Emergencies can happen anywhere – not only underwater.
The SSI React Right course in Koh Tao teaches you how to recognise a medical emergency, provide immediate first aid and support someone until professional medical help becomes available.
Through a combination of digital learning, instructor-led workshops and practical scenarios, you will develop the confidence to respond calmly and effectively when someone needs help.
React Right includes training in:
- Primary assessment
- First aid
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
- Automated External Defibrillator (AED) use
- Emergency oxygen administration
- Accident and emergency management
No diving is involved, and you do not need to be a certified diver to join.
SSI React Right Course at a Glance
Duration: 1 day Minimum age: 12 years Prerequisites: None Dives: No diving required Certification: SSI React Right
What Is SSI React Right?
SSI React Right is a practical first aid and emergency response course designed for divers and non-divers.
The program teaches you how to assess an emergency, contact emergency services and provide appropriate care while waiting for further assistance.
You will practise the techniques using realistic equipment and instructor-led scenarios rather than simply learning the information from a book.
The goal is not to turn you into a medical professional. It is to give you a clear process to follow, helping you remain calm and provide useful assistance during the first critical moments of an emergency.
What Will You Learn?
Primary Assessment
Before providing assistance, you must first understand what has happened and whether the area is safe.
You will learn how to:
- Check the scene for potential hazards
- Protect yourself and the injured person
- Assess responsiveness
- Check breathing
- Identify life-threatening conditions
- Activate the local emergency response system
- Decide what care should be provided first
Following a clear assessment process helps prevent panic and ensures the most serious problems are addressed quickly.
First Aid
First aid involves providing immediate care for injuries and illnesses that are not currently life-threatening but may become more serious without attention.
You will practise managing situations including:
- Bleeding
- Shock
- Burns
- Choking
- Heat-related illness
- Suspected fractures
- Soft tissue injuries
- Sudden illness
- Minor wounds
- Spinal injury considerations
You will also learn how to monitor an injured person and pass useful information to medical professionals when they arrive.
CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation can help maintain blood and oxygen circulation when someone is not breathing normally.
During the course, you will practise CPR using training mannequins and receive direct feedback from your instructor.
Training includes:
- Recognising abnormal or absent breathing
- Performing chest compressions
- Providing rescue breaths
- Maintaining an effective compression rhythm
- Reducing unnecessary interruptions
- Continuing care until help arrives
- Working with another rescuer
The practical sessions are repeated until you are comfortable following the full response procedure.
Automated External Defibrillator
An Automated External Defibrillator, commonly known as an AED, can analyse a casualty’s heart rhythm and deliver an electrical shock when appropriate.
AEDs are increasingly available in public places, transport hubs, hotels, workplaces and dive centres.
You will learn how to:
- Prepare and operate an AED
- Position the electrode pads correctly
- Follow the device’s instructions
- Continue CPR alongside AED use
- Maintain a safe area during rhythm analysis
- Work effectively with other responders
AED units are designed to guide the user through the process, but practical training makes it much easier to respond confidently in a real emergency.
Emergency Oxygen Administration
Providing high-concentration oxygen is one of the most important first-response treatments for suspected diving-related injuries.
You will learn how to:
- Identify when emergency oxygen may be required
- Assemble an emergency oxygen unit
- Select the appropriate delivery system
- Provide oxygen to a breathing casualty
- Provide oxygen-assisted ventilation when required
- Monitor oxygen supply
- Follow appropriate safety procedures
This section is especially valuable for divers, dive professionals, boat crew and anyone working around water-based activities.
Practical Emergency Scenarios
React Right is designed to be hands-on.
Your instructor will guide you through realistic emergency scenarios in which you must assess the situation, make decisions and provide appropriate care.
The scenarios may combine several skills, including:
- Scene assessment
- Calling for help
- CPR
- AED operation
- Bleeding control
- Shock management
- Emergency oxygen administration
- Communication with other responders
Practising these situations helps turn individual techniques into a clear and repeatable emergency response plan.
Who Should Take React Right?
React Right is suitable for anyone who wants to feel better prepared during an emergency.
It is particularly useful for:
- Recreational divers
- Rescue Diver candidates
- Divemaster and instructor candidates
- Dive centre staff
- Boat crew
- Hostel and hotel staff
- Activity leaders
- Parents
- Travellers
- Anyone working with the public
You do not need any previous first aid experience or scuba diving certification.
Do I Need React Right for Stress & Rescue?
To begin the SSI Diver Stress & Rescue course, you must hold a recognised first aid and CPR certification completed within the previous two years.
SSI React Right meets this requirement.
This makes React Right the natural course to complete before Stress & Rescue, particularly if you have never completed first aid training or your previous certification has expired.
Many divers complete the two programs together as a combined emergency-management package.
Do I Need to Be a Diver?
No.
React Right is a general emergency first-response course and is open to both divers and non-divers.
Most of the skills taught – such as CPR, first aid, choking response and AED operation – can be used in everyday life.
The emergency oxygen section has a particular focus on diving-related incidents, but the wider course is valuable for workplaces, travel, sports and daily situations.
Is React Right a Diving Course?
No dives or swimming sessions are required.
React Right is completed through:
- SSI digital learning
- Instructor-led theory
- Equipment demonstrations
- Practical skill workshops
- Emergency response scenarios
The entire course takes place on land.
Wear comfortable clothing, as you will spend time practising CPR and emergency care techniques on the floor.
How Long Is the React Right Course?
We normally complete React Right over one full day.
SSI recommends approximately eight to twelve hours for the complete program, depending on the included sections and the number of students.
You will complete the digital learning before or during the course and then work through the practical training with your instructor.
We keep our groups small so everyone receives enough time to practise each skill properly.
Is React Right Certification Valid Forever?
Your SSI React Right certification remains recorded in your SSI profile.
However, emergency response skills should be refreshed regularly. For courses that require current first aid training, such as SSI Diver Stress & Rescue, your certification must normally have been completed or renewed within the previous two years.
If your React Right training is approaching two years old, you can complete an update program to refresh your knowledge and extend its currency.
Why Take React Right in Koh Tao?
Koh Tao is one of the world’s busiest scuba diving destinations, making it an excellent place to learn emergency response skills in a relevant environment.
At Funky Turtle Divers, your training will include examples and scenarios connected to:
- Diving emergencies
- Dive boats
- Beaches and swimming pools
- Heat and dehydration
- Marine-related injuries
- Remote island logistics
- Emergency oxygen use
- Working with local medical services
You will learn practical skills that make sense for the environment in which you are likely to use them.
Why Choose Funky Turtle Divers?
At Funky Turtle Divers, we believe emergency training should be practical, realistic and approachable.
We do not want you to simply memorise the correct answers. We want you to finish the course understanding what to do, why you are doing it and how to take control of a difficult situation.
You can expect:
- Small-group instruction
- Plenty of hands-on practice
- Realistic emergency scenarios
- Current first aid and oxygen equipment
- Clear, supportive teaching
- Training relevant to divers and island life
- Honest feedback from experienced instructors
Our approach is relaxed, but the training is taken seriously.
What Comes After React Right?
For most divers, the next step is the SSI Diver Stress & Rescue course.
Stress & Rescue moves emergency training into the diving environment and teaches you how to:
- Recognise diver stress
- Prevent problems before they escalate
- Assist tired or panicked divers
- Respond to underwater emergencies
- Search for a missing diver
- Manage an unconscious diver
- Coordinate a complete rescue scenario
React Right teaches you how to provide emergency care. Stress & Rescue teaches you how to recognise, prevent and manage diving incidents.
Together, they make you a safer, more capable and more aware diver.
Book Your SSI React Right Course in Koh Tao
Knowing how to respond during an emergency is a skill you hope never to need – but one you will always be grateful to have.
Complete your SSI React Right certification in Koh Tao and develop the confidence to provide first aid, CPR, emergency oxygen and AED support when it matters most.
Learn the skills. Stay prepared. Dive smart. Stay funky.
