Course overview

Develop the skills to prevent and manage diving emergencies with the PADI Rescue Diver course in Hikkaduwa. Across calm reef and shallow-water training on Sri Lanka's south coast, you learn to recognise and respond to diver stress, perform tired-diver tows and run a missing-diver scenario. Widely described as the most rewarding PADI course, it certifies you as a Rescue Diver and is a required step toward professional ratings.

What you’ll learn

• Recognise and respond to diver stress before it becomes an emergency
• Manage tired and panicked divers at the surface
• Search for and rescue an unresponsive diver underwater
• Surface an unresponsive diver and provide in-water rescue breaths
• Run an emergency action plan and missing-diver search
• Administer first aid and emergency oxygen for diving injuries

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 12 (Junior Rescue Diver) or 15 for full certification
• PADI Adventure Diver or Advanced Open Water Diver (or equivalent)
• Emergency First Response primary and secondary care within 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
   Theory & self-rescue

   Knowledge development, the rescue exam and self-rescue skills review.
2. Day2
   Rescue exercises

   Work through the ten rescue exercises in confined water and on the calm house reef.
3. Day3
   Scenario assessments

   Complete two full rescue scenarios, including a missing-diver search and unresponsive-diver tow on local sites.

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Frequently asked questions