The Rebreather Training Council (RTC) and the Rebreather Education and Safety Association (RESA) have come to an initial agreement on consensus rebreather training standards.
On November 13th, the two organizations met prior to the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association’s annual trade show in Las Vegas to find a common path forward in regard to industry wide rebreather training standards in much the same way as the Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC) has provided industry training standards for scuba diving.
The success of the meeting means that moving forward, one industry minimum training standard is being established.
The RTC was formed by rebreather training agencies to help develop common training standards for the industry and RESA was formed by rebreather manufacturers to do the same in addition to establishing minimum standards for manufacturing. The agreement allows both organizations to move forward with a single common standard together reducing confusion and duplication of effort.
Mark Caney of PADI and the RTC said:
“It is something we have been working on for some time with RESA and represents a significant and important development for the future of rebreather training.”
Efforts to have industry agreement on standards is an important aspect of self-regulation helping to improve liability protections and avoid unnecessary government regulation.
The RTC has published two new standards delineating further stages in a rebreather diver’s development, both advanced technical diving levels.
The two new standards are:
These two standards train divers in the use of mixes containing helium to a maximum depth of 60 meters (197 feet) and 100 meters (328 feet) respectively.
The member bodies of the RTC can specify that a course in their own system equates to one of these standards, in which case they are confirming that their course at least meets the minimum requirements of this level.
All the RTC standards can be downloaded for free from here.
