Rescue Diver: Day 1,2,3

[rongoodman]

I disagree. Doing the rescue class in an overhead environment presents a great deal of additional potential for disaster. There is no doubt that rescuing a diver from an overhead environment is a valuable skill and may be a necessity at some point, but the additional dangers of doing so during training when you have not already mastered the basics of rescue seems unwise.

Worse, when you have't mastered the basics of overhead environments. Without formal cave or wreck penetration training, I wouldn't participate in the scenarios described.

 

[undefined]

Worse, when you have't mastered the basics of overhead environments. Without formal cave or wreck penetration training, I wouldn't participate in the scenarios described.

Agreed. This type of rescue scenario, while realistic, could turn into a full fledged emergency rather quickly.

"Rescue Diver" != "Overhead Environment Rescue Diver"

"Rescue Diver" = Having enough experience and skills to self-rescue or aid another diver in need in a typical recreation diving environment equivalent to or less challenging than one is trained to dive in.


Putting PADI Rescue Diver students into an overhead environment during their training is dangerous and should not be endorsed. Unless these students are already accomplished Wreck, Cavern, or Cave divers (with training to match), they should not be attempting to perform rescue scenarios in such an overhead environment.

 

[bane51031]

I'am a Public Safety Diver and we even take serious consideration before attempting any type of rescue/recovery from an overhead enviroment, sounds tricky glad everything went okay......

 

[Xman]

it's a dive shop here in Barbados. The course is a PADI course.
I think doing the rescue in an overhead environment is necessary. It's one thing to search for someone lying at the bottom of ocean with nothing to hide him/her. It's much harder to find someone if they're caught inside a wreck.

You might not realise it, but that is a HUGE violation of both standards, and common sense. Did you all have redundant air sources and overhead training? Even if you did, this is still a BAAAAAAAAAD idea.

Glad you're enjoying your rescue course, and that you made it out of that dive still alive. If I were you I would be looking for another operator to do my rescue with, and have a chat to PADI about how your course was run.

 

[Arizona]

Sepandee,

Remember the golden rule of Rescue from PADI: "Can you reasonably expect to accomplish the rescue without getting into trouble yourself" (Rescue Diver Manual, p.18). While in training this sounds like it could be a bit much; in the real world you'll have to make the call.

AZ

 

[undefined]

One other thing to consider...

Even if your instructor is well qualified and experienced in diving an overhead environment, you have not so far mentioned that you are. When diving, it is best to select the lowest common denominator of training - i.e. don't take divers into an environment beyond their training. The Rescue skills are challenging enough without the added danger of an overhead environment.

While I cannot speak to the skills of your instructor, I will say that what she/he has selected as a training regimen puts you at significantly higher risk of injury or death than the standard rescue class. You already mentioned hitting your head - what if you were really unconscious after doing so and the other students / instructor thought you were only pretending? They might continue performing tasks while thinking "He's pretty good at faking this" and not actually assist your immediate needs.

It's your life and your training, but for what it's worth I'd say you are rolling the dice right now.

 

[Arizona]

Undefined,

I am in agreement, but wonder what type of wreck it was. A more detailed description would be interesting.

AZ

 

[undefined]

I, too, would be curious as to the details of which wreck they were diving. Regardless of the specifics, an overhead environment is still not an ideal place to be learning rescue. (Unless you want "the victim" to be as realistic as possible!)

 

[Sepandee]

well, i did wreck diving for my advanced, and the wrecks over here are nothing complicated. In fact, i see a lot of tourists with AOW or sometimes even OW be taken there. The biggest of the 4 has two entraces to two small hallways, and the height between the bottom of those hallways and the roof is roughly 2.3m (7ft+). I don't think it was anything dangerous. The wrecks seem to be as laid back as the islanders here!

 

[Sepandee]

day 3: three weight belts were dropped and we had to do a u-pattern search. Of course we screwed it up. The instructor said it's up to us to do it individually or together, so we decided to do it together with 2 people holding 2 compasses and 1 counting the kick cycles. It was really easy to do but the one withOUT the compass started swimming in his own direction without following us, thinking he's going straight. So we lost him and when we had to go find him, i told the other guy to stay put and i'll go bring the drifter back so we at least don't lose our position. Of course he followed me, and we ended up giong to the surface to do the bloody thing again. Then the other guy with the compass started going his own way as he stopped looking at the compass and thought he was going in the right direction. Why the hell do these people think they can navigate without a compass? Anyways, so then we had to resurface again cuz the other two weren't udnerstandinga thing, and as they were locals, they kept saying they know were they were going (it was in the wrong direction). But then they just ended up not using a compass at all because they knew the area well, and i just gave up as I got sick of explaining everything and just started following them. We ended up finding all the weights after a looooong search (I found 2 of them). But if I was an instuctor, i would've made everyone do it again (of course our instructor never found out we had resurfaced several times and started navigating without a compass).

All in all though it was fun.

And now the test....