Course overview

Transform the way you dive with the PADI Rescue Diver course in Cairns, where you learn to prevent and manage problems on the Great Barrier Reef. Across heated-pool sessions and rescue scenarios run on liveaboard trips to outer reef sites, you practise self-rescue, assisting tired and panicked divers, and handling unresponsive divers at the surface and underwater. It is widely regarded as the most rewarding course in the recreational pathway and a prerequisite for Divemaster.

What you’ll learn

• Recognise and prevent dive emergencies before they escalate
• Perform self-rescue and manage stress and fatigue underwater
• Assist tired, panicked and distressed divers at the surface
• Search for and surface an unresponsive diver and provide in-water rescue breaths
• Manage a missing-diver situation and coordinate an emergency response
• Administer surface care and integrate first-aid into a rescue

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 12 (Junior Rescue Diver) or 15 for full Rescue Diver
• PADI Adventure Diver or Advanced Open Water (with Underwater Navigation), or equivalent
• Emergency First Response primary and secondary care within the last 24 months
• Diver medical clearance signed by a physician

What's included · What's not

Probability of sightings · month-by-month

What you're likely to see each month, based on historic operator logs.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   Knowledge and self-rescue

   Complete the rescue theory and exam, then practise self-rescue and stress management in the heated pool.
2. Day2
   Rescue skills in confined water

   Drill tired-diver tows, panicked-diver responses and underwater approaches in the pool.
3. Day3
   Open-water scenarios

   Apply rescue skills on a liveaboard trip, surfacing an unresponsive diver and giving in-water rescue breaths at an outer reef site.
4. Day4
   Scenario assessment

   Run full missing-diver and unresponsive-diver scenarios to demonstrate readiness, then certify.

Verified through iDive

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Frequently asked questions