JEFF MANGUM/The Daily News

BULLHEAD CITY - Nearly 80 rescue divers in full scuba gear took to the water at Rotary Park Thursday afternoon as part of a semi-annual training program that drew police and fire personnel from throughout the western United States.

The idea behind the Dive Seminar 2007 was to bring public safety divers from police and fire departments together to network and discuss rescue strategies, according to Battalion Chief Randy Wheeler of the Bullhead City Fire Department, who organized the event along with Sgt. Jeff Morgan of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. This was the fourth time the two departments have coordinated efforts to put together the program.

“The whole idea was to make the diver officers safer,” Morgan said, as well as allowing the fire, police and sheriff's departments to work together. (picture right: two Search and Rescue divers enter the water during the Dive Seminar). The divers traversed a section of the river that include a 40-foot deep swirl, a whirlpool-like section of the river that pulls the diver down to the bottom.

Before executing boat and helicopter dives into the Colorado River Thursday, divers had trained on Lake Mohave and attended a Federal Bureau of Investigation training session on underwater crime scene investigation and a training session on underwater communication equipment presented by Ocean Technology Systems.

Diver equipment consists of a full-face mask including a waterproof microphone that connects to a communication device outside the mask, according to John Hott, training director with Ocean Technology Systems. The company supplies underwater equipment to the movie industry, the military and law enforcement agencies.

Divers use sonar to talk to one another underwater, Hott said. “(It's) like a fish finder ... with this we send out the actual voice but raise the frequency very high.”

Several divers said that one valuable aspect to the seminar was the opportunity to train in the Colorado River, which offers different conditions from bodies of water they are accustomed to, like canals, bays and oceans.

Other divers noted the visibility in the river was better than what they are used to. Often times, divers end up swimming in black water, said one Phoenix Police Department officer.

In the beginning of a search and rescue mission it's important to find as many witnesses as possible who can pinpoint exactly where the missing person was last seen, many of the divers said. Having a reliable starting point to the search greatly increases chances of success, especially in low-visibility situations.

In zero-visibility situations, divers start reaching around them with their arms stretched out, said Deputy Jeremy Cornett of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

“When there's no visibility, the only way you're gonna find an individual is pretty much by bumping into him,” he said.

Wheeler said fire department divers usually respond to four or five drowning incidents in a season. In some cases, the 40-foot drop from the rocks at Gasoline Alley on Lake Mohave knocks the wind out of people, causing them to drown.

People can also fall into the river and get carried away by the current.

“The current is very treacherous and the current's gonna win,” Wheeler said.

If caught in a current, Wheeler suggests floating at a forty-five degree angle to the current, with feet positioned outward to act like a rudder.

“(The current) will pull you either one side of the river or another,” he said. “The main idea's just to get to shore.”

Additional agencies who participated in the seminar include the Long Beach (Calif.) Police Department, the Stockton (Calif.) Police Department, the Albuquerque (N.M.) Police Department, the Fort Mojave Mesa Fire Department, the Verde Valley (Ariz.) Police Department and the Riverside County (Calif.) Police Department.

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