20 dive requirement for Rescue

[Mscdex]

I was at a new dive shop the other day and I overheard that they require 20 dives in your logbook before you can take The Rescue Diver course. I have never seen this in anyone's course description or prerequisite. Is this a Padi thing or something the dive shop made up?

 

[knotical]

20 dives is not a prerequisite for the PADI Rescue course.

There is a requirement to be at least an Adventure Diver, so theoretically you could take the Rescue course with as few as 7 training dives (4 for Open Water, 3 for Adventure).

n.b. One could start the course even sooner. As an Open Water Diver you can participate in Knowledge
Development and confined water rescue exercises.

 

[Hawkwood]

These are the prerequisites for the PADI Rescue course

• 12 years old
• Note: 12-14 year old divers may earn Junior Rescue Diver certifications
• PADI (Junior) Adventure Diver certification – must have completed the Underwater Navigation Adventure Dive
• PADI Open Water Divers may participate in KnowledgeDevelopment and Rescue Exercises in confined water
• EFR Primary and Secondary Care training within 24months. Training may be completed along with rescuediver course.

As knotical stated, there is no stipulation for number of dives prior to taking the course.

 

[Scott]

I was at a new dive shop the other day and I overheard that they require 20 dives in your logbook before you can take The Rescue Diver course. I have never seen this in anyone's course description or prerequisite. Is this a Padi thing or something the dive shop made up?

This could be a shop requirement or they are confused with another requirement.
Bolding is mine

Prerequisite Certifications
Continuing education courses have PADI, TecRec or EFR certification prerequisites.
You may accept divers with certifications through other training organizations into a PADI course using this general guideline, and after conducting a knowledge and skill preassessment.
<snip>
4. PADI Advanced Open Water Diver — proof of certification beyond entry-level (at least two certifications total); proof of 20 or more logged dives;
documented experience in deep diving and underwater navigation.
5. PADI Rescue Diver — proof of certification in diving rescue.

 

[Mscdex]

Thanks for the clarification. I purchased the book in advance and suggest it to every diver. It goes into detail about many things that should probably have been in open water.

 

[TMHeimer]

PADI did require 20 dives when I took Rescue in 2006--wasn't long after that it changed. The shop probably just kept the requirement.

 

[Bob DBF]

From what I could find, SSI and NAUI have no prerequisite on Rescue aside from OW.


Bob

 

[Steve_C]

SDI sometimes has more dive requirements.

For Rescue

"Provide proof of SDI Advanced Adventure Diver certification, or equivalent, or open water
diver certification and 40 logged open water dives"

So for SDI if you only have your OW card they require 40 dives.

Personally when I first got certified just working on buoyancy etc was enough task loading. I think rescue was better taken after I had some more dives under my belt which is what I did.

 

[scubadada]

For PADI, looks like you need to be AOW prior to Rescue, so you must have at least a whopping 9 training dives and no additional experience prior to Rescue

PADI (Junior) Advanced Open Water Divers who are at least 12 years old and have completed the Underwater Navigation Adventure Dive may enroll in a Rescue Diver course. You also need to have Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care (CPR and First Aid) training within the past 24 months. You can complete this training during the Rescue Diver course.

Personally, I had 80 dives prior to AOW and 120 prior to rescue, made much more sense to me this way

 

[Jim Lapenta]

SEI requires OW and ten dives to take the DRAM rescue class. I think it should be the first class after OW. SEI does though have rescue skills in the OW class so that makes a difference. Rescue should be as much, if not more, about preventing accidents as it is responding to them. Truth be told when it comes down to it, there may actually be recoveries because people did not pay attention to preventing accidents in the first place.