Emergency Response Diving International claims to be the largest organization devoted to trainin
emergency response divers
in

public safety diving Public safety diving is underwater diving conducted as part of law enforcement and search and rescue. Public safety divers differ from recreational, scientific and commercial divers who can generally plan the date, time, and location of a dive, ...

(PSD). It was founded in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

in 2000 by

Scuba Diving International Scuba Diving International (SDI) is a Scuba diving, Scuba List of diver certification organizations, training and certification agency. It is the recreational diving, recreational arm of Technical Diving International, a Technical diving, technic ...

in response to a high accident rate in the training of emergency response divers. The earliest lessons held by it were attended by almost 24

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

s, and volunteers from the United States. Mitch Skaggs was one of the instructors at the founding of the organization. The organization trains

public safety Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensure ...

officials, including firefighters and policemen for underwater/submerged environments. Its sister organization

Technical Diving International Technical Diving International (TDI) claims to be the largest technical diving certification agency in the world, and one of the first agencies to offer mixed gas and rebreather training. TDI specializes in more advanced Scuba diving techniq ...

, is the world's largest training agency for

technical diving Technical diving (also referred to as tec diving or tech diving) is scuba diving that exceeds the agency-specified limits of recreational diving Recreational diving or sport diving is diving for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment, usually ...

. All ERDI programs are NFPA and OSHA compliant. All materials are written and reviewed by PSD professionals.

Levels of Training and Certification

Awareness - The Awareness level can be completed by doing the online academics, or participating in the associated classroom-based section of education for the ERDI course of interest. Upon completion of any of the online or classroom ERDI Academy courses, an individual will receive an awareness level certificate. For additional insight and understanding of the course, the individual can audit the practical session. Operations - The Operations level of certification requires the participant to complete the online or classroom academics and also participate in the non-diving practical segments of the course taught by an ERDI Instructor. Depending on the program an individual is completing, this portion of the training shows how to properly perform and/or supervise non-diving emergency response duties. Technician - The Technician level is the final step and requires the participant to complete the required number of practical training sessions under the supervision of an ERDI Instructor. Here, the individual will apply what he or she has learned during the awareness and skill-development sessions, while learning practical lessons that can only be gained by performing all practical activities associated with the program.

Licensing

ERDI is the only public safety dive training agency licensed by the

Florida Department of Education The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) is the state education agency of Florida. It governs public education and manages funding and testing for local educational agencies (school boards). It is headquartered in the Turlington Building (na ...

to teach the following programs: * Assistant Instructor (AI) * Divemaster (DM) * Emergency Response Diving Instructor * ERD Contaminated Water OPS Instructor * Instructor Development Course (IDC) / Instructor Examination Course (IEC) * Instructor Trainer (IT)

References

Diving organizations Organizations established in 2000 {{US-org-stub