Rescue Diver

Hopefully, since we are now getting short glimpses of spring, divers are starting to plan for outings and courses for the summer.  Open water divers will want to schedule their adventure dives for Advanced Open Water. For those who want to delve more deeply into a particular dive experience, specialty courses, such as Underwater Navigator, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck diver and Night Diver are your ticket.  But if you are a diver who really wants to stretch his skills and expand from caring just for himself to caring for others, then Rescue Diver is the course you want.

There are many reasons people give for wanting to take the Rescue Diver course beyond just a stepping stone to Divemaster or instructor.  For example, a diver may have a child or loved one as a dive buddy, or they are the most experienced diver in their group.  These divers feel that others are relying on them to be ready to help if there is an emergency, so they want to prepare themselves.  Sometimes, the diver was a witness to an emergency and didn’t like having to stand around not knowing how to help and have vowed to be ready the next time.  Whatever the reason a person takes the Rescue Diver course, they always come away saying that it was the most challenging and rewarding course they have taken.  As an instructor, it is so rewarding when a former student shares a story of how their training kicked in at the appropriate time. 

Here is an excerpt from an e-mail we received from Sarah Barrett, a student of ours who has recently earned her dive instructor certification in Florida:

“Two days before our divemaster course was over, we were teaching an open water class with two open water students: Sam, who was 67, and actually his dad who was probably in his 80's. We had done some of their confined water skills in the morning, and then in the afternoon we took them both out for the open water dives. On the second dive towards the end, I looked over upon ascent, and Sam was signaling to another kid in my class that he was out of air, although you could see he was still breathing from his primary. Aaron, the kid in my class, gave Sam his alternate anyway, and they ascended together. Once we all got to the surface, Sam spit his regulator out of his mouth and started yelling "It felt like I wasn't getting any air!" over and over again, so we calmed him down a little and said it was time to swim over to the boat. While on our way to the boat, we were holding onto the mooring line, and Sam tried to grab a piece of it, but over and over again would grab the air-we immediately knew something wasn't right. Claude, my divemaster instructor, said "Sam are you ok?" and Sam kept saying "No." Before we knew it Sam had put his head back in the water and fell unconscious. Me and Aaron immediately started towing Sam back to the boat as fast as we could, while Claude removed his weight belt, and we unclipped his gear as we got closer to the boat. Claude yelled to the captain that we had a REAL emergency, and I yelled at the first mate to get the O2. This was the scary part-Sam's face was so blue it scared the living crap out of me. I had never seen anyone look that blue before. As I kept Sam's airway open, we all lifted him onto the back of the boat (and he was probably 250 so it wasn't as easy as it sounds.) We then got him onto the boat and gave him oxygen right away, and within a minute or two he was able to open his eyes and tell us that he was ok. After we got back to the canal obviously we had to meet the ambulance and the coast guard, and Sam was taken to the nearest hospital. He is ok and his dad, Jim, actually came back the next day to finish his open water.

             Needless to say I was blessed to have had my rescue training with you guys, because right when Sam went unconscious, I didn't think, I just acted. It felt amazing to have helped actually save someone's life, and I just wanted you two to know that you did an amazing job in preparing me for a situation like that. I'm also glad it had such a good ending and that Sam was okay!”

The course starts with the prerequisite Emergency First Response course.  In the EFR course, the student learns first aid, CPR, AED and oxygen use.  During this course we start to introduce some diving scenarios in order to start participants thinking how these skills apply in a diving situation.  Moving into the actual Rescue Diver course, we spend a couple of nights in the classroom working our way through the manual. Then the fun begins! We spend an entire day practicing rescue skills and playing out some situations with the help of volunteer “victims” in open water.  The next day, we return to the open water where the instructor and volunteers set up real life scenarios that the Rescue Diver candidates must react to and act upon. Scenarios are played out until each candidate responds appropriately and with confidence.  It is exhausting and exhilarating at the same time! Best of all, successful candidates earn not only the certification card, but the coveted Manta Divers’ red touque.

Emergency First Response course is scheduled for April 1 & 3 at 6:30 at the shop

Rescue Diver course is scheduled for May 20 & 22, classroom, June 6 & 7 open water training.

Searching Davy Jone's Locker

I was asked last week what specialty I like to teach the most. I gave it some thought.  I like a lot of them, Underwater Navigation, Equipment Specialist, Wreck Diving etc.  But the one that I come back to the most is “Search and Recovery”.  I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching this specialty.  The two pillars of search and recovery are 1) something is lost or 2) something needs to be recovered. The something is lost can be a variety of things. For example, a set of keys has been dropped overboard, wedding rings left a hand during a water volley ball game, an outboard jumped ship or a prop was there then it wasn’t.  The search starts with getting as much information as you can before you start the search. I talk to as many people that were there and saw what happened as I can.  Nobody ever remembers everything about where the boat was when the keys went into the water or when the outboard jumped off the boat but by interviewing a number of people you can get a better idea of the area that you will search.  Another tidbit of information to consider is the ability of the item to drift to the side after it enters the water.  Keys on a ring tend to whirlybird to the side as much as 6 -10 ft. from where you saw them go in.  Gold rings or heavy outboards tend to go almost straight down but a prop only comes off in reverse and will spin sideways and back as much as 25 – 30 ft. In that case you really need to know the position of the boat when the prop left it.

I found this prop using a sweep search, feeling my way along the bottom in zero visibility
Used a 50 lbs lift bag

After the information gathering is completed you the have to determine how you are going to search and what equipment you will need. Sometimes you will need the assistance of one or more other divers and it becomes a group adventure. The location and area of search will often dictate the search pattern.  In the case of the outboard, if the visibility is good you can do your search up off the bottom using an expanding box search with your compass. Low or zero visibility will require a search on a line feeling your way along the bottom. I do this type of search a lot.  In the case of the rings you may have to use an underwater metal detector. This is what I used to find the wedding rings in the picture.  It’s fun to investigate and set up the search.

I used an underwater metal detector on this find.

Recovery starts after your search finds what you’re looking for. In the Search and Recovery course we learned the use on knots and had some fun with lift bags. When you find something small like the wedding ring or keys recovery is a no brainer. But when you find a large prop or an outboard motor you don’t just pick them up and tale them to the surface.  In the course we learn how to secure a lift bag to various items and safely take them to the surface never being below the item in the event that it drops off the lift bag. . When working alone I secure a second line that ties the recovered item back to the dock, boat or shore.  This ensures an easy find again if the item drops off the lift bag.  

After 14 years in the muck, I found it.

Last week I did a job that was just recovery. The barge at the marina flipped over and was stuck upside down in the mud. No big search here, just look for the 8ft x 20ft bottom of the barge sticking 1.5 ft. out of the water out in the marina.  This one would fall under advanced recovery and would not be something that a diver would do without special training. The recovery involved overheard environment, entanglements, hanging equipment, zero visibility and ass kicking current. (yes, a ripping  current in a marina).  After surveying the situation underwater it was my job to take a strap, an anchor shackle and 2000lb lift bag under the barge and fasten them on to the bottom of the crane in the mud.  Just work the strap around the beam of the crane in the mud, then remove the bolt from the shackle, work the shackle though the strap, attach the lift to the shackle and put the bolt back in with zero visibility , 40 degree water , 5mm gloves and a ripping current.  Then do it again. When my job was done the boat guys took over and towed it to be lifted out of the water. I love Search and Recovery.

This one was easy to find.