rescue diver

[Wolfy]

Hi all

Was at a dive site ohh ages ago now and unfortunatly a diver was in distress and the call went out for any "rescue divers" to assist.
Now i know (or think i do) that the rescue diver is a PADI grade..i just wondered what the BSAC equiv' is ?

any help as usual much appreciated..

Wolfy

[nickjb]

Hi all

Was at a dive site ohh ages ago now and unfortunatly a diver was in distress and the call went out for any "rescue divers" to assist.
Now i know (or think i do) that the rescue diver is a PADI grade..i just wondered what the BSAC equiv' is ?

any help as usual much appreciated..

Wolfy

Sport Diver is generally agreed to be equivalent to PADI Rescue Diver. That said, the search and recovery stuff that is taught on the rescue course doesn't seem to be covered with BSAC until Dive Leader, where as basic rescue is taught right from Ocean Diver.

Nick

[terryh]

Sport Diver is generally agreed to be equivalent to PADI Rescue Diver. That said, the search and recovery stuff that is taught on the rescue course doesn't seem to be covered with BSAC until Dive Leader, where as basic rescue is taught right from Ocean Diver.

Nick

All depends where you start from and who is asking the
question. Why?

If you are a PADI guy/outfit then your interpretation (or
rather PADI's would be) at least Dive Leader. It is only that
grade that has the spread of skills you would expect of
a "Rescue Diver". However if you are coming from a BSAC
perspective then Sports Diver has got the required minumum
standard.

Personally I would go for PADI rescue eqates to BSAC Dive
Leader, why? Because both are the third tier of courses and
that means more in water experience and hopefully competence.

True DL may have a bit more than RD, but rather too much
skill/info, than too little.

Mind you I can happily say all that, being both BSAC & PADI.

TerryH

[Digger]

I'd also think about what you could be asked to do. If you're going to volunteer, you should be aware that in a site such as Stoney, where they ask for rescue volunteers, you could have to CBL someone from 35m. That's not easy to do unless you're very confident about the skill.

If you're not sure, don't volunteer. If you get it wrong you will regret it afterwards. If the call goes out for any divers kitted to get in the water, that's maybe your time if you've not gone in with the first wave, as then they have no more rescue divers. It can happen, and has. Obviously if you are qualified and capable do anything you can, but there is no obligation to get involved.

I'd back Terry on RD = DL. Roughly, anyway. There's wuite a bit of stuff that doesn't get covered in the SD course that is in the RD, which gets covered and a bit more in DL.