Rescue Diver requirements

The PADI Rescue Diver course sounds interesting to me as far as theory
is concerned. However, I have heard horror stories about the physical
fitness required to participate. So.. is it advisable to build up
endurance in a gym first before taking this class?

On Jan 23, 4:37 pm, grube...@gmail.com wrote:
> The PADI Rescue Diver course sounds interesting to me as far as theory
> is concerned. However, I have heard horror stories about the physical
> fitness required to participate. So.. is it advisable to build up
> endurance in a gym first before taking this class?

Are you fit enough now to rescue someone?

There are exercises that will require you to drag someone out of the
water who is (hopefully) larger than you are, and their only job will
to be "unconscious" - dead weight. and slippery, and you winded from
just having freaked out from finding them unconscious on the bottom,
surfaced them, brought them to the exit point while administering
rescue breaths, calling for help, and then bringing that big, slippery
dead weight out of the water either by dragging it or lifting it.

I'd want to be confident that I could do that in real life.

grubertm@gmail.com wrote:

> The PADI Rescue Diver course sounds interesting to me as far as theory
> is concerned. However, I have heard horror stories about the physical
> fitness required to participate. So.. is it advisable to build up
> endurance in a gym first before taking this class?
>

Espescially the tummy muscles.

Matthias

grubertm@gmail.com> wrote

> The PADI Rescue Diver course sounds interesting to me as far as theory
> is concerned. However, I have heard horror stories about the physical
> fitness required to participate. So.. is it advisable to build up
> endurance in a gym first before taking this class?

I'm not sure anyone an answer this for you. If, however, you consider the
physical requirements you've heard about to be "horror stories," you've
probably answered your own question. By the way, both strength and
endurance are important.

Lee

On Jan 23, 8:37 pm, grube...@gmail.com wrote:
> The PADI Rescue Diver course sounds interesting to me as far as theory
> is concerned. However, I have heard horror stories about the physical
> fitness required to participate. So.. is it advisable to build up
> endurance in a gym first before taking this class?

If you're in reasonable shape you'll be able to do it. Try and see. I
just played the dead diver for a 20 something guy and a 50 something
year old lady. By the time they got me to the surface the instructor
had to assist the lady to shore and the guy was puffing hard. The lady
left the course to hit the gym. This was also with all hands in
drysuits in -2 celcius water so your conditions may change things a
pile. I'm around 5'5'' and not exactly trim and I'm redoing my rescue
drills for my DM course with a dude who could eat me. Dragging him
around is not fun but it's doable if you work calmly and efficiently.

My advice would be to give a whirl. The worst that can happen is your
certification get's put on hold if you can't do the drills. Just make
sure that not only your instructor is confident but that YOU are
confident that you would be of use to a guy bigger then you if they
needed help.

Let us know how it goes.

>
> On Jan 23, 8:37 pm, grube...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>>The PADI Rescue Diver course sounds interesting to me as far as theory
>>is concerned. However, I have heard horror stories about the physical
>>fitness required to participate. So.. is it advisable to build up
>>endurance in a gym first before taking this class?

I guess I have to tell the story.

I took the Rescue course many many years ago from Peter Schultz, perhaps
the finest and certainly the most rigorous instructor in SoFla. I was
getting close to 50 at the time. One winter day with the surf as high as
I've ever seen it here, we schlepped off to the beach to drag dead
divers through the surf. My buddy was a young Canadian kid with a torso
like Schwarzenegger in his salad days. After dragging each other, in
full scuba gear, for several hundred miles through the crashing surf,
swallowing thirty five gallons of sea water, Peter said we could take a
break. Another two minutes and the rescue would have been for real!

I had a very hard time just getting up the beach, crawling on all fours,
and convinced that I was just too damned old and scrawny for this crap.
I figured that if I didn't die right there and then, I'd just pack up my
gear and go home.

Then the Canadian Adonis crawled up beside me and puked all over the sand.

Never before or since has puke made made me feel so very good, so
revitalized, so ready to get up and give it another go.

Given my age, my strength, and the amount of insulin it now takes to get
my muscles to work at all, you prolly wouldn't want it to be me that had
to rescue you.

On the other hand, I was damned well trained and I'm still willing to
give it a try if I have to.

Take the course. Put into it all you can. Get out of it all you can.

esg

How unfriendly of me to not reply in a timely fashion.
I really appreciate the comments from all you guys and gals. It sounds
like I should do some kind of endurance training and then take on the
rescue diver thing as a challenge. Might make a good new-years
resolution.
Thanks again!