Rescue Diver course: who can take it, what you learn and how long it takes

You need to be a certified diver with some experience, and you need recent first aid and CPR training. The exact rules differ by agency:

If your first aid training is missing or out of date, you can do it with us first: see first aid courses for divers.

The course has two halves: preventing accidents and responding when one happens. SSI describes it as learning "how to identify stress, how to prevent accidents" and "practical techniques to conduct rescues and provide emergency care". SDI lists accident prevention, stress management, equipment use, managing dive-related injuries and underwater rescues.

In practice you work through:

• recognising a tired or panicking diver before they get into trouble
• self-rescue, such as releasing a cramp or solving your own air problem
• helping a responsive diver at the surface, and towing a tired diver
• bringing an unresponsive diver to the surface and out of the water onto the boat
• searching for a missing diver
• setting up emergency oxygen and following an emergency plan

With us the PADI Rescue Diver course usually takes 2–4 days. SSI gives 10–15 hours for Diver Stress & Rescue, with 3 open water sessions and a maximum training depth of 18 m. A typical plan:

• Day 1: prevention and self-rescue, and your first rescue scenarios in calm water
• Day 2: responsive and unresponsive diver drills, tows, equipment removal and exits onto the boat
• Day 3: realistic scenarios, missing-diver search patterns, emergency oxygen set-up, then a debrief

Boat days follow our normal schedule: hotel pickup at 08:00 and back at your hotel around 16:30. Your instructor sets the final pace, and we teach a maximum of 4 students per instructor.

It is the most physical of the recreational courses, because you practise towing and lifting another diver. It also asks you to think under pressure in scenarios you don't know in advance. You don't need to be an athlete: rescue techniques are taught step by step, and you repeat them until they work. Many divers say it is the course that changed how they dive, because they start watching their buddy and their own air without thinking about it.

Rescue Diver is the step before the professional levels. Rescue Diver and current emergency-care training are part of the prerequisites for Divemaster training. SDI also lists Master Scuba Diver as a next step. If you want to stay a recreational diver, the course still makes you a better buddy on every dive.