several around her, seemed shaken up. She later told me I saved her life. Music to a would-be rescuer's ears, but she had air and buoyancy so this could be an exaggeration, but what the heck.
Lost my weight belt in the process, the buckle must've snagged her as I turned toward her to get her hands on the rope. I couldn't spare a hand just then to grab the belt, and had to watch it go. She lost hers too, I guess the same way?
Next morning I did not find my belt but did find hers.
I did not get "partial credit" towards Rescue the next spring.....;-)
bcaderunr
Contributor
I've used my Rescue Training twice:
1) Three of us descended to sand bottom at 60' on a Bahama wreck. 4th diver levels off to join us and his weight belt falls right off. He starts to slowly ascend not realizing what's happening. I grab him right away and hold him until I get someone else's attention to retrieve the belt. It happened so fast, it was basically all reflex.
2) While group snorkling at a popular site in Belize, I observed an elderly woman being pulled by a modest current under the front of a small (20') anchored boat. I was closest to her and she, indeed, had that "eyes wide" panic look as she helplessly fought the current. I swam over, looked her staright in the eye, and said: "Here, I'll help you" while I held out my hand. She took it and I finned backwards away from the boat looking at her the whole time until we were out into an open area.
Did I "rescue" anyone? In reality, probably not, but I was glad I had the training to recognize a couple of situations that could have gotten worse if I hadn't acted when I did. Good luck with your training. My 26 year old daughter who has 140 dives is signed up for the class next month.
1) Three of us descended to sand bottom at 60' on a Bahama wreck. 4th diver levels off to join us and his weight belt falls right off. He starts to slowly ascend not realizing what's happening. I grab him right away and hold him until I get someone else's attention to retrieve the belt. It happened so fast, it was basically all reflex.
2) While group snorkling at a popular site in Belize, I observed an elderly woman being pulled by a modest current under the front of a small (20') anchored boat. I was closest to her and she, indeed, had that "eyes wide" panic look as she helplessly fought the current. I swam over, looked her staright in the eye, and said: "Here, I'll help you" while I held out my hand. She took it and I finned backwards away from the boat looking at her the whole time until we were out into an open area.
Did I "rescue" anyone? In reality, probably not, but I was glad I had the training to recognize a couple of situations that could have gotten worse if I hadn't acted when I did. Good luck with your training. My 26 year old daughter who has 140 dives is signed up for the class next month.
RonFrank
Contributor
Leave it to PADI to further reduce what I considered bare minimum qualifications of Rescue. It was 25 dives and AOW I believe. You can now get Rescue without AOW and without any dives outside of classes. That's nuts. I felt 25 dives was a very low thresh hold considering 9 of them are training dives.
I always felt PADI standards were low. Now I have to wonder if safety enters their heads as someone with less than 1 unsupervised dive should not be attempting to rescue anybody.
I always felt PADI standards were low. Now I have to wonder if safety enters their heads as someone with less than 1 unsupervised dive should not be attempting to rescue anybody.
Probably the most extreme situation I've had in 39 years was 3 weeks ago. During a training dive with a single open water student, I had him going through his demos.
Three advanced divers were about 15-20ft away and I was watching them over my student's shoulder. We were all neutral at about 25' in 150' of water.
One of the three ascended leaving the other two. One of the two handed the other 2 weights and turned his back to the one holding the weights.
The one holding the weights began a descent unseen by the other. I turned to my student and pointed to the surface and gave him the go sign.
I turned and began swimming hard after the descending diver. I saw her drop the weights and grab her Air3 as she still descended. As I swam down after her, I saw air bubbles coming out of her up raised left hand.
Damn, she dumping instead of inflating, I thought, as she continued down. Now panicked, she frayed knocking her mask askew flooding it, just as I caught her, at 112'.
As I took her arm, I saw her choking, her eyes roll back and she split out her reg. I inflated my BcD some and put my alt air in her mouth and kicked hard for the surface.
Little fast coming up but could hold her and dump.
At the surface we were just a few feet from the floating dock and I called for help.
I pushed her, as two others lifted, she was out but when she hit the dock, she came to and began puking and coughing out water. I called for EMS and gave her O2 as we waited for them to arrive.
No 2nd dive that day.
Three advanced divers were about 15-20ft away and I was watching them over my student's shoulder. We were all neutral at about 25' in 150' of water.
One of the three ascended leaving the other two. One of the two handed the other 2 weights and turned his back to the one holding the weights.
The one holding the weights began a descent unseen by the other. I turned to my student and pointed to the surface and gave him the go sign.
I turned and began swimming hard after the descending diver. I saw her drop the weights and grab her Air3 as she still descended. As I swam down after her, I saw air bubbles coming out of her up raised left hand.
Damn, she dumping instead of inflating, I thought, as she continued down. Now panicked, she frayed knocking her mask askew flooding it, just as I caught her, at 112'.
As I took her arm, I saw her choking, her eyes roll back and she split out her reg. I inflated my BcD some and put my alt air in her mouth and kicked hard for the surface.
Little fast coming up but could hold her and dump.
At the surface we were just a few feet from the floating dock and I called for help.
I pushed her, as two others lifted, she was out but when she hit the dock, she came to and began puking and coughing out water. I called for EMS and gave her O2 as we waited for them to arrive.
No 2nd dive that day.
Considering PADI diver's don't learn any rescue or panic assist techniques in Basic, I say it a good step towards diver education regarding safety; for their agency at least. Now as for turning out competent Rescue divers, that's a different story. They might need to start an Adv Rescue course, you can never have too many cards right?
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