Deciding to do our PADI Rescue Diver In Utila was a great choice and subsequently we had a great week! We arrived at Utila to begin our course which is a prerequisite for the Divemaster Program we will be starting in Roatan in a week or two. We got Nick as our instructor and began the theory on the first day at the Bay Islands College of Diving where we have done so much diving in the past. I am never and have never, been one for theory. I find myself arguing with a concept here and there while forming my own opinions about what could or should be done. We made it through none the less, and finished the classroom work. The next day we started the inwater skills portion. We met up with Laura, Nick and John. Laura and John are Divemaster trainees here at BICD and were acting out scenarios effectively becoming our own practice dummies. They did great, and Shelly in particular did incredibly! She picked up the multi-step rescue procedure flawlessly and performed it flawlessly the first time she demonstrated the skill. I was proud of her and a little jealous.

PADI Rescue Diver In Utila

The whole procedure of the PADI Rescue Dive In Utila starts with an unresponsive diver at the surface, you must assess the situation, their breathing, alert the boat captain about the situation in the water, then start with rescue breathing fully geared, and tow them 100 yards to the boat in the meantime giving breaths every 5 minutes and removing your and the diver's gear as you go. It is not as easy at it sounds. A lot of steps that must be done perfectly. We also had a chainsaw accident where someone supposedly was cutting something on the dock and cut their leg with a chainsaw, we had to run and assess. Laura had catsup all over her leg, we had to do first aid, and prepare the oxygen when she went into cardiac arrest. It was fun too and we nailed it.

Rescue a Diver From The Bottom

We also learned how to rescue a diver on the bottom, and bring them to the surface slowly as to not over-expand the lungs and cause vascular bubbles in the blood. We learned how to approach and subdue a panicked diver in the water as well. It was a great day. The whole day we were thrown into "emergency situations" that were a surprise to us and utterly ridiculous. We had to save a child who had been lost underwater off the dock. This conveniently happened right after being in the water for 2 and a half hours, and completely de-geared down and resting. We had to re-gear, get all the dock procedures like getting oxygen and calling ems and spotters etc. Then we had to enter the water with a compass and with a compass, we had to do a pattern search on the bottom. We found and surfaced the diver in less than 5 minutes from time she was down, to the time we brought the child (it was a weight belt we found, we didn't know what we were looking for) (for you slow ones.. the weight belt represented the child) to the surface.

Dive From Hell

The next day we did two "fun" dives where the entire first dive was taking care of 3 divers who were doing everything wrong, and we had to save them.  It was called the "Dive From Hell". Everything from losing their mask, to running out of air underwater, to panicking, to over-inflating their vest and shooting to the surface happened. We had it all. And Shelly and I did a great job keeping everyone inline and safe. It was fun, but very very tiring. We rested for about an hour and did another dive, where we had to find a missing person again. We had a much larger search area and less information to go on. We did really well on this one too, we found the weight belt and brought it to the surface in good time, then we had to switch the weight belt with a person (ie John and Laura) and tow them in rough seas 100 meters to the boat while giving rescue breaths. Once at the boat we had to bring them on the boat and administer CPR, and oxygen.

Keeping Us On Our Toes

We were absolutely tired after this and completely worn out from the two dives of saving people. When we get 500 meters from the dock, Nick, John and Laura all jump off the moving boat. ANOTHER SURPRISE!! We were pretty tired at this point and we realized that we had to get them saved and perform the boat to water rescue. Shelly and I worked as a team to get the floatation devices and save all three. Shelly saved two people and had to swim another 50 yards and save them while I stayed on the boat and saved Nick with a Floatation device. I had to throw him the device and have it tied down somewhere, and then pull him up on to the boat with no help. Shelly towed the two back safely to the boat. When we got back to the dock, we took the written test and passed. We still managed to go two more dives that afternoon. Shelly really felt it after our first dive to 100 feet and a shipwreck. I was feeling tired but, ok. After the second dive we did which was easy, but after all, our 4th dive of the day. We were both really spent.

PADI Rescue Diver In Utila

We are now officially Certified PADI Rescue Divers and are proud to be so. It was a hard and tiring class, but a lot of fun, and Nick did an incredible job teaching us what we needed. Although all the role play and "surprises" were tiring and at times bothersome, we really enjoyed the class and feel confident we learned what we needed to be effective at safely handling a situation should it arise. We start our Wreck Specialty Diving today with some theory in the afternoon then 3 wreck dives where we actually get to swim inside the wreck with reels and lights. This should be an epic week. We will be staying here until Tuesday then going back to Roatan. Maybe relax for a week or two, then start the Divemaster program.