Now as bad as that title sounds, it’s absolutely true!  I am officially a certified Emergency First Responder!  Yeah me!  This means that in case of emergency I can do CPR, perform rescue breaths and even use an AED  (Automated External Defibrillator).  Then once your life is out of danger I can control bleeding, apply splints, address bites, burns and blisters.  But, I Just Don’t Want To!   It’s not that I don’t want you to be safe, harm free and  healthy, it’s that I don’t want you to hurt yourself in the first place! and if you do insist on hurting yourself, then don’t do it around me…lol.  You see unlike my other dive related skills, specialties and certifications this is one that I hope to practice and never actually use!

My EFR course was kind of an intense day, a full class of 7 students, all led by our fearless EFR instructor Steve Dunn, who (as you’ll see from his profile) has been diving since before the days of BCD’s and back-up regulators, etc.  As he calls them “the wild west days,” when you had a “J” valve and hoped it was done right or you were making an unplanned emergency accent to the surface so you could get air….lol.  (If you have questions on “J” valves, send Steve a question, I’m sure he’d be happy to walk you through it, even maybe arrange for you to see one if you sign up for Open Water Certification and he can show you the advancements in equipment.)

So of course, as with all OPD staff, Steve was amazing right out of the gate, making everyone comfortable and  walking everyone through the expectations of the day. A quick chance for everyone to share their names and dive experiences and why they are in the EFR class.  Amidst the varying responses there was a  common underlying theme, we all believe we will be safer divers if we, and those we dive with, are trained to handle emergencies.  Of course this is probably a universal understanding that applies to every walk of life, you are inherently safer in the company of trained individuals.

Much of the start of the classroom time is similar to the other classes I have taken with Ocean Pro Divers, in that we started by pulling out our books and reviewing the knowledge review sections of our two manuals.  But pretty much everything following the chapter reviews was all unique to the EFR course.  Time was spent on the breakdown of equipment, the uses of the equipment and what to do if you have no equipment.

Through it all there was one recurring statement, doing something only partially right, is WAY better than doing nothing at all!  It’s a VERY simple concept, and remains that way after reviewing all the information and details.  It has been proven that even if you forget steps, even if you make a couple of mistakes, by doing something you are giving the individual a chance, by not doing anything you could in fact be sentencing them yourself!

This topic and the whole course are incredibly serious and as such, as some of you have probably noted, I have minimized the humor and reduced the fluff in this post.  I cannot express enough how much I believe that everyone, despite what activities you are involved in, should hold a valid Emergency First Responder certification and practice and review regularly. While I will always extol the virtues of Ocean Pro Divers, their courses and especially their instructors, where the topic of life saving comes into play, don’t let the fact that they are a dive shop be your excuse for not getting certified, sign up.  If you don’t dive PADI, great we don’t care, we want you safe, sign up, if you don’t dive with any agency and have no interest in ever diving (you don’t know what you’re missing), but don’t let that excuse you from being prepared, call us and sign up, diving is not a requirement to being a responsible prepared person.  If nothing else at least look up Emergency Primary and Secondary Care and find a certified agency who can teach you and get it done!

Remember… the life you save, may be your families!