PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING
The lack of standards in training and equipment can be hazardous for divers plus their team members, as can the idea of recreational instructors teaching public safety teams. Many recreational scuba instructors will teach recreational rescue courses, and many divers will go on a call for a public safety team with a false sense of security. The problem is that the class is meant to train divers in recreational diving conditions, with visibility. True no-visibility diving is a very dangerous and complicated dive, and should be undertaken with certain precautions, training, and equipment to safely send every diver home each time they enter the water.
I dive for the Ottawa County Sheriff's Underwater Response Team, and I am the diving safety officer/instructor for the Team. I am a PSDA Instructor, PADI Course Director (Instructor Trainer). I have 11 years of public safety diving experience, on Lake Erie, rivers and ponds around the state of Ohio and Michigan. I consider Public Safety Diving to be of such an important part of law enforcement and fire fighting that I have spent many years studying this type of diving to give the best possible training to you and your departments.
