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Rescue Diver Ready · A national diver-safety initiative

Become the diver your friends count on.

A two-day Rescue Diver festival. One hundred divers. Ten stations. Real scenarios. Real instructors. The cert is the souvenir. The diving you do after... that's the point.

See the inaugural event See the inaugural details
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The flagship event · 2026

Rescue Diver Ready Day is the festival we're building first.

Rescue is the cert most divers know they should have and never take. It's also the only PADI training that fits a true festival format. 100 divers. Ten stations. Two days. Real scenarios. Real instructors. The kind of training that actually changes how you dive on Monday.

The flagship
Rescue Diver Ready Day
The cert where you go from someone who needs rescue to someone who can rescue. Love made operational.
When
September 19-20, 2026
Where
Tigertail Lake, FL
Format
10 stations · 2 days
Capacity
100 divers
See the event details →
Rescue from day one

Our Advanced course now teaches rescue skills, too.

Most Advanced Open Water courses skip the rescue moves until you reach the Rescue cert. We don't. Our instructors are now teaching a Rescue Diver adventure dive (self-rescue, panic-diver response, missing-diver protocols) as part of Advanced. PADI added it to the curriculum a couple of years ago. Almost no one teaches it. We do.

Why this matters →
The Rescue Diver Ready calendar

It starts in Florida. It doesn't stay there.

The flagship Rescue Diver Ready Day is in September at Tigertail Lake. From there it travels: a destination retreat at Golden Rock Resort, then the markets with the most divers in the country. Same format. Same standard. Sign-ups open as each date locks.

Tickets open

Rescue Diver Ready Day

The flagship Rescue Diver certification at festival scale. 100 divers, ten stations, two days of real-scenario training. Walk in qualified, walk out the dive buddy your group counts on.

Sept 19-20, 2026 · Tigertail Lake, FL
Tickets open

Rescue Diver Ready Refresher

One day of skills-sharpening for already-certified rescue divers who want to stay sharp. Same stations, same instructors, half the time commitment.

Sept 19 or 20, 2026 · 1-day ticket
Coming April 2027

Golden Rock Resort Retreat

Advanced and Rescue at a partner resort in the Caribbean. Come for the week, take two days to train, dive the rest. The destination format for the certs that need real depth. (Open Water needs more pool and class time than a retreat allows.)

April 2027 · Golden Rock, St. Eustatius
Coming 2027

Rescue Diver Ready Day · Texas

One of the three markets PADI flagged as having the most divers in the country. Same two-day festival format, brought to a Texas venue with local instructors and the full sponsor pavilion.

2027 · venue TBA
Coming 2027

Rescue Diver Ready Day · Colorado

High-altitude diving country with a serious community. The Rescue Diver Ready format comes to Colorado, the same standard that started in Florida.

2027 · venue TBA
Coming 2027

Rescue Diver Ready Day · Hawaii

Where a lot of divers earn their cert and a lot more should be rescue-ready. The festival format in the most iconic dive water in the United States.

2027 · venue TBA
Between the big events

Member dive shops keep their communities together year-round with their own events: lobster hunts, lionfish derbies, full-moon night dives, family days. The cert weekend is the anchor. The community is everything around it. That's how a one-time certification becomes a group of divers who actually keep diving together.

The inaugural event · Florida 2026

Two days. One hundred divers. The training that changes how you dive.

DatesSeptember 19–20, 2026
VenueTigertail Lake · Dania Beach, FL
Format10-station rotation · small instructor groups
Reserve your spot · from $399
The idea

Diving is the rare sport where being good means being useful. The Rescue Diver cert is the moment that changes. You stop diving as someone who needs to be looked after. You start diving as someone who looks after others. Diver Ready exists to make that moment accessible. To the mom who dives twice a year. To the retired teacher who wants to be useful. To the friend who's been certified for twenty years and never re-took the class. Anyone who dives is welcome here. Bring your buddies.

Built by divers, for divers

"I created Rescue Diver Ready because basic certifications don't prepare you for the 'what if.' By the end of the weekend, you become the dive buddy everyone can count on. Every diver should be rescue-ready. It should be the standard, not the exception."

Natalee van Staden Founder · PADI 5-Star IDC Instructor · 30+ years training divers

Natalee has personally certified 2,500+ divers since 2017. The shop behind her has trained 5,600+ since 1994. Rescue Diver Ready is the next step: bring the dive community together, train at scale, and make rescue-readiness the standard.

Confirmed founding partners

Three brands that show up where it counts.

Each partner holds a specific named position aligned with what they contribute. Not just logos in a row.

Named partner position

PADI

Training Partner

The certification engine behind every cert at the event. eLearning included with every ticket. The global standard that gives Rescue Diver Ready its legitimacy.

Named partner position

DAN

Safety Partner

Divers Alert Network. On-site safety oversight. The organization the whole industry calls first when something goes wrong. Here from day one.

Named partner position

Garmin

Technology Safety Partner

The dive computer in every diver's hand. Garmin Descent series demos. The technology layer of modern diver safety, in your hands for the weekend.

More named partner positions opening for the September 2026 event: Insurance · Travel · Hydration · Photography · Vehicle.

For dive shop owners

Run your own Diver Ready Day. In your market.

License the format, the brand, the playbook, and the sponsor pavilion model. Run a Rescue Diver Ready Day at Lake Pleasant in Phoenix, Lake Mead in Vegas, Casa Cenote in Tulum. We do the heavy lifting. You bring the divers and the venue. The community grows. So does your shop.

Apply to host a Diver Ready Day

The next dive is the one you'll be ready for.

Reserve your spot at the inaugural event. Bring a buddy. Become the diver your group is glad showed up.

Reserve your spot · from $399