Rescue course assisting - beware

[DaleHall]

My Rescue Class is in 28 days.. I'll remember what I've read here. Thanks..

 

[Tollie]

For what its worth training that involves the kind of activities the OP mentioned are not those that I would be associated with under any circumstances.

Accidents during training do happen and they are avoidable if the instructor is really managing the training... all aspects of it. (OK I know that things don’t always go well despite the most conservative and careful of plans.)

Beyond the prospect of injury... I don't think its good teaching practice to overwhelm either member of a rescue team or to put them in situations where this is a prospect.

If for some reason (and in the PADI system... I don’t think it exists) for a student to have the experience of mask off or reg out as part of "rescue training" it should be done with the consent of the student. IE... tap the student on the shoulder and ask for the mask to handed over... also there needs to be a signal that will stop the exercise... reset the situation to safe if a student feels that they are nearing panic.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

i once had to 'rescue' hubby and drag him out of the ocean clear of the water

so i thought i would grab a handful of wetsuit at the armpits and PULL reallll hard and then he started screaming and rolliing around on the sand and i was telling him to stop carrying on

then i realized that i had pulled out handfuls of hair from his underarms... i forgot people had hair there (ive waxed for decades so dont think about it)

:11: OUCH!!!

 

[ClayJar]

On my rescue training, we didn't get assaulted underwater or anything like that. Frankly, I was somewhat disappointed, as I've had to deal with *much* worse things in real life. I stopped counting the times I've been kicked in the face in the springs, for example. Last time I was there, I actually threw up some arm blocks and did the armadillo curl several times, as I was there to practice with a backplate and didn't feel like reg and mask recovery drills.

My rescue buddy and I *were*, however, *quite* hyperrealistic on the surface panic scenarios. We learned a lot there. At one point, the instructor actually said that we probably didn't have to go *that* far, as in his decades of diving, he'd never seen anyone *that* adversarial. We told him we did it the *easy* way first, but we wanted to learn through a real challenge. That actually turned out to pretty much short-circuit most of the "surprises" they normally throw on rescue checkouts, as we'd already inflicted far worse on ourselves -- a fact we were most proud of.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

For what its worth training that involves the kind of activities the OP mentioned are not those that I would be associated with under any circumstances.

Accidents during training do happen and they are avoidable if the instructor is really managing the training... all aspects of it. (OK I know that things don’t always go well despite the most conservative and careful of plans.)

Beyond the prospect of injury... I don't think its good teaching practice to overwhelm either member of a rescue team or to put them in situations where this is a prospect.

If for some reason (and in the PADI system... I don’t think it exists) for a student to have the experience of mask off or reg out as part of "rescue training" it should be done with the consent of the student. IE... tap the student on the shoulder and ask for the mask to handed over... also there needs to be a signal that will stop the exercise... reset the situation to safe if a student feels that they are nearing panic.

But the OP was "overwhelmed" by the student, not vice versa?

How then would you run a Rescue course that would help to prepare the diver for a potential real world scenario of having to rescue a paniced diver at the surface? I would never suggest we compromise on safety. However, I'm currently in a Rescue course and I don't think it would be very effective if, when attempting to "rescue" the "paniced diver" they were to reach down and signal to have me hand them my mask v. having them take it from me. The real world scenario that we have to be ready for is when a paniced diver we are attempting to rescue rips our mask off and then proceeds to climb on top of us. By the way, the first time I attempted this maneuver the "paniced diver" (a DM) successfully to separate me from my mask.

 

[RJP]

I was under the impression that removing the other divers mask or reg is no longer allowed by any agency.

Go ahead and thrash and twist, and if their reg pops out or their mask gets kicked off that's one thing. But specifically removing them is no longer considered "in bounds."

 

[Diver0001]

...snip...

one of the things i do as an assistent to rescue class is to make the scenarios as real as i can make them, pulling rescuers masks off there heads, pulling there regs out of there mouth, etc etc.. not is a really violent way.. but in a way to make them be aware of what can happen in a real emergency.

Hmmmm.... I doubt very much that your agency would agree with you doing that.... For one thing it's not realistic. I don't remember ever seeing a diver in panic rip the mask off of the rescuer. Their own mask, yes, but someone in a full-blown panic probably doesn't even see the rescuer there....If you want to make the scenario realistic then throw out your own reg and rip off your own mask. *That* would be realistic and convincing.

As for grabbing for their reg, I can follow that in some sense but then I would suggest grabbing it and then handing it right back to them again. Just make the point and move on. You don't have to try making it *that* messy for them to remember what you want them to remember. And if you try to grab it and the student responds adequately then stop and give them postive reinforcement instead of fighting them for their reg. If they do the right thing and you keep ramming at them then they'll miss the point and you're not accomplishing anything of value in terms of teaching them.

Also, discuss your approach with your instructor. You're putting his butt on the risk-management line with this too and he/she should know about that.

anyway here is where the fun started..

...snip....

for anyone planning on doing a rescue course or assisting in one be careful.

Good advice.

R..

 

[MatWill]

the point of the excersise was if someone came up and snatched your reg just go to your alt. they would most proberly be ooa and need it more then you, this guy was briefed to do that.. but i think he had a little panic attack underwater when i went for his reg. the last thing i was expecting him to do was hold my hands together

 

[Gombessa]

the point of the excersise was if someone came up and snatched your reg just go to your alt. they would most proberly be ooa and need it more then you, this guy was briefed to do that.. but i think he had a little panic attack underwater when i went for his reg. the last thing i was expecting him to do was hold my hands together

I know it was probably just his instincts kicking in (hey, you're panicking, let's just calm down a little bit first), but for some reason reading your post really made me mad. In an OOA, you literally have a diver in danger of losing his life in front of you, and you hold them down? In a situation where grabbing his reg would mean absolutely nothing to his own safety? Christ. Please tell me he didn't leave that day without understanding exactly what he did wrong.

 

[MatWill]

yeah he well and truely learned what he did wrong...