UKRS Course #1
Emergency First Response, Rescue Diver, Oxygen Administration and UK Skills Courses
Background
How many times has the "What is the correct skill level for a UK diver?" debate been seen on UKRS? Check the archives!
Having read the debate in several threads I decided that (and in fact most people agreed that) all divers should be able to handle whatever UK diving throws at them. They should also be able to help their buddy (or someone else's buddy) should they get into difficulty. That is roughly what the PADI Rescue Diver course aims to achieve. However, there are other skills which the UK diver really needs, including zero visibility search and recovery, DMSB deployment, more drysuit skills...
I decided that there would be enough people participating in UKRS who were of a similar skill level to me and wanted to get to the same place. I wasn't wrong. The response was astounding and I had over a dozen interested parties at one point!
I also got a very good response from freelance instructors and dive schools. One of whom put together a very interesting package indeed comprising the PADI Rescue Diver and Emergency First Response courses with the DAN Oxygen Administration for Diving Injuries course and agreed to chuck in extra skills and drills along the way. Having investigated this particular company I found very favourable things had been said about them and the particular instructor, both by random postings on UKRS and elsewhere and by a couple of potential students.
So it was that the whole thing was organised through Jan Van Der Horst and Wittering Divers with the help of UKRS' very own Frank Bruce.
In the end I got seven people to sign up and Jan promised some more that had contacted him directly.
Friday 9th January 2004
Having picked up Sish Chow at our digs in Portsmouth (the Avenue Hotel - very cheap, relatively clean, breakfast not early enough [or possibly just non-existent]) we arrived at Wittering Divers at ten past six in the evening and got down to the PADI form filling and then the theoretical work.
The theory exam was completed and passed by all so it was just a quick beer in the Thai restaurant next door and back to the hotel for some shuteye prior to the early start the next day.
There were 8 of us in all, Myself, Sish Chow, Mike Forster, Gareth Burrows, Greg Wanlin and David Mills from UKRS and Martin and Paul were the two extras from Wittering.
Saturday 10th 2004
Eight A.M. at Horsea Island, we all (with the exception of Paul) gathered for a briefing in which we were told to expect the unexpected, nothing was off limits and anything could happen at any time. This was to provide much amusement over the course of the next two days...
Dominic Humphries turned up to be a spectator/victim/spare buddy which balanced the numbers up nicely.
To be quite honest I can't remember the order we did things in! We did so much in the space of two days and had so many things sprung on us that most of it merged into a blur, so if anyone remembers things differently from me then please let me know!
First up was some surface skills involving tired divers, panicked divers and so on. Just some nice easy stuff to get warmed up! Or so we thought. The panicked diver was, in every case, Jan. For those who have never met the man he is six foot lots, fit and very comfortable and powerful in the water. He didn't hold back and panicked with vigour trying to throw off his rescuer with real determination. Apologies to Sish for winding Jan up before his turn...
Then it was timed tired diver tows across the lake... burning legs, mad breathing rate resulting in a red hot snorkel...
The rest of the day was spent beside, in, on and under the water practicing buoyant lifts, DMSB deployment, self rescue strategies, floaty feet scenarios, buddy breathing and so on.
Unfortunately, we lost Mike to dodgy sinuses around lunchtime... now we know what you've got in store when you go back to complete it!!
During the buddy-breathing and DSMB bits masks were getting "lost" and air kept "running out" which made life, well, interesting. Kneeling on the platform after said session waiting for the next skill two integrated weight pouches thump down on the aluminium. Reaction time was pretty good and soon five divers were pinning Jan to the bottom while two more retrieved the weights - I don't think Jan managed to ascend more than a foot!
There were more surface skills with full rescue-breathing, inwater dekitting, diver towing rescues (timed!) which were exhausting in the extreme, improvisation of rescue equipment drills involving the throwing of various items attached to diving reels and lots of shouts of "Pizza Pizza" resulting in students throwing themselves in the water and dragging people out...
And after the day's final debrief we started to pack away all the stuff when, yes... SPLOSH!!! "Pizza! Pizza!"
We dragged Jan out of the drink once again and opened his drysuit zip to prevent him from doing it again!
So ended day one and Sish, Dominic, David, Gareth and I stopped off at the Mermaid pub in the Port Solent marina development (very nice for a "development" pub) for a swift one and some well earned relaxation in an environment where if "Pizza!" was heard it was going to have pepperoni on it...
Sish and I met up with Greg and his wife for a spot of dinner and a couple of beers back over at Port Solent in the evening. Dinner was at the "Char Bar" where you order the raw ingredients and cook your own dinner on the barbeque in the middle of the table - good fun and good food.
A taxi back to the hotel and some well earned sleep...
Sunday 11th January 2004
Another eight A.M. start and straight into search and recovery techniques including a six-diver circular search to find an unknown missing object, which went very well. The subsequent surface led search to find my strobe which was used for marking the start point of the sweep went equally well!!!
Our search and recovery skills were well practised over the remainder of the day as we practised timed standing start rescues. One diver at the bottom of a buoy line 20m from shore rescuer standing on shore with no fins on. 3 - 2 - 1 - GO!
Fins on, air in, giant stride, power swim out to the bubble patch, dumping air, dive down, find buddy, lift buddy, establish buoyancy, ditch weights, ditch masks, begin rescue breathing, begin towing, dekit victim, still towing, still rescue breathing, dekit self, still towing, still rescue breathing, reach shore ask for help to remove diver from water, get out of water, check breathing, not breathing, begin rescue breathing, check pulse, no pulse, begin chest compressions...
Search and rescue practise? That would have been the inwater kit handlers dropping weight belts, masks and various other items...
Then a diver comes and asks me "Are you a rescue diver?"...
"I've lost my buddy."
"Where"
"Over there..."
"What was your dive plan?"
"We swam out 90 degrees from shore, turned just after a boat to swim the same distance parallel to shore and during that leg I lost him..."
and so we got to the bottom of it - we were looking for a "tall thin orange diver with who gets turned on by a switch, near to the wreck of a boat..."
So off we went and as we descended onto the boat Sish (I think) points out a victim lying on the bottom - he wasn't tall, he wasn't orange and to the best of my knowledge wasn't even remotely aroused by switches - BUT - we had been told to expect the unexpected and anything was fair game...
...so we rescued him. It turns out that Andark diving's rescue class were doing a similar exercise and had chosen an unfortunate spot to put their victim. He looked astounded when we got him to the surface and he realised that his "rescuers" were still on the shore! I saw him swim off directly into the area we were going to be searching but by this time we were all descending and we couldn't inform the other rescuers that he wasn't to be rescued...
...so they rescued him again!!!
We had, of course, rescued our victim too...
...and that, along with various exits with unresponsive divers, was pretty much that.
SPLASH! SPLASH!! "Pizza!" SPLASH! "Pizza!" SPLASH .... sink.... "bugger!" Wayne appears to have been in difficulty 20m from shore and has sunk - three divers enter the water and another three organise things on the surface getting oxygen and first aid kit and he was dekitted, out of the water, receiving rescue breathing, oxygen and chest compressions in three minutes an fifteen seconds. I think we were all quite chuffed.
Jan left with the van and instructed us to be back at Wittering for four o'clock. The paranoia was setting in by this point and we were trying to figure out if Jan was going to try something non-diver, we came up with a car accident on the way out of Horsea, a cylinder filling accident when we got to the shop and all sorts of other things...
Jan obviously thought that he had sprung enough surprises on us and it was just getting through the Oxygen Administration stuff and a couple of scenarios with multiple ill divers and a single oxygen cylinder and an exam, again all passed.
So it was that we left Wittering Divers on Sunday evening, everyone thoroughly exhausted but all with big grins and a feeling of satisfaction that we had actually *earned* the rating of Rescue Diver. And so we shall be back on the 24th January 2004 to complete the last part - "Emergency First Response" which is a prerequisite for Rescue Diver - check back after then for an update!
Saturday 24th January 2004
Nine A.M. and we are back in East Wittering for the Emergency First Response course, which Jan has promised us will be quite a laugh.
Present are Mike Forster, David Mills, Greg Wanlin, Martin, Paul and another Wittering student (sorry, forgot your name already!), myself and Tony (another EFR instructor). And so we went through knowledge reviews, and bit by bit, the PADI video, stopping to practice that section's skills.
Annie was brought out for CPR practice and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) practice. All good fun and some interesting scenarios - including Annie "rolling a seven" (Sorry!). We practiced rolling people, secondary assessments and all kinds of other useful stuff.
Now all I need is to get myself a first aid kit and a pocket mask!
Conclusions
Well, that was it! I think I speak for all the students when I say "Thank you" to...
...UKRS for providing a source of very capable students
...All the instructors and schools who responded in the first instance
...Frank Bruce for getting Jan involved
...Dominic Humphries for turning up and playing dead
...Wittering Divers staff for surface cover, scenarios and all sorts of other stuff
...the students for being pretty damn good, actually!
...Andark Diving for giving us some extra rescue practice ;-)
...the burger van at Horsea for keeping us fed
...and last by by *no* means least...
...Jan Van Der Horst for giving us seriously good tuition, putting us through our paces, incorporating the extra stuff we asked for, making the weekend superb fun and so much more.
We thank you.
Again I think I speak for all the students on the course when I offer the following advice to anyone thinking of doing Rescue Diver...
...make sure you are confident in the water before booking up for the course, I don't think we would have got the same out of it if we weren't completely happy with our basic skills.
...make sure you read the manuals before you go. The course structure is such that you will be have to rely on initiative and learning, you will have to improvise and think on your feet. The more tools you have at your disposal means the more you will get out of the course, and the more fun you will have.
...if possible try to get a group together to do the course. We found that, although we didn't know each other personally, we had talked via email and whatnot and knew what to expect from each other.
...having a group booking will mean that you are more likely to get the instructor to agree to add in any other skills (such as DSMB use) you may wish.
...and of course, make sure you get a good instructor!
I did manage to take a couple of photos but not many, I will get them online as soon as I can - if anyone has any that they would like to contribute, email them to me.
Also if my somewhat addled brain has remembered events differently from your recollection or I've missed anything you found particularly amusing let me know.
And if I've missed anyone I should have thanked please berate appropriately.
Snippets
These are just some snippets that I've been reminded of that are worth telling...
From Gareth:
After being rescued from the bottom, dekitted, and towed back to shore with simulated rescue breathing, Sish was noted to have reddish-brown foamy snot...
Gareth: "Blimey, are you all right, mate?"
Sish: "Yeah, its probably chocolate..."
From Sish:
"I almost lost Greg's kit...
Received heavy weight belt, then grabbed his wing. As soon as it was slipped off
I started inflating it, unfortunately the hose pull dump had started working
already..."
From David:
During impromptu mask loss and OOA practise...
"Well, Gareth was more concerned about getting the last little drop of water out of his mask even though I signalled out of air took his alternate AND showed him my reg would not purge. There he was playing with his mask, I mean it was almost full of air I'm sure he could see me but he seemed a little distant.
Perhaps I should of pointed to the nice friendly diver just behind him wanting a better look at his mask !"
From David:
During timed rescues...
"The nearest I got to see anyone a bit upset was Calum with two extra weight belts not enough air in his BC and no reg in his mouth. He said something like 'Take this splutter splutter splutter weight off me splutter splutter splutter find my splutter splutter splutter reg' with a reg in his mouth at least he could not splutter splutter splutter any more."
[CS - I'm sure one (or more) of those splutters was a bad word! And I
managed to lower the water level in Horsea substantially by drinking it (not a
good idea). It was also (I think) Martin's belt and he had about half a
ton on it - I just wasn't expecting that amount!]
From Sish:
"My highlights:
Upon seeing the face of the victim Calum had just lifted...
Me: 'Are you *REALLY* OK?'
Andark instructor: 'Yeah, but I think you're the wrong group!'
Upon practising panicked diver...
Jan: 're you ready?'
Calum: 'Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!' [CS -
Sorry about that one, he seemed to take it out on you rather than me!!]
Upon waiting to demonstrate skills...
Having my mask ripped off and thinking 'no problem - I'll go for my spare...
Which - is in my kitbag!'"
From Gareth:
"Funnily enough, what a few of us agreed was that it might well be the fact that the delegates can dive that makes it so enjoyable. The instructor is much more relaxed with you as you are more experienced, and everyone gets on with learning the course, rather than having to be so introspective about their own basic skills."
[CS - I think this is a very good point, I would recommend to anyone planning on doing Rescue Diver to spend some time getting used to your gear, getting comfortable and confident in the water and getting your buoyancy to the point where you don't really have to think too much about it *before* signing up to the course. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much or got as much out of the course if I'd been worried about any aspect of basic training.]