In a state that takes a direct hit from a major hurricane roughly once a decade, a growing number of divers are rethinking what it means to be prepared in the water.
Phillip Zmijewski has a specific reason for pursuing his rescue diver certification. It isn’t about becoming a dive professional or building toward a divemaster card, though rescue certification is a prerequisite for both.
His motivation is more immediate: he lives in Florida, he dives Florida’s coastal and inland waters regularly, and he has watched what happens when a major storm meets a state where hundreds of thousands of people spend time on or near the water.
“If you take the time to prepare, stay aware of conditions, and keep learning, you can dive here your whole life,” Zmijewski has said of Florida diving in general. The rescue certification push extends that philosophy into emergency territory.
It is a perspective that a surprising number of certified divers have not fully considered. Most recreational certification programs teach a diver how to keep themselves safe.
The rescue diver course teaches something different: how to recognize distress in others, manage a problem at the surface or underwater, and bring an incapacitated diver back to the boat or shore. In hurricane country, that skill set has applications that extend beyond routine dive emergencies.
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What Rescue Certification Actually Covers
The PADI Rescue Diver course, the most widely taken in the United States, builds on Advanced Open Water and requires current Emergency First Response training, the diving equivalent of CPR and first aid certification, completed within the previous 24 months.
The course covers self-rescue techniques, recognizing and managing stressed divers before a situation escalates, rescuing panicked divers at the surface, and managing unresponsive divers including in-water CPR and bringing a non-breathing diver back to shore.
Rescue scenarios during the course put those skills into practice in the water. Students work with oxygen units, surface marker buoys, and CPR mannequins. The emphasis throughout is on accident prevention first and response second, a framework that experienced instructors describe as the most significant shift in how divers think about their role in the water.
Most recreational certification programs teach a diver how to keep themselves safe. The rescue diver course teaches something different: how to recognize distress in others before a situation becomes a crisis.
Zmijewski’s background in EKG monitoring and cardiac telemetry gives him a particular frame for thinking about emergency response. He works in an environment where delayed recognition of a problem costs lives. The rescue diver course, he argues, applies a similar logic to the water: the faster you identify that something is wrong with another diver, the better the outcome.
The Florida Factor
Florida’s geography makes this conversation different from what it would be in most other states. The Florida peninsula is surrounded on three sides by water. The state has more certified recreational divers than almost any other, a year-round dive season, and a coastline that sits directly in the path of Atlantic hurricane formation.
When a major storm makes landfall in Florida, the days immediately before and after it create dangerous conditions across coastal areas, rivers, springs, and tidal zones. Flooding displaces people into water.
Boats are damaged and crews end up in the water. Search and rescue operations run short of trained personnel. A diver with rescue certification, emergency oxygen training, and current CPR skills is a meaningful resource in that environment in a way that a standard recreational diver is not.
The U.S. Coast Guard and state emergency management agencies do coordinate with trained civilian divers during disaster response, though formal integration typically requires additional credentialing beyond the PADI rescue card.
Organizations like the Public Safety Diving association offer more specialized training for divers who want to function in organized rescue operations. But even short of that level of formal involvement, a Florida diver with solid rescue skills is better prepared to help in an unplanned emergency than one without them.
The Gap Between Certified And Prepared
Zmijewski’s argument is not that every Florida diver should pursue rescue certification as an act of civic duty, though the case for that is easy to make. His point is more practical: most divers who spend regular time in the water will eventually witness a problem, whether it’s a panicked diver at the surface, a buddy who surfaces unconscious, or a swimmer in distress near a dive site. Being able to respond rather than watch is a direct function of training.
The course requirements are not trivial. Students need to be Advanced Open Water certified, have current first aid training, and complete both pool and open-water rescue scenarios with a certified instructor. In Florida, multiple dive centers offer the course as a bundled package with Emergency First Response training, typically over two to three days.
What distinguishes rescue-certified divers in the water is not exotic technique. It is the habit of watching. Experienced instructors consistently describe the most valuable outcome of the course as a change in how divers observe the people around them, before a dive, during a dive, and at the surface. That attentiveness is what makes early intervention possible.
In a state where the weather can change the risk profile of any dive site within hours, and where a single hurricane season can create emergency conditions across hundreds of miles of coastline, that kind of preparation carries weight beyond the dive boat.
Zmijewski sees the certification as part of what it means to be a serious Florida diver. “If you take the time to prepare,” he has said, the implication being that preparation is not optional in a state that regularly reminds people how fast conditions can change.
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