Volume 1 INTERNATIONAL A.S.S.A.U.L.T. TEAMS Team LifeGuard Systems

Public Safety Dive Team Setup

TEAM LIFEGUARD SYSTE MS Public Safety Dive Team Setup

Team Lifeguard Systems PO Box 594 Shokan, New York 12481 (845) 657-5544

PROPER KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING ALLOWS YOU TO RETURN HOME Chapter 1 So you want to start a Public Safety Dive Team ?

Understanding The by Andrea Zaferes rowning is the third common cause of accidental death for adults, and the second most common cause of unintentional injury death among children D and young adults in the United States. Every year, new rescue and recovery dive teams are formed to find victims. They are formed by fire and law enforcement departments, military, sometimes EMS squads, and even people outside the public safety community.

The First Step The first step in setting up a safe and effective dive team, is understanding the common problems many teams face each day, along with their and potential safety . and water rescue in general, are, in many ways, the most chaotic and potentially dangerous jobs in the public safety arena. Dive teams have to perform surface, as well as subsurface operations. Both will be addressed in this series.

The first problem is there are no real accepted national standards. The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) is currently writing a set of guidelines. When these guidlines are finished, they will be general and not specialized. NASAR put out a set of guidelines in the late 1980’s, but again, these are general and used by few. Various training companies have their own set of standards, but currently, like some training companies and trainers, most teams just make it up as they go along.

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Why are standards and guidelines critical to safety?

A fire chief would not dream of sending a firefighter into a fully involved blaze without turnout gear, a SCBA unit, back-up personnel, etc. But, that same chief, who probably knows very little or nothing about water rescue, might order a diver into the water without a quick release , at least two cutting tools, a back-up diver, etc.

A police captain, who would never think of sending his officers into a gun fight without weapons and a back-up, might threaten to fire a dive team captain who refuses to put his team in a fastwater situation they are not prepared for.

The explanation for the above actions are simple. There are no minimum water incident standards. The Officer in Charge does not have a set of procedures to implement and make decisions with. How do Officers in Charge make water related risk-benefit decisions? Too often, the family and higher authorities demanding action are the driving . The lack of accepted standards and guidelines creates other problems for water rescue/recovery operations.

Jobs are not well defined on a site -what does the fire department do? What does the police department do? Where should EMS be? Who is in charge, Fire or Police?

Teams don’t drill for them

Department officers don’t understand the job. Mayors and other public officials who order municipal departments to perform these dangerous operations also lack understanding.

There are few, if any, budgets allocated for training and equipment.

The public has uneducated and misguided expectations and desires regarding long term drowning victims. The public does not understand the risks the recovery divers face as these teams search for bodies of their loved ones.

Training and equipment is either nonexistent or insufficient. Members don’t gain real life experience because actual calls are rare

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EMS and Hospital Emergency Departments are not trained to manage long term or dive related accidents.

Dive teams do not have SOGs

DIVE AND WATER RESCUE TEAM MEMBERS ARE OFTEN MORE LIKELY TO BE PUT AT UNNECESSARY RISK THAN OTHER RESCUE PERSONNEL.

T HE FOLLOWING ARE JUS T A FEW SAMPLES:

Vermont, early 1990’s:

Captain of a law enforcement dive team was ordered to recover the body of a boy entrapped among rocks in fastwater. From conversations we heard, this team Captain did not want to send his men in. They were not trained for this type of incident, but his superior ordered him to recover the body. The Captain elected to go in himself and risk his own life, rather than one of his men. After entering the water, he became entrapped, struggled as his team tried to pull him out, and then drowned. No one on that site had the training or equipment to do the job properly, let alone save one of their own. The Captain’s father was one of the people trying to pull his body out of the rocks.

Montana, November 15, 1996, Chronicle:

“Hugh Brian Beery, an experienced diver with the volunteer Gallatin County Tactical Dive Team, drowned after becoming entangled in a rope...while attempting to recover a rifle...Always willing to help, he joined the ... dive team so that he might be able to use his skills to assist someone else... Brian adored the four children he is leaving behind.”

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The University of Rhode Island compiled 14 case histories of public safety diver deaths. Lack of training, procedures, and proper equipment were to blame for each of these needless deaths. For a copy of this report, contact: Lifeguard Systems at P.O. Box 594 Shokan, NY, 12481or @ wwwteamlgs.com. or call (845) 657-5544, (845) 657-5549 fax.

This article is not meant in any way to dissuade you from starting a dive team. There are long term drowning victims who are alive today because of dive teams. For example, FDNY Rescue Dive Team saved Diedre Silverman, “the Miracle Girl,” in Brooklyn, 1985, after she was submerged in a van for 28 minutes. She is alive and well today. We wish that every county in our country, with water, could have a dive team with rapid response capability.

THE GOAL OF THIS SER IES IS TO HELP YOU MA K E T H E FOLLOWING DECISIONS :

1. Do I want to be a member of a dive team?.

2. Can and should a dive team be set-up for my local area?

What can be done during the set-up process to prevent

common pitfalls?

4. How much money is necessary to start and maintain a dive team?

5 How many members are necessary to make the team safe and effective?

6. What requirements should be made for diver and tender status?

7. What equipment must be acquired, and what equipment should be put on a wish list?

8. How can funds be raised in the community?

9. What training is necessary, and how often should it be?

10. What type of dive team do we want to be? - rescue/recovery or strictly recovery - and what do we want to be capable of doing? - underwater vehicle extrication, , fastwater diving, , deep water surface supplied, underwater homicide investigation, etc...

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Starting a dive team is a large undertaking that requires a significant amount of time, money, effort and patience. There are many questions that need to be answered. How many personnel are necessary? What other agencies are involved? What is the minimum equipment needed, and more. Are you prepared for this task?

The Difference Between Sport and Public Safety Diving is Significant.

Sport Public Safety

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Plan when they dive Have no idea when diving

Dive in good weather Called to dive in any weather

Mainly dive in warmer months Dive year around

Dive in normal hours for fun Called anytime

Normally dive on days off Work and sleep interupted by a call

Good to poor visability Often have blackwater

Know the enviroment May not know the site

Plan the dive location Called to dive anywhere

Relately clean water Contaminated water not uncommon

Entanglement uncommon Entanglement common

Buddy System Solo tethered diving

Time is not stress Rescue requires rapid deployment

No emotional stress Can envolve high stress

No media, or crying families Under a great deal of

All it takes is two divers Requires at least five personnel

Requires basic dive gear Requires technical rescue equip.

Requires basic dive skills Requires technical rescue skills

Each diver is self sufficient Diver dependant on four people

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2 So you want to start a dive team - or improve the one you have

by Andrea Zaferes and Walt Hendrick

A large number of dive teams work in water with low visibility or in black water with no visibility at all. This is the basis of this series. Even teams near beautiful clear ocean water may need to search in blackwater ponds, swamps, and rivers. Low visibility and blackwater searching is most effective and safe when conducted by tender-directed-solo-tethered divers.

Often, teams are faced with minimal personnel arriving on a scene. How many personnel should be required before a dive can be conducted? What does it say in your department’s standard operating procedures/guidelines? Or, if your department wants to start a dive team, what is the minimum number of sufficiently trained personnel to have a safe team?

R E S C U E V E R SUS RECOVERY This, and other articles in this series, apply equally to rescue and recovery teams. Recovery teams are not usually under the same rapid deployment rescue mode, BUT they need to be just as capable of rapid deployment. If one of their own divers requires assistance, recovery teams need to respond rapidly, which is something they too often do not think about, let alone sufficiently train and drill for.

RULE: ALL SEARCH DIVERS MUST DEVOTE CLOSE TO 100% OF THEIR PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL ATTENTION TO THE SEARCH.

W H Y T E N D E R - DIRECTED - SOLO - TETHERED DIVING? The tender controls ’s time in, time out, location, movements, maximum depth, knows the diver’s rate and normal surface air consumption rate, and takes over much of the decisions and concerns divers normally must attend to. A good tender will know when a diver’s tether line is snagged, at the same time or before, the diver realizes it. A good tender will notice a change in the diver’s breathing rate and quality, as well as speed of movement - to recognize that something may not

6 PROPER KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING ALLOWS YOU TO RETURN HOME be right - sometimes, even before the diver notices. This leaves the diver little to do or think about other than searching.

T diving, with a fully dressed back-up diver and a 90% ready diver on the surface, is the safest and most effective procedure for low or no visibility diving.

If more than one diver must coordinate to hold a pattern or work together, then honestly, what percentage of their mental and physical abilities can they devote to searching? Remember, as you learned in previous articles, searching requires an intense effort using the entire body as a search tool for the mind’s eye which visually pictures whatever the body’s tactile senses relay to it.

MULTI - DIVER SEARCH PATTERN S R E Q U I RE DIVERS TO:

- coordinate to swim at the same rate, which requires paying close attention to each other. The technique of several divers swimming a line, for example, is a very out-dated technique that at first sounds easy but in reality produces poor results.

- maintain effective, cool, calm, collected, uninterrupted searching when bumped or grabbed by another diver - or when the object grabbed either moves, hits or grabs back. Anyone who says they were never spooked in blackwater or even low-visibility diving, either has no gray matter or is lying. Other divers in the water will cause the hee-bee-jee-bees faster and more frequently than anything else, and once that happens, the quality of the search and divers’ safety can be compromised.

Multi-diver search patterns also use up the divers on a team two, three, four, etc. times more quickly than do solo-diver patterns, which severely decreases the amount of area that can be searched in a day. Thousands of divers, and tens of thousands of training and actual response dives, consistently show that a single diver can actually search the same, or more area, quicker and more accurately than a multi- diver pattern dive.

If you really need to cover a large area quickly, take the two or three divers you had on one pattern and simultaneously put them on two or three separate tender- directed-solo-tethered dive operations - you now are searching two, three or more times the area, more safely and effectively than with the one dive conducted with a multi-diver pattern.

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RULE: THE EXACT LOCATIONS THAT ARE SUCCESSFULLY SEARCHED MUST BE KNOWN AND RECORDED ON PAPER SO THE OIC (OFFICER IN CHARGE) KNOWS WHAT AREAS ARE SECURED AND WHAT AREAS STILL NEED TO BE SEARCHED.

That means that shore personnel need to know exactly within 1-2’ what areas have been successfully searched and what areas still need to be covered. Not only does shore personnel need to know what area was searched, but if the area was searched sufficiently well to be secured. To make this decision, tenders need to monitor how much area was covered in a specific time period to determine if the diver was searching at the correct speed to find the search item. If the diver covered too much area in the allotted time, then the area cannot be secured and needs to be re-searched. If this is not on paper, it won’t even be discovered. (If you do not know the square feet the average diver secures when effectively searching for a small item, a body, or a car in a 20 minute dive, then more training is needed. This topic will be covered in a future article.)

When a diver accidentally comes in 2’ for example, the tender sees the slack in the marked line, makes sure it is noted on the profile slate, and makes sure the diver returns to search the missed area. Murphy’s law; if an area is missed, where will the victim or search item be?

Search items should be found by careful, practiced planning, not by luck. In low visibility water, divers have little or no idea where they are or where they have been, and even if they could, how would they record exactly where they searched.

WELL, WHAT ABOUT USI NG A COMPASS IN LOW VISIBILITY WATER?

- Anyone who has worked with compasses knows they require continual physical and mental attention, which significantly decreases search effectiveness.

- Compass use prevents the diver from using both hands and arms for searching.

- As you learned previous, any water with less than a consistent three feet of visibility is far more effectively and accurately searched with eyes closed.. So much for a compass.

WELL, WHAT ABOUT USI NG WIRELESS COMMUNIC A T I O N S SYSTEMS SO THE TENDE R CAN WATCH THE DIVE R’S BUBBLES AND TELL THE DIVER W HERE TO SEARCH?

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- Bubbles are not a reliable indicator of the diver’s exact location, especially in moving water.

- The exact diver-distance out is critical for knowing what search areas can be secured. We find most dive team members are off by 20-100% when reporting how far out bubbles, a buoy, etc. are from shore.

- Oops, the communications system just failed - don’t you hate when that happens.

Marked tether lines, not eyeballs, tell where the diver really is. Additionally, tether lines mark the diver’s way home, and provide a significant sense of security for the diver. Tether lines provide a direct line access between the tender and diver. Searching without tethers in low visibility or blackwater is a crapshoot in more ways than one.

RULE: THERE IS ONLY ONE JOB EVERY DIVERS MUST DO - GO HOME WHEN THE JOB IS DONE!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE BUBBLES STOP - WHERE IS THE DIVER? Dive teams conducting free swimming, diver-controlled searching are not only very ineffective, but are unsafe. If it takes the average team well over an hour to find a body, how long will it take to find a free-swimming diver who is on the bottom and no longer breathing? Ask the teams. Too many dead public safety diver’s bodies were not found until long after the operation moved into a recovery mode.

Now, think about a more common situation, a breathing, entangled diver. If a free-swimming diver becomes entangled in low/no visibility water, how long will it take for the back-up diver to reach the entangled diver? How does shore know that the diver needs assistance? (Again, remember communication systems can fail.)

We consistently find that teams who plan on simply “dropping the back-up diver over the entangled diver’s bubbles” in low visibility, blackwater and/or any moving water, have never practiced such a maneuver - and are shocked to find how difficult, stressful and time consuming this can be when they are forced to put their plan into action. As Walt Hendrick always says, “plans only practiced on paper are worth less than the paper they are printed on.” Plus, think about it, they are sending another free-swimming diver directly into an entanglement. Sound like a good idea? Not by our experience! Again, ask the teams and families of a once free-swimming public safety divers who were involuntarily freed from this world.

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RULE: THE BACK-UP DIVER MUST BE FULLY READY, PREPARED AND CAPABLE OF SAVING THE PRIMARY DIVER.

Entanglement is the number one problem faced by public safety divers. Visualize this: You discover you are severely entangled at the end of the dive. You are cold, frustrated, spooked, fatigued, and have only 1300 psi left. You have a choice. The diver coming to assist you can either be a diver on your search line - who is also cold, frustrated, fatigued, low on air, and possibly entangled as well, or a fresh diver who is fully rested, warm, prepared with plenty of air, and mentally alert with one single job in mind - saving your butt. Hmmm, this is a tough question.

Personally, I would prefer to give a signal to my tender to send down the fresh, ready-to-save-me back-up diver, rather than trying and figure out how to get the attention of a buddy without giving him/her the spooks, to only find out my buddy is in the same state I am in.

The back-up diver must be able to reach the primary diver in less than 60 seconds, and when that back-up diver dives, it is for one single purpose which is fulfilled with the greatest efficiency possible.

And very important, remember from the two part series “The Strong May Not Survive” by Hendrick, the back-up diver should be the stronger diver. The back-up must be able to get the primary diver out of a situation the primary diver cannot manage alone. The stronger diver will get into more serious trouble, further into a hole or vehicle, etc. - and if a strong diver cannot manage it, what are the chances a weaker diver will be able to solve the problem?

What is the tally so far? We need one primary diver, one tender, and one back-up diver. Is that it? Can the operation be started? No, not yet. The back-up diver needs a tender just as much as the primary diver does. Tenders are actually the most important personnel in the operation. The divers, although they may not like to hear this, are actually little more than the tender’s eyes.

Divers are only responsible for themselves and for searching. Tenders, on the other hand, as we have been learning from this and other articles, are responsible for when and where the diver searches, monitoring the diver before, during and after the dive, recording all pertinent information and communicating with officers.

Okay, so add one back-up tender to the list. The back-up tender actually has two important jobs: The ultimate responsibility is to be able to send the back-up diver to a primary diver in need of help without any delay. This job requires the back-up tender to remain fully alert and knowing of all goings on with the primary diver - exact location, any slack in the line, line angle changes, breathing changes, speed of

10 PROPER KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING ALLOWS YOU TO RETURN HOME movement changes, etc. A properly trained back -up tender will often know when to alert the back-up diver for descent at the same time as the primary diver, and sometimes even before, if the primary tender loses .

The best way to keep back-up tenders alert and “all-knowing” is to assign them the duty of profiler. This means the back -up tenders don’t just stand around talking or day dreaming. It means they record on paper or a slate, the exact movements of the primary diver, including times in/down, in/down, etc. Oh, and then guess what? Who do you think will become the primary diver on the next dive? Yes, the back-up diver. And who directs this new primary diver where to search? You’ve got it, the previous back -up tender - who of course knows exactly where the previous diver left off, what areas may have been missed, and which areas may need to be re-searched for whatever reason. So, lo-and-behold, there is no downtime between dives for briefing the new primary tender. We expect less than 90 seconds between dives.

CAN WE RUN A SINGLE DIVE OPERATION WITH ONLY FOUR PEOPLE? No, we need one more person. Let’s figure out who and why. Again, you are a primary diver in need of assistance. You signal for the back-up diver. The back-up diver begins to descend and “poof,” the high pressure hose bursts, or “ow!” a severe leg cramp strikes, or “oh no,” one ear won’t equalize, or “damn,” the regulator massively free-flows, or.....”Hmmm, now what?” Wait, who do we see coming to your aid? It’s not an undressed diver, not another tender, no, it’s the 90% ready diver who was sitting only a few feet away. As the back-up diver was deploying, the 90% ready diver became fully ready by approaching the water line, donning his/her BC and fins. This diver is secured to the back -up tether line and is deployed by the back-up tender. The 90% ready diver’s duty is to reach the primary diver in less than 90 seconds if the back -up diver fails.

PLAN FOR EVERYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GO HOME.

So, here is our final tally. A primary tender, primary diver, back-up tender/profiler, back-up diver and a 90% ready diver. A minimum of five well trained, certified and equipped personnel, including three divers and two tenders, are required to make a single dive.

What about an officer in command? Good question. The primary tender can serve as OIC. Do we need more pe rsonnel to

11 PROPER KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING ALLOWS YOU TO RETURN HOME make a second dive? If all you have are these five people, the operation is in a rescue mode, and if the weather and water conditions are warm enough, then a second dive can be made as follows:

- The back-up tender asnd diver become the next primary team

- The 90% diver becomes the back-up diver.

- The previous primary tender becomes the back-up tender.

- The previous primary diver is quickly checked out by EMS, changes tanks and takes the 90% ready diver position.

Conditions permitting, and as long as the divers and tenders are not mentally or physically fatigued or too cold, then a third and fourth dive can be made by continuing this rotation process. What is the minimum number of personnel required to have an operational team? We recommend six properly trained, certified and equipped divers and at least two properly trained and certified tenders. Do all dive team members need to be divers? No, all divers should be trained as tenders, but a common mistake teams make is not realizing that not all tenders need to be divers.

- Non-diving tenders gain more tending experience and often take the job of tending more seriously than diver-tenders do.

- A department member with many years of experience on the job, but who may be too advanced in years to be a public safety diver can make an excellent tender, while also bringing that experience to the team.

- EMS personnel can make particularly effective tenders, as they are used to taking care of people, observing and watching people for possible problems, and are trained to continually record information. Plus, they save time by doing the pre and post dive, diver checks themselves.

- Teams who require all dive team members to be divers not only waste money, but miss out on having some excellent tenders

12 PROPER KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING ALLOWS YOU TO RETURN HOME Chapter 3 Minimum Equipment for Low/No Visibility Dive Team Operations

by Andrea Zaferes and Walt Hendrick

In the beginning we learned about the differences between recreational and public safety diving, and the potential hazards of the latter. The next section taught us that a minimum of the following personnel are required to make a single dive in a rescue or recovery operation. The responsibilities and duties for each of the following personnel were described:

Primary Tender - who also can serve as the incident commander.

Primary Diver

Back-up Tender - who also serves as profiler

Back-up Diver

90% Ready Diver

Now let’s look at the minimum equipment these personnel require to do a job safely and effectively. If a team does not have the minimum equipment and certified personnel available, then a dive operation should NOT be conducted, which should be stated in the department’s standard operating procedures/guidelines.

This section will help teams save money and avoid making common mistakes that we have seen worldwide. Problems often start when a dive team goes to their local dive store for advice on what equipment to purchase. You wouldn’t go to your local Home Depot to purchase fire fighting equipment, then why go to a store for public safety , training and/or advice? Sure, the basic scuba

13 PROPER KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING ALLOWS YOU TO RETURN HOME equipment such as tanks, regulators and BCD’s will probably be purchased from them, but for the majority of the time, they will be unable to give you sound advice on what types to purchase, and it is unlikely they will be able to assist you with the specialized equipment and training that is needed.

For example, a team we recently trained showed up with ten $300.00 steel 80 cuft cylinders, and octopuses integrated into their BCD power inflators. This wiped out their annual budget, preventing them from purchasing the items that are really needed, such as pony bottles, harnesses, and lines. They were not happy when we made them remove the BCD octopuses, as we informed them, not only were these second stages a for public safety diving, they also posed serious problems in sport diving. In addition, public safety divers should dive with pony bottles, not octopuses. The store, who convinced them incorrectly that aluminum tanks were not as strong for what they needed to do, would not exchange the gear for what was necessary. This did not leave the Chief happy with anyone, including us, for being the bearer of bad news. They literally wasted over $3000.00. The store meant well, they just had no idea what a dive team needs.

There is a growing trend for dive stores to push expensive recreational technical equipment on dive teams. Although public safety diving is definitely technical, it is not recreational , which typically involves mixed gases, deep depths and long dive durations. A week ago we received a fax from a dive store stating, “air, the public safety diver’s number one problem is now solved - .” From past articles, you may remember that the maximum time a diver should search in low/no visibility is 20 minutes with a five minute possible extension. There are many reasons for this, of which air is not one. After 20 -25 minutes, the quality of the search decreases significantly, the diver becomes frustrated, fatigued, bored, cold, dehydrated, etc. Tenders also need a break from their continuous watching, line handling and profiling. But hey, the dive store would like teams to believe that if they spent $10,000.00 on a or two, they would be more effective and safer. In reality, the opposite is true on both counts. A future article will go into further detail on why , rebreathers, etc. not only have no position in most fire, police or public safety diving, but can actually be hazardous.

The following is a list of equipment for the Primary and Back-up Tender: 1. PERSONAL FLOTATION DEVICE - Class V, size adjustable with reflective taping is preferred. Even expert swimmers can drown in 20 seconds if the water is cold, if a head or spinal injury is involved, or if they are wearing items that are negatively buoyant. If a tender accidentally falls in the water while wearing a PFD:

a. The entire operation does not necessarily have to stop.

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b. When the tender reflexively gasps upon immersion, the PFD may keep the mouth and nose out of the water, preventing water aspiration which could lead to and a .

c. The chance of drowning is significantly reduced.

Tools to wear on a PFD: Water Activated Flasher - for low light or night operations.

Cutting Tool(s) - sometimes divers return to the tender covered in fishing line or algae, requiring the tender to free the diver. Cutting tools come in handy for a variety of reasons from sharpening a pencil to marking a tending spot.

Whistle or other Sound Device - to alert shore personnel to a possible or actual problem.

Timer or Stopwatch - to record the diver’s in and down times.

Small Note Pad and Pen wrapped with 8-10” of duct tape - sometimes the tender may need to make a note of something to later inform the diver or team captain, and the duct tape will come in handy for quick minor equipment repairs.

Tye Wrap(s) - in a rescue mode sometimes it’s quicker to poke two holes in each side of a broken fin or mask strap and tie them together with a tye wrap, than it is to get another fin, mask or strap. Tye wraps come in handy for a variety of jobs.

Small Flashlight or Pen Light - sometimes a profiler or a minor equipment problem requires more direct light at night than is provided for by flood lighting.

Optional: a Scuba Tool - for making quick minor repairs, such as tightening a loose hose, replacing a blown hose, etc.

2. HAT - something appropriate for environmental conditions to protect the tender from cold, sun, rain and snow.

3. GLOVES - again something appropriate for weather conditions. Gloves should also protect hands from rope burns. Any line handling should be done with gloves. If the water is possibly contaminated, wear waterproof, rubberized gloves.

4.FOOTWEAR - No sandals. Footwear should protect feet from sun, cold, splinters, insects, etc. If deer ticks are a potential, then wear high socks and duct tape long pants to socks or boots.

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5. APPROPRIATE EXPOSURE PROTECTION - for environmental conditions. Turn out gear is not the best choice, especially if the wearer has not been trained in drownproofing turnout gear. If it is worn, the PFD goes under the turnout coat.

6. HARNESS - it may be necessary to tether the tender back if the tender is standing on ice, a slippery platform, a steep embankment or a place with narrow footing. The harness should have a back D ring between the shoulder blades. A good dive harness will do the job.

7. SUNGLASSES - sun glaring on the water can cause eye fatigue, squinting, watering, and burnt retinas, all of which decreases the tender’s ability to continually monitor the diver’s movements, bubbles, and line angle.

8. INSECT REPELLENT & SUNSCREEN - as needed

9. DRINKING WATER - we recommend back-pack hydration systems such as camelbaks, which provide 40-90 oz of drinking water.

10. PROFILE SLATE/PAD & PEN - for the back-up tender to record all the diver information and area searched.

11. INCIDENT COMMAND PROFILE MAP - to show exactly what areas of land and water have been searched and secured, what areas still need to be searched, available personnel, etc.

12. TARPS - for the staging area and for protection from the environment

13. WITNESS INTERVIEWING PROFILE / MAP PAPERWORK - to record witness spoken and physical body language information.

14. FIRE OR POLICE TAPE - to secure the area to keep out bystanders, media and untrained personnel. Sometimes people try to help, with the result that gear is broken, assembled incorrectly or lost; witnesses are interviewed too often, confusion is created, too many people are physically in the way, and/or an untrained person accidentally or purposely ends up in the water.

15. PAPERWORK TO LOG PERSONNEL IN/OUT OF SITE. If you are in the process of putting a team together, do it right the first time. Create a proposal, listing all the equipment that will be needed in each stage of team set-up. List the minimum number of personnel, the required training, and the number of drills necessary to maintain team skills

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