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5 Reasons Being a Rescue Diver Makes You a Great Dive Buddy

By January 3, 2020August 24th, 2020Blog, Diving, Edutainment, PADI, Scuba, Siren Diving

5 Reasons to be a Rescue Diver

 

What exactly is a Rescue Diver?

There are many assumptions around what becoming a Rescue Diver entails. Many imagine a Baywatch scenario complete with red spandex. There is also a common misconception around the skills, capabilities, and responsibilities of a rescue diver. The Rescue Diver course is the ultimate test of your abilities, (red swimsuit not included) 🙂

The Rescue Diver course challenges you physically and mentally but comes with the most rewards. It gives you the skills to save yourself or others around you. As a rescue diver, you will anticipate, prevent and manage problems or diving emergencies that could arise during a dive.

All in all, it certainly makes you a good candidate for the best dive buddy.

What will you learn as a Rescue Diver?

During the course, you will take part in a number of rescue scenarios. These are designed to test your new knowledge and skills… Don’t forget to stay alert when you’re about to take your wetsuit off on the boat!

It covers a wide range of topics including:

  • The psychology of diving and recognising diver stress – important for obvious reasons
  • Accident management and scenario management – take control of the environment
  • Searching a dive site for objects or missing divers – maybe find new toys!
  • Assisting divers in trouble – not all gears wear capes 🙂

Along with these topics, you’re also put your First Aid and CPR skills into use. With this new-found knowledge, here are the main reasons why a rescue diver makes the best dive buddy.

1. They are prepared for any emergency that arises

With poor judgment being one of the most common causes of dive emergencies, rescue divers are going to be pretty switched on. They are more aware of situations which means that they can quickly anticipate if something is about to go wrong. They can then respond accordingly to a situation whether on the surface or 20 meters under.

It allows them to see the ‘big picture’, vastly improving their problem-solving skills. This will then become second nature, giving them the ability to adapt to any given situation accordingly. For example, if your buddy was to run out of air, you would confidently supply an alternate and make a safe ascent.

How to prepare for a diving emergency is a crucial part of the rescue diver course.
We all know someone who has lost their GoPro or flashlight in the ocean. By learning search and recovery skills you will be qualified to find and recover these items.

2. They have good search and recovery skills

Although the search and recovery is a speciality course in itself, there is a portion on the Rescue Course. By learning different search patterns, you will be equipped to find small objects underwater (such as a lost GoPro or torch). You’re also learn the necessary skills to search for a missing diver, (which will hopefully never happen to you).

By the end of this course, your navigation skills will certainly have improved. Having these skill helps to build confidence in your own abilities and help you relax while underwater.

3. They’re trained to recognize diver stress

As part of the course, you will be trained to recognize the signs of diver stress both physically and mentally. Physical stress can range from cold/heat, seasickness or stress to dive related illness such as decompression sickness. Although many of them are hard to eliminate, prevention is key, so the quicker you can spot these triggers the better the outcome. If your buddy were to display any of these symptoms, you would be able to identify them prior to the dive.

Not only will you need to demonstrate how you would deal with a panicked or tired diver, but also an unresponsive diver on the surface and underwater. These skills can be extremely tiring, especially if you’re towing someone in the water. Taking off a buddies scuba gear, then your own gear, whilst giving them rescue breaths is hard work. It definitely requires a good level of fitness and stamina and strong multi-tasking skills.

Recognizing diver stress both physically and psychologically is a key component within the rescue diver course and you’ll be confident to take action in or out of the water

4. They are confident in their abilities

If you ever doubted your underwater abilities, this course will give you the confidence to deal with any given situation. However, remember that practice makes perfect. You need to be comfortable in your own dive gear first before thinking about helping someone else.

Then it’s time to dive with confidence, giving you the peace of mind that if something were to happen you would know what steps to take. For example, if your buddy was to become unresponsive underwater, you would be able to safely bring them to the surface and provide with rescue breaths.

There’s always the potential that a diving emergency could take place but when you are qualified in First Aid and CPR you will increase the chances of the divers survival tremendously

5. Your buddy will be qualified in CPR and First Aid

In order to complete the Rescue Course, you are required to learn how to do First Aid and CPR. This is a valuable skill you can carry with you your entire life, that you could need to use in the most unpredictable of circumstances. You are required however, to refresh the course every 2 years in order for it to stay valid.

Although there are many benefits of being a rescue diver, the main reason is that you could save someone’s life. You will feel much more confident diving knowing that your buddy has these skills. From cuts and stings to the more serious situations such as using an AED, they’ll have your back!

Be a better diver

Overall, the rescue course will not only make you more confident and comfortable in the water, but you will possess the knowledge and skills should anything go wrong. It will give you and your buddy peace of mind that you can handle anything thrown your way. From learning all the above skills and having the confidence to apply these together in any situation, makes you one hell of an awesome dive buddy!

Would you like to be the ultimate diving buddy?

Get in touch with Siren Diving to do your Rescue Dive Course today!

If you enjoyed this blog post then check out our latest blog on deep diving and why it’s better to go deeper 😉

Aimee Griffiths

Author Aimee Griffiths

Pink addict and South American nose flautist

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