Six of us spent our Sunday rescuing each other (well, mostly Howard, who kept coming back to life!) at Hinksey Lake in Oxford! Ian, our Training Officer kindly organised a whole day, helped by Jorgen from OUUEG and Howard, to go through all the theory at the clubhouse and the practical scenarios in the lake. 

What would you do in case you saw one diver coming up unconscious and bobbing at the surface? Where is the other diver? What happened? How to get him?

We learnt to manage the whole situation and delegate the urgent tasks to people with various abilities around us. Then gather the information to be able to follow up when the emergency services arrive and in the aftermath of the incident.

The hardest was to always think about the situation as a whole, take a step back and delegate, instead of getting too focused on one action, at the expense of other urgent actions that also needed urgent attention. The human reaction to an emergency is to help immediately! – Which is a good thing most of the time, let’s be honest! – but can be counterproductive. The practical trained us to take a step back, take control of the situation and let others help.

it was a sunny day by the lake and the whole day was very informative. But as Ian said, what will we remember from this in one year, two years? Practice is important to respond the best way possible.

For this reason, the club will organise a PRM refresher next year before the start of the diving season for Dive Leader and above to brush up their skills.

It was good fun as well – just add a character who tries to confuse the Dive Leader and that’s more giggle than doom and gloom.

Thanks to all instructors involved – we’re one step closer to becoming Dive Leaders.

And see you next year in the lake!