Rescue course -- in sidemount?

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BeijaFlor

Contributor
Messages
86
Reaction score
25
Location
Chesapeake Bay
# of dives
200 - 499
Does anyone here know of anyone, anywhere, who was so single-minded bloody stubborn about his favored rig that he insisted on completing PADI's Rescue Diver course, in sidemount doubles?
 
Does anyone here know of anyone, anywhere, who was so single-minded bloody stubborn about his favored rig that he insisted on completing PADI's Rescue Diver course, in sidemount doubles?

Personally I think if you are taking the rescue course it makes sense to take it in the gear you dive on a regular basis, be it side mount, back mount single or doubles.
 
will be up to your Instructor who is running class if he would allow you to use Sidemount configuration. PADI just says it is up to Instructor's discretion.
 
I would allow it, and have in the past, but as mentioned it's up to the instructor.

A DM helping me would also often swap between back mount and SM for Rescue scenarios. Students usually appreciate the added challenges and such.
 
I did Rescue in backmount but had my sidemount rig and showed the other two students what to expect if they need to rescue someone in SM. Now as a DM the instructor does the class in BM with jacket BCDs as that is most common. But he has me bring my SM and BP/W to show the students.
 
Well I didn't use doubles because there was no point in them for that (and I use doubles either solo or with people knowledgeable enough that it would not matter), but I did use my sidemount rig (only one I have), and afaik I'm not the only one who did.

But maybe you had an actual question behind it, which we could still answer even if we did not lug an extra tank for nothing?
 
If you always, or mostly, dive SM or doubles, I think practicing the scenarios in those configurations absolutely has a point. If you come across a diver in distress or unresponsive and you need to perform a rescue, being able to get out of your own kit efficiently could prove important. Likely? Of course not. Helpful or useful? Yes. (IMO)

Train like you fight..this mantra has served me well across multiple aspects of life.
 
I don’t see this as an issue of just what someone dives, but also what other people dive. Would you know how to assist a person in sidemount or doubles?

I introduce students to the i3 in the pool (no LPI but a lever mechanism on the left waist) for a panicked diver. I want my students to think quickly and evaluate a situation before acting.
 
Well I didn't use doubles because there was no point in them for that (and I use doubles either solo or with people knowledgeable enough that it would not matter), but I did use my sidemount rig (only one I have), and afaik I'm not the only one who did.

But maybe you had an actual question behind it, which we could still answer even if we did not lug an extra tank for nothing?
More a statement than a question, Patoux, especially now that I've completed the course -- in sidemount doubles, my normal diving configuration. (Now that's a bit of a boast.)

My course instructor was skeptical when I declared my intent to do the course in my accustomed rig, and it led to a spirited discussion among the instructor team at the shop (in a resort town in the Philippines). Two of them were set against it, and they would have insisted I use a jacket BC from the shop ... but the manager, a tech instructor who does most of his diving in backplate doubles and a dry suit, saw enough merit in my "train as I dive" argument that he said okay to my giving it a try, and to see how (and if) it worked out....

To that end, we started out in the pool with the "unresponsive, non-breathing diver on the surface" exercise. The task here is to determine that the 'victim' is non-responsive, turn him on his back, inflate his BC, get rid of his (and your own) weights, regulator and mask, listen for breathing, then start rescue breathing while you're getting him (and yourself) out of your BCDs, all without interrupting the five-second rhythm of "mouth-to-chin resuscitation."

Of course I was hampered by my gear -- but not seriously, and I was able to get out of my Katana BCD despite its lack of shoulder-strap buckles ... I did get tangled up in hoses and bungees, a few times, but I was still able to keep the rhythm of the rescue-breathing, while I used the five-second intervals to try again and again until I got myself free. And I got proficient enough to pass the skill, by the end of the course, even if I wasn't as efficient as my fellow student in the dive-shop's standard jacket BC and back-mount single.

So we were all winners here -- me, because I "trained as I dive;" and succeeded in the course despite the harder work of doing it all in sidemount doubles; my fellow student, who learned to handle a side-mount diver in the "non-responsive, non-breathing" drills; and my instructor, who believes he is the first to complete a Rescue student on sidemount, and who is preparing to post photos of my "non-responsive at surface" drill performance on the shop's Facebook page -- even if I showed all the elegant grace you'd expect of a walrus beaching himself on a rocky pinnacle offshore.
 
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