Nearly there...

Goofy and I are taking a Rescue Diver course.

It's a third major certification on our way to Master Scuba Diver (which we should finish up in the next month or so).

Rescue Diver is a good course for any diver to take. It's all about being able to take care of yourself and others before you (or they) get into trouble. Kind of a good way to look at a lot of things in life really.

It also teaches us how to help people that have managed to get into trouble in spite of their best intentions.

We have learned to calm folks that are just over-stressed and need some reassurance and maybe a helping hand. But if things go really wrong, we have learned and practiced how to bring them up from the bottom and start rescue breaths on the way in to shore. We can even get them out of the water and start CPR while waiting for help to arrive. Mostly, though, we expect that we'll be able to spot trouble and do things to make it go away before it escalates into a full blown "situation".

We have finished with the practice sessions in the pool, have done all the reading, reviews and passed the final written exam.

Just one more thing remains...and it's happening in Puget Sound this weekend...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The best we can hope for is 54 degrees in that murky grey water of our home. It'll likely be closer to 44 degrees this time of year, though.

The practical part of the certification will have us rescuing and being rescued by our classmates in different scenarios to test our new skills. We'll deal with "tired" divers, "panicked" divers, "unresponsive" divers (both on the surface and at the bottom). We'll tow each other in, and haul each other out of the water onto the beach.

We'll have someone on the beach letting people know that we are just practicing our rescue skills..we don't really need help or paramedics (hopefully :).

We'll be cold, and we'll have fun, and we'll all learn more about ourselves and our friends. I can't wait!

It's said that if you can complete Rescue Diver in Puget Sound, you can rescue anyone anywhere. I don't know about that, but I do know that once it's done, and I'm all finished and certified, I'm going to go somewhere WARM to celebrate! LOL

Think sunshine this weekend!

M&G