Water Training

[billvon 2,991]

>I like the idea of the training that you give in addition to the water training itself,
>but I feel that 2-3 minutes per person in the water is insufficient. Find somebody
>local that is - or was previously - a Coast Guard or Navy rescue swimmer.
I've had such a person (Navy rescue swimmer) who added quite a bit to the course. He isn't always available though.
>In the absence of that, find a SCUBA shop and somebody that is a Rescue >Diver. Learn some basic water rescue techniques and swims and teach those.
I am a PADI rescue diver, although I'm uncurrent. I don't think 90% of the stuff I learned in that course is really applicable. The basics of escaping from a harness, avoiding entanglement, escaping from under a canopy, and swimming so as to remain clear can be done pretty quickly. Consider the comparison to an FJC - we spend about 10 minutes on two-canopy-out situations, and practice barely at all (other than harness training for cutaways and riser identification) - and we consider that sufficient. Given that, if you use a cypres, the odds of someday landing in the water are about the same as someday having a two-canopy-out event, and that 2-3 minutes is 2-3 minutes more real practice than most students get.
>These are more for an instance where the person you're teaching becomes a
> rescuer from the shore rather than a victim - or in a case such as the two people
> that landed in the lake together.
I specifically try to _not_ get into that. That seems more appropriate for our DZ instructor's meetings, since we're near a lake. Once in a while we'll have an all-hands meeting and go over emergency first aid, student training etc.
-bill von

[cheeseburger 0]

Just FYI, if you're military and have had your branch's version of water survival / parachute training, this is enough to meet the requirments.
Cheese