The Rescue Diver course is a crucial step in your diving education and one we recommend to every diver, whatever they plan to do next. Over the course you come to understand why this training matters — for your own safety, and for minimising and managing incidents around you.
Proof of current EFR or equivalent first aid training, taken within the last 24 months, is required before the course begins. If you do not have it, take our Emergency First Response course first — it fits into a single day.
What You Learn
The heart of the course is spotting problems in the water before they become emergencies. That covers diver stress recognition and management, emergency oxygen administration, troubleshooting common gear failures, sharpening your underwater navigation, and helping tired or cramping divers.
It also changes how you think. You come out of it a better buddy — more aware of the people around you, and able to act rather than freeze.
Prerequisites
You need to be a certified PADI Adventure Diver, to have completed the Underwater Navigation dive, to be at least 12 years old, and to hold Emergency First Response Primary & Secondary Care training from within the last 24 months.
Together these make sure you arrive with the fundamentals the rescue training builds on.
Course Structure
Knowledge development. Self-study through PADI eLearning, at your own pace, from anywhere. Expect 8–12 hours.
Rescue training exercises. Practical sessions with an instructor, role-playing rescue scenarios in the water — tired diver tows, panicked diver approaches, missing diver searches, surfacing an unresponsive diver.
Open water rescue scenarios. The full test: you run real scenarios in open water, start to finish, and make the calls yourself.
Why It Is Worth It
It significantly improves your scuba skills and your confidence. The intensity is the point — problem solving becomes automatic, and stress stops being something that surprises you.
It is also a prerequisite for the professional track: no Divemaster without it. And despite the serious subject matter, most divers finish the course grinning — the scenarios are genuinely good fun.
One note: scuba diving requires a minimum level of health and fitness. Chronic conditions, certain medications or recent surgery may mean you need written approval from a physician before diving.
Transfer. For hotels inside Hurghada, transfer to and from your hotel is free of charge. For hotels in Makadi Bay, Soma Bay, Sahl Hasheesh and El Gouna there is a surcharge of €20 per day per car. Rental equipment, where it is not already included, is €15 per day and person.
Each step builds on the one before it. Emergency First Response sits alongside the ladder rather than on it — it is a first aid course, required before Rescue Diver, and open to non-divers as well.
