If you ask any instructor at 72 Aquatics what their favorite course to teach is, almost all of us will give you the exact same answer: Diver Stress & Rescue.
Why? Because it is the exact moment we watch a recreational diver transform into an absolute pro.
Up until this point in your scuba journey, your training has been entirely self-focused. You learned how to clear your mask, monitor your air, and control your buoyancy. But when you step into the Rescue course, the blinders come off. You stop being a passenger on the dive boat and become an active, hyper-aware asset to the entire team.
When you carry a Rescue certification, you become the person everyone secretly hopes they get paired with. Here are 5 critical skills you’ll master in this course that will make you the ultimate dive buddy.
1. Spotting Panic Before It Happens
The best rescue is the one you never have to make. A huge portion of this course is dedicated to the psychology of stress. You will learn to read the subtle body language of a diver who is silently spiraling toward panic.
You’ll learn to look for the “white-knuckle grip” on the boat ladder, the wide, unblinking eyes behind the mask, or the diver who is breathing rapidly and rejecting their regulator on the surface. By recognizing these signs early, you can intervene with a calming word, a hand on the shoulder, and a little extra buoyancy before the situation ever escalates into an emergency.
2. The Tired Diver Tow
Not every emergency is life-or-death; sometimes, it’s simply a matter of exhaustion. Imagine surfacing from a great dive at San Carlos, only to realize the current has picked up and the boat is much further away than you thought. Your buddy tries to swim against it, gets exhausted, and starts to cramp.
In the Rescue course, you’ll learn how to physically tow an exhausted diver back to the boat or shore without exhausting yourself in the process. You’ll practice the tank-valve tow, the modified tired-swimmer push, and how to keep your buddy calm and chatting while you do the heavy lifting.
3. Managing a Panicked Diver on the Surface
A diver in full-blown, irrational panic is incredibly dangerous. Their instinct is to climb on top of anything buoyant to get out of the water—including you.
We will teach you how to approach a panicked diver safely from underwater or behind. You’ll learn the physical techniques to break free from a panicked grasp, establish positive buoyancy for both of you, and take control of the situation until their rational brain kicks back in.
4. The Search and Recovery Hustle
Your buddy went behind a coral head, and when you swam around it, they were gone. After searching for one minute, you surface, but they aren’t there. Your heart drops.
This course teaches you exactly what to do next. You will learn how to organize a rapid, effective underwater search pattern. You’ll practice using a compass under immense pressure, utilizing U-patterns and expanding squares to cover the maximum amount of ground in the shortest amount of time to locate a missing diver.
5. Surfacing an Unresponsive Diver
This is the heavy hitter—the skill we hope you never, ever have to use, but the one you absolutely must know. What do you do if you find a diver unconscious on the bottom?
You will learn the mechanics of safely bringing an unresponsive diver to the surface. It is a delicate dance of managing your own buoyancy while simultaneously venting the air from their BCD as it expands on the way up, all while holding their regulator in their mouth. Once on the surface, you’ll learn how to strip their heavy gear off while providing rescue breaths while towing them to the boat.
Serious Training, Serious Fun
I know reading through this list sounds intense. And it is! But here is the other secret about the SSI Diver Stress & Rescue course: it is incredibly fun. You spend the weekend at Lake Pleasant role-playing scenarios, tackling problems, and building immense confidence.
You will leave this course exhausted, proud, and completely changed. You’ll dive with a new level of peace of mind, knowing that if things go wrong, you know exactly what to do.
Are you ready to level up? Check out the 72 Aquatics course calendar and sign up for our next SSI Diver Stress & Rescue class. Become the buddy everyone wants to dive with!
