DAN Safety Training with Dive With Frank
Most divers spend a lot of time practicing what to do when something goes wrong underwater.
That matters.
But eventually the diver has to reach the surface, and that is where a very different set of skills can suddenly become important.
CPR. First aid. Emergency oxygen. Neurological assessment. Recognizing a diving injury. Knowing what to do while somebody else is calling EMS and everyone around you is having a very bad day.
I teach three Divers Alert Network first-aid programs through Dive With Frank. They range from foundational CPR and first aid to the full Diving First Aid program for divers who want a much broader emergency-response toolkit.
You do not need to be a dive professional to learn how to help somebody.
Choose the Training That Fits What You Need
Basic Life Support: CPR & First Aid
This is the foundation.
DAN Basic Life Support teaches practical emergency skills that matter anywhere, not just at a dive site. You will work with CPR, AED use, airway emergencies, bleeding, shock, injuries, patient assessment, and other first-aid skills that can help keep somebody alive and stable until professional medical care arrives.
This course is open to divers and non-divers alike.
Emergency Oxygen for Scuba Diving Injuries
If you spend time around divers, this is one of the most useful emergency skills you can have.
The DAN Emergency Oxygen course focuses on recognizing possible diving injuries, assembling and operating emergency oxygen equipment, choosing an appropriate delivery method, and providing oxygen until professional medical care takes over.
Current CPR and first-aid training is required before completing the course. If you need both BLS and Emergency Oxygen, we can arrange the training together.
Diving First Aid (DFA)
This is the full package.
Diving First Aid combines the skills from DAN Basic Life Support and Emergency Oxygen with neurological assessment and first aid for hazardous marine life injuries.
If you are a dive professional, trip leader, working diver, serious recreational diver, or simply the person who wants to be genuinely prepared when something goes sideways, this is the course I would look at first.
Which DAN Course Should I Take?
You do not need to make this more complicated than it is.
If you want solid CPR and first-aid skills: start with Basic Life Support.
If you already have current CPR training and want to be prepared for a diving injury: Emergency Oxygen is the obvious next step.
If you want the broadest DAN first-aid training I teach: take Diving First Aid.
One practical note: If you know you ultimately want CPR, first aid, emergency oxygen, neurological assessment, and marine-life injury training, you do not need to collect them one class at a time just for the sake of collecting cards. DFA brings those pieces together into one comprehensive program.
Why DAN Training?
There are plenty of CPR and first-aid programs out there, and good emergency training is good emergency training.
DAN training gets especially interesting for divers because the courses are built around the kinds of problems we may actually encounter around the water.
A diver acting strangely after a dive may not simply be tired. Somebody complaining about shoulder pain might not have pulled a muscle carrying a cylinder. A diver who surfaces confused, weak, unusually fatigued, or having trouble walking needs somebody on scene who recognizes that those details matter.
The point is not to turn divers into doctors.
The point is to recognize trouble, provide appropriate first aid, activate professional help, and avoid wasting the first several minutes wondering what everybody should do.
Hands-On Training Matters
DAN uses eLearning for the knowledge-development portion of these courses. That is useful. You can work through the academics at your own pace before we meet.
But nobody learns CPR by clicking through slides.
The important part is getting your hands on the equipment and practicing the skills. We work with training manikins, AED trainers, oxygen equipment, patient assessments, scenarios, and the actual sequence of responding when something is happening in front of you.
I teach these programs privately and in small groups so there is time to practice, make mistakes, ask questions, and practice again.
I would much rather have you discover during class that you connected the oxygen regulator incorrectly than discover it while your buddy is lying on the deck of a dive boat.
This Training Is Not Just for Dive Professionals
If you are an instructor, divemaster, boat crew member, trip leader, public safety diver, scientific diver, or somebody else responsible for other divers, then yes, this training makes a tremendous amount of sense.
But recreational divers are often the people standing closest when an emergency happens.
You might be diving with your spouse. Your kid. Your best friend. Somebody you met on the boat that morning.
The ambulance is not underwater with you. The emergency department is not sitting next to the rinse tanks. For at least a little while, the people already there are the response.
Knowing what to do during that gap is worth learning.
Small Groups. Real Practice. No Checkbox Training.
First-aid training should build confidence, not just produce another certification card.
That means we actually practice. If a skill needs another attempt, we do another attempt. If you want to understand why something works, ask. If a scenario gets messy, good. Real emergencies have an annoying tendency not to unfold exactly like the diagram in the book.
The goal is not perfection.
The goal is that when something really does happen, you can slow down, think, and start doing useful things.
Ready to Get Trained?
You can start with the individual course pages above if you already know what you need.
If you are not sure whether BLS, Emergency Oxygen, or Diving First Aid makes the most sense, ask me. Tell me what kind of diving you do and what training you already have, and we will figure it out.
Because hoping somebody else on the boat knows what to do is not much of an emergency plan.
