Early on in your scuba diving the PADI Rescue Diver course can sometimes seem intangible or unnecessary, because well, you just leave that stuff to the pro’s don’t you?  While when it comes to dive planning and organising dive trips, professional dive operations will take the stress out of a lot of this, the answer is certainly quite the opposite.  You as a diver get more out of your time and investment in diving with a PADI Rescue Diver rating without any extra responsibility or obligation and here is why…

During your training you learn about what can go wrong and gain an understanding of what to look out for in yourself as much as with other divers.  Knowing and understanding these things makes your diving easier.  Divers without this rating can make mistakes that affect their comfort in the water and others.  Not knowing what to do if something a little untoward or even serious happened creates anxiety and discomfort.  These things on their own can lead to accidents and add extra stresses that nobody enjoy’s.

Included in the Rescue Diver training we re-practice your self rescue skills which helps to fine tune your diving skill base and personal safety.  Also during your Rescue Diver training we take you through dive knowledge increasing your confidence and understanding of potential hazards.  Then we practice and re-practice Exercises that come together into scenarios for dealing with a number of possible diver emergencies.  With knowledge of what to look out for, we as divers grow competent and better prepared for all our diving adventures.

Now this is the important part, knowing when things are going well reduces your stress levels and that of divers around you making for great diving!  Confidence and comfort comes with understanding your environment, conditions and potential hazards.  When a diver is less stressed, confident and comfortable they make less mistakes and deal with potentially dangerous situations easily, therefore preventing accidents and dive destroying problems from escalating.