Non Diving Programs

Floods and Moving Water (NEW)

Floods are one of the leading causes of loss of life and property throughout the world. This type of natural disaster is becoming a more common scenario and communities are demanding rescue providers be prepared. The enormity of flooding incidents makes planning critical to your team’s success. Floods vary in duration and intensity, but the concepts for conducting rescue and recovery operations are similar. Program topics include:

• Rescue and survival tactics
• Rescuer safety
• Identifying potential dangers
• Equipment for yourself and your team
• Hydrology
• Dynamics of moving water
• Site survey
• Rope tactics
• Boat-based techniques
• Rigging systems
• Low-head dams
• Risk/benefit analysis

Duration - 3 days (24 hours)
Recommended for - Dive team members, water rescue team members, law enforcement and fire service personnel
Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old

Ice Rescue

Ice Rescue All first responders should know how to carry out a surface ice rescue. Is your team prepared to be first on the scene to handle an ice emergency? Dive Rescue International’s Ice Rescue course teaches:

• How to avoid becoming a victim
• How to recognize ice hazards
• How to evaluate ice strength

This one-day program allows you to practice multiple ice rescues with victims who have fallen through the ice. Other program topics include:

• Ice conditions and ice formation
• Hypothermia
• Cold-water near-drowning
• Equipment selection and rigging techniques
• Operational planning and scene evaluation

Duration - 2 days (16 hours)
Recommended for -All public safety first responders
Prerequisites -Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old

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Interspiro Technician

This course is designed to give you the knowledge needed to repair, maintain, and complete annual service on your department's Interspiro Divator II (AGA) full face masks. During this program, students disassemble and reassemble their masks. All parts are explained by the instructor and inspected. Once reassembled, the mask is tested using Interspiro's Mini Test Kit. Technicians who complete this program are certified by Interspiro to perform annual service and field maintenance.

Duration: 1 day (8 hours)
Recommended for: Personnel responsible for Interspiro Divator II Full Face mask maintenance.
Prerequisites: Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years of age

Med Dive

Keep your dive team healthy and safe through prevention. Learn to recognize potentially life-threatening signs and symptoms associated with scuba diving. Dive Rescue International’s Med Dive program includes numerous hands-on practical sessions. An added benefit of this course Med Dive manual makes an excellent diving resource for your team.

Program topics include:

• Pulmonary barotrauma
• Medical evaluation of divers
• Monitoring divers
• Conducting neurological exams
• Decompression sickness
• Oxygen administration
• Field stabilization of compressed gas injuries

Duration -2 _ days (20 hours)
Recommended for -certified divers, surface support personnel, EMS professionals and medical personnel involved with dive team operations
Prerequisites - Member of public safety agency, current First Aid and CPR training and at least 18 years old

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Shore Responder

The Shore Responder can be any member of your department. A patrol officer or fire fighter often is the first on the scene, gathering information from witnesses for divers and helping prepare the dive team for a safe mission. Certified Shore Responders facilitate efforts among various responding public safety agencies while maintaining a safe scene for the duration of the incident. This valuable team member is a necessary component of every successful dive mission.

Program topics include:

• Assembling scuba equipment
• Dressing and preparing divers
• Search pattern fundamentals
• Basic scene evaluation and sketching
• Patrol management
• Introduction to decompression tables

Duration - 2 days (16 hours)
Recommended for - Public safety officers who respond to water incidents
Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old

Swiftwater Rescue

Swiftwater rescue operations are inherently dangerous and with the complications of fast current, low-head dams, and/or hidden debris they can become deadly. Prepare for these hazards by learning how to organize and manage safe swiftwater rescue operations. Participants in this program should be prepared for multiple in-water scenarios.

Program topics include:

• Hydrology
• Dynamics of moving water
• Site survey
• Hazard identification
• Protective equipment
• Rope tactics
• Boat-based techniques
• Survival techniques and rigging systems
• Low-head dams
• Risk/benefit analysis

Completing the Dive Rescue Swiftwater I program provides 24 hours toward NFPA compliance for standards 1670 or 1006.

Duration - 3 days (24 hours)
Recommended for - Dive team members, water rescue team members, law enforcement and fire service personnel
Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old

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Swiftwater Rescue II

This physically demanding program is designed to improve your personal readiness to respond to swiftwater emergency situations. Dive Rescue International builds on your basic swiftwater rescue skills to run safe and successful operations. All students are required to have basic swiftwater rescue skills including:

• Excellent swimming skills
• Operational experience with high-lines
• Working knowledge of knots, rigging, and mechanical advantage systems. Students should be prepared for multiple challenging in-water scenarios.
• Swimming challenges
• Swiftwater rescue board drills
• Identifying high probability search areas
• Rescue and recovery procedures
• Body characteristics in moving water
• Triage exercises
• Water-bound victim extrication exercises
• Strainer drills
• Search strategies and techniques

Completing the Dive Rescue Swiftwater II program provides 24 hours toward NFPA compliance for standards 1670 or 1006.

Duration - 3 days (24 hours)
Recommended for - Water rescue teams, law enforcement and fire service personnel
Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency, at least 18 years of age and certificate of basic swiftwater training from a recognized training organization within the last 3 years.

Underwater Investigator

By using comprehensive tabletop scenarios, this program prepares students to complete investigations recovering: weapons, bodies, vehicles, aircraft and scuba fatalities. This program was originally designed by retired Corporal Robert G. Teather of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. His comprehensive book “The Encyclopedia of Underwater Investigations” is included in the price of this program. Actual case examples are used to recreate real-life investigative scenarios. There are graphic depictions of water-related deaths contained in the textbook as well as in the tabletop scenarios. This program is available in a 1 or 3 day format to accommodate your teams time constrains.

Duration - 1 day (8 hours) or 3 days (24 hours)
Recommended for - Public safety and forensic investigators who are involved in evidence recovery
Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old

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Visual Cylinder Inspection

Don’t pay outside resources to inspect and maintain your SCUBA and SCBA cylinders. This program teaches students how to inspect various air cylinders. It is recommended that all scuba cylinders be visually inspected annually when filling at certified air stations. We encourage you to bring any of your department’s cylinders regardless of condition for this hands-on program.

Duration - 1 day (8 hours)
Recommended for - Personnel responsible for compressed air cylinder maintenance
Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old

Water Rescue and Survival

This is a unique rescue program focusing on your safety while rescuing a drowning victim. During this program students learn to survive submersion in your turnout gear or uniform. Scene evaluation is critical to the success of any mission, but this becomes paramount when you are the first responder to a water incident. Program topics include: scene evaluation, risk/benefit analysis, victim condition, basic rescue techniques (reach, throw, row), equipment and water related injuries.

Students learn how to select and use appropriate equipment, apply proven rescue methods and techniques, and focus on personal safety while rescuing a drowning victim.

Duration - 1 day (8 hours)
Recommended for - Emergency services personnel responding to surface incidents
Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old

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Water Rescue Officer Development

Dive Rescue International’s Water Rescue Officer Development training is designed to build student's skill path to water incident command. Topics covered include:

• Utilizing incident management system for water rescue
• Performing incident assessment at a simulated emergency situation
• Creating written incident objectives for a water emergency event
• Listing strategic and tactical considerations for various emergency water situations
• Determining management position requirements for water rescue events
• Demonstrating the expansion and contraction of Incident Management System to meet the needs of the incident
• Discussing tactics for large and small-scale events
• Demonstrating resource deployment, personnel accountability, logistics management, and implementation of tactics at a simulated rescue event
• Performing risk management activities

This course takes incident command principles and applies them to large and small-scale water rescue scenes. Students participate in incident command scenarios and make risk management decisions. Through practice during scenario execution and discussion students prepare for incidents of various magnitudes where the local NIMS-based ICS may transition to Unified Command.

Duration - 3 days (24 hours)

Recommended for - Emergency services personnel responding to diving and surface incidents

Prerequisites - Member of a public safety agency and at least 18 years old