Course overview

Earn the SSI Diver Stress & Rescue certification in the Solomon Islands and master the skills to prevent, recognise and manage diving emergencies amid the Pacific reefs and wrecks of Iron Bottom Sound. SSI's stress-focused approach has you handling realistic rescue scenarios in the calm-to-moderate waters off Guadalcanal and Munda. You leave a calmer, more aware diver capable of helping yourself and others.

What you’ll learn

• Identify and reduce diver stress before it becomes an emergency
• Perform self-rescue and effective problem management
• Assist tired, panicked and unresponsive divers at the surface
• Search for and recover a missing diver
• Bring an unresponsive diver to the surface and provide rescue breaths
• Coordinate first aid and an emergency response plan

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 12
• SSI Advanced Adventurer or equivalent certification
• Current first aid and CPR training (or completed alongside)
• 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 & theory

   Study SSI stress-recognition and rescue theory and refresh first aid and CPR fundamentals.
2. Day2
   Rescue skills

   Practise self-rescue, tows and surface assists in sheltered calm water near shore.
3. Day3
   Open-water scenarios

   Run search, recovery and unresponsive-diver drills on reef sites along the Guadalcanal coast.
4. Day4
   Scenario assessment

   Complete combined emergency scenarios under evaluation, 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 Solomon Islands.

Frequently asked questions