PADI PUBLIC SAFETY DIVER PROGRAM

Padi Logo

Public safety divers, conduct a variety of important and potentially stressful underwater tasks - including rescue, evidence and body recovery, underwater inspections and more - for local communities. Public safety divers are typically in the police department, fire department or emergency services and couple their job experience with specialized dive training to carry out these underwater activities in a safe, efficient manner.

What You Learn

The PADI Public Safety Diving course is designed to familiarize divers with the skills, knowledge, planning, organization, procedures, techniques and hazards of public safety diving. The course covers several key topics that include:

    • specialized public safety diving equipment
    • scene handling
    • communication procedures
    • search patterns
    • witness handling
    • victim and self rescue techniques

What do I need to start?

  • specialized public safety diving equipment
  • scene handling
  • communication procedures
  • search patterns
  • witness handling
  • victim and self rescue techniques

Water skills include a variety of common, useful search patterns as well as team diving roles as primary diver, safety diver, tender, 90 percent diver and supervisor. The program uses proven field techniques and both meets and addresses important National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) guidelines found in NFPA 1006 and 1670 (not including disciplines Ice 9/3/7, Surf 9.2.8, or Swift 9.3.9) .

Prerequisites: Public Safety Diver

  • PADI Advanced Open Water Diver or qualifying equivalent certification
  • PADI Rescue Diver or qualifying equivalent certification*
  • 18 years of age
  • Proof of affiliation/employment with a public safety team (law enforcement, fire, paramedic, EMT, dive rescue team, etc.)

*You may also need to conduct ancillary programs (PADI Dry Suit Diver or a Distinctive Specialty program on full-face mask, for example) to fully prepare divers to carry out public safety diving operations in your region's conditions.

The Materials & Equipment You Need:

  • Two Cutting Devices (shears, knife, seat belt cutter, etc.)
  • Two Scuba Cylinders - 80 cubic feet or larger
  • Two surface signaling devices (whistle, surface marker buoy, etc.)
  • All personal standard dive equipment
  • Pocket mask
  • Log book
  • Recommended: PADI Rescue Manual, Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, Spare mask, PFD (personal flotation device), Support equipment (first aid, oxygen, communications equipment, etc)