Just did PADI Rescue Diver Class and wanted to know...

[Kevin K]

Hello fellow Divers, Just finished the rescue class this weekend and we did search and rescue in West Palm with Pelican Dive Charters (Who are great-we dive with them often) and I was wondering if anyone has ever actually rescued a diver. From the bottom? From the surface? Tired or panicked? Just would like to hear the story. Thanks, kevin k

 

[Joe-Diver]

Was on a platform in 25' of water with the Instructor evaluating student skills. One of the students inhaled a little water and started coughing. She bolted for the surface. I caught her about halfway to slow her down. She had not spit out her reg but was in panic mode. When we surfaced, I inflated her BCD and started calming her down. The instructor surfaced next to us and took over, asking me to go back to the platform and lead the remaining students on a tour dive then back to the entry. When we all got back, I had to go back out and locate one of her fins she dropped on the way up.

I was one of 6 Rescue Divers back in 2000 when they sunk a C140 jet in Athens Scuba Park...Athens, Texas. There were 12 riders on the plane as it went down. First on the scene at the bottom, one of the lift straps had slipped over the exit, so had to move that and then count divers as they exited the new wreck.

That's about it really...other than the typical heat stresses in summer...never anything major or serious.

 

[johnny_bravo]

Closest thing to a rescue...I was in Key Largo I took an OW friend of mine for his first salwater dives. He got nauseous throughout the day from the salt water in his mouth and the boat rides. He upchucked a few times underwater and was getting cold and was getting very fatigued on the fourth dive of the day. He simply knelt on the sand he was exhausted (we were at 25-30') so I had to get him to the surface that was some serious finning on my part.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[LAJim]

From 120 ft. - unconscious and not breathing. From the middle of the water column. 320 ft. bottom. Overhead environment.

 

[divedadepths]

From 120 ft. - unconscious and not breathing. From the middle of the water column. 320 ft. bottom. Overhead environment.

wow. that sounds wild. would you like to elaborate?

 

[LAJim]

would you like to elaborate?

Not really. The important thing is that saves can happen, even deep. There was very nearly a save on the Spiegel Grove on Friday, but the rescuers were slightly too late in spite of a huge effort.

 

[tstormdiver]

The closest thing I've had was a buddy that went OOA. She hadn't dove in a while (pregnancy) & had her husband set up her gear. As her buddy I take partial blame for not doing a buddy check before the dive. Anyway, 7 min into the dive she swims up, giving me the OOA signal. I give her my octo, grabbed a hold of her BCD & we did a controlled ascent from 20'. At the surface I manually inflated her BCD & towed her back to shore, as she was a bit shook up. No real drama. We both reacted as we were trained & all was well.

 

[CAPNVINNY]

Work a divemaster internship in the Caribbean for an op doing DSD's for cruiseship passengers,you do saves almost daily!

 

[donovano]

A few years ago my buddy and I were doing a wall dive in Cozumel at 120 feet when a diver drops past us to busy clearing his ears to look at his guages. We caught him at 140 feet and sent him back up to his buddy about 60 feet above us.

 

[diverdowndh]

I'm not quite Rescue diver yet, have it planned in the next couple of months so I can continue on with my Divemaster. However, I have been diving the Caribbean for years and I have seen many near-misses. In Cozumel, in about 90 feet this lady's tank slipped down, the tank was hanging by her regulator in her mouth. The DM had just looked around with the OK sign when it happened so he had just turned back around. I saw this and immediately started swimming towards her. Her buddy was oblivious, he was only OW certified and not really "aware". Anyway, when I got to her, she had taken her BC completely off! In 90 feet of water! I grabbed the tank and her, almost did a mask to mask visual to get her to just relax, and I got her fitted back up before the DM could get there. You really can get a LOT of expression out of people's eyes - both this woman, who realized then that what she had done was not smart at all, and the DM who ended up buying me a dinner that night. I truly believe I was watching a diving death in front of me, and I decided not to let it happen.
I have a couple of other less dramatic incidents, but this is why I decided to complete my Divemaster training..... just to know more. After this was all over I had a bout of nerves, although it was strange how calm I was, it was like in slow motion.