Guess what, I’ve finally completed my Padi Rescue Diving course a couple of days ago. I’m so thankful to my instructor, mentor, friend and most of all a lovely human being – the Mermaid of the Maldivian Seas. The rescue program was intense, tiring but nevertheless exciting. Honestly, I feel accomplished and relieved at the same time.
The final exercise we had for the missing diver is quite a story. The planning started on the main vessel. It was a brief discussion on how we plan to execute the mission. We were in total three buddy teams. We sat down together with the map of the area, planned the different search patterns, assigned duties and tasks for all. We assigned tasks to the spotters, snorkelers, dive teams and to those who stayed on the dinghy. We fine-tuned the signals on how to contact each other in case the diver was found and how-to re-call all the teams back to the dinghy. The exercise requires finding the missing diver, ascending with him by maintaining controlled positive buoyancy and providing rescue breaths while towing him back to the dinghy.
So many thoughts rose through my mind. Would I be able to find him? Would I do a good job, would I get lost along the way and the list goes on. I was nervous and at the same confident as I knew the drills dot to dot. But that’s just on the surface. Things drastically change when at sea and when the current hits in it can really disorient you. My buddy team was the first to go. That is, I’m the navigator and my buddy tow’s the victim back to the dinghy. Finally, the plan was done, and the final briefing was given by the instructor. It was time for us to gear up and get on the dingy and head towards Maagiri, the dive location where the exercise was going to be held. It’s a nice clean piece of sea in the mid ocean.
We then arrived at Maagiri. The instructor and her buddy, the one who plays the victim jumped into the sea and disappeared into depths. You see the scenario was she hides a buoy underwater and we need to find it. Upon finding the buoy, her buddy becomes the victim and the next stage begins. My buddy takes over. It was a team exercise and the lead roles are rotational.
My heart beeped with nervousness like a dive watch of a diver ascending or descending too fast. We were impatiently and curiously waiting for them to surface. And let me tell you about the weather. It was a clean beautiful day from morning until the final exercise time. What the hell right? It wasn’t in our favor at all but manageable.
In a couple of minutes, she surfaced screaming that her buddy has gone missing just before five-meter safety stop. It was time for us to begin the drill. I quickly assessed the scene, asked relevant questions from her about where she lost him, time under water, depth, etc. Finding out relevant information is one of the keys to finding a missing diver. He went missing just before the safety stop so we knew the diver wouldn’t’ have enough air to stay too long. And the current was strong as hell.
I quickly assigned the duties and asked the captain of the dingy to contact the coast guard and emergency services. The snorkelers got into position and we all jumped into the sea to search for him. I felt my heart throb, nervous and so very eager to find him. My buddy and I descended to about eight meters deep. Took the compass bearing and began swimming towards the heading direction counting kicks. Kick cycles are important to know so our search is organized, and the distances are covered accurately. We searched for the buoy, but it wasn’t found. We were swimming against the current but to our surprise the current had already disoriented us. After about ten minutes, the mermaid popped up in the middle of nowhere and signaled us to surface and get our orientation right. I should have done that even before she intervened. It was on my mind, but I didn’t with the fear of failure. But it was the right thing to do.
We then surfaced and to tell you we were so freaking disoriented. The current was just too strong and carried us in a different direction. We re-oriented ourselves quickly and descended again. In less than seven minutes we located the buoy. What a relief and finally achieved the first segment of our exercise.
Her buddy then became the unconscious victim and my buddy took charge. We ascended to the surface and guess what I was raining, windy as hell and we had to tow the victim back to the dinghy giving rescue breaths. We were about a eighty to hundred meters away from the boat. The sea was rough, the current wasn’t in our favor and after about two minutes of rescue breath we decided to stop and tow him back to the boat as soon possible.
It was physically draining and was very difficult. But finally, after about 10 to 15 minutes of towing we were able to reach the dinghy. To make things worse I even had a cramp in the middle. Once we got on, we debriefed, and it was time for diver to take the lead. However, the weather turned too bad.
It was extremely windy, and the waves were too huge and the dinghy a bit too small to handle. It was actually frightening. We then decided to head back to the main boat. We literally couldn’t see anything past 10 – 15 meters as it was all too misty. We couldn’t see the islands, nor boats. But we had a general idea of where to navigate. The captain of the dinghy deserves much credit for the way he handled the situation and we reached the main boat safely. We were lucky that we didn’t need to be rescued.
Although being lost briefly at mid sea, the missing diver exercise turned out to be pretty realistic and not too easy. The total experience of the program is both mentally and physically demanding. I would be writing about the rescue course experience in a different blog post.
Nature blessed us positively by making the conditions demanding so we can be better rescue divers. 😉
Have you ever thought of being a Padi Rescue Diver?
