“Challenging” and “rewarding” best describe the PADI Rescue Diver course. Building upon what you’ve already learned, this course expands on what you already know about how to prevent problems, and how to manage them if they occur.
The Fun Part
The fun part about this course is rising to challenges and mastering them. Most divers find this course both demanding and rewarding, and at the end, say it’s the best course they’ve ever taken.
What You Learn
- Self rescue
- Recognizing and managing stress in other divers
- Emergency management and equipment
- Rescuing panicked divers
- Rescuing unresponsive divers
The Scuba Gear You Use
You use all your basic scuba gear including a dive computer and accessories.
Check with your local dive shop about the gear you’ll use during this course. You can find most everything at the scuba diving shop in your area.
The Learning Materials You Need
The PADI Rescue Diver crewpak includes all materials required to complete the PADI Rescue Diver course – including a pocket mask. You’ll learn how to think like a rescue diver and preview skills you’ll practice with your PADI Instructor. Once your Rescue Dover course is complete, you can review the DVD to refresh your dive safety skills as needed. This tool box of knowledge and technique will give you the expertise to handle almost any emergency situation.
The Exercises You’ll Complete:
Self-Rescue Review
Demonstrate the correct procedures for the following self-rescue situations:
• Cramp release
• Establishing buoyancy at the surface
• Airway control
• Use of an alternate air source
• Overcoming vertigo and reestablishing sense of direction
Exercise 1 – Tired Diver
Assist a tired (rational) responsive diver at the surface, demonstrating:
• Approach
• Evaluation
• Making Contact
• Reassuring the Diver
• Assists and Transport
• Equipment Removal
Exercise 2 – Panicked Diver
Rescue a panicked (irrational) diver, demonstrating:
• Approach and Evaluation
• Making Contact
• Releases
• Approach with a quick reverse to stay out of a panicked diver’s grasp
Exercise 3 – Response from shore, boat or dock (responsive diver)
Assist a responsive diver in distress, demonstrating:
• Nonswimming assists, including reaches/extensions and throws
• Water entries without losing sight of the victim and paced to conserve energy
• Swimming assists and rescues, with and without emergency fl otation equipment
• Tows with and without equipment removed, including underarm push, tank valve tow and modifi ed tired swimmer carry
• Exits
Exercise 4 – Distressed Diver Underwater
1. Correctly identify and respond to a diver simulating overexertion underwater.
2. Correctly identify and respond to a panicked diver making an uncontrolled ascent.
3. Correctly identify and provide air to, via an alternate air source, a diver simulating an out-of-air emergency, and make a controlled air-sharing ascent.
Exercise 5 – Missing Diver
Quickly and effi ciently search for and locate a missing diver using an underwater search pattern.
Exercise 6 – Surfacing the Unresponsive Diver
1. Use controlled positive buoyancy as an aid to ascent.
2. Bring an unresponsive diver to the surface using buoyancy control of either the unresponsive diver or the rescuer.
Exercise 7– Unresponsive Diver at the Surface
1. Make contact with and check for breathing on an unresponsive diver at the surface, demonstrating:
• Calling for help while establishing buoyancy and turning the diver face up.
• Removing the diver’s mask and regulator, opening airway and checking for breathing.
2. Demonstrate inwater rescue breathing using the following methods:
• Mouth-to-pocket mask
• Mouth-to-mouth
• Mouth-to-nose (optional)
• Mouth-to-snorkel (optional)
3. While continuing effective rescue breathing, demonstrate equipment removal (victim and rescuer) while towing the diver toward an exit.
Exercise 8 – Exiting the Unresponsive Diver
1. Remove a breathing, unresponsive diver from the water,
both with and without assistance.
2. Remove a nonbreathing diver from the water, both with
and without assistance.
Exercise 9 – First Aid for Pressure-Related Injuries and Oxygen Administration
1. Demonstrate steps and procedures for administering oxygen to a breathing, unresponsive diver with suspected decompression illness.
2. Administer oxygen to a nonbreathing diver while using a pocket mask for rescue breathing.
Exercise 10 – Response from Shore/Boat to Unresponsive (nonbreathing) Diver at the Surface
Respond to a diver emergency that requires attending to a nonbreathing, unresponsive diver on the surface,
demonstrating in water rescue breathing, exiting the water and then providing CPR.
After your first few scuba dives, you soon want to explore a bit deeper. There’s something exciting and mysterious about the depth that attracts dives.
Many shipwrecks are often found in deeper water. That’s why the PADI Deep Diver course is a natural companion to the PADI Wreck Diver course. Sometimes you can take these two specialties concurrently.
The Learning Materials You Need
Your Next Adventure
The Scuba Gear You Use
The Learning Materials You Need
You’ll hone your skills by completing five adventure dives that introduce you to:
What You Learn
You need to make arrangements to rent your complete scuba setup from a local shop. I’d recommend the closest