Course overview

Develop the skills to prevent and manage diving emergencies with the PADI Rescue Diver course in the Seychelles. Across Mahe's protected bays and boulder reefs you practise self-rescue, tired-diver assists and missing-diver searches in real Indian Ocean conditions before staging full emergency scenarios. Widely regarded as the most rewarding PADI course, it leaves you a more confident, aware diver and is the stepping stone toward professional ratings.

What you’ll learn

• Recognise and manage stress and diving emergencies in yourself and others
• Perform tired-diver tows and panicked-diver assists
• Conduct underwater searches for and recovery of a missing diver
• Surface and bring an unresponsive diver to safety
• Provide in-water rescue breaths and coordinate a response
• Plan and run a diver-emergency management scenario

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 12 (Junior Rescue Diver) or 15 for Rescue Diver
• PADI Adventure Diver / Advanced Open Water (or qualifying certification) with navigation
• Current Emergency First Response (CPR and first aid) within 24 months
• Diver medical clearance signed by a physician
• Reasonable swimming ability and watermanship

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

   Complete the knowledge review and practise self-rescue and stress-recognition skills in a sheltered bay.
2. Day2
   Rescue skills

   Work through tired-diver assists, panicked-diver responses and searches on Mahe's reef sites.
3. Day3
   Unresponsive diver

   Practise surfacing an unresponsive diver and delivering in-water rescue breaths to shore or boat.
4. Day4
   Emergency scenarios

   Run two full emergency-management scenarios combining all the skills, then certify.

Verified through iDive

Every partner school in the iDive network is vetted on safety, instructor credentials, equipment standards and student feedback. Talk to a iDive dive pro on WhatsApp for current availability and reviews specific to Seychelles.

Frequently asked questions