Underwater Wakulla
By RUSTY MILLER
It’s 2023 and I hope you had a great Christmas and a good start for the New Year.
I had a sore develop on the bottom of my left stump so I had to stay out of the water so any bacteria would not get the wound infected. That means I have not been able to finish my side mount class. The good news is the wound is almost healed up and hopefully I will be back to my class in a couple weeks. I will continue to give you the results of my side mount training as I continue with the class.
So it’s 2023 and that means a new diving season will begin for most of us in February and March. Here in North Florida most of us dive all year long. We have several springs within 2 to 2 1/2 hours to dive in. With the ocean water temperature at 62-64 degrees some still dive there. For me this time of year signals a new beginning to our dive season and scuba training.
Starting in January I will be taking advanced students through the rescue diving course. This is a specialty course designed to give a diver some basic CPR, first aid, and how to help a diver who might be experiencing some degree of difficulty in the water.
The rescue dive student has to endure 15 hours of PowerPoints without falling asleep. I covered some of this in an article earlier this year. These are very important classroom instructions because we cover the various types of issues they might encounter when they go diving. In the class room part we cover Alcoholics Anonymous meets at noon and 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion, 54 Ochlockonee St. CPR, AED use and basic first aid.
Then we have the water training: we spend all day in the springs and this is where it gets fun only if you’re the instructor or assistant instructor. Most instructors give the basics of rescue that only covers enough to get the rescue diver in trouble at best. When I teach my rescue open water the rescue student will have a good physical knowledge of how to rescue a much panicked diver and be able to recover a diver that has drowned at the bottom and start rescue breathing at the surface all the while swimming to the edge or boat.
Unless you have had an experience with a panicked scuba diver it’s a very interesting experience and if you try to rescue a panicked diver without the proper training, you too will become a victim and most likely both of you will drown. I am doing a rescue class in January 2023 because I want divers to feel comfortable and trained in the event their skills are needed to help a fellow diver.
The classroom portion is four evenings for about three hours each evening and on the forth evening there will be the CPR, AED, and first aid portion. This part of the class I will have an outside trainer come in so they will get a cert card that is good for two years.
The physical or water portion of the training will be on the Saturday at a spring. This open water training will be a great and even possibly a little scary for the student but it is in a very controlled environment. We actually have a great time and the student is a little more aware of the surroundings in the water when they are diving for fun.
Remember this is not a license to go looking for an issue but it should help them notice what’s going on around them.
Enjoy the New Year that is before you and please continue to train more than open water, your life or someone else’s life may depend on it.
Keep making bubbles.
Russell Miller is the manager at Wakulla Diving Center in Medart. NAUI Instructor #59999