Rescue Diver

The Rescue Diver specialty at Hammerhead Divers is listed as part of the specialty and professional development options available at the center. Rescue Diver is widely considered the course that produces the biggest shift in how divers think about safety and situational awareness underwater — it moves focus from managing your own dive to managing the dive environment for others.

Training covers recognizing and managing diver stress both at the surface and underwater, performing self-rescue, assisting panicked divers, managing unresponsive divers in the water, and organizing emergency response at a dive site. The skills are practiced in open water conditions in the Sea of Cortez. For divers planning to continue toward Divemaster, Rescue Diver is a prerequisite in the PADI system.

Hammerhead's small-group structure and certified PADI instructors with NOM-09 accreditation apply to specialty training as to all other programs. The specific duration and schedule for the Rescue course are not listed on the site — contact the center directly for current availability and scheduling.