PSD Leadership and Training
PSD Leadership and Training
Training is the task that never ends. No matter how many times you have taken on a task with success, preparation for the worst demands that you keep working to master that task. In public safety diving, divers use skills that can and do degrade over time. The dangers associated with public safety diving only make continual training more essential.
Standardization
Historically, public safety divers were not trained by agencies. Teams were formed because needs developed within differing jurisdictions. Fire departments, law enforcement groups, rescue teams, and even EMS groups decided that dive capabilities were needed. Often, this need caused public safety organizations to allow recreational scuba divers within departments to take on departmental diving operations. The original divers figured out problems and developed protocols for those teams over the years. Eventually, the old hats began training the new divers once they were certified recreational divers. Eventually, liability and experience showed that teams needed to begin standardizing training methods. Agencies such as Emergency Response Diving International were created to help establish safe methods of training public safety divers.
As instructors were established for the realm of public safety diving, many were pulled from the active field of public safety divers. These men and women were experienced and could develop some of the best programs. Over time, courses were developed that would allow dive teams to respond to calls in an effective and responsible fashion. One problem that remained was the idea that “I have done this and do not need to learn more.” No matter how long we have trained and performed tasks, it is always worth a little time to watch and listen to the ideas of others. If nothing else, education such as this lets us learn new concepts or even see what will not work in certain field scenarios. Many team leaders out there have “been there and done that”. Similarly, the public safety dive community is one of tight jurisdictions, sensitive funding, and pride. These factors make leaders very defensive and protective of their teams and what they can do. Despite this, good training and innovative ideas are often what helps a team grow and garner an improved reputation based on successful operations. Essentially, the old idea that a team does not need to change what it does or learn something new must be overcome. Team success and safety is paramount to pride in all situations. The first method that must be used to overcome this old mindset is to lead from the front and drive a team into further training and improved capabilities.
Skill Sets
Team leaders often ask much of team members. Time, training, fitness, risk, and danger are all part of dive team operations. But what happens when the old hats take over? Does this mean that once you become the boss the busy work goes away? Is fitness less important? Is ability during operations less essential? A clear mind is important for any leader but so is a strong understanding of operational activities. What happens if a team learns a new skill set and implements that skill set in the field? Does a leader really understand what the team can do if he or she has not actively performed the same skills during training? The answer is no.
A leader must operate at the front of a team. He or she is the calm voice, the plan of action, the guide, and the field commander. That person must know what the team can do and how to do these things. The truth is that a leader can never just become the boss on the bank by the water. A true team leader must trust team members and train subordinates to take over. During training evolutions, a smart leader will become subordinate on occasion and let junior members take over. This creates a situation in which any member can perform any task required by a team. No matter what happens, the team will be able to operate and anyone can lead.
Too often in public safety diving does a team leader take over and he takes a seated leadership position. Being the boss does not mean it is time to stop worrying about fitness and ability. A true leader must be an example to junior team members. Skill sets do degrade over time in regard to diving. To remain competent, a diver must strap on gear and get wet. As new gear arrives, it must be tested and evaluated to make sure that it is effective and can be properly used during operations. If a leader stands next to the pool he will never know first-hand the true level of team capabilities. The person in charge must be able to show new divers why actions are important and perform those tasks on the level of an educator. A team leader may not be a dive professional, but in the realm of public safety diving he must operate as a professional diver.
Be a Leader
The future of any dive team lies in the competent and quality leadership of the team leader. The boss is the person who makes sure members have the gear needed to remain safe and be successful. The boss also makes sure the team is active and training on a proper level. The face of the team is seen in the leader. If you’re a diver who runs a team, take time and find a professional instructor who can help you grow and develop. Look at possibilities such as confined space training, swift water operations training, contaminated water training, or even basic full face mask or dry suit operations training. Work to become an example of strength and success while you work to help each team member develop. If you are a dive instructor who leads a team, expand you skills or bring in others who can help provide innovation. We all need to work together to accomplish a mission where glory is a misplaced desire. As a group, we can improve public safety diving and hopefully make operational diving safer for the men and women who get called out when it is cold and dark. Lead from the front and always work to become better.
Thomas Powell
Owner/Instructor Trainer – Air Hogs Scuba, Garner, NC
Drifting into Enemy Waters
When the Samara sank, that is where our focus was, finding survivors! The seas were rough. We were in a bad storm, all of the repairs that we had made were coming apart beneath us, and we did not even think to check on them. We were trying to save our shipmates in the water.
Diving Dangerous Waters
Diving Dangerous Waters – Hazards of Confined Spaces
by Benjamin-James R. Yates
There are times that arise in diving when things go wrong. It is just a fact of life. When these times come, people either know how to handle the situation or they do not. In the times when they do not, someone has to be called in to take care of the aftermath. Normally, this duty falls to public safety divers. Whether they are with a Police Department, Sheriff’s Department, Fire Department, or another agency, nobody enjoys these moments. But when called upon to perform the hardest tasks a diver has to deal with, we go. Knowing from the moment we are notified that it is already a hard and potentially dangerous situation.
Confined Space
During these times there are numerous levels of awareness and training that are taken into account in order to complete such a task. No matter how much training has taken place beforehand, there are always hazards that public safety divers can potentially encounter. One of the worst hazards to deal with is being in a confined space. Let’s address a fact of this situation now. As human beings we are land based, air breathing (21% oxygen, 79% nitrogen) mammals, that have a skeletal structure in order to facilitate our existence in our normal environment. We are warm blooded with unique skin layers to protect from the sun, not necessarily cold, wet environments. We are far from being an octopus that can squeeze itself into a bottle through an opening smaller than our thumb to get whatever it wants inside.
There is a list of additional hazards that can be added to the problem of diving into confined spaces. These include, but are not limited to, the amount and type of gear involved (for starters: hazardous materials dry suits, breathing systems, additional weight systems, tools, full face masks with communication units, and the universally loved tender line); limited, to no, visibility (black water); and entanglements. Altogether, the list can continue for as long as the imagination will allow.
Beginning the Dive
As with all dives, ours begins from either a shore or a platform of some type (a boat, a dock, or a pier). Here, the diver (you) and supporting team are going to prepare for the operation. You don gear, including thermal layers, a hazardous materials dry suit, buoyancy compensator (possibly with additional weight system), and full face mask. Each piece added has now made you bulkier than normal. Your air is turned on, communications are connected and checked, and the diver is assisted to the water by a tender. After what feels like an eternity of preparation and safety checks, you are finally ready to enter into the unknown. At this point your heart is beating faster than a sprinting runner because you do not know what you are going to encounter. This is the time to attempt to remain as calm as possible. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done.
The faster your heart rate is, the faster your other bodily functions are going to be working. This includes your breathing. On average, a public safety diver will be entering the water with an Aluminum 80 cubic foot scuba cylinder. That cylinder is pressurized to 3000 pounds per square inch. The amount of time you can breathe off of that cylinder is going to be dependent on a number of factors, including the diver’s depth and workload. Most public safety divers are not allowed to exceed 30 minutes due to safety protocols that are put in place to protect the diver. The diver’s time is normally monitored by someone on the shore or dive platform and relayed to the diver, who in turn, relays current cylinder pressures back. If these are not closely monitored, an already bad situation can become far worse. Being in a confined or enclosed space makes this critical as there is possibly no direct route to the surface.
Visibility
As we make our descent the natural light that penetrates the water has already begun to fade. Depending on the type of body of water, temperature, sediment, and other factors, we may begin our dive in limited visibility. Now we have added another hazard from the start. It does not take long for limited visibility to become no visibility. The level of visibility can change almost instantly. This is why most operations of this type are conducted during daylight hours depending on the circumstance. During these situations flashlights can become a problem more than a benefit since there is the possibility that the high powered beam given off by the light can be reflected back in turbid water. Imagine being at a depth of 8 feet, with your visibility being 1-2 feet in front of you, and upon descending to 9 feet everything goes black. I do not have to imagine it because this happened to me during a recovery dive earlier this year.
Public safety divers typically conduct operations in one type of exposure protection. This would be a Hazardous Materials Dry Suit made of vulcanized rubber. The reasons this is the preferred type of suit are too numerous to list, but all have the potential to cause extreme health concerns to the diver. Unfortunately, if there is debris in the water, jagged edges on metal objects, or other snag and entanglement possibilities, there is a chance something could puncture or tear the suit as well as cut the diver. This also becomes an issue for other gear that is required for this type of operation. The buoyancy compensator, air hoses, and tender line are only a few. Crash sites, areas with sunken trees, and wrecks are likely places for a diver to become entangled. If these areas require the running of guide lines as well as tender lines, they present an extra element to this hazard.
Communication
Have you ever heard the expression, “Communication is key”? Being able to speak with someone else is a comfort to most people. In order for a public safety diver to do this underwater we must use a full face mask with a communications unit of some type. Some are wireless units that operate on batteries and radio frequencies, but now someone has to make sure the batteries are fresh or they could run out during the dive. Then who are you going to call? Nobody. The units that most agencies prefer integrate communication lines inside a woven rope which is now tethered to the diver. This also becomes a safety line for the diver in the event something happens and they need to be pulled out. Unfortunately, this also becomes another entanglement possibility.
All of the hazards previously mentioned apply to any situation. Cars or busses that become submerged have windows that may need to be broken in order to recover people from inside. Airplanes could have to perform either an emergency or crash landing in a body of water. It has happened before. When this occurs, all types of hazards are now present. Floating debris from luggage, jagged metal from broken apart pieces, and fuel from engines, not to mention what a diver may come across inside the cabin of the aircraft. Another situation no diver likes to discuss is the possibility of flooded service tunnels. These tunnels include sewer lines that workers may be working in or subway lines that trains have become trapped in at the time they became flooded. Hurricanes are a prime cause of such disasters in areas that support these types of services. These places and situations present great danger to any public safety diver. Everywhere around these scenes a diver may find entanglement and environmental hazards.
So now we are in an underwater confined space. It is cold and there is the chance we are diving in contaminated water. We are possibly in zero visibility so we cannot see how much air we have left. Eventually we are going to deal with our safety line becoming entangled or snagged. It could be as simple as being caught on a branch or as complex as being run through a flooded service tunnel. At this point we have four options: disconnect our communications and safety line, trace it back to the source of the problem, call for a safety diver, or wait for our air to run out. Which would you prefer?
We Will do the Job
These are a few of the things that any public safety diver might have to deal with if they go into a confined space. Keep in mind that a confined space can be any space that hinders movement. This could be a wrecked vehicle, a cave, even a piece of cement culvert tubing in a scuba park. Either way, you are confined. Please keep these things in mind if you think you want to attempt to dive beyond your training level and experience. We will do the job if we are called upon to do so, but that does not mean we will like it. To operate in confined spaces, a dive team must consider participating in true Confined Space Operations training. This type of program may at least prepare divers to remain calm, stay focused, and work to overcome possible problems.
Benjamin-James R. Yates – Public Safety Dive Professional – Air Hogs Scuba – Garner, NC
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2017 Facility Renewals
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