WHY TAKE THIS COURSE?
Scuba diving is a safe outdoor activity with low accident rates, but as with all activities, participants should be prepared to handle emergencies and perform rescues to assist team members. The awareness of your ability to help will increase your confidence and make your dives safer and more enjoyable.
GUE’s Rescue Primer is a course designed to teach divers basic rescue techniques relevant to scuba diving emergencies.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Being able to prevent or handle stressful situations and emergencies underwater is one of the most meaningful skills you will ever learn, so the Rescue Primer should be high on every diver’s to-do list.
This course is recommended to all who are planning to pursue diving at any level. This primer is best taken after the Navigation Primer, as it requires competence in navigational skills.
WHAT WILL I LEARN?
Course outcomes include, but are not limited to: assisting distressed divers on the surface and underwater, including unconscious diver recovery; missing diver protocols; surface management of a diving emergency; and diving BLS skills for DCI.
Applicants for a GUE Rescue Primer must:
- Be a minimum of 16 years of age.
- Be physically and mentally fit.
- Be a non-smoker.
- Be able to swim.
- Obtain a physician’s prior written authorization for use of prescription drugs, except for birth control, or for any medical condition that may pose a risk while diving.
- Have passed the GUE Recreational Diver 1 course or a GUE Fundamentals course at the “recreational” level.
- Have completed at least 25 non-training dives.
- For a full list of course prerequisites, click here.
The Rescue Primer is normally conducted over two days. It requires a minimum of four in-water sessions (including three dives) and at least 16 hours of instruction, encompassing classroom lectures, land drills, and in-water work.
This course can be conducted as part of GUE Recreational Diver Level 2 program.
Dive Alaska is excited to offer a resident instructor in Ron Fancher! Having an instructor in-house means that we can offer more flexible training that fits your schedule, while eliminating the need to fly in instructors from out-of-state. It also means that any additional training that takes place is offered with regular frequency.
Instruction tuition for a GUE Rescue Primer is $550. Cost for any pool rental, gas fills, tank rentals, classroom, and other course-related expenses is $125. Gear rental outside of tanks, food, lodging, transportation and dive site access fees are the responsibility of the individual diver.
Tuition is due at time of booking, and is non-refundable 45 days out. Full course payment is due 30 days prior to class, and is non-refundable upon payment. In the event there is a cancellation or you are unable to attend a course, all efforts will be made to fill the vacant spot, but this is not a guarantee that the spot will be filled.