ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION UNDERWATER UNIT
The County of Los Angeles Underwater Unit maintains and provides educational services and experience programs to train and educate SCUBA divers, freedivers and dive leaders in local oceanographic patterns and processes for safe exploration of the coastal and offshore island waters of Los Angeles County. Certification programs emphasizing critical watermanship skills, repetitive acclimation and exposure to the differing seasonal turbulence patterns are also offered with no particular affiliation to any agency.
The Lifeguard Division of the Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation has responsibility for the direct oversight and management the following Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation Underwater Unit programs:
- Advanced Diver Program (“ADP”)
- Underwater Instructor Certification Course (“UICC”)
- Rocks, Rips and Reefs (“The 3R’s”)
The Underwater Instructor Certification Course – “UICC”
Comprehensive Leadership Instruction in Skin (“Recreational Freediving”) & SCUBA Diving Sciences
The primary objective of this program is to promote and encourage, through top diving science educators, rescue professionals & instructors, the training of the general public in the safe techniques of participating in underwater recreation activities in the Southern California Environment.
This is the renowned Los Angeles County Underwater Instructor Certification Course, is a non-profit public program committed to continue to training and develop the highest caliber diving instructors anywhere. The program features highly demanding watermanship training and rigorous academic curriculum over a 3 ½ months of weekend training in the Greater Los Angeles County area and surrounding coastal waters. .
The primary objective of this program is to promote and encourage, through top diving science educators, rescue professionals & instructors, the training of the general public in the safe techniques of participating in underwater recreation activities in the Southern California Environment
Only those applicants who are able to pass a rigorous 2 day pre-test are accepted into the program. Public information sessions will again be conducted in late summer to review course entrance requirements and answer questions about the course.
Rocks, Rips & Reefs – “3R’s”
The 3R’s (Rocks, Rips and Reefs) is a FREE public service designed to educate and update freedive & scuba divers on the seasonal environmental awareness considerations for diving in Los Angeles County to site specific shore-based diving considerations, current year swell & surf patterns and safe practices for popular local dive sites in Los Angeles County. This program generally offers 4-5 sessions, from June through August at several different shore-based dive sites.
A key program goal is to assist participants in identifying and recognizing the precipitating events that cause accidents in shore-based diving environments so they can be avoided or mitigated.
The Advanced Diver Program “ADP”
Recognizing the need to provide a comprehensive continuing education and training program for the recreational SCUBA diver in the Southern California area, the Los Angeles County Underwater Unit Department of Parks and Recreation, established the Advanced Diver Program in 1964.
The program objective is to provide participants with an opportunity to individually practice and improve their diving skills and expand their diving knowledge, with an emphasis on the Southern California diving environment.
Combining lectures with pool and ocean labs, the divers are provided with a comprehensive learning environment. The main objective of the training is to increase participant knowledge on safety, education and fitness in our local ocean surroundings.
The ADP program is conducted annually from July through the end of August.
Supervised experience for participants is conducted by certified Los Angeles County Scuba Instructors and there are also other volunteers who assist with the program who are previous ADP graduates. A weekend of comprehensive staff testing and training for all volunteers is mandatory for all new and returning ADP volunteers and there is no charge for this training. Past ADP graduates with rescue certifications are invited to apply to the Underwater Unit for the limited number of volunteer positions available each year.
Questions about any of these programs should be addressed Underwater Unit Volunteers.