PANAMA CITY — Hundreds of public safety divers from across the U.S. and Canada came up for air in Panama City this week at a conference designed to support better response and safer practices for water-related emergencies.
Hosted by the International Association of Dive Rescue Specialists (IADRS), the four-day event kicked off Monday and will continue through Thursday at the Florida State University Panama City Holley Academic Center, featuring several presenters and exhibitors from dive rescue teams specializing in water rescue and recovery.
With the crux of the job spent underwater, Richard Sadler, medical director and diving medical officer for IADRS, said public safety divers conduct some of the riskiest and most underappreciated missions in public service.
“Public safety diving generally is considered the most hazardous job in diving,” Sadler said. “These guys dive in notoriously bad conditions. ... It’s a very risky job. They don’t really get the credit they deserve.”
IADRS Executive Director Blades Robinson said the purpose of the conference is to make sure divers have access to the best training and equipment available.
Over the last 10 years, Robinson said the organization has seen half as many diving fatalities as the previous 10-year period.
“The biggest challenge we’ve identified in the last 10 years is that 70 percent of public safety diving fatalities have been related to coronary artery disease,” Robinson said, adding that the organization has since created a program to evaluate a diver’s skills and physical limitations before sending them into the field. “What’s so important for these divers is the training that they go through. It has to be proper training.”
As a major hub for diving and underwater research, Panama City was a natural place to host the conference.
“Panama City is really the hub of ocean research and diving,” said Mike Zinszer, director of the Advanced Science Diving program at FSU Panama City, also citing underwater research activities and dive training programs at Naval Support Activity Panama City. “People here locally don’t realize how much research goes on here.”
The FSU Panama City dive program launched about 12 years ago and now accounts for about 5 percent of campus enrollment.
“Five percent of students at this campus play underwater,” Zinszer said. “This program does not exist at any other university. It’s one of a kind.”