Course overview

Become a calmer, more capable diver with the SSI Diver Stress & Rescue course in Cairns, learning to anticipate and resolve problems on the Great Barrier Reef. Through SSI's digital learning, heated-pool sessions and rescue scenarios on outer-reef liveaboard trips, you practise managing stress, assisting distressed divers and handling unresponsive-diver emergencies. The rating is a prerequisite for the SSI Divemaster pathway.

What you’ll learn

• Identify and prevent the causes of diver stress before they become emergencies
• Perform self-rescue and manage your own stress underwater
• Assist tired, panicked and distressed divers at the surface
• Search for and surface an unresponsive diver with in-water rescue breaths
• Coordinate a missing-diver search and emergency response
• Provide surface care and integrate first aid into a rescue

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 12 (Junior) or 15 for the full rating
• SSI Advanced Adventurer or equivalent with Navigation experience
• Current React Right (or equivalent first-aid and CPR) 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
   Stress recognition and self-rescue

   Work through the SSI digital academics, 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

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 Cairns.

Frequently asked questions