Those who read my blog on a regular basis will know that one of my favourite courses to run is the Rescue Course. We started another one this Tuesday which Andy is leading so I know it will be a great course. This time it will be different as the latest PADI Training update pronounced changes to the course requirements.
I can remember the last significant change which meant being able to conduct the Open Water section on one day amongst other things. Now the Open Water section has been shortened from four to two scenarios. On the face of it the move makes a lot of sense. If I were choosing which scenarios to keep because I only wanted two it would be the missing diver and the unconscious diver at the surface too.
No more spurious badly gashed legs indicated by labels underwater then!
The rationale given by PADI for the change is also sound:
This scenario refinement further and more clearly defines the separation between development and assessment. During the 10 rescue exercises, divers are developing – learning how to perform rescue components in a skill-building approach. The scenarios are an evaluation of skills learned in the development phase, similar to the IDC development/ IE (assessment) process. Scenarios focus on student divers role-playing and being appropriately responsive to realistic diving emergencies– demonstrating that they have mastered their newly acquired skills.
All is good and very rationale though I will continue to believe that a greater range of scenarios run over two days does add something different. The truth is I always love the bonding and teamwork that emerges when you put students through their paces on the Open water section. I am therefore concerned that this element may get lost with the possibility of just two scenarios even if they are the right ones to take.
It does also increase the importance of the pool work and to give students great value a real emphasis on the skill development and sessions must be in place.
As Andy starts the rescue course one of the things he and the students will appreciate is that they are in the deep pool. This pool has real advantages when it comes to practicing lifts and I believe that we end up with students that are exceptionally good at controlled lifts as a result.
The first session is the one that often get spun through quickly and I know that you just can't do that. Revision of the basic skills from the Open Water course is not just a race through to get to the new skills. Too often I have found that students don't have the basics from which to build.
Tonight Andy will run through all the basics with emphasis on weight belt dumping. It needs to be an automatic response for the distressed diver on the surface and I for one am distressed by reading every year about another diver who made the surface but then sunk below the waves and lost their lives.
So to the point shortening the Open Water scenario requirements must not and cannot lead to a lessening of the experience for the student. At Orca we are offering our students option of a two day Open water section. The first will now be scenario practice and could well include some of the scenarios now dropped. The second day will then be the formal assessment and run exactly as per the new directive.
This means the group doing the rescue get to bond and start to get the team working benefit. I believe this will be offering great value and I also think that even if the team all worked through the ten scenarios in the pool together they will find this of benefit.
I can#t wait to see how our latest Rescue students turn out.
Enjoy the course, love your diving!
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