Dive References

Listed below are informative and educational technical dive references.  All active public safety divers and recreational divers interested in pursuing a public safety certification should be familiar with the listed references.  Investing time to read and study the combined information will provide a solid understanding of the commonalities between public safety, commercial, scientific and military diving. The foundation of these agencies is professionalism, safety and operating under clearly defined guidelines and policies.  These references clearly separate professional diving from recreational diving and after reading through the reference material it will be obvious that professional diving  vs. recreational diving would be like comparing Apples vs. Oranges.  

Public Safety Diving IS NOT recreational diving and is structured with operational guidelines and policies that align with below references.

US Navy Dive Manual

The U.S. Navy Diving Manual is probably the most complete single reference on diving based on the most extensive research and experience in the world.  The book discuss mixed-gas and oxygen rebreathers, no-decompression diving, open-circuit SCUBA ("conventional" SCUBA), surface-supplied air and mixed-gas (nitrox and heliox) diving, the diving environment, Navy dive procedures, physics, physiology and recompression chamber operation.  A must for a complete dive library and can be accessed online.


Navy Dive Manual

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -NOAA Dive Manual

This reference is also must read and should be available in every dive library.  The NOAA Diving Manual was written for use by NOAA scientists/divers to assist them in conducting various operations. Significant contributions to the preparation of this manual were provided by experienced NOAA personnel. Noted to be the largest seller in the Government Printing Office, the manual is a comprehensive reference specifically designed for the diving professional. The manual is used by government agencies and commercial groups. The diversity of the manual ranges from polluted water diving procedures to saturation and underwater habitat diving. The NOAA Diving Manual contains USN Air Decompression Tables as well as USN, Royal Navy, and COMEX Recompression Treatment Tables.  This manual is not available online and must be purchased. An overview is provided below.

NOAA Website

California Department of Fish and Game Diving Safety Manual

Overall a well organized and very comprehensive dive safety manual.  A solid reference for safety standards, operational and dive management.  Available to view online.

California Department of Fish and Game Diving Safety Manual

OSHA Commercial Diving Requirements 

An outstanding reference for diving requirements for commercial operations.  Understanding these requirements can be invaluable for the public safety diver responding to a commercial dive emergency.  Additionally, these standards outline Public Safety Exclusions and Exemptions from OSHA's Commercial Diving Standard.

OSHA Commercial Diving Requirements 

OSHA Public Safety Exemption

NFPA 1670 Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incident 

A comprehensive national standard that covers a wide variety of technical rescue operations, land based as well as public safety dive operations.  This standard is for all technical search and rescue operations.  Public Safety dive operations are held to the same standards that are currently used by LAFD's USAR, Haz MAt, Swift Water and other Special Operation teams. Requirements for Dive Operations are listed on pages 25 through 27 and page 63 through 68. 

NFPA 1670

FEMA Requirements for a Type 1 Emergency Response Dive Team
These requirements are need to be recognized and integrated as national mutual aid response resource.   The current foundation of the LAFD dive team supports a number of these requirements.  Securing Homeland Security grants could assist the LAFD in complying with the additional requirements.  This Type 1 status for the LAFD would provide a valuable asset for the Southern California region.

Type 1 Dive Team

OSHA Maritime Website

An additional resource for commercial maritime operations

OSHA Maritime web page

LA Diver.com 

A regional resource for recreational divers.  This site has many useful recreational links  

LA Diver.com