The First PSAI Technical Rescue Course
The very first PSAI Technical Rescue Course was held in early April 2010 at Lake Hancza in Poland by PSAI ITE Mark Andrews.
The course consisted of 7 students of various qualifications from Advanced Nitrox through to Advanced Trimix.
The course was run over 3 days in bitterly cold conditions with winds from Siberia quickly freezing any exposed skin. The conditions at the lake were ideal for giving an element of realism to the course, students got cold and tired and stress quickly became apparent but teamwork is what the course is all about and they were soon acting as a unit rather than individuals.
The course included surface rescue techniques as well as lost diver, stressed diver on surface and underwater, diver tows specific to technical diving and the amount of equipment a technical diver may be wearing.
The course went very well with all of the students thoroughly enjoying themselves, the feedback from the students was they had learnt many new things and felt confident of assisting each other in the event of it being needed but more importantly how to prevent many problems arising in the first place by using good diving practices and being vigilant of themselves and others they may be diving with.
